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To: LWVO From: Joan Platz Education Update for December 3, 2007 1) 127th General Assembly: The Ohio House will meet in session on December 4, 2007. The Ohio Senate has canceled its "as needed" sessions set for December 4 and 5, 2007. -The Ohio Senate Judiciary-Criminal Justice Committee, chaired by Senator Grendell, will meet on December 5, 2007 at 10:00 AM in the North Hearing Room. The committee will hear testimony on HB181 (Setzer), which requires public and nonpublic schools to mark the records of students identified as missing children and notify law enforcement of requests for those records. -The House Financial Institutions, Real Estate and Securities Committee, chaired by Representative Widener, will meet on December 5, 2007 at 9:00 AM in Hearing Room 116. The Committee will hear testimony on SB 148 (Faber), which revises retirement eligibility requirements for members of the School Employees Retirement System, and HB 270 (Schneider), which states that a member of the STRS who retires and then returns to public employment in the same position can not receive a pension while earning a salary for that employment. -The Senate Health, Human Services and Aging Committee, chaired by Senator Coughlin, will meet on December 5, 2007 at 2:30 PM, South Hearing Room. The Committee will hear testimony on SB232 (Stivers), which revises the law governing child care. 2) Youth Agenda Conference to Meet: The Plain Dealer reports in a December 2, 2007 article by Scott Stephens that the Ohio Youth Agenda Conference will meet on Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at the Columbus YWCA, 65 South Fourth Street from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM to develop a 2008 Agenda. The Ohio Youth Agenda represents over 100 students from thirty school districts in Ohio. These students began meeting last year to discuss issues affecting the future of Ohio and Ohio's youth. From these discussions students developed an agenda to improve education in Ohio, and last spring members of the Ohio Youth Agenda presented testimony on the biennial budget, HB 119-Dolan, and visited lawmakers and First Lady Frances Strickland to urge them to support their 2007 Agenda. That agenda called for the following: -Courses that include high-level academics as well as vocational, art, music and computer classes. Classes should have no more than 25 students. -The teaching of basic financial skills, and internships that connect to careers. -An accountability system that measures progress and doesn't base graduation on one test. -Dropout prevention programs that include peer counseling, tutoring and smaller classes. -School counselors to help with social and mental health issues, not just schedules. -Better access to college, an equal number of college recruiters and military recruiters, and reduced tuition. -Youth centers with peer leaders to provide after-school activities and programs designed to reduce violence and teen pregnancy. -More nurses in schools to give students regular access to medical care. -A school funding system that is not grounded in increased local property taxes. For more information about the Ohio Youth Agenda Conference, please contact Michael Charney, Director, Youth Voices for Economic Justice at 216-548-4059. 3) Preparing Students for Global Democracy: The Fifth Annual Partnership Conference will be held on Friday, February 29, 2008 at the Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University from 8:30 - 2:00 PM. This conference will bring together representatives of K-16 education, professional practice, and history/social science agencies to focus on ways in which "....university-community collaborations may foster a more democratically and globally literate citizenry." The morning keynote speaker will be Dr. James Loewen, professor at the University of Vermont and author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong", and "Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong." The keynote speaker during lunch is John Bul Dau, who is a native of Sudan and currently works to resolve the conflict in Dafur. The conference will also feature 10 workshops on history, religion, conflict resolution, world affairs, cultural studies, etc. For more information please visit www.csuohio.edu/coehs/partnershipconference. 4) Updates on School Funding: *According to a November 21, 2007 article in the San Diego Union Times by Juliet Williams of the Associated Press, the California School Boards Association and several school districts in California have filed a lawsuit (California School Boards Association Educational Legal Alliance et al v. State of California) in the San Diego County Superior Court against the state, alleging that the state has failed to provide funding for mandatory programs costing over $1 billion in the last five state budgets. Some of the state mandated programs that school districts must pay for include pupil health screenings, estimated to cost districts nearly $4 million a year; meeting the state's graduation requirements, estimated to cost $66 million a year; and reporting attendance; estimated to cost districts about $3.8 million a year. The school districts participating in the lawsuit include the San Diego County Office of Education, Riverside Unified School District, San Jose Unified School District, and Clovis Unified School District. For more information please visit http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20071121-1641-ca-schoolmandates-lawsuit.html *According to a November 30, 2007 article in the New York Times ("Corzine Is Set to Revamp School Aid Formula" by Winnie Hu and David W. Chen) New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine is expected to announce a plan to change the way school districts are funded in New Jersey. The plan will provide funding to meet the needs of low-income students, no matter what school district they attend, and may cost up to $400 -500 million a year more. The current system for funding schools in New Jersey was implemented after plaintiffs were successful in challenging the state's school funding system in a lawsuit called Abbott vs. Burke. Changing the current school funding system would require court approval. For more information please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/nyregion/30jersey.html?ex=1354078800&en=8d3a65e80582060e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss 5) Educational Data Systems Rated: A survey conducted by the Data Quality Campaign, an initiative of the Texas-based National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA), shows that most states have data systems that collect student enrollment, demographic data, graduation rates, and dropout rates, but fewer states have the ability to track individual student's test scores from year to year - which is referred to as state-level longitudinal data systems. The Data Quality Campaign conducted a survey of state data systems in September 2007 with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and then analyzed the results based on ten criteria that the Campaign identified for longitudinal data systems. The ten criteria are 1) A unique statewide student identifier that connects student data across key databases across years; 2) Student-level enrollment, demographic and program participation information; 3) The ability to match individual students' test records from year to year to measure academic growth; 4) Information on untested students and the reasons they were not tested; 5) A teacher identifier system with the ability to match teachers to students; 6) Student-level transcript information, including information on courses completed and grades earned; 7) Student-level college readiness test scores; 8) Student-level graduation and dropout data; 9) The ability to match student records between the P-12 and higher education systems; 10) A state data audit system assessing data quality, validity and reliability. Four states (Florida, Utah, Arkansas, and Delaware) have data systems that meet the ten criteria. According to the survey report, Ohio has not met two of the elements, #6 and #9. Similar surveys have been conducted since 2003. The results of the surveys are posted on the web site http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/survey_results/ 6) NCES Report on Reading Literacy: The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released on November 28, 2007 a report called "The Reading Literacy of U.S. Fourth-Grade Students in an International Context, Results From the 2001 and 2006; Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)". This report summarizes the performance of U.S. students on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS); compares the scores of U.S. fourth-graders to the scores of their peers internationally in 2006 in 44 educational jurisdictions and countries; and examines how much student reading literacy rates have changed since the first administration of PIRLS in 2001. According to a summary of the report, the average reading scores of fourth graders in the US is higher than the average reading scores of their peers internationally on the 2006 PIRLS. Overall US students scored higher than 22 other countries and educational jurisdictions; lower than 10; and about the same as 12. In 2001, US fourth grade students scored higher than 23 countries; lower than three, and about the same as eight on the PIRLS. "In addition to framing the reading literacy of U.S. students within an international context, the report shows how the reading literacy of U.S. fourth-graders varies by student background characteristics and contextual factors that may be associated with reading proficiency." To see the report please visit http://nces.ed.gov/ and http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008017. 7) University System of Ohio: The Ohio General Assembly directed Eric Fingerhut, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, to develop a 10-year master plan to chart the course of higher education in Ohio (HB 119 - Biennial Budget). The plan is to be presented to Governor Strickland and the General Assembly by March 31, 2008. Chancellor Fingerhut has released four draft primary goals of the master plan, along with the measurements that have been proposed to gauge the success of the University System of Ohio. The University System of Ohio is Ohio's network of public colleges and universities, including 13 universities with 24 branches; a public medical school; and 23 two-year technical and community colleges, "working in collaborative, cooperative environment across the state." The University System of Ohio's mission is to provide affordable, high quality higher education opportunities for all Ohioans, and programs and curricula to meet Ohioans needs for the 21st Century. The four goals were posted on the web site of the University System of Ohio in November 2007, and were recently modified as a result of public comment. According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch on November 30, 2007 ("Chancellor Refines Goals for Ohio's Colleges" by Encarnacion Pyle) the first draft of goals, Educational Attainment, Quality, Affordability, and Economic Leadership, have been changed to the following: Goal - Access. Achievement of this goal will be measured by post-secondary enrollment; degrees and certificates awarded; enrollment of undergraduates who are age 25 or older; and undergraduate degrees to first-generation college students. Goal - Quality and Accountability. Achievement of this goal will be measured by graduation rate compared with expected rate; students in the top 20 percent of their class or top 20 percent ACT/SAT; percentage of facilities in satisfactory condition or needing only minor rehabilitation; improvement in students' knowledge during their college careers; and degrees awarded per every 100 full-time students Goal - Affordability. Achievement of this goal will be measured by the percentage of students whose net cost is equal to or less than their expected family contribution, as calculated on their federal financial-aid form; total non-tuition revenue; and national rank for weighted tuition and fees. Goal - Quality of Life. Achievement of this goal will be measured by national rank for annual federal and industrially financed research spending per capita; percentage of graduates who stay in Ohio after graduation; international students and Ohio students studying abroad each year; invention disclosures filed, the first step in seeking patent protection; and measuring the business community's satisfaction with graduates, research and new technology developed. To view the draft goals and measures, please visit the University System of Ohio web site at http://universitysystem.ohio.gov/master-plan/index.php 8) MassCore Recommended: An article in the Boston Globe on November 28, 2007 called "Schools are urged to toughen curriculum; State adopts college preparatory guidelines" by Tracy Jan, describes the new MassCore graduation requirements that the Massachusetts State Board of Education recently adopted. According to this article, students in Massachusetts will be encouraged (not required) to take a rigorous, college preparatory program, that includes four years of English and math, with Algebra II; three years of science and history; two years of a foreign language; one year of arts; five electives that could include business, health, technology, vocational courses; and Advanced Placement, college courses, and an internship. Currently students are only required to pass the 10th grade MCAS tests in math and English, and an exam in science and history in 2010. Other graduation requirements are set by local school districts. |
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Ohio Fair Schools Campaign, 94 Columbus Road Athens, Ohio 45701 Tel. (740)592-2866 Fax (740)593-5451 |
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