THE
OHIO EDUCATION GADFLY
A Bi-Weekly Bulletin of News and Analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Volume 2, Number 11. May 21, 2008
Current
Issue On the Web
Past
Issues On the Web
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AG's office may be too busy to carry the OEA's water
We take no joy in the Marc Dann scandal, but the Attorney General's resignation does raise the possibility of a more level-headed approach to the charter-school debate in Ohio. In 2007, Dann launched lawsuits aiming to close four charter schools (see here). He cited the state's charitable trust laws and alleged that the schools had violated their "charitable" missions as 501(c)3 organizations because they were underperforming academically and, as such, were misusing state funds. This last claim is painfully ironic in light of this week's Columbus Dispatch headline that noted "Scandal may rain lawsuits on state." The Dispatch wrote that the Dann scandals open the state up to sexual harassment lawsuits that could cost Ohio over $1 million.
The charter lawsuits, as it turned out, were the idea of the Ohio Education Association (OEA), which crafted the legal theory on which the suits are based. It's possible Dann's interim replacement and his eventual successor will have a different philosophy toward these lawsuits and seek to have them tossed out.
As Gadfly readers likely
recall, the OEA's novel theory of trust law would effectively turn the state
attorney general into a charter-school prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.
Under the theory, the AG would determine whether a school is successful or not,
thereby usurping the regulatory authority of the General Assembly, the Ohio
Department of Education, and individual charter school sponsors. If the attorney
general gets this authority, observers wonder what would prevent an AG from
determining that nonprofit colleges and universities aren't up to snuff and
should be closed? Or any other nonprofit unloved by political supporters of
the attorney general, whoever that might be? And why not then in other states,
too?
It's far too early to tell how Dann's resignation will affect these cases. But
one can hope that the days of a crusading attorney general carrying the water
of special interests is past. Ohio's troubled charter schools need to be held
accountable (as do traditional district schools), and the truly troubled should
indeed close. Current state law is starting to get at this. Any more work on
this front should be done through General Assembly debate. Let's hope that the
charter-school debate, sans AG Dann, can be conducted with more bipartisanship
and less power politics, and actually in the interest of what works for children.
By Terry Ryan
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Mitch Chester departs for Massachusetts leaving the plate half full
Mitch Chester, former senior associate superintendent for policy and accountability at the Ohio Department of Education, began a new job Monday as commissioner of elementary and secondary education in Massachusetts. Before leaving the state, Chester talked with Ohio Education Gadfly Editor Mike Lafferty about his thoughts on the state of public K-12 education in Ohio. The entire interview is online here, and following is a summary of the conversation.
Q. You were brought to Ohio
to improve the state's accountability system. Are you happy with the progress?
A. Absolutely....Back in the mid '90s, when we first started looking at reading,
less than half of our fourth graders could reach the proficient standard....And
at this point, some 10 years later, more than three-quarters of Ohio's third
and fourth graders are reading at proficient levels. So there's been just tremendous
progress made, both in terms of developing an aligned system and in terms of
the improvement in learning and achievement for students.
Q. What haven't you accomplished?
A. The standards movement talks about being clear about what we want students
to learn..., measuring progress toward and against those expectations and...accountability,
being transparent with the results. I think the piece that's just a work in
progress is how we build systems of support for teachers and administrators
that help them to improve the quality of the curriculum and quality of the instructional
program.
Q. How do you resolve the
achievement gap between urban and suburban kids, poor kids and more well-off
kids?
A. We have made some very strong growth for all groups of students....For example,
(on the NAEP eighth-grade writing assessment)...the one group of students that
made some of the strongest gains of any group in Ohio was African-American students....The
bad news...is that the gaps are much too large and they persist. And so we're
not closing them fast enough.... The other manifestation of this is when we've
calculated the on-time graduation rate. We're about to turnkey from a previous
way in which we calculated graduation rates, which really masks, to a large
degree, students' progress through the system. We're about to turnkey to a much
more straight-forward calculation. It looks at the students who were first-time
ninth graders four years earlier and calculates the percentage that have a diploma
in hand after four years. And then we'll follow those cohorts forward through
until at least the sixth year, so we'll look at five-year graduation rates and
six-year graduation rates as well as four-year rates. And I'm afraid that for
many schools and districts this is going to be a very sobering statistic, because
it will be a much lower percentage than has been reported through the rate that
has been used in the past. But it is a much more direct indication of student
success in moving through the system and progressing to graduation than the
statistic that's been used up until now.
Q. What really does the
state have to do?
A. (We must get) savvier about curriculum and instruction...so that...students
find themselves in an engaging, demanding, but supportive academic environment.
There's some interesting research that I've been tracking and that we're piloting
in Ohio (that) shows students are very perceptive about whether or not they're
being engaged academically, whether there are high expectations being made of
them academically but, at the same time, whether the adults in the building
are supporting their success against those expectations....I think it's critical
that we...make sure that we're providing that kind of engaging intellectual
environment and the support for students that we know in which students can
thrive....I could not put a specific time frame on how long it would take. But
I think there's a lot of opportunity within the current resource allocation
to do a better job of connecting nonacademic and academic resources.
Q. In a Gadfly interview in February (see here)
First Lady Frances Strickland pushed for measuring creativity as an important
part of the assessment process. Can creativity be measured through a standardized
assessment?
A. I think a large part has to do with what gets defined as creativity. I think
we can continue to push our tests toward an assessment of students' ability
to apply what they know...as opposed to just measuring what they know. We do
that to a large degree on our tests in Ohio but we can push further in that
direction. The question of measuring creativity is an open question and (it's
unclear) that it can be measured in any kind of reliable way without constraining
the notion of what creativity is.
Q. What's the most important lesson you learned in Ohio?
A. It's rare for me to meet an educator... who feels like he or she is doing
the best that can be done for the students that he or she serves....They want
to do more, and when provided with the...support and resources, educators in
Ohio have shown time and again that they're up to the challenge of doing a better
job....Early on, our schools were charged with assimilating new populations
as this country grew through immigration and our schools did arguably a decent
job of that....After World War II, our schools were charged with thinking of
nothing less than high-school education as the education default....The adults
in the system did a great job of providing a system that provided at least a
high-school education for everyone. We're at a new era, where not only do we
expect our schools to educate everyone but we expect them to educate them to
high standards (a college-readiness standard). I think we've seen progress against
that. We have a long way to go, but I'm very optimistic that the adults are
up to the challenge.
Q. What would you say you
haven't finished in Ohio?
A. Curriculum improvement at the school level..., improving the quality of instruction
that students experience on a daily basis, classroom by classroom, is just a
work in progress.
Q. What can push the public
charter schools along?
A. Tightening up the entry requirements, who gets to run a school based on evidence
of capacity, experience, background...monitoring results and exiting those institutions,
which, either because of performance or because of lack of appropriate fiscal
oversight, cannot demonstrate they are up to the task of educating students,
needs to be tightened up....Then the third piece is capitalizing on those charter
schools that, in fact, have implemented innovative practices and approaches
that are paying off and using them as proof of concept, demonstration, dissemination
kinds of sites....I don't think we've really accomplished that....It's not at
all clear to me that unleashing market forces has forced the whole system to
improve, which, again, is part of a theory of action that charter schools (providing)
competition would force regular schools to improve.
Q. What about the charter complaint that they're only getting 70 percent
of state support? Do they need more money?
A. I'm not sure....I don't know whether that 70-percent figure tells the story
or not, but I think it's a discussion worth having. If we're going to have charter
schools (they) should not go down the road with one armed tied behind their
backs.
Q. Should value-added assessments
ultimately replace Ohio's criterion-referenced tests when it comes to school-level
accountability?
A. You need the tests as the basis of the value-added scores. What I would not
advocate for is looking at schools and districts solely through the value-added
measure. The value--added measure tells you what schools and districts are able
to accomplish based on students' previous achievement. How much that school
and district stretched that student based on where that student came to them....However
that's independent of whether or not that student is in fact reading, doing
math, writing at a level that's anywhere close to grade level. So we have to
continue to measure against our expectations for students, not just how much
progress has been made....In my mind, it does a disservice to a student to walk
(him or her) out the door at the end of the 12th grade with a diploma in hand
if, in fact, their skill level is nowhere near what the outside world expects.
Q. What's the proper balance
between meeting state standards and showing benefit gains from year to year,
especially as it relates to schools serving the neediest children?
A. I think looking at both gains and attainment lets us distinguish between
schools that are serving kids who are behind but are making good progress with
the students they have for two or three years in a row vs. schools that are
serving students who are behind and... (in some cases) fall further behind.....The
right balance for a decent value-added measure is it lets us distinguish between
those two groups of schools.
Q. Should value-added data be used by districts in rating teachers,
in providing things like performance pay for teachers?
A. I would use value-added data as a diagnostic tool....That can be very powerful...feedback
to understand which students they're achieving with and making good progress
with, and which students they're not making good progress with....The value-added
measure can be helpful in identifying teachers who are more successful....Those
may be the teachers we may want to employ as instructional leaders, as coaches
for teachers, as mentors for teachers whether that's in addition to their classroom
responsibilities or in lieu of their classroom responsibilities and that can
be a way...of identifying teachers who are ready for more leadership roles.
Q. What do you think of Gov. Strickland's plan for subordinating the
state board and superintendent?
A. There's a lot of value to having a state board and a chief state-school officer
who have a level of independence from the governor. That value includes the
notion of continuity, that with a change of governor we don't necessarily have
to abandon a policy stream, a policy agenda that's underway. I think it provides
some insulation from partisan politics by having a state board who selects the
state superintendent, again, as opposed to a cabinet official. It's not as directly
subject to the whims of partisanship.
Q. What would you recommend
for improving state-level education and governance?
A. One of the challenges for the governor and for the state is ensuring that
preschool, K-12, and higher education...represent a coherent policy approach...that
complements those three different sectors. So having someone in the governor's
office to play a coordinating role, which can bring those sectors to the table,
I think, is a real advantage. I've seen that done well and I've seen that done
weakly in various states, but I don't think that requires that the state superintendent
of instruction needs to be a direct gubernatorial appointee.
Q. Do you have any comments
or messages for Fordham or for Gadfly readers, any lessons we need?
A. The (Fordham) institute is a critical observer and commentator (and) really
elevates the quality of the dialogue and the range of policy options....I certainly
appreciate the institute. It may have been frustrating at times, but over the
long haul, particularly Checker Finn and Terry Ryan really contribute to a smarter
policy dialogue.
Initial report indicates Reading First program doesn't work
The federal Department of Education has released its interim report of Reading First (see here), the centerpiece program of No Child Left Behind that is supposed to help the most economically disadvantaged and academically struggling elementary students learn to read. The report from the department's Institute for Education Sciences found that Reading First's impact on student reading comprehension was not statistically significant, but it also noted that the program resulted in teachers spending more class time on the five essential components of reading.
Reaction in Ohio to the fed's evaluation of Reading First has been critical. James Salzman, co-director of the Reading First Ohio Center, called the federal report "methodologically flawed, statistically glamorous, and ultimately meaningless in terms of its conclusions" (see here). Salzman said the 128-school study involving 5,200 students was far too small, involving about one-seventh the number of schools needed for a viable study of the massive federal program. He also believes most schools in the study came from large, urban districts, while smaller rural districts have shown the most improvement in reading in Ohio.
Fordham's new research director, Amber Winkler, also questioned the report's findings (see here) and recommended that policymakers wait until the final evaluation is released later this year to determine Reading First's fate. The program's purpose is to ensure that all students read at or above grade level by the end of the third grade. Over the past five years, Reading First has meant a $140 million federal investment in 31 Ohio school districts to help more than 52,000 children learn to read.
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Another day, another teachers-are-underpaid report
The Economic Policy Institute updates its 2004 report on teacher pay and then some in The Teaching Penalty: Teacher Pay Losing Ground. The institute finds that the pay of public school teachers is 15 percent lower than that of comparable professionals and that, over time, teacher pay has grown at a slower rate than inflation or the pay of similar workers. The report concludes that any attempt to alter the recruitment-and-retention patterns in teaching must start with increasing teacher wages across the board but fails to address important non-wage variables that affect the teacher-pay equation.
The book's authors name accountants, reporters, registered nurses, computer programmers, clergy, and personnel officers as teachers' professional peers, given the skill level and education required for the jobs. However, they do not acknowledge that most of these "comparable" professionals work outside the bounds of public employment and collective-bargaining agreements where pay is linked not only to an employee's credentials and seniority but also to job performance, and where poor performers aren't likely to stay on the job for long.
The Teaching Penalty continues the fruitless argument that teachers devote more time to work outside their contracted schedules than do other professionals. To justify dividing a teacher's annual pay by a full year of work instead of actual contracted weeks, and thus lowering the teacher's average weekly earnings, the authors assert that teachers often spend some of their summer breaks attending "professional development or other activities expected of a professional teacher."
In practice, though, public school teachers do not generally take part in unpaid professional development at all, let alone in June, July, and August. In fact, a recent Fordham analysis found that teacher-union contracts in 28 of the country's 50-largest school districts specifically require that teachers be paid for professional activities, including professional seminars and conferences, that take place outside of the regular school day (see here).
The authors also make the case that teachers' non-wage benefit packages are not so much better than those of other professionals that they should offset teachers' lower salaries. Yet they do not consider one of the biggest unpaid "perks" in the teaching profession: retiring young. Ohio's teacher pension system--and many of its counterparts across the country--encourages teachers to leave the profession after 30 or 35 years, in their mid-to late 50s (see here). Surely there is some value to being able to retire comfortably some 10 years earlier than your friends and neighbors.
Depending on which numbers you crunch, The Teaching Penalty's key findings might well hold true, but any conversation about increasing teacher pay is futile unless it also addresses collective bargaining rights, pension systems, and other non-wage benefits. Read the book here.
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Teacher probed for allegedly teaching religion in science class
MOUNT VERNON -- A Mount Vernon City Schools' science teacher has a monitor in his classes these days after he allegedly promoted Christianity in his classroom and used a hand-held laboratory electricity generator to mark crosses onto the skin of students.
The school district expects to complete an investigation by the end of the month concerning allegations that John Freshwater, who has taught in the Mount Vernon schools for 21 years, promoted his Christian beliefs in class.
According to Superintendent Steve Short, the school launched the investigation after the parents of one of Freshwater's students complained about their son being marked with the generator. According to the complaint, the student said the pain was severe enough to prevent him from sleeping at night. The complaint also claimed that Freshwater displayed the Ten Commandments in his classroom, kept multiple Bibles in his classroom to pass out to students, and taught his own beliefs from the Bible.
The Columbus Dispatch reported the middle-school science teacher used the generator to "burn" a cross on their son's forearm (see here and here). The device is used to ionize gases in laboratory experiments so students can identify gases by the different colors each emits in an electrical field.
Last month, Short ordered Freshwater to remove a Bible and Ten Commandments posters from his classroom. Freshwater removed the items, however, he objected to removing his personal Bible from his desk, considering that an infringement of his rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (see here).
"This is not about his personal Bible on his desktop. It is about the totality of his conduct. As a public-school system we cannot teach, promote, or favor any religion or religious beliefs," Short said.
An estimated 200 people, mostly Freshwater supporters, attended a school board meeting last week. "If you throw the Bible out, you throw God out. And if you throw God out, you throw what's right out," one supporter told board members, according to The Dispatch (see here).
However Knox County resident Richard Hoppe said Freshwater should not express religious views in class. "Mr. Freshwater is free to believe whatever he wishes. ... However, when he ... is in his classroom, that freedom is limited by the Constitution," Hoppe said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Ohio Education Gadfly is published bi-weekly (ordinarily on Wednesdays, with occasional breaks, and in special editions) by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Have something to say? Email the editor at [email protected]. Would you like to be spared from the Gadfly? Email [email protected] with "unsubscribe gadfly" in the text of your message. You are welcome to forward the Gadfly to others, and from our website you can even email individual articles. If you have been forwarded a copy of Gadfly and would like to subscribe, you may either email [email protected] with "subscribe gadfly" in the text of the message or sign up through our website. To read archived issues, go to our website and click on the Ohio Education Gadfly link. Aching for still more education news and analysis? Check out the original Education Gadfly.
Nationally and in Ohio, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, along with its sister organization the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, strives to close America's vexing achievement gaps by raising standards, strengthening accountability, and expanding high-quality education options for parents and families. As a charter-school sponsor in Ohio, the Foundation joins with schools to affirm a relentless commitment to high expectations for all children, accountability for academic results and transparency and organizational integrity, while freeing the schools to operate with minimal red tape. The Foundation and Institute are neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University.