Mayor Jackson’s reasonable request of Ohio’s charter community

Terry Ryan / May 9, 2012

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson told the Columbus Dispatch back in 2007, about his city’s rapidly declining population, that, “Our problem is families with children. People are making their choices based on education, and if I am able to make our school district a district of choice where people want to put their children because of excellence, then I can guarantee you that our population reduction will come to a halt.” In the last decade Cleveland’s school age population has shrunk by 10,000 children, and those left behind are largely poor, minority, and struggling academically.  

It is in the hope of stemming the loss of families and children that the mayor has proposed his bold school reform plan that seeks to turn the city’s educational fortunes around. There are many worthy parts to his plan (see here for details), and one of the boldest sections calls for changes to how charter schools operate and are treated in Cleveland. First, high-performing charters would be welcomed as equals and even be offered a share of local tax-levy revenue. This arrangement would be the first of its kind in America and is truly path breaking. Second, the plan calls for a Transformation Alliance that would have the authority to veto proposed start-up charter schools that don’t meet yet-to-be-determined criteria for quality.

While many in the state’s charter community support the overall direction of the mayor’s plan no one, including Fordham, likes the current provision

» Continued

Mayor Jackson’s reasonable request of Ohio’s charter community

Ohio’s “value-added” metric not ready for primetime

Emmy L. Partin / May 9, 2012

There is little dispute that information about the academic gains students make (or don’t) is a valuable addition to pure student proficiency data. But there is little agreement about how best to calculate growth and how to use it to inform things like teacher evaluations and school rating systems. The latter is important – especially now in Ohio. While many local educators believe Governor Kasich’s plan to overhaul how Ohio’s districts are graded gives too little weight to academic progress (and too much to achievement), the truth is that the limits of our current value-added system indicate that the governor’s formula is just right, for now.

Under the governor’s initial version of Senate Bill 316, Ohio would move to an A to F school rating system with ratings calculated based on four factors: 1) student achievement on state tests and graduation rates, 2) a school performance index based on state test results, 3) student academic progress, and 4) the performance of student subgroups.

Matt Cohen, chief researcher for the state education department, testified last month to the Senate education committee that feedback from the field indicates they want growth (aka “value-added” in Ohio) to count more heavily than 25 percent. Bill Sims, CEO of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, suggested that value-added data account for half of a school’s rating – or that ratings be “bumped up” one level if a

» Continued

Ohio’s “value-added” metric not ready for primetime

When Washington focuses on schools

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 9, 2012

With trivial exceptions, Washington does not run schools, employ teachers, buy textbooks, write curriculum, hand out diplomas, or decide who gets promoted to 5th grade. Historically, it has contributed less than 10 percent of national K-12 spending. So its influence on what happens in U.S. schools is indirect and limited. Yet that influence can be profound, albeit not always in a helpful way.

Uncle Sam is dreadful at micromanaging what actually happens in schools and classrooms. What he's best at is setting agendas and driving priorities. Through a combination of jawboning, incentivizing, regulating, mandating, forbidding, spotlighting, and subsidizing, he can significantly influence the overall direction of the K-12 system and catalyze profound changes in it (though the system is so loosely coupled that these changes occur gradually and incompletely).

It's just as well that such big directional shifts don't happen very often, because the change, however gradual, can be wrenching. And it isn't apt to happen much more often in the future, either, because the "federal government" is no single entity. It is, at minimum, three branches, two political parties, 535 members of Congress, innumerable judges, the White House, the Office of Management and Budget, and umpteen executive-branch agencies—a list that only starts with the U.S. Department of Education. Nearly all of these stars must come into rough alignment before anything important begins to change. And that only occurs once in a while, often under extraordinary political or historical circumstances, usually when

» Continued

When Washington focuses on schools

Ohio’s elementary special ed students see improvement while their high school peers languish

Aaron Churchill / May 9, 2012

"For too long we've been a compliance-driven bureaucracy when it comes to educating students with disabilities. We have to expect the very best from our students—and tell the truth about student performance—so that we can give all students the supports and services they need." – U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, March 12, 2012

We agree, Mr. Secretary. Here in Ohio, we’ve seen special education costs skyrocket over the last decade; increasing over $1 billion dollars, a 50 percent jump. In contrast, non-special-education spending increased only 17 percent during the same period. Today, special education eats nearly 20 percent of Ohio’s entire K-12 education spending pie, up five percentage points from a decade ago.

Are Ohio’s special education students benefiting from all this spending? Not if you look at their student achievement. Consider, the test performance data for fourth- and sixth-grade students with specific learning disabilities (the largest subgroup of special ed students):

Figure 1: Improving test scores for primary school, learning-disabled students (2001-02 to 2010-11)

Source: Ohio Department of Education

Clearly, on the up and up.

But consider now the tenth-grade performance of students with learning disabilities:

Figure 2: Declining test scores for secondary school, learning-disabled students (2001-02 to 2010-11)

Source: Ohio Department of Education

Not so great.

The rise in Ohio’s special education spending seems to have improved primary school SPED performance. Yet the declining high school data pose a sticky distributional question about special education spending: Are we overspending in primary grades,

» Continued

Ohio’s elementary special ed students see improvement while their high school peers languish

Early reports from the heartland show support for the Common Core

Terry Ryan / May 9, 2012

Fordham has commissioned the former editorial page editor of the Dayton Daily News, Ellen Belcher, to interview educators from across Ohio to learn about their hopes and concerns per early efforts to implement the Common Core in their districts and schools.

The report, Future Shock: Early Common Core Lessons from Ohio Implementers, will be released next week, but some of Belcher’s findings are worth reporting early because this is such a burning issue for schools and educators across the state. Here is a quick sample of some of what Belcher discovered in speaking with real educators working in real schools to implement the Common Core in the Buckeye State:

• Educators see the “big picture,” the “global” problems that the Common Core aims to address ( i.e. U.S. students’ lackluster performance among their international competitors and the large number of high-school graduates who are not prepared for college or a career).
• A common language around the Common Core is being widely used. The educators spoke of
• “rigor and relevance,” “formative assessments,” “short cycle assessments,” “formative instructional practices,” “professional learning communities,” “curriculum-based assessments,” “curriculum alignment,” “curriculum maps,” “project-based learning,” “portfolio-based assessments,” “higher level thinking,” “performance-based testing” and “critical thinking skills.”
• Teachers want and appreciate tools they can “see.” What does “rigor and relevance” look like? (Good curriculum models are “very calming…in a sea of turbulence” shared one Cincinnati educator.)
• Everyone understands that data are king. Interviewees believe data are the secret to identifying and

  » Continued

  Curriculum & Instruction

  ---

  Early reports from the heartland show support for the Common Core

Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools: How to Survive and Thrive in Tight Times

Chris Tessone / May 9, 2012

For school administrators and board members lost in the forest of books, reports, and briefs written on “doing more with less,” this outstanding volume provides a compass, map, and sturdy walking stick.

Finance guru (and former superintendent of Arlington [MA] Public Schools) Nathan Levenson offers rational, honest, and tangible ways for cash-strapped district leaders to shed budget heft without compromising student learning. Guided by four principles—embrace “crazy” ideas, analyze details to make informed decisions, spend on what works, and align interests—Levenson explains how to manage even the most sacrosanct of education-budget items (all without the need for legislative changes or union approval).

For example, district leaders should base funding on academic return on investment (A-ROI) determinations—cutting ineffective programs and beefing up those that see results. Take early investment in reading: In an average-sized elementary school (about 400 students), early reading intervention costs about $2,500 per child (and takes about three years to get struggling students up to grade level). Compare this with special-education referral and placement—which costs an additional $5,000 per year (for mild to moderately disabled students) and likely will last throughout the student’s K-12 career.

This need to look beyond singular budget line-items manifests in staffing costs as well. Superintendents must think about fully loaded costs (salary plus benefits) when planning for personnel shifts—and must be willing to think creatively about how to fill certain positions. Levenson provides an anecdote: To save the district long-term dollars, he reclassified a part-time clerical

» Continued

Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools: How to Survive and Thrive in Tight Times

Reclaiming The American Dream: Community Colleges And The Nation’s Future

Hanif Abdurraqib / May 9, 2012

In this report, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) examines the “21st-Century Initiative, the overall goal of which is to arm an additional five million students with diplomas, certificates, or other credentials by 2020.

Reclaiming the American Dream outlines the shortcomings of community colleges in student success rates, job preparation, and aiding high school students in a transition to the college lifestyle. For example, only 46 percent of students who enter community college focused on earning a credential attain that goal, transfer to a four-year institution, or are still enrolled six years later. The rates are even lower among minority and low-income students.

AACC lays out policy ideas for improving the system: require students to participate in on-campus orientation, insist on first-semester advisement for a structured program of study, embed developmental education instruction into credit-bearing courses, and call on four-year institutions to agree upon courses that will transfer without loss of credits. The goal is to have community colleges serve as more than pit stops, and instead to be real options for learning a trade and developing job skills that are relevant in the ever-changing economy.

Fortunately for Buckeye State students, these recommendations are largely already in place – or the state and its schools are actively working toward enacting them. This report was partially funded by Cuyahoga Community College, which will work with the association to develop a strategic plan to help that school improve its students’ outcomes.

» Continued

Reclaiming The American Dream: Community Colleges And The Nation’s Future

How Blogs, Social Media, and Video Games Improve Education

May 9, 2012

The mass implementation of communication technology delivery tools like blogs, wikis, and Twitter has radically changed how information is disseminated and received. Now, for better or worse, anyone interested in a topic can contribute to a conversation, rather than rely solely on “experts” in a given field. The report “How Blogs, Social Media, and Video Games Improve Education,” by The Brookings Institute, discusses the varying uses and influences of new media on education.

Blogs allow anyone interested in a topic to partake in the discussion. Nielson – the marketing research company -- estimates there are over 156 million blogs on the Internet, with 5,000 blogs in the United States dedicated to education topics alone. Topics range from school finance to instructional technology to pedagogical technique. School officials use blogs to disseminate information to parents and the public, addressing specific problems and how they should be handled. Blogs encourage reflection, critical thinking, enhanced writing skills, and collaboration as long as teachers clearly set guidelines and explain rationale for pedagogic activity.

Wikis are websites that allow multiple users to edit the content. They utilize crowd-sourcing collaboration, meaning a group filter allows collective judgment to determine the best wisdom. Teachers have used wikis to teach poetry, and find them especially useful for distance learning or classes where group work requires applied practice experiences. They also allow student input on reading materials throughout the semester or school year.

Social media and mobile devices offer convenience in

» Continued

How Blogs, Social Media, and Video Games Improve Education

Successes and failures

May 9, 2012

• At one time or another, most people like to think of themselves as flawless.  We just hope that the annoying reminder that we all make mistakes isn’t broadcast too far or wide. Unfortunately in the education world, your mistake can occasionally be laid out to the public. The silver lining: we all get to enjoy these textbook fails. 
• At Fordham, we work day in and day out in the hope of creating paths to help children all over the nation reach their full potential. However, in our humble opinion, schools should not venture down this path to make their kids smarter.  After being mugged and brutally beaten, Jason Padgett developed an interesting side effect: Savant Syndrome.  He is a college dropout turned mathematical genius who can now draw visual representations of formulas like Pi.  Talk about turning lemons into lemonade. 
• In our parents’ eyes, we all are the brightest, most special child in the world.  Yet, as toddlers, not many of us had to compete with Heidi Hankins.  The four year old is the most recent member of the MENSA society with an IQ of 159, just one point below Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.  At 14 months, when most children are barely able to make a mark on a page, Heidi was drawing princesses and animals.  A parent’s love may know no boundaries, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t envious of another person’s child. 
• A recent study by

  » Continued

  ---

  Successes and failures

EVENT: There is still time to register for “Digital Learning: The future of schooling?” (May 17)

May 9, 2012

Don’t miss this important, nonpartisan event about digital learning and where it will take education in Ohio -- and the nation -- in the years to come. National and state-based education experts and policymakers will debate and discuss digital learning in the context of the Common Core academic standards initiatives, teacher evaluations and school accountability, governance challenges and opportunities, and school funding and spending.

WHEN: Thursday, May 17; 1-4:30pm; a brief reception will follow
WHERE: Governors Ballroom, Sheraton at Capitol Square, 75 E. State Street, Columbus, Ohio
RSVP: Online at http://www.edexcellence.net/events/digital-learning-the-future-of-schooling.html
 
The event is being presented at no cost by KnowledgeWorks, the Nord Family Foundation, and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

» Continued

EVENT: There is still time to register for “Digital Learning: The future of schooling?” (May 17)

EVENT: Pricing the Common Core

May 9, 2012

Circle May 30 on your calendars because the Fordham Institute is gathering a diverse group of experts to answer a crucial education policy question: How much will smart Common Core implementation cost? Coinciding with the release of a new study on the topic, this panel discussion will weigh what the effort will cost, where we can save, and how to know if the Common Core is worth it. Register today to reserve your seat for “Pricing the Common Core: How Much Will Smart Implementation Cost States and Districts?”

» Continued

EVENT: Pricing the Common Core