Education News for 07-27-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Test-score probe goes statewide (Blade)

The investigation into possible manipulation of test scores at Ohio schools moved statewide on Thursday, with the Ohio Auditor's Office now questioning what role, if any, the Ohio Department of Education had in the changes. State Auditor Dave Yost and the education department had opened a joint investigation in recent weeks of alleged data manipulation at Columbus Public Schools. School officials appeared to have manipulated data there to remove scores for students who were chronically truant, improving their attendance rates and test scores. Read more...

• Automatic cuts may put teaching jobs in jeopardy (Dayton Daily News)

Ohio could lose more than 1,500 education-related jobs and more than $98 million in federal education funding if automatic discretionary spending cuts go into effect Jan. 2. “States and local communities would lose $2.7 billion in federal funding for just three critical education programs alone – Title I, special education state grants, and Head Start,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said in a report released Wednesday. “Nationwide, these cuts would force 46,349 employees to either lose their jobs or rely on cash-strapped states and localities to pick up their salaries instead.” Read more...

• Auditor: Cheating probe to expand statewide (Enquirer)

Prompted in part by alleged cheating by Lockland school officials to improve their district’s standing, Ohio’s auditor launched a statewide investigation of all districts on Thursday.

Similar allegations have also surfaced in Columbus and Toledo. “It appears that attendance report rigging is not a localized problem with Columbus Public schools, but that it may be more systematic,” State Auditor David Yost said in a letter sent Thursday to state Board of Education president Debe Terhar of Green Township. Read more...

• New Report Finds A Third of Ohio Students Overweight (ONN)

CINCINNATI - A new statewide health report shows one in three students who participated in a Body Mass Index screening was overweight or obese. Health officials said that children need to do a better job exercising and eating healthier to avoid medical issues. Parent Orlando Mitchell has three kids including a 16-year-old and said they had issues with their weight. "My children went through a phase and got big at one time," Mitchell said. He admits he also had weight problems as a teenager which led to health issues for him as an adult. Read more...

• Ohio auditor will investigate attendance reports of public schools and state education department (Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS — The Ohio auditor's office is launching a statewide investigation into how attendance is reported by school districts, charter schools and the Ohio Department of Education. The move announced Thursday follows revelations about questionable practices in Columbus and Toledo, as well as the Lockland school district near Cincinnati. In all three cases, the focus is on test scores that didn't count on state report cards because the student test-takers were dropped from attendance rolls and then re-enrolled during the school year. Read more...

Local Issues

• Riverside Schools, unions reach deals that extend wage freezes (News-Herald)

The Riverside School District has finalized contracts for both its unions for the next two years. Teaching and non-teaching staff have agreed to an additional two-year wage freeze that also eliminates step increases, and advancements for educational credit. The teaching staff had already agreed to a one-year wage freeze during contract negotiations last year, resulting in an effective three-year total wage freeze, Superintendent James Kalis said. Read more...

• Lorain superintendent negotiations not finished in time for board meeting (Morning Journal)

LORAIN — Lorain City Schools are still negotiating a contract for superintendent candidate Tom Tucker, so the school board had no contract to approve last night as originally intended. However, the district is on track for an August hiring of Tucker, board president Tim Williams said. “We are still at the final stages of some very specific negotiations in the contract,” Williams said, though he would not give details. “We’re optimistic about our negotiations with our superintendent,” Williams said. Read more...

• Lima levy on, campaign effort strong (Lima News)

LIMA — Not long after it saw a levy defeated by just 100 votes last march, the Lima schools levy committee was already back to work. Now, they can officially kick the campaign into gear, following the board's final decision Thursday to go back on the ballot with the same request. “We really are going to concentrate on the legacy of the Lima City Schools and the fact that Lima City Schools graduates are very proud graduates,” said Peggy Ehora, one of four to chair the committee. “We feel like the legacy for us is that people have always been proud to be a part of that system. Read more...

Editorial

• A Teacher Remembers the Accused Colorado Gunman (Education Week)

When I knew James Holmes, the alleged Colorado shooter, he was Jimmy. I was his 5th grade teacher. Back then, in 1998-99, Holmes lived in Castroville, Calif., a tiny town of 5,000. Since the theater shooting in Aurora, I’ve talked about Jimmy with one of his former classmates; let’s call him Chris. Jimmy was well-dressed, neat, wore glasses, liked to read, and excelled in all academic areas. He had two really good friends, including Chris, both sharp like him—in fact, top of the class. Read more...

• Skewed (Courier)

A golden rule in education is thou shall not cheat. Students learn early on that sharing answers on a test or copying someone else's work won't be tolerated. But is it cheating if school administrators manipulate attendance records to show their district is performing better on its state report card than it really is? While all evidence is not in, that appears to be what has happened in several school districts around Ohio. Read more...

Education News for 07-09-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Principals will start seeing the same scrutiny as teachers when new evaluation system goes statewide next fall (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - Teachers have been under increasing scrutiny the last few years, as Ohio and other states roll out new teacher evaluation plans. That spotlight also is falling on principals. Ohio will require school districts statewide to have an evaluation system for principals up and running by the 2013-14 school year, the same time that the new teacher evaluations take effect. Though districts already evaluate principals to varying degrees, Ohio has edged toward a more standard and rigorous measure of principal quality for a few years. Read more...

• Ohio plans tougher high-school tests (Enquirer)

Ohio is ready to swap its statewide graduation test for a series of more rigorous high school exams beginning in 2014-15. The tests are designed to measure student readiness for college or a career, something the Ohio Graduation Test could never do, said James Herrholtz, associate superintendent of the Ohio Department of Education’s division of learning. “The OGT is a low hurdle,” he said. “It was never really designed to measure whether a student is college-ready.” Read more...

• Reading guarantee for Ohio 3rd-graders starts with September screenings (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND — Much of the talk about Ohio's third-grade reading guarantee has centered on whether it's better to hold back a struggling student who can't read instead of promoting him to the next grade. But the new mandate involves a lot more than the retention issue. And some school officials are worried about how they're going to pay for it. Starting this year, school districts and charter schools will have to screen all students in kindergarten through third grade by Sept. 30. Read more...

• Westerville phasing out popular magnet schools (Dispatch)

Longfellow Elementary School in Westerville never struggled in academics. Among central Ohio elementary schools in the 2010-11 school year, its state test scores were the highest, and they were seventh-best in the state. Students could land a coveted seat only by winning a lottery. But because of budget cuts, Longfellow closed for good this summer, as did Central College Elementary, another high-performing public school in Westerville. Both will consolidate into Hanby Elementary School. Read more...

Local Issues

• Funny Math (The Other Paper)

Calculating data is boring, entering it into a computer system is mundane. Even the word data inspires narcolepsy. Maybe that’s why Columbus City Schools employees allegedly tried to liven up the process a bit by living on the data-entry edge; allegedly fudging attendance figures every June before submitting their State Report Card data to the Ohio Department of Education. After all, there’s surely nothing more thrilling than possibly misleading taxpayers and the state watchdogs in a ploy to enhance district graduation rates. Read more...

• NB teachers reject contract (Courier)

NORTH BALTIMORE - A North Baltimore teachers' union recently rejected a contract offered by its school board. Terms were not released. According to the North Baltimore Education Association, teachers have been in negotiations with the North Baltimore school board since May. In June, school board declared an impasse in negotiations until a mediator could be contacted. On June 30, the current contract expired and the teachers' association has been working under the previous negotiated agreement. Read more...

• Dayton-area young readers get a boost (Dayton Daily News)

DAYTON — Montgomery County-Dayton region has been selected to join a national effort to improve reading proficiency among third-grade students. The region will become a charter member of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Communities Network, a 124 member organization charged with implementing strategies to enhance the reading skills of low-income students. “Until third grade, children learn to read,” said Robyn Lightcap, director for ReadySetSoar, a local organization aimed at improving kindergarten readiness. Read more...

• Shawnee High School grads create app for Android (Lima News)

LIMA — First the fun, then the function. That's the idea behind a series of new applications for Android that two 2008 Shawnee High School graduates helped create. The app, “TapDeck,” will be available this month, Adam Kriegel said. The name plays off “tape deck,” and also the company he and fellow Carnegie Mellon University graduates formed, TapAudio LLC. At the moment, a gimmicky tape recorder allows the user to record up to 10 seconds of audio that can be scrambled in a variety of ways, Kriegel said. Read more...

Education News for 03-08-2012

Statewide Education News

• Voters were sympathetic to schools’ levy requests (Dispatch)

Ohio voters approved 75 percent of the tax requests for schools in Tuesday’s primary, the highest passage rate in nearly 12 years. Not since the November 2000 general election have voters approved three-fourths of school levies. In Westerville and other parts of the state, voters opened their wallets in the wake of sweeping cuts in state aid to schools last year, which triggered teacher layoffs and reductions in academic programs, transportation services and extracurricular activities. Read More…

• Teachers Speak Out Against SB5-Like Proposal (ONN)

CINCINNATI - Ohio educators spoke out on Wednesday about what they called the first step in a statewide threat to revive Senate Bill 5, ONN’s Denise Alex reported. “Together Works Better” was the message a coalition, led by the Ohio Federation Of Teachers, wanted to get across to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and others wanting to run schools and limit collective bargaining rights of unions. Melissa Cropper is president of the Ohio Federation Of Teachers. Read More…

• iPad learning (Marietta Times)

Five-year-old Sophie Hutchinson certainly knows her way around the iPad. Quick to display her prowess with one of the hottest technological gadgets, Hutchinson has everything from math games to painting down pat. And she's not the only youngster like that. Technology like the iPad is becoming more and more prevalent among children as young as toddlers, and it's altering the educational outlook for their generation. Read More…

• Voters pass 75 percent of Ohio's school levies; 5 out of 6 pass in Cuyahoga County (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND — Public school officials across Ohio woke up smiling Wednesday following a long election night that saw voters approve school levies in higher numbers than they had in several years. Statewide, there were 110 public school money issues on Tuesday's ballot. Eighty-one passed. While many of the state's races were nail-bitters -- more than a third of those that won did so with less than 250 votes -- school officials said that voters seemed to understand the impact of dramatic declines in revenue from property taxes, ongoing state budget cuts and the phase-out of Ohio's tangible personal property tax, which taxes business inventory and equipment. Read More…

Local Issues

• Teach For America debuts in Dayton this fall (Dayton Daily News)

DAYTON — Three Dayton charter schools or systems have signed on for Teach For America’s debut in Ohio this fall, part of the organization’s three-year commitment to place 90 teachers in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky. The Dayton Early College Academy, Dayton Leadership Academy and National Heritage Academies are among six charter schools or systems and two districts that will partner with TFA, said Ben Lindy, executive director for Teach For America-Southwest Ohio. Read More…

• Suit demands data on city schools’ use of ‘seclusion rooms’ (Dispatch)

A mother says her son, who is autistic, was terrified when he was left in a “seclusion room” at his Columbus high school. The 18-year-old stripped naked and urinated. A state agency that protects people with disabilities wants to investigate but says the Columbus school district has blocked its attempts. The Ohio Legal Rights Service sued the district in federal court on Monday, seeking records to show how often — and why — school employees isolate students in the cell-like rooms. Read More…

• New-money school taxes fare well statewide but poorly in Akron-Canton area (Beacon Journal)

The 53 percent statewide passage rate for new school taxes in Tuesday’s election — 30 of 57 — was the highest percentage since at least 2003, according to the Ohio School Boards Association. “We had about 81 out of the 110 issues pass [Tuesday],” OSBA spokesman Jeff Chambers said. But voters in only one school district in the Akron-Canton area approved new money: the Triway district in Wayne County, which easily passed a 0.75 percent earned income tax. Read More…

• Southwest Licking Schools serious about saving energy (Newark Advocate)

PATASKALA - Southwest Licking Local Schools intends to craft an energy policy to save money on its utility costs. The board recently voted to hire Johnson Controls -- the move temporarily is on hold until the district's attorney reviews the contract -- to perform an energy audit that will highlight ways to save on utility bills, not just in every district building but in every district classroom. Southwest Licking will pay $46,000 in the first year of the five-year contract for the service, but Johnson Controls is guaranteeing the district will realize at least $67,000 in annual savings. Read More…

• Carlisle to consider cuts following school issue defeat (Middletown Journal)

CARLISLE — The day after a combined bond issue and income tax increase failed for a second straight time, Superintendent Larry Hook said the Carlisle Local School District has little option but to proceed with budget cuts. Voters on Tuesday again defeated a bond issue that would have generated $28.1 million and a 0.75 percent income tax increase that would bring in $1.3 million annually for operations. The monies raised from the bond issue would have been combined with $29.8 million from the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission to build a new K-12 facility. Read More…

• Teen held in high-school hit-list case (Dispatch)

A Licking County high-school student, who was arrested after authorities say she wrote a hit-list in a school bathroom on Monday, is being evaluated to see whether she’s a danger to herself or others. Sierra K. Bruner, 17, appeared in juvenile court yesterday afternoon, and a court-appointed attorney entered denials — the juvenile equivalent of a not-guilty plea — to two felony juvenile charges of inducing panic, one felony juvenile count of making a false alarm and one misdemeanor juvenile charge of criminal damaging. She originally faced one count of inducing panic. Read More…

• Teach for America recruits to work for Cleveland charter schools this fall (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - Fifty or more recruits from Teach for America will be in Cleveland-area classrooms this fall, the program announced Wednesday. They will teach at charter schools operated by Breakthrough Schools, Constellation Schools, I CAN Schools and Mosaica Education. Partnership agreements with more schools are likely to be added as discussions continue, said Mike Wang, a senior vice president in charge of expanding the national program. In addition, another 30 or so recruits will work in the Cincinnati and Dayton regions. Read More...

The Columbus parent trigger profit motive

A smart and interesting post at Plunderbund, discusses which of the Columbus schools might be susceptible to a parental takeover, now that the Ohio house has reduced their statewide parent trigger provision to a trial in Columbus.

So how likely is that to take place? Consider some details:

As reported by ODE for 09-10, 21 percent of the students at Weinland Park are at the school for less than one year. That also means that the number of parents involved enough to sign the petition is around 80%, with the student population constantly changing. So if 50% of the parents need to sign, but only 80% are around, the parent(s) leading this effort must obtain the signatures of approximately 63% of the parents. And Weinland Park serves a population categorized as 93.7% “economically disadvantaged” in a building that already runs a non-standard year-round schedule. For additional perspective, the number of economically disadvantaged students is 43% statewide. I’m going to take a wild guess and project that these families have greater concerns than taking over a school. Just a guess.

This is a smart and reasonable observation, but as we pointed out in an article a while ago, it's not the only consideration to account for. Indeed, other provisions included in the budget bill could have a significant impact too.

The other question to be asked is this;

How much money could a for-profit charter make by sponsoring an effort to take over one of these Columbus schools?

With an empty promise to desperate parents to fix things, and a paid effort to garner the required parental support for the takeover, these schools might be easy marks, with easy profits to follow.