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Education News for 01-14-2013

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State Education News

  • Teacher evaluations to be more detailed under new standards (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • The teacher on the video had clearly worked hard on her lesson…Read more...

  • Past school-funding plans (Columbus Dispatch)

    • When Gov. John Kasich in February rolls out his formula for funding Ohio schools, he will become the fourth-consecutive governor to attempt to transform the way the state pays for education…Read more...

  • Kasich’s turn for school reform (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Gov. John Kasich soon will become the fourth-straight Ohio governor to propose sweeping changes for financing public schools and improving student performance…Read more...

  • Auditor targets 100 more schools (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The state auditor has identified about 100 more Ohio schools that show signs they might have “ scrubbed” student data…Read more...

  • Hamilton schools: ‘A’ in frugality (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Hamilton schools are celebrating a milestone this year that few districts in Ohio can: They’ve gone 20 years without increasing their operating taxes. And based on current financial projections…Read more...

  • School reform: Outside help likely (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The Columbus school district isn’t the only education game in town. It’s the biggest. But a large, mayor-appointed commission that is meeting to help improve education for Columbus children is operating on the premise that other businesses…Read more...

  • Kasich appoints three to Ohio Board of Education (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Gov. John Kasich today made three more appointments to the Ohio Board of Education, among them a replacement for the last remaining appointee of his Democratic predecessor…Read more...

  • Private schools top public in average ACT, SAT scores (Dayton Daily News)

    • Local private high school students averaged much higher ACT and SAT scores than their public school counterparts in 2012, according to our study of schools across the Miami Valley…Read more...

  • State reports show most teacher candidates pass licensure test (Hamilton Journal-News)

    • Ohio has established a starting point for comparing and evaluating the college programs that train elementary, middle and high school teachers, releasing this week the first ever…Read more...

  • Use of seclusion, restraint to be restricted (Marion Star)

    • Ohio schools no longer will be allowed to use physical restraint or seclusion as a punishment for children under a draft policy, but those techniques still would be permitted to prevent dangerous situations…Read more...

Local Education News

  • Administrators tackle ‘school-to-prison’ pipeline (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Claren Chandler was two months pregnant with her daughter when she threatened to stab a Garfield High School classmate with a pair of scissors…Read more...

  • Teacher with fear of kids sues district (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • A longtime French and Spanish high-school teacher is suing a suburban Cincinnati school district, alleging that it discriminated against her because she has a disability — a phobia of young children…Read more...

  • Students praising others on Facebook (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Students in central Ohio have a new reason to smile. By logging onto Facebook and sending a message, teens are anonymously paying homage to fellow classmates’ good deeds and admirable qualities...Read more...

  • Schools say no to old drug programs (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Realizing that more young people are no longer “just saying no” to drugs, local schools are changing their approaches to drug-prevention programs…Read more...

  • Board votes to table charter school study (Dayton Daily News)

    • The Springboro Board of Education voted 3-2 to table a proposed conversion charter school study Thursday night, after dozens of Springboro parents and community members spoke out against the study and the concept…Read more...

  • Armed janitors may provide school district's line of defense (Findlay Courier)

    • A rural school district in Ohio is drawing attention with its plans to arm a handful of its non- teaching employees with handguns this year -- perhaps even janitors…Read more...

  • No new security measures for city schools (Springfield News-Sun)

    • Springfield City Schools will wait to see what government changes come from a national debate about guns and mass shootings before making any changes…Read more...

  • Cameras, locked doors among precautions for area Catholic schools (Toledo Blade)

    • With new entrance procedures, an online reporting system for threats, and training for students and staff, schools in the Catholic Diocese of Toledo are beefing up security measures and reviewing policies in response to the shooting in Newtown, Conn…Read more...

  • Steubenville Supt Plans Expanded Sexual Harassment, Date Rape Curriculum (WBNS)

    • Two 16-year-old high school football players have been charged with sexually assaulting a young girl after a series of parties in August…Read more...

  • Ridge Middle School to try out Google Chromebooks in Mentor School District (Willoughby News Herald)

    • Mentor Schools will join neighboring school districts by adding new technology to its classrooms…Read more...

Editorial

  • Put the emphasis on educate, not regulate (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • In the fall of 2010, the Ohio Department of Education launched, with great fanfare, an initiative called Credit Flexibility…Read more...

  • Web-utation (Columbus Dispatch)

    • It might be hard for parents to get this message through, but teens and young adults should be made to understand that what they put online likely will be seen by a college- admissions officer or a potential employer…Read more...

  • Unwelcome comeback (Columbus Dispatch)

    • A malady mankind thought it had whipped, whooping cough, is again becoming a menace. More than ever, parents need to make sure that they and their children are current on immunizations…Read more...

  • Decency deficit (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The attention surrounding an allegation of rape at a high-school party in Steubenville isn’t surprising; the ugly details attract notice…Read more...

  • A first step (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The Ohio Department of Education’s effort to establish policies and rules for dealing with emotionally disturbed children with out-of-control behavior is welcome…Read more...

  • A start (Columbus Dispatch)

    • One of the most-talked-about topics amid all the media coverage of the Newtown school shootings was a blog item written by a mother who sympathized with what shooter Adam Lanza’s mother…Read more...

  • Schools should be instructed to be open about discipline issue (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • There’s a saying that when God closes a door, He opens a window. But politics isn’t divine, and experience shows that when government cracks a window, it often tries to slam shut a door…Read more...

Education News for 08-29-2012

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State Education News

  • New K-12 standards bring change to teacher colleges too (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • New “Common Core” curriculum standards coming to Ohio and 44 other states next year won’t just impact kids. Aspiring teachers – and the colleges that train them...Read more...

  • Columbus school board talks ethics in secret (Columbus Dispatch)

    • In the middle of a state investigation into data rigging, the Columbus school board spent more than three hours behind closed doors last night, talking about ethics and meeting with private attorneys...Read more...

  • Riverside School District receiving ODOT grant (Willoughby News Herald)

    • The Riverside Local School District has been awarded $491,000 from the Ohio Department of Transportation for several projects related to safety. The funds will go toward the district's action plan...Read more...

  • Success will continue to drive Youngstown district (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • City schools Superintendent Connie Hathorn says student success will continue to drive the school district. “... Everything we do, every program we offer, every decision we make” is based on student success...Read more...

Local Education News

  • Cleveland kindergartner assigned to nonexistent school gets apology (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Cleveland public schools CEO Eric Gordon had to make a telephone call Tuesday that no school superintendent wants to make. That's a telephone call in which you tell a parent that you're sorry for instructing her young child...Read more...

  • Elementary-school students in Upper Arlington chat with astronaut aboard the International Space (Columbus Dispatch)

    • As she pondered her greatest fear of space travel, the astronaut bobbed up and down in zero gravity, her mass of curly hair a dark halo behind her head...Read more...

  • Bus tests help Northridge schools’ plan to cut routes (Columbus Dispatch)

    • If the bus had made it to his kids’ Licking County school in 30 minutes or less, Bill Jones would have been validated...Read more...

  • Young professionals to mentor high school students (Marion Star)

    • A group of young community-minded individuals preparing to help carry the community into the future is making plans to encourage the next generation to do the same...Read more...

  • Urbana Schools offers free breakfast to all students (Springfield News-Sun)

    • For the first time, all students at Urbana City Schools this year will be eligible to receive breakfast at no cost at the beginning of each school day...Read more...

SB5 is very harmful to new teachers

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When the supporters of SB5 talk about the teaching provisions, they use an ugly, divisive argument. The argument is mean to pit teacher against teacher, young vs old, like this example from "Better Ohio"

Or this from an extreme right wing blogger

It's an ugly argument, full of falsehoods on a number of levels, for a number of reasons. They not too subtly imply that because of seniority, young teacher get laid off - and that it's these young teachers that are "the best".

This should offend any veteran educator, in no other profession is experience denigrated or misrepresented in this manner.

The very best teachers in Ohio have some of the deepest and longest experience. Consider Ohio's teachers of the year

Tim Dove, 2011 Ohio Teacher of the Year - 29 years experience
Natalie Wester, 2010 Ohio Teacher of the Year - 7 years experience
Jennifer Walker, 2009 Ohio Teacher of the Year - over 14 years experience
Deborah Wickerham, 2008 Ohio Teacher of the Year - over 33 years experience
George Edge, 2007 Ohio Teacher of the Year - over 28 years experience
Eric Combs, 2006 Ohio Teacher of the Year - over 20 years experience
Deepa Ganschinietz, 2005 Ohio Teacher of the Year - over 20 years experience
Kathy Rank, 2004 Ohio Teacher of the Year - over 20 years experience
Doreen Uhas-Sauer, 2003 Ohio Teacher of the Year - over 35 years experience

The argument is particularly ugly because no one wants to argue that there are some fine young teachers, but all the evidence in the world indicates that if SB5 passes it is young teachers, not more experienced teachers, who would suffer to the greatest extent.

First, teaching is an incredibly hard, complex job, requiring lots of skill, practice and experience. This is one of the primary reasons why it is estimated that almost a third of America’s teachers leave the field sometime during their first three years of teaching, and almost half leave after five years (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education). If we were to rely predominantly on young teachers our schools would experience significant shortages and very distruptive turnover.

Moreover, study after study shows that teachers become more skilled with experience (see Rice, 2003; Murnane, 1975; Murnane & Phillips, 1981; Ferguson, 1991; Ferguson & Ladd, 1996; Greenwald, Hedges, & Laine, 1996; Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 1998; Grissmer, Flanagan, Kawata, & Williamson, 2000; Rivers & Sanders, 2002; Rowan et al., 2002; Wayne & Youngs, 2003; Nye, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges, 2004; Hanushek & Rivkin, 2004; Hanushek, Kain, O’Brien, & Rivkin, 2005; Kane, Rockoff, & Staiger, 2006; Gordon, Kane, & Staiger, 2006; Harris & Sass, 2007; Aos, Miller, & Pennucci, 2007; Clotfelter, Ladd, & Vigdor, 2006, 2007a).

If teachers are to be evlauated, paid, hired and fired based on their performance, it is unlikely that most new, inexperienced teachers are going to benefit from this rubric when compared to their more experienced colleagues. Indeed, in the absence of preferential treatment or compensation level based decisions that seniority protects against, younger teachers should expect to be let go more often, not less. See their pay grow slower and not faster

How many people would want to enter such a profession?

To be explicit. If SB5 were to become law, young teachers entering the classroom would be harmed significantly by it.

Supporters of SB5 are not interested in rewarding the best teacher, or any teachers. If they were they would have included money in the bill, or the budget, to provide that reward. Instead they made unprecedented cuts to public education.

SB5 could turn Gov. Kasich into a lame duck

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A short while ago we published an analysis piece to determine which of the Senators who voted for SB5 would be up for reelection in 2012. A number of readers asked us to perform the same analysis for those House members who voted for SB5, so here it is.

The Ohio House of Representatives is made up of 99 districts. Currently the Republicans control 59 and the Democrats 40. The House is quite different from the Senate. Representatives are elected every 2 years, not every 4 and every district will be contested in 2012. Representatives become term limited after 4 terms. So with that basic understanding, let’s look at the SB5 roll call.

We can eliminate all of the Democrats from consideration as not a single one of them voted for SB5.

While SB5 was passed on a party line vote, some Republicans did cross the isle to vote no too. They were Randy Gardner (R), Ross W. McGregor (R), John Carey (R), Terry Johnson (R), and Casey Kozlowski (R). That reduces the potential total to 54 Republicans who voted for SB5.

Five of these Representatives will be term limited, they are Louis W. Blessing, Jr. (R), Courtney Combs (R), William P. Coley, II (R), Joseph W. Uecker (R) and Danny R. Bubp (R). So we’re down to 49.

One other Republican who is unlikely to be on the ballot next year is Rep Mecklenborg (R). He was recently arrested for a DUI in Indiana enjoying the company of a young woman purported to be an employee of a nearby adult entertainment establishment. It’s quite possible he won’t serve out his term, as calls for his resignation continue to grow.

That then, gives us 48 potential Republican Representatives who will be on the ballot in 2012 who voted for SB5. They are, sorted by their 2010 votes for percentage:

District Member Percentage vote for Percentage vote against
91 Bill Hayes (R) 47.06 52.94
41 Lynn Slaby (R) 49.9 50.1
21 Mike Duffey (R) 50.48 49.52
96 Al Landis (R) 51.04 48.96
42 Kristina Roegner (R) 51.69 48.31
18 Mike Dovilla (R) 52.41 47.59
1 Craig Newbold (R) 52.58 47.42
19 Anne Gonzales (R) 52.68 47.32
63 Ron Young (R) 53.14 46.86
93 Andy Thompson (R) 53.81 46.19
17 Marlene Anielski (R) 54.75 45.25
43 Todd McKenney (R) 54.99 45.01
81 Rex Damschroder (R) 55.31 44.69
85 Bob Peterson (R) 55.32 44.68
46 Barbara R. Sears (R) 56.34 43.66
86 Cliff Rosenberger (R) 59.46 40.54
16 Nan A. Baker (R) 60.19 39.81
50 Christina Hagan (R) 60.52 39.48
58 Terry Boose (R) 62.29 37.71
36 Michael Henne (R) 63.27 36.73
23 Cheryl L. Grossman (R) 63.41 36.59
34 Peter Stautberg (R) 64.81 35.19
38 Terry Blair (R) 67.49 32.51
98 Richard Hollington (R) 68.44 31.56
97 David Hall (R) 68.8 31.2
74 Bruce W. Goodwin (R) 69.01 30.99
51 Kirk Schuring (R) 69.2 30.8
71 Jay Hottinger (R) 69.31 30.69
84 Bob D. Hackett (R) 69.7 30.3
37 Jim Butler (R) 69.71 30.29
70 Jarrod B. Martin (R) 69.93 30.07
53 Timothy Derickson (R) 70.19 29.81
69 William G. Batchelder (R) 70.34 29.66
2 Andrew Brenner (R) 70.35 29.65
67 Peter Beck (R) 70.74 29.26
76 Robert Sprague (R) 70.78 29.22
75 Lynn R. Wachtmann (R) 72.05 27.95
90 Margaret Ann Ruhl (R) 72.26 27.74
4 Matt Huffman (R) 72.32 27.68
35 Ron Maag (R) 73.02 26.98
78 John Adams (R) 74.27 25.73
79 Richard N. Adams (R) 77.09 22.91
3 Ron Amstutz (R) 100 0
5 Gerald L. Stebelton (R) 100 0
77 Jim Buchy (R) 100 0
82 Jeffrey A. McClain (R) 100 0
83 David E. Burke (R) 100 0
94 Troy Balderson (R) 100 0

14 SB5 supporters could not survive a 5% swing from their margin of victory in 2010 (2 didn’t even reach the 50% threshold due to a third party taking significant support). With only a 10-seat margin to maintain control, it is quite possible that control of the Ohio House will swing away from the Republicans and back to the Democrats.

Such a swing, could put a halt to the Governors radical agenda and turn the remaining 2 years of his first term into a lame duck effort.