Wednesday October 17, 2007 Volume 5, Issue 21

Our thoughts are with the students, parents, educators and others affected by last weeks’ tragic
shooting at SuccessTech High School in Cleveland. Students and teachers from Success Tech
have participated in our programs in past years, and are strong advocates for public education
and for small schools. Please hold them in your hearts and thoughts as they struggle to understand
what happened and work to ensure that students are safe.

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1. OHIO FAIR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN UPDATE

2. UPCOMING EVENTS

3. SCHOOLS OF PROMISE RECOGNIZED

4. OHIO’S URBAN SCHOOLS ARE SHOWING IMPROVEMENT

5. UNAUDITABLE CHARTER SCHOOLS WILL LOSE STATE FUNDING

6. NCLB CONGRESSIONAL CALL IN DAYS

7. NEW BLOG ON EDUCATION FUNDING

8. LOTTERY PROFITS AND EDUCATION FUNDING

9.   CEP REPORT: COMPARING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOLS

10. GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

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1. OHIO FAIR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN UPDATE
Mark your calendar; our next meeting is on November 10 from 11-2 in Columbus, at the First
Congregational Church, 444 E. Broad Street in Columbus.  

We have an exciting new opportunity for the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign. We are now
participating in the fundraising program through Kroger, using gift cards. It’s simple. If you
shop at Kroger, you can get one of these gift cards, use it to purchase your groceries,
and the Campaign will receive 5% of what you spend. Cards cost $5, and come with $5
already loaded to spend at Kroger. You can add money to the card, and use that to purchase
your groceries. It doesn’t cost you anything, and it can help support the work for high-quality
public education opportunities for Ohio’s children. To find out more, please call the office
(740) 592-2866 or e-mail Debbie: Debbie@ohiofairschools.org

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2. UPCOMING EVENTS
10/30- Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools (CORAS) meeting from 9-1pm at the
Olde Dutch Restaurant in Logan. The program will focus on school funding, education
reform and education policy in Ohio. Dr. John Stanford, Executive Assistant to Governor
Strickland for Education Policy, will lead the discussion. In addition, Dr. George Wood,
Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy and Chair of the Governor's ODE
transition team, and CORAS President and Muskingum Valley ESC Superintendent
Dr. Richard Murray will participate on the program. To register for meetings contact
Lori at (740) 593-4414 or (740) 593-4445 or send email to: stumpl@ohiou.edu .
 
11/15 & 11/16- The eighth annual Ohio School Improvement Institute will be held in Columbus,
Ohio. This year the institute will focus on middle and high school transformation. Scheduled
speakers include First Lady Frances Strickland; Susan Tave Zelman, Superintendent of Public
Instruction; Eric Fingerhut, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents; and representatives of the
KnowledgeWorks and Hope Foundations. The institute will feature more than 60 breakout
sessions and 30 roundtable discussions, including one with the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign. 
The registration deadline is November 2, 2007. For more information please visit the Ohio
Department of Education's website at http://www.ode.state.oh.us and search Ohio School
Improvement Institute.

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3. SCHOOLS OF PROMISE RECOGNIZED
194 schools have been recognized this year as Schools of Promise by The Ohio Department
of Education. These are schools that met or exceeded state standards in reading, mathematics,
or both, for all groups of students, and also had a poverty rate of more than 40 percent. There
was an increase in the number of schools that qualified this year for this recognition, from 117 in
2006 to 194 in 2007. The number of districts represented also increased from 71 districts to 116.

To read more visit: http://webapp1.ode.state.oh.us/cncs/view.asp?id=834521777419788756

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4. OHIO’S URBAN SCHOOLS ARE SHOWING IMPROVEMENT
Last week the Ohio 8 Coalition announced that Ohio’s eight big-city school districts have made
dramatic gains. The Coalition analyzed data from the Ohio Department of Education, which
reveals that in six years, the average gap between the graduation rate of urban districts and
others in the state has been cut in half. A press release and a series of charts that show the
gains by school district were circulated by the coalition and are now posted on our website.
To view these documents, visit:
http://www.ohiofairschools.org/ohio8_graphs.doc
http://www.ohiofairschools.org/ohio8_release.doc

The Ohio 8 coalition is an alliance of the superintendents and teacher union presidents from
Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.

To read a related article, visit:
10/15 Toledo Blade
Graduation rates up for urban minorities at Ohio high schools
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/NEWS04/710150397/-1/NEWS

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5. UNAUDITABLE CHARTER SCHOOLS WILL LOSE STATE FUNDING
Under state law, any charter school on the unauditable list at the conclusion of the 2007-08
school year will lose state funding. Currently there are 22 charter schools on the auditor's list
of schools that had financial records so inadequate that it wasn't possible for the state agency
to complete an audit. State Auditor Mary Taylor told the Youngstown Vindicator “Included in
the budget bill is a provision that state funding would cease immediately" if a charter school,
after a state audit, remains on the auditor's list at the end of this school year, (June 30, 2008).

To read a related article, visit:
10/3 Youngstown Vindicator
Four Valley charter schools at risk for losing state funding
http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/295646412222986.php
 
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6. NCLB CONGRESSIONAL CALL IN DAYS
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is urging people to call members of Congress
this week to share their experiences of how the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Law is not
working. AFT is asking people to call representatives and urge them to 1) fix adequate
yearly progress (AYP) so that it truly reflects how schools are performing, 2) oppose
measures that will lead to more teaching to the test and 3) oppose "pay to the test"
provisions that mandate the use of test scores to evaluate teachers for determining
salary or incentives.

Please call 866/327-8670 during the week of October 15-19 to be connected to your
members of Congress. When you call, an operator will ask you to identify your
representative and senators. To find the names of your members of Congress, visit
http://www.aft.org/yourcongress

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7. NEW BLOG ON EDUCATION FUNDING
The National Access Network has launched EdFunding Matters, a new daily blog. The goal
of the blog is to promote a dialogue on how we can secure a meaningful educational opportunity
for all children through research, policy and litigation. The blog will spotlight trends in the
education adequacy movement. It will cover the latest info on academic research, education
bills, court decisions, and other matters affecting education finance. 

To read EdFunding Matters, visit: http://www.schoolfunding.info/blog

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8. LOTTERY PROFITS AND EDUCATION FUNDING
The New York Times recently did an examination of lottery documents, as well as interviews
with lottery administrators and analysts. The examination found that lotteries accounted for
less than 1 percent to 5 percent of the total revenue for K-12 education last year in the
states that use this money for schools. In some states, including Ohio, lottery dollars
have merely replaced money for education.

There are 42 states that have lotteries, and 23 of those earmark all or some of the money
for education. State lotteries raised more than $56 billion and returned $17 billion to the
state governments last year, the Times said. Most of the money raised by lotteries is
used simply to sustain the games themselves, including marketing, prizes and vendor
commissions. Last year $460 million was spent on advertising, making them one of the
nation’s largest marketers...and the 197,000 retailers that sell lottery products earned
$3.3 billion in commissions in 2006, according to the newspaper. 

To read the article, visit:
10/7 New York Times
For Schools, Lottery Payouts Fall Short of Promises
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/business/07lotto.html?hp

Interactive map of Lottery profits by state
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/05/business/20071007_LOTTO_GRAPHIC.html

Summary courtesy of CORAS, http://www.coras.org

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9. CEP REPORT: COMPARING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOLS
A new report from the Center on Education Policy finds that, once family background
characteristics are taken into account, low-income students attending public urban high
schools generally performed as well academically as students attending private high schools.
The study also found that students attending traditional public high schools were as likely
to attend college as those attending private high schools. In addition, the report also finds
that young adults who had attended any type of private high school were no more likely to
enjoy job satisfaction or to be engaged in civic activities at age 26 than those who had
attended traditional public high schools.

To read report, visit:
http://www.cep-dc.org/
click Public School Facts on left side of page.

Summary courtesy of the Center on Education Policy

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10. GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
The Teaching Tolerance Grants Program, administered by the Southern Poverty Law Center,
offers grants to preK-12 classroom teachers for projects designed to reduce prejudice among
youth, improve intergroup relations in schools, and/or support educator professional development
in these areas. Proposals from community organizations and houses of worship will be considered
on the basis of direct student impact. Projects funded by Teaching Tolerance tend to be focused
on character/moral education, conflict resolution, multiculturalism, community service, or other
aspects of tolerance education. Requests may be submitted at any time from educators
throughout the United States. For info, visit: http://www.tolerance.org/teach/grants/guide.jsp

Toyota TAPESTRY Grants, funded by Toyota Motor Sales and administered by the National
Science Teachers Association, recognizes outstanding educators who are making a difference
by demonstrating excellence and creativity in science teaching. The program offers grants to
K-12 science teachers for innovative projects that enhance science education in schools across
the United States. The grant categories are Physical Science, Environmental Education, and
Integrating Literacy and Science. Fifty large grants of up to $10,000 each and 20-32 mini-grants
of up to $2,500 will be awarded. Applications must be submitted by January 28, 2008.
For info, visit: http://www.nsta.org/pd/tapestry/