Ohio can use Race to the Top funding to improve teacher quality

Mike Lafferty / October 28, 2009

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and others voiced support yesterday for Senate Bill (SB) 180 (see here) that would strengthen Ohio’s position in the federal Race to the Top sweepstakes through:

• Using value-added student achievement data to help determine teacher effectiveness;
• Issuing an initial professional educator license to applicants who have completed at least two years of teaching in other states through the highly regarded Teach for America program (for empirical evidence on the success of the program, see here, here, and here); and
• Loosening the cyber-charter moratorium to make it possible for high performing e-schools to open and operate in Ohio.

Terry Ryan, Fordham’s vice president for Ohio programs and policy, told members of the Ohio Senate education committee that SB180 would allow the Buckeye State’s schools – especially the most troubled – to take advantage of talented veteran teachers from Teach for America who don’t want to spend time and money jumping through needless certification hoops and meaningless state requirements.

“We’ve seen this first hand in two of the charter schools we sponsor in Columbus – the Columbus Collegiate Academy and KIPP Journey. Both schools have drawn on Teach for America alumni who have worked successfully in some of the nation’s toughest urban schools.  These teachers and others like them represent some of America’s finest educators. The two schools serve children in the Linden and Weinland Park neighborhoods of Columbus,” Ryan testified.

Columbus Collegiate Academy (CCA) is a particularly

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Ohio can use Race to the Top funding to improve teacher quality

Performance gap persists between state math tests and nation's report card

October 28, 2009

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics scores released earlier this month received a somber reception here in Ohio and rightly so - student achievement in math has remained relatively flat in the eighth grade for the last decade. The NAEP is a biennial test administered to fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders by the U.S. Department of Education and is billed as “the Nation’s Report Card.”

The 2009 NAEP scores for Ohio students are virtually the same as in previous years. In 2009, 45 percent of fourth graders and 36 percent of eighth graders were considered proficient or better in math, compared to 46 percent of fourth graders and 35 percent of eighth graders earning a proficient rating in 2007.

These numbers become even more troubling when compared to the results from the Ohio Achievement Tests (OAT). According to 2008-09 OAT results, 71 percent of eighth graders and 78 percent of fourth graders were considered proficient in mathematics. The graph below illustrates the performance gap of Ohio students between NAEP and OAT results.

Performance of Ohio Students on 2009 NAEP and Ohio Achievement Tests

Source: Ohio Department of Education interactive Local Report Card, and National Assessment of Education Progress

The Columbus Dispatch covered the disconnect between state test scores and NAEP in a recent article (read it here). A representative of the Ohio Department of Education told the Dispatch that both assessments are "…

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Performance gap persists between state math tests and nation's report card

Education secretary makes case for STEM education

Mike Lafferty / October 28, 2009

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Friday that the nation needs a national policy to boost science education, especially in promoting the best ways to teach science, engineering, and math.

Duncan called for a national science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education agenda and network to develop and share effective practices, as well as reiterated a call for better trained teachers and incentive pay for science and math teachers (see here). He spoke to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

However, despite poor science programs in high school, according to a new report released today, interest in science among American high school and college students hasn’t slackened over the past 30 years (see here). According to the Rutgers University report, U.S. colleges and universities are graduating as many scientists and engineers as ever, contradicting long-held hand-wringing from educators and employers.

The study, "Steady as She Goes? Three Generations of Students through the Science and Engineering Pipeline," was conducted with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

While the data seem to skirt the issue of whether “enough” scientists are being graduated, it does indicate many of the highest performing students are choosing careers in other fields after graduation.

That could eventually hurt since, in his speech, Duncan ladled a lot onto the plates of America’s young people, saying they will need to spur future advancements in clean energy, health and medicine, the environment, space exploration, food production for developing

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Education secretary makes case for STEM education

Early college academies form lobby group

Mike Lafferty / October 28, 2009

Ohio’s public early college academies are combining forces to lobby the Ohio General Assembly for more cash to keep their innovative high-school programs afloat.

The schools lost big in the latest state budget. Faced with likely closure, if not this year then within the next two years, the nine big city high schools have formed the Ohio Early College Association to lobby state lawmakers for more money.

The schools want a few million back of a special $12 million state subsidy they had been receiving, figuring that with a little more state support they can garner donations and grants.

Early college academies are public college-prep high schools in Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Elyria, Lorain, Toledo, and Youngstown. The state, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have invested more than $40 million in these schools since 2003.

The schools offer an intense program to prepare at-risk, low-income, inner-city students for college success. Graduates leave school with college credit and some graduates can earn up to two years’ worth of credit.

Advocates think they have a case for a special dispensation at a time state lawmakers have needed to cut billions in state spending. Early-college graduates, usually from educationally underserved urban areas, have been showing on state tests they are better prepared than their counterparts in traditional inner city high schools.

“Some of our kids (attending the Dayton Early College Academy) have to walk through drug deals to get here,” said Tom Lasley,

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Early college academies form lobby group

State Test Score Trends Through 2007-08: Are Achievement Gaps Closing and Is Achievement Rising for All?

October 28, 2009

Center on Education Policy
October 2009

This report from the Center on Education Policy uses achievement data from state tests to answer two questions: to what extent do achievement gaps persist between minority students (African American, Latino, and Native American) and their white and Asian counterparts, and between students from low-income families and their wealthier peers? And is achievement rising for all student subgroups –e.g. are gaps narrowing because some groups are doing worse, or are all groups still making some gains? 

CEP analyzed data from fourth-grade state test results at three achievement levels (basic, proficient, and advanced) to determine whether students in each category made gains. It also examined achievement gaps in proficiency at grades four, eight, and at one high school level, as well as gaps in average test scores. Overall findings indicate that achievement gaps are narrowing in most states. More importantly, the reduction of achievement disparities is most often the result of the accelerated accomplishment of low-performing groups, rather than the decreased performance of higher-performing groups. Achievement gaps at the proficient-or-above level narrowed more often for African American and Latino subgroups; Native American and low-income subgroups also made positive gains, but their success was on a much smaller scale.

Despite these findings, the report indicates that disparities between high- and low-performing groups still remain as wide as 20 percent. In Ohio, the achievement gap is even wider—86 percent of white fourth graders scored at the proficient level or higher

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State Test Score Trends Through 2007-08: Are Achievement Gaps Closing and Is Achievement Rising for All?

The best of both worlds

October 28, 2009

The Ohio Department of Education recently spotlighted an innovative partnership between Dayton Public Schools and Sinclair Community College that has established a unique Tech Prep high school in Ohio.This holds special significance here at Fordham, as it is named after David H. Ponitz, a Fordham trustee and the venerated president emeritus of Sinclair Community College. This fall, 550 teenagers began attending the David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center. It offers students the chance to graduate with training in a technical career field, all while offering an American high school experience that includes such features as music and sports. Read the full post here.

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The best of both worlds

Teacher quality the most important (in-school) factor

Jamie Davies O'Leary / October 28, 2009

Core Knowledge and Joanne Jacobs both picked up on a blog this week by Linda Perlstein, who says that Obama is “wrong” to suggest that teachers are the single most important factor related to student achievement. Perlstein points out that this is accurate only in that “of the various factors inside school, teacher quality has had more effect on student test scores than any other that has been measured.” And? I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that Obama has misrepresented the evidence. Read the rest of this post here.

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Teacher quality the most important (in-school) factor

Big jobs in the Big Easy

October 28, 2009

New Schools for New Orleans (here) is seeking a Chief Operating Officer and Director of Development to help grow the organization and work toward its goal of achieving excellent public schools for all students in New Orleans. NSNO recruits and places teachers and school leaders, helps launch new charter schools, provides grant support to high-quality charter schools, and advocates for accountable and sustainable public schools. Interested in the positions? Learn more here.

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Big jobs in the Big Easy