A pending vote from the state’s top education leaders could have major ramifications on local schools around Ohio. The state Board of Education is reviewing almost all of its standards to provide more “flexibility” to local school districts. This week it considered changing Ohio’s so-called 5 of 8 rule that concerns art teachers, music teachers, and school counselors among others.
Tennessean Lamar Alexander is expected to become the chairman of the U.S. Senate’s education committee when the Republicans take control in January. He spoke with NPR’s Claudio Sanchez about his take on several education issues.
An analysis by the Akron Beacon Journal finds that while some for-profit managed charters do well, most of them were poor performers.
“A factor in the difference appears to be the motivation to make money.
Tennessee, New York and Rhode Island, which the study reckons have the highest-performing charter school sectors, are among the six states that ban for-profit companies.
At the other end of the spectrum, Ohio trails only Michigan and Texas in the percentage of taxpayer-funded charter schools run by for-profit companies, according to the Colorado-based National Education Policy Center.”
Bill Rice / ideastream
Justin, Austin and Davon get personalized instruction from literacy specialist Olivia Weisman
At Renwood Elementary School in Parma, just south of Cleveland, Olivia Weisman wraps up a small group reading session with three students: Justin and Austin, both nine years old; and Davon is ten. They’re in the fourth grade, but none of them has passed the Ohio third grade reading assessment or one of the alternative tests approved by the state board of education.
So they’re getting special attention from Weisman, a certified literacy specialist.
Each day, the three boys meet with Weisman for an intensive 90 minute reading session – timed so they don’t miss any of their fourth grade subjects.
An Ohio House panel has passed a Republican proposal to repeal Common Core learning standards in the state, sending it on to the full House.
Representatives Matt Thompson and Andy Huffman, both Republicans, introduced the measure last summer. Both are members of the Rules and Reference Committee, which was assigned HB 597 after a similar measure had earlier failed to clear the Education Committee.
Democrats picked up two seats on the Ohio Board of Education after Tuesday’s election. The Columbus Dispatch reports Democrat Roslyn Painter-Goffi, a retired teacher from Strongsville, defeated appointed incumbent Bradley Lamb, a Republican from Fairview Park, in a four-way contest for District 5. And in the Cincinnati-area race for outgoing board President Debe Terhar’s seat, Democrat Pat Bruns defeated Republican Zach Haines. Democrats had hoped to make substantial gains on the board, but Republicans retained a large majority. Read more from the Dispatch.
Amy Hansen / StateImpact Ohio
This election featured roughly 165 school tax issues on ballots across the state, a slight decrease from 2013 and 2012.
But the results of this year’s race followed a recent trend: a majority of voters voted down requests for additional tax increases, while supporting a majority of existing renewals.
According to unofficial results early Wednesday morning, about 90 percent of renewals passed, compared to less than a third of new money requests.
Those results closely align with how Damon Asbury, the director for legislative services for the Ohio School Board Association, forecasted the election would turn out when he spoke to StateImpact last week.
“Times are difficult for people,” he said. “We still have a lot of unemployment, we still have a lot of underemployment in the state, money is tight. You have to make a very convincing case for a community to help them understand that yes, in fact, we do need more money.”
Twenty-two candidates vied for seven open spots on Ohio’s state Board of Education.
And according to unofficial results early Wednesday morning, four Democrats and three Republicans will be joining the board.
There is optimism in some quarters that President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative can improve the educational outlook for boys of color. Obama announced the initiative last summer, and more than 60 school districts across the country, all members of the Council of Big City Schools in Washington, signed on. Five Ohio districts – Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo – were among them. The initiative calls on schools to increase the number of minority boys who are succeeding both academically and socially; develop early-intervention strategies; increase graduation rates; reduce absenteeism… the list goes on. No federal dollars were allocated, although $200 million was pledged from philanthropic groups to assist. But some say that ‘s not enough to achieve substantive results. Read more at Education Week:
Several Southern Ohio Head Start programs now have 600 fewer open seats for low-income students. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the federally supported childcare program now requires some providers to re-compete for funding. Local programs are still getting the same amount of money. But now centers are encouraged to invest their funding into increasing the quality of its programming, which may put a dent in the number of students able to enroll, the Enquirer reports.
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