To:          LWVO
From:    Joan Platz
Education Update for September 25, 2006
 

1)  126th General Assembly:  
The Ohio House and Senate are not scheduled to meet until after the November 7, 2006 election, but lawmakers continue to work on legislation that is expected to be considered during the lame duck session, including SB 311 (Gardner) and HB 565 (Setzer) - The Ohio Core; and HB 431 (Peterson) - Special Education Vouchers; and HB 79 (Raga) - Professional Conduct.

2)  Meetings this Week: 
The Ohio Educator Standards Board (ESB) and its committees will meet on September 25, 2006 at 6:00 PM and on September 26, 2006 at 9:00 AM at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 2700 Corporate Drive, Columbus.  The Educator Standards Board (125-SB 2), advises the State Board of Education on matters regarding teacher licensure and education, and standards for teachers and principals at all stages of their careers.  The State Board of Education adopted Educator Standards in October 2005, and now the ESB is working to identify content specific standards in the content areas.  The Office of Educator Standards, Lee Miller director, provides information about the work of the ESB through a monthly online update at http://esb.ode.state.oh.us/

3)  Washington Update:

*Last week the U.S. House and Senate approved a conference report for the FY07 Defense Appropriations Bill (HR 5631).  This is just one of 13 appropriations bills that the U.S. Congress needs to approve before the end of FY06 on September 30, 2006.  FY 07 funding levels for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education are included in two bills, HR 5647 and S 3708, which have not been considered by the full House or Senate.  The remaining twelve appropriations bills are not expected to be adopted any time soon, since Congress is expected to recess in early October and not return to Washington, D.C. until after the November elections. Congress is expected to adopt a continuing resolution to keep dollars flowing to programs and agencies until appropriations legislation is considered later this year.

*President Bush signed into law on August 12, 2006 the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act (S. 250).  According to the press release, "The newly-signed Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act strengthens the Perkins program by helping states better utilize federal funds for secondary and postsecondary vocational education programs, increasing accountability and emphasizing student achievement, and strengthening opportunities for coordination between secondary and postsecondary career and technical education."  For more information on efforts to enhance career and technical education, visit the Education & the Workforce Committee website at http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/109th/education/voced/voced.htm.

*A hearing was held on September 21, 2006 by the U.S. House Education & the Workforce Committee, Howard P. "Buck" McKeon chair, on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).  The hearing focused on how to provide parents with information about the services that are available through NCLB to help their children achieve.  Dr. Stephen Barr, Associate Superintendent of the Center for School Improvement at the Ohio Department of Education, testified before this committee about the services provided by the Ohio Department of Education and supplemental educational services.  For information about the hearing, please visit http://edworkforce.house.gov/press/press109/second/09sep/nclb092106.htm

4) Partnership Meets: 
The Ohio Partnership for Continued Learning, Governor Taft chair, met on Wednesday, September 20, 2006.  Susan Bodary, Executive Assistant for Education and Workforce, chaired the meeting until Governor Taft arrived, and introduced Julie Schaid, who Governor Taft recently appointed as the Partnership's Executive Director.  The Partnership has engaged in several projects over the past year, and the agenda included the following updates:

*Early Childhood Education:  Sue Westendorf, President of the State Board of Education, reviewed the ten recommendations for creating a comprehensive early childhood education system in Ohio, which were developed by the Ohio School Readiness Solutions Group, chaired by Carl Kohrt.  These recommendations were presented to the State Board of Education in July 2006, and funding to support the strategies may be incorporated into the State Board of Education's FY08-09 budget proposal at the State Board of Education's October 2006 meeting.  The following are four strategies included in the report, which is available at www.schoolreadiness.ohio.gov .:

-Improve the quality of all early education and care settings, and ensure that they have a sufficient number of highly qualified early learning professionals.

-Create an effective governance structure, and improve access to high-quality learning services by improving the coordination of services among child-serving and family-serving systems.

-Support parents and families in their efforts to promote their children's early development and readiness for schools, and engage them in the governance of Ohio's early learning systems.

-Create a reliable financing system for early learning services, and strengthen accountability for public and private investments in early care and education.

*Ohio Workforce Education and Training:  Representative Shawn Webster provided an update on the work of the Ohio Workforce Education and Training Advisory Council (WETAC).  This group is charged to provide recommendations for an aligned system for workforce education.  This system should build upon Ohio's existing infrastructure, coordinate with Ohio's workforce and economic development infrastructure; provide for uniform and consistent information systems to track student programmatic outcomes; recognize regional differences; and be responsive to business needs.  WETAC is required to submit to Governor Taft a report by November 1, 2006 with their recommendations.  According to Representative Webster, "What education is... is workforce training." There needs to be better articulation and collaboration with the educational systems and the employers to meet the employers' needs.  An educated workforce is more important than tax incentives when it comes to attracting jobs to Ohio.

*College Readiness Expectations:  Jane Fullerton, Ohio Board of Regents, Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational Linkages and Access, reviewed the development of Ohio's College Readiness Expectations, which are student competencies and outcomes in math and language arts that will ensure student success in the first-year of college-level courses.  These expectations have been agreed to by colleges and universities in the state, and were recently analyzed by Achieve in a detailed report that compared these expectations to the American Diploma Project benchmarks, Ohio's Academic Content Standards, and the ACT standards for transition.  The results of this analysis are currently being reviewed, and a full report on the results will be available in the future.  A preliminary analysis of the report suggests that the College Readiness Expectations provide a solid foundation for Ohio to move forward to create a smooth high school to college transition.  However, in some places the expectations need more clarification, and expectations supporting logic/critical thinking need to be emphasized more.  More examples also need to be included in the expectations.  For example, a college level research paper should be included in the expectations to illustrate exactly what students should be able to produce when they enter college.  In the area of math the debate is whether or not to focus on broad concepts or processes, and how to help students transition to college level calculus.  It was also suggested that the College Readiness Expectations be developed for other content areas.

*Education Matters Poll Preview:  Nancy Taylor, Senior Policy Officer from the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, reviewed selected results from Ohio's Education Matters:  2006 Poll conducted by the Triad Research Group and commissioned by the KnowlegeWorks Foundation.  Overall the poll found that Ohioans believe that it is important to improve student performance and preparedness; support the proposed Ohio Core as recommended coursework; believe that students need more education to succeed; and favor innovated approaches such as creating schools that focus on math, science, engineering, or technology, or teaching students critical thinking and problem solving skills.

While 41 percent of participants in the poll gave Ohio's schools a "C", 53 percent gave their own local school an A or B.  63.7 percent of participants gave four year colleges and universities in Ohio an A or B grade.  36.7 percent of participants could not rate charter school performance because they were "unsure", while 27.6 percent gave charter a grade of A or B.  Also, 72.1 percent of participants responded that they would prefer additional efforts to improve student achievement in their current school rather than transfer to a higher performing school.

When asked a question regarding student preparation for college, 36.5 percent of participants believed that high school graduates were more likely to have the skills needed for college and jobs as compared to ten years ago, while 46.2 percent thought students were less likely to be prepared.

Education was also identified as a top priority for more spending by 79.9 percent of participants, who preferred spending on education over health care for the poor and elderly; jobs and economic development; roads and bridges; and courts and prisons.

Poll participants also supported the components of the Ohio Core recommendations for high school graduation proposed by Governor Taft. Participants strongly favored requiring students to graduate with four years of English (80 percent); four years of math (69 percent); three years of science (59.9 percent); three years of social studies

(54 percent); and two years of a foreign language (46.7 percent).  71 percent of participants also supported more funding for public schools to make the Ohio Core mandatory.

However, the results were mixed when participants were asked about requiring all students to take a college preparatory curriculum. 19.4 percent strongly favored college prep curriculum; 21 percent somewhat favored it; 23.3 percent strongly opposed the college prep curriculum for all students; and 33.2 percent somewhat opposed it. When asked if Ohio should set a goal that all high school students be prepared to go to college, 54.6 percent of participants responded "yes", and 42.7 percent of participants responded "no".  This is the third year that poll participants have been asked this question, and there has been a decrease in the number of participants who respond "yes".  In 2004 77.5 percent of participants reported that all students should be prepared to go to college, and in 2005 62.4 percent responded "yes".

The poll results will be posted on the web site of KnowledgeWorks on September 26, 2006.

*The Ohio Core:  Susan Bodary led the discussion about the proposed Ohio Core legislation, SB 311 (Gardner) and HB 565 (Setzer).  There have been discussions with a variety of stakeholders over the past few weeks about the components of the Core, the Carnegie Unit, the opt-out provision in the legislation, and the College Ready Assessment provision in the legislation.  The issues identified in these discussions were shared and discussed with the members of the Partnership.  When the General Assembly returns to Columbus after the November election, it is likely that hearings on these bills will be resumed, and a substitute bill introduced in response to these stakeholder issues.  The following are some of the proposed changes that may be included in the substitute bill:

-Remove from the Ohio Core the two year foreign language graduation requirement, and include foreign languages as an elective along with the arts, business technology, and career/tech education.  Current law requires students to complete six elective credits to complete their twenty credits for graduation, including one credit or two half credits in foreign languages, the arts, or business/technology.  This new recommendation would require students to earn three elective credits among four options by adding career technology to the current choices of the arts, foreign languages, and business/technology.

Partnership member Senator Joy Padgett asked if a separate credit in the fine arts had been considered, and if this proposal was agreed to by the sponsor of Ohio Core legislation (SB 311), Senator Gardner. Susan Bodary responded that this is a proposal and that they were gathering feedback.  Senator Padgett responded that this recommendation will bring expectations down, and it is a mistake to dilute the curriculum.  Parents must understand that we are in competition with the rest of the world, and our students must be better prepared.

-Ask the Foreign Language Advisory Council to study the feasibility of implementing foreign languages in Ohio's schools K-12; research best practices for distance learning and learning foreign languages after school; and consider other related questions raised about foreign languages.

-Remove the opt out provision in the bills, so that students are required to take the Ohio Core in order to graduate and be accepted in most four year universities in Ohio.

-Review the Carnegie Unit.  Susan Bodary led the discussion about the Carnegie Unit.  Originally the Carnegie Unit, which is defined in law as 120 hours of instruction and 150 hours of instruction for a lab course, was a way to determine how much time teachers should spend teaching a particular course in high school.  Now students are required to earn at least twenty Carnegie Units in order to graduate. (Students in charter schools are not required to earn Carnegie Units in order to graduate.  They are required to meet the requirements set forth by their charter school in their school's contract with its sponsor.)  Over the years there have been discussions about doing away with the Carnegie Unit and moving to a system in which students can demonstrate competency in a subject in a variety of ways, and earn credit for graduation without spending "seat time" in a course.

Dr. Zelman, Superintendent of Public Instruction and member of the Partnership, agreed that the Carnegie Unit should be reviewed, but cautioned that it also ensures that students are provided with a comprehensive curriculum.  If it is removed, then where a student lives might determine the rigor of the curriculum that is available.

-Discuss at a later date the information about the College and Work Ready Assessment, which is required in the bills.  Achieve is reviewing the Ohio Graduation Test and the ACT and other possible assessments to use as a College and Work Ready Assessment, but the results will not be available until next year.

*Earning College Credit in High School:  Julie Schaid reviewed the progress of a subcommittee working on the following:  Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO), Tech Prep, Advanced Placement, Early College, and other dual high school and college programs.   Eleven draft recommendations have been developed and were shared with the Partnership.  She reported that an October 31, 2006 deadline for recommendations would not be met, but work is progressing on these topics.

*Regional P-16 Councils:    Dr. Joseph Rochford, Vice President of the Stark County P-16 Compact, presented an overview of the Stark County P-16 Compact.  P-16 councils have been recently formed in Ashtabula, Clark, Highland, and Summit counties, and in the Greater Cincinnati Region with the support of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation. The purpose of the councils or compacts is to increase educational attainment of citizens; encourage collaborations across institutions; and support economic development of the counties.

The next Partnership for Continued Learning meeting is scheduled for November 15, 2006 from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.  For information about the Partnership please visit http://www.pcl.ohio.gov/jcore/pcl/HomeContent.jsp.

5)  Public Opinion About Education: 
The Century Foundation, Center for American Progress released on September 15, 2006 a report by Ruy Texeria entitled "What the Public Really Wants on Education", a comprehensive review of public opinion polls on school reform. Included in this report is information obtained through the following sources:

*2006 Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) Gallop Poll

*2005 PDK/Gallop Poll

*2002 PDK/Gallop Poll

*1998 PDK/Gallop Poll

*2001 Educational Testing Service (ETS) Poll

*2004 Hart-Teeter Educational Testing Service (ETS) Poll

*2006 Hart-Winston ETS Poll

*1999 Penn, Schoen, and Berland/Democratic Leadership Council (PSB/DLC) Poll

*1999 National Public Radio/Kaiser Family Foundation Poll

*2000 Business Roundtable Poll

*2004 CBS News/New York Times Poll

*2004 University of Chicago General Social Survey

*2002 Ipsos-Reid Poll

*2003 Lake Sosin Perry/Public Education Network (PEN) Poll

*2003 Lake Sosis Perry/Tarrance Group/Afterschool Alliance Poll

*2003 Mellman Group Poll

*1999 Luntz Research Poll

*1998 Greenberg Research/Tarrance Group/AFT/NEA Poll

*2001 Hart Research/National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) Poll

*1998 Peter Harris/Recruiting New Teachers Poll

*2002 Committee for Education Funding Survey

*2004 Greenberg Quinlan Rosner/Tarrance Group/ National Education Association (GQR/TG) Poll

*2002 ABC News Poll

*2002 Associated Press Poll

*2004 Pew Kaiser Poll

According to this report, "...a comprehensive survey of public opinion polls shows that the public's ideas for reform do not fit neatly into any of the camps in this debate."

There is support for higher standards, testing, and improved student performance, but there is also strong support for the public school system. The public also supports more flexibility in accountability systems, and believes that more money has to be spent on public schools to reduce class size, attract better teachers, modernize school facilities, provide more preschool and after school programs, and help schools meet No Child Left Behind requirements.

Regarding vouchers, "The data also indicate that the public is far more interested in implementing more accountability in public schools and in providing more resources to the public school system than in moving to a voucher-based system. Indeed, vouchers tend to lose badly today as political propositions precisely because they are perceived to be in conflict with the public's commitment to adequate resources for public schools."

This report is available at http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=2071009

6)  PTA Announces Arts Initiative: 
The National PTA is sponsoring a week-long campaign focusing on arts education called "Start the Arts Advocacy Week" during the week of October 9-13, 2006.  The National PTA urges educators, parents, students, business and community members to advocate for quality arts education programs in their districts and schools during this week long celebration.  For information about ideas to support arts education for each day of the week please visit http://www.pta.org/archive_article_details_1157556072984.html