Teacher Turnover Affects All Students' Achievement

In light of the Kasich education cuts, and the looming sequestration that will lead ot large education cuts, this article appearing in Education Week should be bourne in mind by law makers.

When teachers leave schools, overall morale appears to suffer enough that student achievement declines—both for those taught by the departed teachers and by students whose teachers stayed put, concludes a study recently presented at a conference held by the Center for Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

The impact of teacher turnover is one of the teacher-quality topics that's been hard for researchers to get their arms around. The phenomenon of high rates of teacher turnover has certainly been proven to occur in high-poverty schools more than low-poverty ones. The eminently logical assumption has been that such turnover harms student achievement.

But a couple years back, two researchers did an analysis that showed, counter-intuitively, it's actually the less- effective teachers, rather than the more- effective ones, who tend to leave schools with a high concentration of low-achieving, minority students. It raised the question of whether a degree of turnover might be beneficial, since it seemed to purge schools of underperforming teachers.

When reporting on that study, I played devil's advocate by pointing out that it didn't address the cultural impact of having a staff that's always in flux. The recently released CALDER paper suggests I may have been right in probing this question.

Written by the University of Michigan's Matthew Ronfeldt, Stanford University's Susanna Loeb, and the University of Virginia's Jim Wyckoff, the new paper basically picks up on the same question. Even if overall teacher effectiveness stays the same in a school with turnover, it's well documented that turnover hurts staff cohesion and the shared sense of community in schools, the scholars reasoned. Could that have an impact on student achievement, too?

To find out, they looked at a set of New York City test-score data from 4th and 5th graders over the course of eight years. The data were linked to teacher characteristics.
(All the usual caveats about limitations of test scores apply, of course.)

Among their findings:

• For each analysis, students taught by teachers in the same grade-level team in the same school did worse in years where turnover rates were higher, compared with years in which there was less teacher turnover.
• An increase in teacher turnover by 1 standard deviation corresponded with a decrease in math achievement of 2 percent of a standard deviation; students in grade levels with 100 percent turnover were especially affected, with lower test scores by anywhere from 6 percent to 10 percent of a standard deviation based on the content area.
• The effects were seen in both large and small schools, new and old ones.
• The negative effect of turnover on student achievement was larger in schools with more low-achieving and black students.

Read the whole piece here.

Ohio House Dems won popular vote

Issue 2, also known as voters first was heavily defeated 63-37, under an avalanche of opposition money seeking to maintain the status quo. Had issue 2 been successful it would have given the ability of voters to pick their representatives, rather than the current gerrymandered reverse situation.

Just how bad is the current system of rigged districts? We took a look at the 99 Ohio house races. Our analysis found that despite the Democrats trailing republics in the new legislature 60-39, they actually won the popular vote.

Democrats received a total of 2,418,815 votes across the 99 house district and the Republicans only 2,362,310 - over 56,000 less. If districts were apportioned according to the weight of voters actually preference, the Democrats would have a majority of 51-48, not rendered all but impotent trailing 60-39.

The current situation is so untenable, even critics of issue 2 agree reforms are needed.

But a number of GOP critics of Issue 2 also agreed that the current redistricting process needs to be changed. So the big question now is: What happens next?

A bipartisan legislative redistricting task force has met a few times and is supposed to recommend changes to the House and Senate in December. Also, some say the Constitutional Modernization Commission should make redistricting one of its top priorities.

Catherine Turcer, chairwoman of Voters First Ohio, the coalition that pushed Issue 2, and Ohio State University election-law expert Daniel Tokaji, who helped draft the plan, said that at least there was agreement that the system needs to be changed.

“If we all agree that the system is broken, we should also agree that the people of Ohio should not have to wait until 2022 to fix it,” they said in a joint statement. “It’s time to put voters first and come together to agree on a solution.”

Gov. John Kasich added: “Reforms need to be considered in a thoughtful, bipartisan way to ensure that districts are competitive and fair and Ohioans’ interests are fully represented.”

These unfair districts also explain the disappointing results of races involving educators

But Stephen Brooks, a political scientist with the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron, says all that probably had little to do with the way the races turned out.

“They were not in well-designed districts for Democrats to run in so I’m not sure being a schoolteacher or not being a schoolteacher had much to do with that. They were having difficult races because they were running in non-competitive districts, if you will,” he says.

The only one of the new teacher-candidates to win is John Patterson, who will represent House District 99 in Ashtabula County. Two other former teachers who were incumbents retained their seats in the Ohio House.

A system where the majority of citizens are not represented by their preferred elected leaders is not a sustainable system. The current Ohio General Assembly, and the 130th that will follow it have no mandate from the voters, and their first course of action ought to be to repair the broken redistricting system immediately.

State Board of Education

The Dispatch has an article on the State Board of Education elections that will also take place on November 6th

The state board consists of eight appointees of the governor and 11 elected to four-year terms. Seven are up for election on Tuesday.

Perhaps the most-important work ahead for the board will be to hire the next state superintendent. The office has been vacant since early August, when Stan Heffner resigned after the release of a politically charged ethics probe. The board also must deal with data rigging by school districts, implementation of Ohio’s new third-grade reading guarantee and more-rigorous Common Core curriculum standards, and oversight of the new school-funding formula that Gov. John Kasich plans to unveil next year.

Elections for these offices typically appear quite low down on the ballot, so voters should be mindful to go through their entire ballot. As the Dispatch notes, lot of important issues go through the State Board of Education.

A quick look at some of the pro-public education candidates

Ann E. Jacobs
District 1 (Northwest Ohio)
As an elected member of the State Board, Ann e. Jacobs is an attorney and owner of Jacobs Law Offices, LLC, in Lima. She has worked as a trial attorney for the equal employment Opportunity Commission and as assistant attor- ney general for the Attorney General of Ohio.

Previously, Jacobs served as president, vice president and member of the Shawnee Local School Board, and as a member of the Apollo Jr. Vocation Board. her professional and civic member- ships include the California Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Ohio Bar Association, the South Carolina Bar Association; member of the Senior Citizens Board; Board of Trustees member of the YWCA; Board member of Marimor Industries; and elder and deacon of Market Street Presbyterian Church. Jacobs earned her bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and her Ju- ris Doctor from Catholic University.

Richard Javorek
District 5 (exurban Cleveland)
Richard Javorek is a retired teacher living in Chippewa Lake, Ohio. he taught social stud- ies in the Brunswick City School District for over 30 years and was an adjunct faculty member at Bry- ant & Stratton College in Cleveland. he has served as Chair of the Ohio Social Studies Resource Cen- ter and was an advisor to both the Ohio Center for Law Related edu- cation and the Ohio Department of education. Javorek received the Ashland Oil Golden Apple Award and, in 2000, he was named Teacher of the Year at Willetts Middle School. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Baldwin Wallace College and his master’s degree from Kent State University. he is an ordained minister and an Assistant District Commissioner in the Boy Scouts.

Michael L. collins
District 6 (Columbus Metro)
As an elected member of the State Board, Michael L. Collins currently serves as president of Promotions One, Inc., a marketing agency, with ex- perience directing regional events including first Night Columbus, Waterfire Columbus, the Columbus Marathon and the Columbus Race for the Cure. As an educa- tion advocate, Collins has served as a member and president of the Westerville City Schools Board of education; a member of the Westerville City Schools liaisons, business operations, student activities, levy campaigns and long-range planning committees; and chair of the Westerville City Schools Levy Cam- paign. his two collegiate degrees in education have helped him be effective in these roles. he is also ac- tive in the community. His service includes work with the Westerville Chamber of Commerce, Westerville Rotary Club, Westerville Parks & Recreation Advisory Board, and Columbus events Council, Metro Denver health and Wellness Commission and various committees for the Ohio School Boards Association. He has also volunteered as a coach for youth football and wrestling.

James J. collum
District 7 (Northeastern Ohio)
James J. Collum is an Ohio native and a product of strong public schools. After graduating from Glen Oak high School, Collum earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at The University of florida in 1995. he then enrolled at The Ohio State University College of Law and received his Juris Doctor in 1999. Collum has been in private practice since 2000, maintaining his law office in the Belden Village area of Canton. During the past decade, he has dedicated his practice to advocating for individuals and their rights—representing them against large companies in Title VII discrimination cases, unemployment claims, severance negotiation as well as numerous other employment- related cases. he also represents individuals in other types of civil matters, including personal injury, business formation and litigation, real estate and wills and trusts.

Stephanie Dodd
District 9 (Southeastern Ohio)
Stephanie L. Dodd, a native of Zanesville and resident of Licking Township, owns SLD Consulting, a small business that works with candidates, organizations and issue-based groups to achieve maximum fundraising results. Dodd possesses a strong understanding of the need for innovative strategies, the ability to analyze data and the commitment that is essential for success. “The parents, students and taxpayers of the 9th District need a representative who is 100 percent dedicated to improving Ohio’s schools,” Dodd said. As a small business owner, taxpayer and parent, Dodd brings a unique perspective to the State Board of education that will emphasize the role of Ohio’s schools in the state economy.

Todd Book
District 10 (Southern Ohio)
Todd Book is a product of the West Portsmouth Public Schools in Scioto County, Ohio. he graduated from Western Michigan University, magna cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He obtained his law degree from the nation’s oldest law school at the College of William and Mary and then returned to Portsmouth to begin his law practice. In 2002, Book was elected to the Ohio house of Representatives, serving four terms before term limits forced him to leave the legislature. While a state representative, Book was known as a hard-working member who focused on policy over politics. He held the positions of assistant minority leader, caucus chair and chairman of the Rules Committee. He was one of the few members that voted against No Child Left Behind. Book is heavily involved with his community and is a member of the Portsmouth Civic forum.

Mary Rose Oakar
District 11 (Cleveland)
As an elected member of the State Board representing District 11, Mary Rose Oakar serves approximately two-thirds of Cuyahoga County. She was elected to her current four-year term in 2008. Oakar served in three legislative bodies. She was a Member of the Cleveland City Council, a 16-year Member of the United States Congress and a Member of the Ohio house of Representatives. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Ursuline College and a master’s degree from John Carroll University. Oakar taught at Lourdes Academy and east high and, from 1968 to 1975, at Cuyahoga Community College. For 6 1⁄2 years, she was president of the American- Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which describes itself as the largest Arab-American grassroots civil rights organization in the U.S. Active in the community, Oakar is a member of the housing Board for Project Afford, a volunteer at the West Side hunger Center, a member of the Ohio farm Bureau, and a member of the “former Members of U.S. Congress.”

Shaming teachers

The efforts by corporate education reformers to shame teachers by publishing value-add scores and evaluations is coming under mounting pressure. First Bill Gates penned an op-ed in the NYT titled "Shame Is Not the Solution, now comes 2 new pieces. The first is research from the National Education Policy Center, that finds the LA Times controversial efforts to shame California's teachers was grossly error ridden

In its second attempt to rank Los Angeles teachers based on “value-added” assessments derived from students’ standardized test scores, the Los Angeles Times has still produced unreliable information that cannot be used for the purpose the newspaper intends, according to new research released today by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder

Dr. Catherine Durso of the University of Denver studied the newspaper’s 2011 rankings of teachers and found that they rely on data yielding results that are unstable from year to year. Additionally, Durso found that the value-added assessment model used by the Times can easily impute to teachers effects that may in fact result from outside factors, such as a student’s poverty level or the neighborhood in which he or she lives.

“The effect estimate for each teacher cannot be taken at face value,” Durso writes. Instead, each teacher’s effect estimate includes a large “error band” that reflects the probable range of scores for a teacher under the assessment system.

“The error band . . . for many teachers is larger than the entire range of scores from the ‘less effective’ to ‘more effective’ designations provided by the LA Times,” Durso writes. As a consequence, the so-called teacher-linked effect for individual teachers “is also unstable over time,” she continues.
[...]
These failings have rendered the Times’ rankings not merely useless, but potentially harmful, according to Alex Molnar, NEPC’s publications director and a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“The Los Angeles Times has added no value to the discussion of how best to identify and retain the highest-quality teachers for our nation’s children,” Molnar says. “Indeed, it has made things worse. Based on this flawed use of data, parents are enticed into thinking their children’s teachers are either wonderful or terrible.”

“The Los Angeles Times editors and reporters either knew or should have known that their reporting was based on a social science tool that cannot validly or reliably do what they set out to quantify,” Molnar said. “Yet in their ignorance or arrogance they used it anyway, to the detriment of children, teachers, and parents.”

Their full report can be read here. Meanwhile in New York, which has long been at the cutting edge of corporate ed reform efforts has passed legislation that would eliminate this kind of teacher shaming

Senate Republicans agreed to take up Cuomo’s bill on the final day of the session. The bill will make public all teacher evaluations, without names attached. Parents would then be able to obtain the specific evaluations of their own child’s teacher. Assembly Democrats had already agreed to pass it. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos says it’s a reasonable compromise.

“It strikes a good balance between parents’ right to know and some form of confidentially,” Skelos said. Some GOP Senators were concerned that the bill would inadvertently result in the disclosure of the identities of teachers in small rural schools.

Senate Education Chair John Flanagan calls it a “work in progress,” and says the message of intent accompanying the bill will attempt to make clear the need to protect teacher privacy. “I’m hoping that if you’re in a small school and they release data by class, subject and grade that there’s some type of interpretation to protect people’s privacy,” said Flanagan.

Ohio's legislature should pass similar efforts in Ohio.

Education News for 04-13-2012

Statewide Education News

• Schools may get reprieve on new rating system

State ed leader says tougher system may not be ready in time
Ohio public schools will likely get a year’s reprieve from a tougher academic rating system on annual report cards, a state education official said Thursday. Instead of grading schools from A to F on school report cards this August, as planned, Ohio may delay the new grades by a year, said Stan Heffner, state superintendent of public instruction. He said the new grading system may not receive state and federal approval in time. Read More…

• Districts See Problems With Teacher Evaluations (NBC-4, Columbus)

School districts are scrambling now to figure out how they can change the way they evaluate teachers. It's all because of Ohio House Bill 153, which requires school districts to evaluate every teacher every year. And it's not a simple process. Read More…

• Computers Can Score Student Essays As Well As Humans, Study Finds (State Impact Ohio)

Chess enthusiasts watch World Chess champion Garry Kasparov on a television monitor as he holds his head in his hands at the start of the sixth and final match in May1997 against IBM’s Deep Blue computer in New York. Sure, Deep Blue beat Kasparov, but can a computer score an essay as well as a human? A new study shaped by the two groups that are leading the development of new online tests suggests the answer is yes: Read More…

Local Issues

• Many Valley workers lack skills for growing manufacturing jobs (Vindicator)

A lack of skilled manufacturing workers could slow the progress the Mahoning Valley is making in economic development. The Oh-Penn Interstate Regional Manufacturing Workforce Summit at Youngstown State University on Thursday focused on problems facing the local manufacturing base in finding qualified workers. The Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition sponsored the event. Read More…

• Parents hear pitch for open enrollment (Dispatch)

Reynoldsburg parents got their first chance last night to ask questions and offer thoughts on a proposal to admit students who live outside the district to the city’s schools. To help answer their questions, the district had officials from suburban districts in Ohio with open-enrollment policies share their stories. Read More…

• Boundary lines drawn for three-school elementary plan (Canton Repository)

Boundary lines were finalized this week for the city schools’ elementary buildings. The boundaries for Franklin, Gorrell and Whittier take effect this fall and apply to students in the kindergarten through third grades. According to Superintendent Rik Goodright, the new lines were drawn to help properly balance the number of students attending each building and were drawn with the expectation that they would be in place for years to come. Read More…

• Cleveland Teachers Union and Mayor Frank Jackson reach deal on mayor's school plan (Plain Dealer)

Mayor Frank Jackson and theCleveland Teachers Union today reached a deal on the final disputed provisions of Jackson's schools plan, clearing a major obstacle for state legislators who will begin their deliberations as early as next week. The compromise struck by the mayor and union after several weeks of marathon negotiations, will bring major changes to the contract rules governing teacher assignments, seniority, pay, evaluation, layoff and recall that give the district more flexibility as it tries to improve schools. Read More…

• Proper breathing, diet among test-taking tips (Findlay Courier)

For many students, standardize tests usually come hand-in-hand with stress and anxiety.
And with the upcoming Ohio Achievement Assessments later this month, local motivational speaker Bruce Boguski is hoping his knowledge and tips will make life a little bit easier for Glenwood Middle School's students. Boguski was brought in to speak to the pre-teens to offer advice and tips on handling stress and improving memory in preparation for the annual tests, said Barbara Duval, a seventh grade reading intervention specialist. Read More…

• Tablet boosts business and school productivity (Hamilton Journal News)

Low-cost systems are far more efficient than costly ones they replace.

Delivering food to the table or pouring a cup of coffee is about the only thing it can’t do. The iPad takes an order, sends it to the chef and lets the waiter know when it’s done at the Florentine Restaurant. And forget about paper. At True West Coffee, a customer’s receipt is sent by text to their phone. Read More…

• County has more kids than child-care slots (Dispatch)

Good-quality child care can be difficult to come by in Franklin County. For every available slot at a child-care center here, there are three children, according to a report being released today. In parts of Columbus — the Northeast Side, for example — there are about five children for every available space. Read More…

• Clark Co. to house ag STEM school? (Springfield News Sun)

Ohio State University — the state’s only university with a college dedicated to agricultural sciences — has been a part of talks about a proposed agricultural science STEM school. “We’ve been certainly talking with them.” said Herb Asher, counselor to the president at OSU, noting that the school’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences makes it a logical piece of the conversation. Read More…

• Ryan Takes ‘Mindfulness’ to Inner-City Schools (Youngstown Business Journal)

It’s mid-afternoon and a student in Mrs. Evelyn Fisher’s kindergarten class at Williamson Elementary School walks quietly to a corner and begins to cry. Within seconds, five other students surround her. “Breathe in, breathe out,” they coach, as they try to console their classmate with gentle pats on the back. A minute passes, her distress evaporates, and she returns to her desk to wait for the next lesson. Read More…

• Middle School Students Spreading Random Acts of Kindness (WKRC-Cincinnati)

Many teens find themselves being bullied over the internet but one Tri-State school is looking for a way to counteract that. Students at Woodland Middle School decided to use social media to spread random acts of kindness this week. Local 12's Angela Ingram talked with students about how they are using electronic media to share positive messages. The school's principal says kids are constantly using Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. So, why not take something they love to use - and have them do something helpful for others? Read More…

Charters spend more on admin, less on class

We observed that SB316 delayed, by 12 months, the requirement passed in the budget to rank schools based upon their classroom spending. As was noted at the time, this was an ill conceived, ill considered plan. As that plan now hits the slow track, research emerges that charter schools spend less in the classroom than traditional public schools.

One of the most frequent criticisms put to traditional public schools is that they waste money on administrative bloat, instead of channeling more funding where it belongs—the classroom. A much leaner and classroom-centered model, some say, can be found in charter schools, because of their relative freedom from stifling bureaucracy.

A new study, however, concludes that this hypothesis has it exactly wrong.

The study, released by the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, at Teachers College, Columbia University, examines school spending in Michigan and concludes that charter schools spend more per-pupil on administration and less on instruction than traditional public schools, even when controlling for enrollment, student populations served, and other factors.

Researchers David Arsen, of Michigan State University, and Yongmei Ni, of the University of Utah, found that charters spend $774 more per pupil on administration, and $1,140 less on instruction, than do traditional publics. To come up with their estimates, the authors analyze the level and source of funding for charters and traditional publics, and how they spend money, breaking it out by function. They then use a statistical method known as regression analysis to control for factors that could skew their comparisons of spending on administration and instruction in various schools.

Of the extra $774 that charters devote to administration, $506 went to general administrative services, such as the costs of charter school boards, or the fees of the organizations managing the school.

While Arsen and Ni don't examine in depth the causes of charters' relatively low instructional spending, they speculate that a couple factors could be at work. An obvious one is that more than 80 percent of traditional public schools' spending goes to personnel costs, mostly salaries and benefits—which would presumably drive instructional costs up. Charters, on average, pay lower salaries for teachers with similiar credentials to those hired by traditional publics, and also employ a less experienced and less costly teaching force, the authors say, which would keep instructional costs down.

HEre's the paper in question for your review.

Is Administration Leaner in Charter Schools? Resource Allocation in Charter and Traditional Public Schools