Education News for 06-01-2012

Local Issues

• Catholic schools plan inner-city tuition fund (Dayton Daily News)

Catholic school officials are working to create a “sustainable fund” to pump cash into financially struggling urban elementary schools in the Dayton area, the first step toward a regional need-based tuition-assistance program. Read More...

• Board of Education votes to accept recommendations of Independent Fact-Finder (WOIO - Cleveland)

Following the May 29 release of an independent Fact-Finder's recommendations, made to resolve changes in contract language between the Cleveland Board of Education and the Cleveland Teachers Union, the Board voted tonight to accept the Fact-Finder's recommendations. Read More...

• City schools need 9.15 mills (Dispatch)

Columbus City Schools need 9.15 new mills to raise the $355 million that the district says would maintain current programs and fund new ones through the summer of 2017, officials told a special “ millage committee” yesterday. That would cost taxpayers about $280 extra for each $100,000 in property value, and doesn’t include possible extra mills for construction bonds. Read More...

• Cleveland Schools Board of Education backs plan to cut teachers' holidays, professional development days (Plain Dealer)

The Cleveland school board and Cleveland Teachers Union leaders don't agree on a possible solution to their pay dispute -- one that would close about $13 million of the district's projected $19 million deficit next school year. Read More...

• Debt linked to ex-charter school treasurer grows (Dayton Daily News)

Another $52,000 was heaped onto the debt owed to taxpayers by embattled former area charter school treasurer Carl Shye with the release Thursday of the final audit New City Community School in Dayton.
This is the 18th state audit in which Shye is accused of mishandling public funds, putting the total owed to $819,369, according to state data. He was indicted last month on federal charges of embezzling $472,579 from four Ohio schools, including New City and another Dayton school. Read More...

• Student Goes From Homeless to Harvard (Fox 8 – Cleveland)

David Boone, 18, walks the halls of Cleveland’s MC2STEM High School in his navy blue blazer, looking like a young man who owns the world. Chances are good that’s the kind of success he will find one day, not only because of where he’s going but because of where he’s been. “Childhood is childhood. You live, you learn, and sometimes some challenges are thrown at you,” he said. Read More...

• Team will try to line up record 75 miles of pennies (Dispatch)

At 6:30 a.m. Sunday, an armored truck will arrive at the Columbus Arts Festival and an off-duty police officer will stand guard over its weighty contents: 1,275 bags of pennies. The 30-pound sacks will be distributed across Genoa Park, where more than 2,000 students and other volunteers will wait with plastic cups to be filled with the coins. Read More...

• The price of pay-to-play (Enquirer)

Kendall Knudson knows first hand the pain of soaring pay-to-play high-school sports fees. Those fees sidelined the Lakota East sophomore – and countless other area teens – this spring. What’s more, Kendall is forced to think about Lakota Schools’ record-high $550 fee per sport whenever she huddles with her former teammates prior to a track meet to cheer them on. Then she takes a disappointing walk to the stadium stands to watch. Read More...

What teachers didn't tell the governor

The Governor's education Czar, Robert Sommers, and his assistant Sarah Dove have finally published their report based upon feedback received via a web form regarding their corporate education reform proposals. The report can be read below.

We don't need to mention how this report lacks any scientific validity, because the reports authors do that for us

This summary is not meant to be a scientific compilation of the information. It is intended, rather, to present the general sentiment of the productive comments received. It is acknowledged that in any particular category, comments were received that would range across the entire spectrum of pros and cons.

It's one of the few honest things said in this highly charged and political document. Despite admitting that the methodology of this study is not sound, almost every single section of this document begins with the phrase "Teachers believe". In many cases what is asserted that teachers believe is not even supported by the actual feedback teachers provided. Earlier in the year, in a 5 part series, we published many of the actual comments teachers provided as input to this process. You can find that series here:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5

The report concludes with recommendations from a "steering committee". But we're never told who served on that committee, only that

"Robert Sommers, Director of the Governor’s Office of 21st Century Education, and Sarah Dove, Ohio’s Teacher Liaison, assembled a steering committee consisting of a cross-section of teachers representing schools and educators across the state.

When a document presents recommendations, do readers not deserve to know who exactly are making these recommendations, what the process for approving them was, and if there was any dissension?UPDATE: Commitee list is burried at the end of the document in the appendix, with no mention of who each person is, or who they represent.

Furthermore, for a process that had very little stakeholder input at all, this recommendation stood out for its audacity

The Ohio Department of Education must commit to providing increased communications with teachers about new evaluation and compensation models.

Little effort has been expended by the Department of Education in educating teachers on where the state is and where it is headed in the areas of evaluation and compensation. By providing teachers with a “big picture” version of the state’s evaluation framework, the state can lay the groundwork for educated and committed teachers. The Department of Education must reach out and collaborate with key stakeholders to assist with getting the needed communications to teachers and leaders across the state. ODE should develop and implement a strategic communications plan to identify key messages, important milestones and identify who is responsible for sharing information.

We agree, but are left wondering why this wasn't done during the preparation of this document?

At the end of the day however the biggest question we are left with is this, what is the point and purpose of this document from the governor's office? The Department of Education has already released its framework for evaluations. The ESB has worked for 2 years on the details of an evaluation system and local school districts and education associations have been working together on developing systems to meet RttT requirements. This flimsy, unscientific, political document, developed by an unnamed steering committee has added nothing to any of these efforts.

Ohio Evaluation Comp Reform

How money buys education "research"

The Center for American Progress (CAP), which bills itself as a being dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action, recently produced a report titled "Charting New Territory: Tapping Charter Schools to Turn Around The Nation’s Dropout Factories"

The report argues for a more prominent role for charter operators in turning around perennially low-performing high schools. Among its recommendations

the report posits that five steps might improve the likelihood of successful CMO-district partnerships (all of which strengthen the CMO’s position in the district):
1) maximizing theCMO’s autonomy over staffing, budget, curricula, operations, and pedagogy;
2) staffing turnaround schools through creative agreements among education entrepreneurs, unions, charter operators, districts, and states, such as developing thin union contracts;
3) ensuring district financial support for turnaround schools;
4) relaxing state and district administrative regulations around staffing, funding, and school operations; and
5) cultivating public will for such partnerships.

At this point, you might be wondering why a progressive think tank is advocating such right wing policies that have been proven to be unsuccessful. The answer is actually quite simple to descern, and can be found on the very first page of this CAP report.

Paid for by the conservative corporate education reform outfit - the Eli Broad Foundation.

The National Education Policy Center has just released their analysis of this report, and they don't have kind things to say about this Broad funded report.

The report bases the majority of its findings and conclusions on conversations with charter school operators—including those that have not yet engaged in turnaround work—and with school district staff, researchers, and education reformers or consultants. Interview respondents included one professor of educational policy, one researcher from the Center on ReinventingPublic Education, five reformers or consultants from reform organizations or think tanks that advocate for market-based education policies, and three district administrators who were associated with their districts’ charter school partnerships.

Secondarily, the report cites evidence from the popular media, blogs, foundation reports, non-peer reviewed literature, charter operators’ external relations materials, and ideologically identifiable think tanks.

Beyond these citations, the report routinely offers a range of unsubstantiated claims that are not supported by any evidence or that ignore existing evidence to the contrary.

At the same time, no theoretical or substantive rationale behind the report’s sources of evidence is provided to justify why the particular interview respondents or literature sources were selected or how their data were evaluated. The result is a collection of weakly supported claims based on an unsystematic, unsophisticated interpretation of the knowledge base on school turnarounds, charter schools, and charter management organizations.

This is what millions of dollars can buy you. Research and recommendations that lack intellectual rigor. Designed to further corporate education reform agendas at the expense of public education, and the possibility of real reforms and changes that would make a difference to the quality of education students receive.

View REVIEW OF CHARTING NEW TERRITORY