Current News Click for: News Archives June 2000 - December 2004
"Twenty-three Ohio charter schools, including two in the Akron-Canton area, are just one state report card away from closing for poor academic performance, according to a Beacon Journal analysis of state records. About 4,300 students are enrolled in these schools. The schools are expected to receive almost $36 million in state money this year. House Bill 79 outlines conditions for shutting down charter schools with records of poor academic performance." ....Akron Beacon Journal
The following is the Top 10 list from the EDGE subcommittee.
According to reports, EDGE is part of a larger initiative of the State Board of Education to develop a comprehensive education reform plan.
Source: Ohio Department of Education
The $700 billion financial-assistance package (H.R. 1424-Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008) approved by Congress and signed by the President includes a $3.3 billion reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools (national forest counties) and Community Self-Determination Act, which provides federal aid to make up for diminished timber-tax revenues in school districts that are home to national forests. The rural schools measure would renew the program through 2011.
The bill also includes an extension for two years of the Qualified Zone Academy Bond (QZAB) program, which provides $400 million a year in tax credits to holders of bonds that can be used for school construction and renovation, developing curricula, purchasing equipment, and training school personnel in schools that have 35% or more of their students eligible for the National School Lunch Program. The credits are meant to cover the costs of interest on the bonds.
And the bill includes a two-year extension of a $250 income-tax credit to help teachers purchase books and other supplies for their classrooms. Without the extension, both the QZBA program and teacher tax provisions will expire at the end of 2008.
Sources: American Association of School Administrators and Education Week
Deborah S. Delisle
Deborah
S. Delisle was named Superintendent effective March 1, 2004. Immediately prior
to this, Delisle served as Interim Superintendent beginning August 1, 2003.
Prior to this position, she served as the District’s Associate
Superintendent for Educational Services beginning in fall 2001.
Before
joining the Cleveland Heights-University Heights staff, Delisle was Director
of Academic Services in the West Geauga School District. She also held the
positions of Director of Curriculum & Professional Development and
Elementary Principal in West Geauga. Her prior experience includes Language
Arts Specialist for the Orange School District 1988-1995 and Coordinator of
K-12 Gifted & Enrichment Program, in Shaker Heights from 1985-1988. She
has taught graduate level courses at Kent State University, Ursuline College,
University of Northern Colorado and Simon Fraser University.
She
is an active member of many educational associations and committees, including
the Greater Cleveland Educational Development Center. She served on the
editorial board for Roeper Review, a journal on gifted education research, on
the Advisory Board of Midwest Talent Search at Northwestern University and the
Language Arts Standards Council for the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards. She has given numerous professional presentations as far
away as Hong Kong, China.
Delisle’s
broad range of experience includes producing publications and grant writing.
Her most recent publication Growing Good Kids received a Parent Choice award.
She has written and received over one million dollars in grants from a variety
of sources.
She
has been listed several times in Who’s Who of Professionals and Who’s Who
Among America’s Teachers, was selected as one of America’s Top Twenty
Educators by Learning Magazine, was a Finalist for Ohio Teacher of the Year
and received the Golden Apple Achiever Award from Ashland Oil Co.
Mrs. Delisle received her Bachelors degree from Springfield College in Massachusetts, and a Masters degree in Special Education from Kent State University, where she continues to pursue postgraduate studies in administration and curriculum development. Her husband, Jim, is a professor in the College of Education at Kent State University. Her son, Matt, lives in San Francisco, where he works in the film industry.
Catherine Cross Maple
Dr. Cross Maple serves as the Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Learning and Accountability for the New Mexico Public Education Department. Previously, she was the Assistant Secretary for New Mexico Vocational Rehabilitation. She also has served as a senior administrator for the Albuquerque Public Schools.
She has extensive experience and is considered an expert in strategic leadership and visionary planning; continuous improvement methodologies; educational administration and curriculum; and the disability/special education field. Noted as an accomplished presenter, speaker and facilitative leader, she has a reputation for effectively working among diverse groups about complicated issues.
Dr. Cross Maple received her doctoral degree (Ph.D.) from the University of New Mexico in Educational Administration, Special Education and Research; her Masters in Education from the University of Nevada, Reno; and her Bachelors degree from Montana State University, Billings.
Mark
your calendar for Tuesday, October 28, 2008. The second in the
series of CORAS programs, "Value-added Analysis,"
will be held at the Olde Dutch Restaurant in Logan. The program begins at 9:00
a.m. and will conclude following a buffet lunch at noon.
The
Topic: “Highly-Effective
Teaching Revealed and Replicated Through Classroom-Level Value-Added Analysis”
Description
of the Presentation: What does
preliminary research suggest about the characteristics and practices of teachers
whose students produce exceptional academic gains? How do these teachers use
value-added analysis to guide their professional development and personalize
instruction? Attend this session to learn about T-CAP (Teachers Connecting
Achievement & Progress), a classroom-level value-added initiative. Learn how
this group of Ohio educators is piloting the use of classroom-level value-added
information to accelerate progress and maximize opportunity for their students.
Presenters:
Battelle
for Kids:
Dr. Mike
Thomas, Senior Director of Innovative
Solutions, and Dr. Mary Peters, Director of
Value-Added Services
Registration
materials will be mailed to CORAS members next week.
Registration may also be completed by contacting Lori at: Phone: 740-593-4414,
FAX: 740-593-9698, Email: stumpl@ohio.edu,
or by mail: CORAS, 313E McCracken Hall, Ohio University, Athens,
Ohio 45701. There is a $15.00
registration fee that includes the continental breakfast, buffet lunch and
handouts.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this morning that Cleveland Heights-University Heights schools Superintendent Deborah Delisle and Catherine Cross Maple, deputy secretary of learning and accountability for the New Mexico Public Education Department, are the two finalists for the state superintendent's job. Both were called back for a second interview with the State Board of Education yesterday.
State Board of Education President Jennifer Sheets said she expects the board to make a final decision at its regular meeting October 12. In the interim, a search firm that has been working with the board will make final background checks, Sheets said.
Lawmakers announced the move yesterday and, according to the Beacon Journal, the President is expected to sign the bill. The House approved the measure earlier this year. The ARC's goal is to fight poverty in the Appalachian region. The additional three counties would qualify 32 of Ohio's 88 counties for money from the commission to pay for job training and economy development.
According to the Dispatch, the five candidates are:
The candidates will interview with a subcommittee of the 19-member board headed by President Jennifer Sheets. The panel includes Governor Strickland's chief of staff, John Haseley. The interviews will be conducted in an executive session that is not open to the public, according to the Dispatch article.
According to the Gongwer News Service, economic advisors are telling Governor Strickland to expect more of the same next year. Gongwer said private sector economist told the Governor yesterday that the state's financial outlook wasn't very promising. If the economists are right, and from all indications in Columbus and Washington they are, flat funding or funding cuts for schools are probable for the FY 2010-2011 biennium.
The New York Times reported yesterday that a Harvard economist, Roland G. Fryer Jr., has often complained that there has been little money spent on efforts to scientifically test educational theories. He will now lead a $44 million effort, called the Educational Innovation Laboratory, "to bring the rigor of research and development to education." The initiative will team economists, marketers and others interested in turning around struggling schools with educators in New York, Washington and Chicago.
"The research is intended to infuse education with the data-driven approach that is common in science and business," Fryer said. He compared the current methods of educational research to the prescriptions of an ineffective doctor. “If the doctor said to you, ‘You have a cold; here are three pills my buddy in Charlotte uses and he says they work,’ you would run out and find another doctor,” Fryer said. “Somehow, in education, that approach is O.K.”
The new institute, backed by the Broad Foundation and other private groups, would be able to identify what works so that educators across the country could prioritize their spending, according to Fryer.
Read the New York Times article. Click: New Effort Aims to Test Theories of Education
At last evenings school board meeting, the Hamilton City School District Board of Education President ask State Senator Gary Cates what he thought of the next biennium budget, which covers fiscal years 2010 and 2011. His response:
Senator Cates said Governor Strickland doesn't present that budget until February 2009 and, in reference to legislative seats up for election in November he said, "Whoever is elected this fall will have to deal with that budget." Cates added, "If things don't pick up revenue wise, a lot of agencies, including school districts, could receive flat funding and some may see actual cuts from the previous year."
"That's going to be a challenge for the governor," Cates said. "It's days like this that I think he feels like he's the only one on the bridge of the ship and he hopes he doesn't see any icebergs."
Source: Hamilton News Journal
A Brookings Institution researcher looked at the skills of eighth-graders taking advanced math and found that nearly 29% were taking advanced math, despite having very low skills. How low? "On par with a typical second-grader. They lack a solid foundation in multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, rounding or place value. Yet they were tackling fairly sophisticated math. It's hard to teach a real algebra class if you have kids who don't know arithmetic," the researcher said.
Nearly seven years after the No Child Left Behind Act became law, two-thirds of state education departments report that they don’t have adequate capacity to help low-performing schools, says a study released Wednesday by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). "The AIR study reinforces what earlier research and anecdotal evidence from chief state school officers have found: State departments are struggling to meet the technical requirements of the law (NCLB) and provide help to struggling schools in the face of shrinking budgets and staff limitations," an Education Week article said
The AIR news release said, "The study, conducted with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that states, which were already struggling with shrinking budgets, were constrained to design their NCLB support systems around what they thought they could accomplish. This leaves open the question of whether the supports provided were those needed by schools."
Read the AIR research brief. Click: State Capacity for School Improvement
Nearly seven years after the No Child Left Behind Act became law, two-thirds of state education departments report that they don’t have adequate capacity to help low-performing schools, says a study released Wednesday by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). "The AIR study reinforces what earlier research and anecdotal evidence from chief state school officers have found: State departments are struggling to meet the technical requirements of the law (NCLB) and provide help to struggling schools in the face of shrinking budgets and staff limitations," an Education Week article said
The AIR news release said, "The study, conducted with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that states, which were already struggling with shrinking budgets, were constrained to design their NCLB support systems around what they thought they could accomplish. This leaves open the question of whether the supports provided were those needed by schools."
Read the AIR research brief. Click: State Capacity for School Improvement
• Job and Family Services: $79.9 million
• Department of Education: $25.9 million
• Board of Regents (universities): $22.2 million
• Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities: $16.9 million
• Mental Health: $10.4 million
Agencies are being given until September 22 to identify their cuts and until October 1 to implement them.
Read the press release, Governor Orders $540 Million in Adjustments to Preserve Ohio's Balanced Budget. Click: 9.10.08:
Sources: Governor's office and Columbus Dispatch
"While the State Board of Education complied with the governor's request to propose a budget with considerably lower funding, members also unanimously expressed support Tuesday for a spending plan that envisions moderate increases." ...Gongwer News Service
"Sen. Barack Obama proposed yesterday doubling federal money to start charter schools, including those managed by for-profit companies, which Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and teachers unions oppose. But by pledging to shut down failing charter schools, Obama has Strickland and those unions on board with his plan. ' ...Columbus Dispatch
"Amid stepped-up school accountability pressures under the No Child Left Behind Act, many teachers appear to be adjusting how they do their jobs. But principals and district leaders are not necessarily in control of those instructional changes, a new study concludes." ...Education Week Read the EW article. Click: Leadership Gap Seen in Post-NCLB Changes in U.S. Teachers
"Creating a 21st century education system that prepares students, workers and citizens to triumph in the global skills race is the central economic competitiveness issue currently facing the United States, a new report says." ....Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
Read the report. Click: See 21st Century Skills, Education & Competitiveness Report
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| Public school districts | |||||
| Designation | # districts | % districts | # students | % students | |
| Excellent with distinction | 74 | 12.1 | 290,263 | 17.4 | |
| Excellent | 152 | 24.9 | 573,982 | 34.3 | |
| Effective | 292 | 47.9 | 360,950 | 21.6 | |
| Continuous improvement | 83 | 13.6 | 346,658 | 20.7 | |
| Academic watch | 9 | 1.5 | 100,976 | 6.0 | |
| Academic emergency | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | |
| Not rated | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | |
| Total districts/students | 610 | 1,672,829 | |||
| Grouped together | |||||
| Excellent (both) and Effective | 518 | 84.9 | 1,225,195 | 73.2 | |
| Continuous Improvement | 83 | 13.6 | 346,658 | 20.7 | |
| Academic Watch and Emergency | 9 | 1.5 | 100,976 | 6.0 | |
| NOTE: Public school data excludes College Corner, Kelley's Island, North Bass Island, and Middle Bass Island Local School Districts | |||||
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| Non profit charter schools run by entities other than public school districts | |||||
| Designation | # schools | % schools | # students | % students | |
| Excellent with distinction | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | |
| Excellent | 6 | 3.7 | 1323 | 4.1 | |
| Effective | 15 | 9.2 | 3701 | 11.5 | |
| Continuous improvement | 34 | 20.9 | 6461 | 20.1 | |
| Academic watch | 29 | 17.8 | 7350 | 22.8 | |
| Academic emergency | 63 | 38.7 | 12601 | 39.1 | |
| Not rated | 16 | 9.8 | 752 | 2.3 | |
| Total schools/students | 163 | ||||