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Passion vs. pirates
Dr. Diane Ravitch – a founding Board member of the modern Thomas B. Fordham Foundation – came to Columbus yesterday morning to speak passionately about her belief in the public school system. Reading from her 2010 book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Dr. Ravitch called herself a reluctant crusader. But her belief in public schools as the “entry point to the American Dream” and her belief that public schools are under attack by the “reform agenda” which makes the system “ripe for privatization and private exploitation” compel her to speak out again and again.
She laid out her beliefs that charter schools don’t work, that high-stakes testing creates a negative impact on public schools, and that teachers are being systematically demoralized nationwide. The political and financial motivations of reformers are clear to her and she was adamant that those interests cannot be allowed to defeat the true purposes of education: “showing children that they have talents and abilities” and “to develop citizens”.
As quickly as Dr. Ravitch arrived, however, she was gone, leaving the rest of the 400+ attendees at the Public Common School Preservation Conference to take her words of grandmotherly wisdom borne of decades of hands-on experience…and turn it into war.
Yes, it’s war folks. Plain and simple. The public schools vs. “the privatizers”. The common good vs. “the pirates”. Money is hemorrhaging from public schools right into the hands of Captain Jack Sparrow. Home schoolers,
Passion vs. pirates
Ohio’s fiscal transparency and accountability
Valentina is a legislative analyst for StudentsFirst, a bipartisan grassroots movement working to improve the nation’s schools.
The most recent data shows that the state of Ohio spends more than $23 billion annually on education, but Ohio students are still struggling academically, with 67% of fourth graders and 64% of eighth graders reading below proficiency[1]. It’s clear that Ohio is investing in its education programs, but it’s not clear whether these resources are being used in the most effective manner.
As I recently wrote, Ohio would greatly benefit from a school letter grading system, which holds schools accountable, empowers parents with information and choices, and improves student outcomes. To maximize the full impact of a school grading system, however, Ohio must pair this information with a strong fiscal transparency and accountability system so that policymakers and the public can understand the impact of their spending decisions. By developing a statewide, five-star rating system that links resources and investment decisions with student and school outcomes, policymakers can make better decisions regarding school funding.
However, transparency and ratings mean little without accountability. Strong but measured interventions, such as changing who makes resource decisions, must be permitted for schools and districts found to be chronic underperformers. Over time, a robust fiscal transparency and accountability system will lead to improved spending practices, which in turn will lead to increased student achievement and, in times of financial decline, will allow administrators and policymakers to
Ohio’s fiscal transparency and accountability
Ohio should implement A-F accountability system
Valentina is a legislative analyst for StudentsFirst, a bipartisan grassroots movement working to improve the nation’s schools.
Every year, Ohio’s public schools are responsible for educating 1.8 million students. To ensure that all students are making learning gains and meeting academic expectations, the Buckeye State needs a system in place to hold schools and school districts accountable for student performance. The Ohio Department of Education is currently redesigning Ohio’s accountability system, and lawmakers have promised to put a new Report Card system into law by the end of December.
In its ongoing efforts to improve student achievement, the Ohio General Assembly can benefit by understanding A-F accountability reforms in other states. Whereas Ohio’s current school rating system uses ambiguous terms like “effective,” “academic watch,” and “continuous improvement” to report on school and district performance, other states are moving towards easier-to-understand, A-F summative ratings. We at StudentsFirst recommend that states issue annual letter grades for all schools and districts based on student achievement. Implementing a letter grading system holds schools and districts accountable for the results they produce, provides parents with understandable information about the schools their children attend, and encourages school improvement efforts.
Done well, A-F rating systems place the focus on students by underscoring student achievement. Because the criteria used to determine school grades are objective and results-focused, educators are held accountable for their students’ progress. Many states that employ A-F school grading systems include proficiency scores, learning gains, and progress
Ohio should implement A-F accountability system
Third-grade reading guarantee: Is money the answer?
As local school districts prepare to implement the state’s new third-grade reading guarantee, many are bemoaning the increased costs associated with providing more reading assessments and interventions to struggling K-3 readers (as required by law) and retaining more kids. The Ohio School Boards Association called the new law, and specifically its reporting requirements, “an unfunded mandate.”
The legislature did dedicate $13 million in competitive funding to support the new mandate, and last week the State Board of Education mulled recommending $105 million to support the law in the Ohio Department of Education’s FY2014-15 budget request. But would more money make a difference? Let’s take a look at the relationship between funding and reading achievement in the past.
Ohio had a reading guarantee on the books more than a decade ago (it was watered down before taking effect). At that time, with a governor (Taft) who had taken on improving early literacy skills as a primary policy objective and with the state coffers flush, Ohio poured millions into literacy improvement programs and professional development for teachers (via programs like OhioReads, the State Institutes for Reading Instruction, adolescent literacy grants, and summer intervention programs – to say nothing of federally funded efforts like Reading First). Chart 1 shows state funding for literacy improvement initiatives and reading professional development, from FY2000-01 (Governor Taft’s first budget) to FY2012.
Chart 1: Dedicated state spending on literacy improvement initiatives and professional development, FY2000 to FY2012
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