Ohio Alliance for Arts Education

Education Update

January 21, 2013

Joan Platz

 

Expression of Sympathy:  The Ohio Alliance for Arts Education expresses sympathy to the family of George Gund III, who passed away on January 15, 2013. He will be remembered for his service as a trustee of the George Gund Foundation for 44 years, and his enthusiastic support for the arts, including the founding of the Cleveland Cinemateque, and as a trustee of the Cleveland International Film Festival, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Orchestra.  He also will be remembered for his support for the creation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. 

 

1) Ohio News

 

•130th Ohio General Assembly: The Ohio House is scheduled to meet on January 23, 2013 at 1:00 PM.

 

•Senate Democrats Present Priorities: Senate Democratic Leader Eric Kearney presented his caucus’ legislative goals and a preview of the legislation that Senate Democrats will introduce this session at a news conference on January 15, 2013.  Topping the Democrats’ goals is job creation, which Democrats expect to accomplish by expanding small business opportunities, revitalizing communities, cleaning up blighted properties, and creating pathways to employment.

 

Also on the list are initiatives to support families; promote public safety; and provide educational opportunities for all Ohioans.  

 

Senate Democrats will introduce legislation this session to address gun violence; election reform to increase voter access to the polls; summer nutrition programs for students; and family stability.

 

Under education the Democrats want to reform Ohio’s unconstitutional school funding system by reducing the reliance on local property taxes.  Senator Tom Sawyer is expected to introduce a bill that will address the distribution of state funds for schools through a constitutional amendment that would require the State to identify the components of a thorough and efficient education program.

 

The priorities are available at http://www.ohiosenate.gov/democrats/press/senate-democrats-outline-legislative-priorities-for-130th-general-assembly

 

•Senate Committees on a Rotating Schedule:  The Senate released a new rotating committee schedule for this session.  The Finance Committee will meet at 2:30 PM the first and third Tuesdays of the month (Schedule A), while the Education Committee will meet at 10:15 AM the second and forth Wednesdays of the month. (Schedule B). The rotating schedule will reduce conflicts and provide Senators more opportunities to attend committee meetings. For information about the schedules of other Senate committees please visit http://www.ohiosenate.gov/senate/index

 

•Update on the Attendance Investigation:  According to Gongwer News Service - Ohio, the Ohio Auditor of State’s office will release by the end of January 2013 a report about its investigation of school district attendance report irregularities. Two preliminary reports that included a review of the attendance records of approximately 181 schools were released in October 2012 and November 2012. This next report will include a review of over 100 schools that have been identified through a statistical model developed by The Ohio State University. The model looks at certain data, such as attendance and trends in test results, to identify possible instances in which students were removed from a school district’s attendance data without lawful reason. The story is available at http://www.gongwer-oh.com/programming/news.cfm?newsedition_id=8201002

 

•EdChoice Eligibility: The Ohio Department of Education released last week a preliminary list of 213 schools that have been identified as “persistently low performing”, which is defined as rated in academic emergency or academic watch for at least two of the last three school years.  The schools are located in 28 out of 612 school districts.  Students attending these schools are eligible for the EdChoice scholarship program, which provides students with a voucher to attend eligible private schools. The EdChoice Scholarship program was expanded through 129-HB153 to allow up to 60,000 students to participate each year, but last year 17,000 students applied for the program. To participate in the program, eligible students must be accepted by the private school. The vouchers range from $4,250 per year for students in grades K-8 and up to $5,000 for high school students. The list of persistently low performing schools is available at

http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=667&ContentID=46154&Content=138766

 

•Casino Revenue Won’t Solve School Funding:  The Ohio School Boards Association, the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, and the Ohio Association of School Business Officials released on January 18, 2013 the results of a survey of 364 school district treasurers.  According to the survey, 77.5 percent of treasurers reported that casino revenue payments will make-up less than one percent of their budgets in 2013. The survey also found that 28 percent of school districts in FY12 and 30.5 percent in FY13 lost between $501,000 - $1 million in state revenue over the last biennium.  Most school districts in FY12 (48.4 percent) and FY13 (47 percent) reported losing $0-$500,000 in state revenue.

 

The press release is available at 

http://www.ohioschoolboards.org/sites/default/files/CasinoRevenueRelease1-18-13.pdf

 

The survey results are available at 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=0IOzTflqxh9WLbDLv1_2fPt_2bJxwQfmzwM9sZp_2fFDze9AI_3d

 

2)  National News

 

•Florida Teachers Challenge Merit-Pay in the Courts:  The SunSentinel reports on January 17, 2013 that the Florida Education Association presented arguments before the Leon County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of a 2011 Florida law that bases teacher evaluations and pay on student test scores in Brandt Robinson, et. al. vs. Gerard Robinson, as Florida Commissioner of Education, et. al. ("Teachers go after merit-pay law in court" by Kathleen Haughney, SunSentinel, January 17, 2013.) 

 

According to the teachers union, the new law violates the Florida Constitution, because it requires boards of education to unilaterally set-up a new salary schedule that ignores collective bargaining. The new schedule bases teacher salary increases and employment decisions on teacher evaluations, which include student test scores results. The lawsuit was filed in September 2011.  The article is available at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/about/tribune-search/fl-merit-pay-court-20130116,0,4120838.story

 

•Education Grants:  GetEdFunding is a new website that provides a searchable database of available education-funding opportunities for education technology and curriculum programs. The site, which is updated daily, offers information about 750 active grants and awards.

The site is available at 

http://www.getedfunding.com/

 

3)  Failure is Not an Option Reviewed:  The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) released on January 15, 2013 a review of the report Failure is Not an Option: How Principals, Teachers, Students, and Parents From Ohio’s High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools Explain their Success by Carolin Hagelskamp and Christopher DiStasi, and published by Public Agenda in December 2012. The NEPC review was prepared by Professor Mark Paige, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and UMASS Law.

 

Failure is Not An Option profiles nine Ohio schools with sustained student success in spite of high poverty rates, and identifies 11 attributes and practices that the authors believe are factors in the success of the schools. The report also offers six recommendations to help other schools achieve and sustain similar success. The conclusions of the study of the nine schools is based mostly on interviews and focus groups with principals, teachers, parents, and students.

 

In his review of Failure is Not an Option, Professor Paige raises questions about the standards of research used; the “generic nature” of the recommendations; the internal inconsistencies which undercut the report’s recommendations; the failure of the authors to connect the results of the report to previous research about best practices; and the validity of the study’s findings.

 

According to the review, “...the study’s central claim—that the “key attributes” appear with “remarkable consistency” across the featured schools—is not substantiated. The report appears to randomly and inconsistently choose quotations from its profiled schools.”

 

The report also “sends conflicting messages with respect to the transferability of its recommendations.”  In one section of the report the authors assert that they have identified the most important attributes that will lead to success, yet in another section they say that the recommendations are not “necessarily generalizable”, and that there are many paths to school success.

 

Professor Paige’s review also observes that the criteria used to select the schools profiled in the report are not clear.  The authors  selected six schools identified by the Ohio Department of Education as “Schools of Promise” for two years and one additional year as a criteria for being included in the study.  But, Professor Paige notes that there were actually 30 schools that met the criteria.  In addition, three school not identified as “Schools of Promise” were included in the study, because they showed “remarkable improvements in student performance.” And, although “high poverty” was a criteria, four of the nine schools selected for the study had poverty rates near the state average of 45.1 percent.

 

The validity of the report is also challenged, because it does not address the “outside factors” that could contribute to student success. Professor Paige offers the research of David Berliner, who has identified six “out-of-school” factors that play a powerful role in closing achievement gaps. The report does confirm that in some schools the staff purchased clothes, shoes, etc. to meet the basic needs of students, but the authors do not pursue these outside school factors and how they could contribute to student achievement.  

 

According to Professor Paige, “Addressing out-of-school factors is primary and fundamental to resolving, education inequality.”

 

“By embracing “no excuses” (“Failure is not an option”) rhetoric and approaches, this report misleads policy makers and the public into thinking that a set of generic recommendations and attributes will overcome deeply-rooted social problems of poverty and inequality.”  

 

Mark Paige’s review is available at 

http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-failure-not-option

 

Failure is Not an Option by Carolin Hagelskamp and Christopher DiStasi is available at 

http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/FailureIsNotAnOption_PublicAgenda_2012.pdf.

 

4)  Are Graduation Rates Rising?:  Richard Murnane, Thompson Professor of Education and Society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, recently published a working paper that describes several patterns of U.S. graduation rates over the period 1970 - 2010. The patterns include a period of stagnation over the last three decades of the twentieth century; significant race-, income-, and gender-based gaps; and significant increases in graduation rates over the first decade of the twenty-first century, especially among African Americans and Hispanics. 

 

The author proposes that even though a high school diploma means higher wages, increases in academic standards and the increasing availability of the GED credential might explain a period when the rate of high school graduation was stagnant during the 1990s.  

 

Even though high school graduation rates have increased recently, the report states that “there are several hypotheses, but to date, very little evidence to explain the increases in high school graduation rates over the first decade of the twenty-first century.”

 

An abstract of the paper entitled U.S. High School Graduation Rates, Patterns and Explanations. National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2013, is available at

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w18701.

 

5) What will the New CCSS Assessments Measure? UCLA’s National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) released last week a report examining the extent to which assessments developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) to assess student learning of the Common Core State Standards will likely measure and support goals for deeper learning. (On the Road to Assessing Deeper Learning: The Status of Smarter Balanced and PARCC Assessment Consortia by Joan Herman & Robert Linn, January, 2013 CRESST/University of California, Los Angeles.) 

 

The report summarizes the assessment development process used by Smarter Balanced and PARCC and their plans for system development and validation; provides an initial evaluation of the status of deeper learning represented in both consortia’s plans; and describes the similarities and differences in how the consortia are making decisions.  

 

According to this report, summative assessments developed by PARCC and Smarter Balanced are likely to “...represent important goals for deeper learning, particularly those related to mastering and being able to apply core academic content and cognitive strategies related to complex thinking, communication, and problem solving. At the same time, the report points to the technical, fiscal, and political challenges that the consortia face in bringing their plans to fruition.”

 

The following technical, fiscal, and political challenges were identified:

 

•Using several days to assess student performance tasks. Some of the Chief State School Officers in the Smarter Balanced Governing States questioned Smarter Balanced’s initial plans to assess performance tasks over several days, because of time demands and the cost burdens of scoring. Smarter Balanced now plans to reduce the time requirements for its summative assessments.

 

•Tight budgets.  Some states in both consortia might opt to cut or omit the performance tasks to save money.

 

•Comparability of scores.  Offering extended performance tasks will challenge the comparability of scores from one year to the next, and compromise the ability of states to monitor trends and evaluate performance. “Responding to the challenge may well require innovation in performance task design, scoring, and equating methods.”

 

•Technical challenges.  Both consortia are estimating summative testing costs at $20 per student for both subject areas. “In the absence of promised breakthroughs, the costs will escalate, there will be enormous demands on teachers and/or others for human scoring, and the feasibility of timely assessment results may be compromised.”

 

•Turnaround. Both consortia have promised end-of-year results.  Meeting these expectations will require innovation in scoring services.

 

•Assessing students with special needs.  Both consortia are working to make the assessments accessible to students with disabilities and English language learners through technological accommodations. But, accommodations raise questions about the validity and comparability of the accommodated and non accommodated versions of the test.

 

•Technological barriers.  There is a concern that technologically manipulated assessments might add barriers for some students, particularly those with less facility with technology or English language learners.

 

•Increased intellectual rigor (DOK level).  The initial results of the new assessments might “shock” the public. The public will need to be prepared for some drop in school accountability ratings as a result of the more rigorous exams.  

 

•Resources for transition.  Teachers will need support to change instructional practices to implement the new Common Core State Standards. The resources available for transition “...will make a tremendous difference in how well the new assessments are accepted and/or whether there is additional pushback to them.”

 

•Focus on the major learning goals. Teachers must focus on the broad competencies that students need for college and career readiness rather than the assessment targets for each grade.

 

•Transparency and validation.  The computer adaptive testing used by the Smarter Balanced consortium essentially individualizes test items for every student, making it difficult to see how well deeper learning is represented for every student overall. A more complete analysis of PARCC is not possible until its plans are made public.

 

The report is available at 

http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/reports/R823.pdf  

 

6) State Board of Education:  The State Board of Education, Debe Terhar president, met on January 14 & 15, 2013 at the Ohio School for the Deaf, 500 Morse Road, Columbus, OH.

 

On Monday, January 14, 2013 newly elected, re-elected, and appointed members of the State Board of Education participated in a swearing-in ceremony conducted by Justice Sharon Kennedy, Ohio Supreme Court. 

 

The State Board includes eleven members who are elected through nonpartisan races, and eight members appointed by the governor with the consent of the Ohio Senate.  

 

The State Board for 2013-14 includes five incumbents and two new members elected on November 6, 2012; two members re-appointed and two members newly appointed by Governor Kasich; and seven members who are continuing their terms on the board.  Governor Kasich must also make another appointment to fill an open seat, formerly held by Stanley Jackson.

 

2013-14 State Board of Education

 

Elected Members

 

District 1:  Ann Jacobs (Lima) RE-ELECTED

District 2:  Kathleen A. McGervey (Avon) Term ends December 31, 2014

District 3:  Jeffrey Mims (Dayton) Term ends December 31, 2014

District 4:  Debe Terhar (Cincinnati) Term ends December 31, 2014

District 5:  Bryan Williams (Fairlawn) RE-ELECTED. 

District 6:  Michael Collins (Westerville) RE-ELECTED. 

District 7:  Sarah Fowler (Rock Creek) NEWLY ELECTED

District 8:  Deborah Cain (Uniontown) Term ends December 31, 2014

District 9:  Stephanie Dodd (Hebron) NEWLY ELECTED

District 10: Jeff Hardin (Milford) RE-ELECTED

District 11: Mary Rose Oakar (Cleveland) RE-ELECTED

 

Appointed At-Large Members

 

Angel Thi Bennett (East Cleveland) - RE-APPOINTED

Tess Elshoff (New Knoxville) Term ends on December 31, 2014

Joe Farmer (Baltimore) Term ends on December 31, 2014

Tom Gunlock (Centerville) Term ends on December 31, 2014  

C. Todd Jones (New Albany) - RE-APPOINTED 

Darryl D. Mehaffie - NEWLY APPOINTED

Dr. Mark A. Smith - NEWLY APPOINTED

 

During the State Board’s biennial reorganization meeting members re-elected Debe Terhar president and Tom Gunlock vice president. President Terhar announced some changes in committee assignments, and the creation of an Accountability Committee, chaired by Tom Gunlock and Bryan Williams, to oversee the implementation of provisions included in HB555 (Stebelton/Butler) regarding Ohio’s new school report card system. The following are the new committee assignments:

 

Accountability Committee 

Tom Gunlock (chair)

Bryan Williams (chair)

Debe Terhar 

Michael Collins 

Stephanie Dodd  

Mark A. Smith 

 

The Appointments Committee 

Joe Farmer (chair)

Deborah Cain (vice-chair) 

Tess Elshoff 

Sarah Fowler

Ann Jacobs 

Darryl Mehaffie 

 

The Achievement Committee 

C. Todd Jones (chair) 

Joe Farmer (vice-chair) 

Tess Elshoff 

Sarah Fowler 

Jeff Hardin 

Ann Jacobs 

 

The Capacity Committee 

Tom Gunlock (chair) 

Bryan Williams (vice-chair) 

Stephanie Dodd 

Kathleen McGervey 

Darryl Mehaffie 

 

The Executive Committee 

Debe Terhar (chair) 

Tom Gunlock (vice-chair) 

Joe Farmer 

C. Todd Jones 

Angela Thi-Bennett 

Bryan Williams 

 

The Legislative & Budget Committee 

Bryan Williams (chair) 

C. Todd Jones (vice-chair) 

Mike Collins 

Joe Farmer 

Ann Jacobs 

Darryl Mehaffie 

Kathleen McGervey 

Rose Mary Oakar 

 

The Urban Education Committee 

Angel-Thi Bennett (chair) 

Collins (vice-chair) 

Deborah Cain 

Jeff Mims 

Rose Mary Oakar

Mark A. Smith 

 

President Debe Terhar also announced that the State Board would hold future meetings starting in March 2013 at the renovated joint offices of the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Board of Regents at 25 South Front Street in Columbus. The Ohio Board of Regents has completed its move into the ODE building, and as a result of renovations connected with the move, there is now a conference center in the basement to hold State Board meetings.  The Executive Committee also adopted a calendar of meeting dates for 2013, and moved the annual retreat from June to July.

 

Committee Reports 

 

•The Achievement Committee, chaired by C. Todd Jones, adopted an amended Resolution to approve an ODE Policy on Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, and Restraint and Seclusion and a Resolution of Intent to Enact Rule 3301-35-15 of the Administrative Code Entitled Standards Concerning the Implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention Supports and the Use of Restraint and Seclusion. The State Board will adopt the resolution regarding the rule in April 2013. During the discussion about the rule and policy, some Board members expressed the concern that community schools are not required to comply with this policy or rule.  

 

The committee also received an update about the Ohio Performance Assessment Pilot Project.  This program, funded through Race to the Top, is piloting performance-based assessments in elementary and high schools, and defining the nature and implementation of the tasks to be used as a statewide test instrument. 

 

•The Capacity Committee, chaired by Tom Gunlock, had four items on their agenda:

 

-Rules 3301-102-01 to -07, Community School Sponsorship Rules

The Committee discussed some additional changes to the rules, which will be presented to the committee again in February.  The Community School Sponsorship rules are being reviewed as part of the five-year rule review process.  The rules describe the application process and approval procedures for parties interested in becoming sponsors of new start-up community schools; sponsorship agreements between the Department and an approved sponsor; sponsorship obligations of all sponsors of conversion and new start-up community schools; the Department’s oversight of all sponsors; revocation of sponsors; and payment processes for community schools. The revisions have been available for public comment and have been reviewed by the Lt. Governor’s Common Sense Initiative (CSI) office. 

 

-Rules 3301-24-19 to -22, Alternative Resident Educator License Rules

The Committee voted to recommend to the full State Board the approval of the proposed rules as presented. Several changes have been made to the alternative resident educator licenses to align the rules with HB 153 (ORC 3319.26). Those changes include increasing from grades 4-12 to grades K-12 the grade bands for the designated subjects alternative license; adding the option to complete a summer training institute approved by the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents to meet the pre-service teacher training requirement for the alternative licensure, instead of the existing Intensive Pedagogical Training Institute; adding the option to complete a professional development program approved by the Chancellor in lieu of 12 additional semester hours of professional education college coursework in the principles and practices of teaching; and removing the requirement for applicants for alternative licensure to have completed a major in the subject area to be taught. The committee included the recommendations of the Educator Standards Board to add a 3 semester hour reading coursework requirement to alternative licenses for grades K-12 designated subjects and for grades P-12 world languages.

 

-SEED School of Cincinnati

Jessica Voltolini, ODE Assistant Legal Counsel, provided an update on the current status of issues related to the SEED School of Cincinnati.  Department legal staff is scheduled to meet with SEED representatives next week to discuss SEED’s proposed revisions to the Operator Contract.

 

-Teacher Evaluation Framework for State Agencies

A standards-based framework for evaluating teachers employed in state agencies will be presented to the State Board in April 2013. The Educator Standards Board is currently working on the framework. The State Board must adopt this framework on or before June 30, 2013.  State agencies that employ teachers are required to adopt an education policy aligned to the framework at the expiration of any collective bargaining agreement. The existing collective bargaining agreement covering state agency employed teachers is due to expire on June 30, 2015. 

 

•The Committee on Urban Education, chaired by Angela Thi-Bennett, received two presentations. Dr. Christopher Woodlard, ODE Director from the Office of Policy and Research, and Dr. Matthew Cohen, ODE Chief Research Officer, presented information about value added data, and Dr. Stephanie Siddens, Director from the Office of Early Learning & School Readiness, and Barbara Weinberg, Assistant Director of the Office of Early Learning and School Readiness, presented information about early childhood education.  

 

•The Legislative and Budget Committee, chaired by Bryan Williams, received a year-end legislative update and discussed a proposal for the State Board to adopt a federal platform for the reauthorization of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 

 

Kelly Weir, Executive Director of Legislative Services and Budgetary Planning, and Jennifer Hogue, State Legislative Liaison for the Ohio Department of Education, reviewed legislation affecting education and approved during the lame duck session of the 129th General Assembly. 

 

One of the provisions of HB 280 (Dovilla/Bera) provided $3.2 million from lottery profits in additional funding for some school districts on the guarantee to reimburse them for students who had never attended a public school, but were now participating in the Jon Peterson Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities. Students participating in the program are counted for funding purposes in their resident school districts’ enrollment, and then funds are transferred for those students from the school district of residence to entities educating the student. Board members asked how the additional $3.2 million will be distributed.  Ms. Weir stated that discussions about allocating the funds were just starting, and that she would update the Board in the future.

 

Jeremy Marks, Federal Legislative Liaison for the Ohio Department of Education, Susan Zake, Director Office of Exceptional Children, and Tom Lather, Assistant Director, Office of Exceptional Children, reviewed the purpose of developing a platform to make recommendations for the reauthorization of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  IDEA was last reauthorized in 2004. The platform will include Ohio specific and State Board endorsed recommendations for the reauthorization of IDEA, and will be shared with Ohio’s Congressional delegation and stakeholder organizations. 

 

Report of the Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction

Michael Sawyers, Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction, provided the Board an update about the following items:

 

-New ODE Staff:  Acting Superintendent Sawyers announced that Tina Thomas Manning had joined the Ohio Department of Education as an Associate Superintendent for the Division of Accountability and Quality Schools; Jason Rafeld as chief of staff; and John Richard would be joining the ODE in February 2013 as Senior Executive Director in the Center for Accountability and Continuous Improvement.

 

-Safety Plans:  The Ohio Department of Education and the Attorney General’s Office are working together to inform schools about the resources available to improve safety. Acting Superintendent Sawyers emphasized the role that the community should play in helping schools become better prepared to avert the recent school tragedies that have taken place in Ohio and Connecticut.  There are less than 40 schools, mostly community schools, that have not submitted a required school safety plan to the ODE. 

 

-Cross Agency Teams:  The Ohio Board of Regents has completed its move into the ODE building at 25 South Front Street, Columbus.  Cross Agency Teams have been developed to better coordinate and communicate educational policies for the preK-20 education system.  Cross agency teams have been formed to examine teacher quality, transitioning from the Praxis to the Pearson teacher licensure exams, and college and career readiness.    

 

The teacher quality team, for example, is looking at ways to improve the standards for students entering teacher preparation programs.  There is significant variance in the requirements for students entering Ohio’s 51 teacher preparation programs, and the ODE and BOR are working to align the requirements among the programs. 

 

The cross agency team for college and career readiness is developing a request for proposals to develop an nationally standardized college and career readiness assessment, which will be administered to 10th grade students in 2014, although the ODE would like to administer the assessment in the fall of 2013.  The team is also looking at online and blended learning.

 

-Third Grade Reading Guarantee Grants.  Over 200 schools applied for the Third Grade Reading Guarantee Grants. The General Assembly put aside $13 million from the lottery profit fund for schools to implement the program through a competitive grant process.  The applications are being reviewed now, and the awards will be available in April 2013.

 

HB555 Overview  

Kelly Weir, Executive Director of Legislative Services and Budgetary Planning, presented to the State Board information about HB555 (Stebelton-Butler), which was passed by the General Assembly and signed into law on December 20, 2012. The law becomes effective on March 22, 2013.

 

According to the presentation, there are three primary components of the law: the A-F report card for schools/districts; a separate report card for dropout recovery schools; and a rating system for community school sponsors. 

 

The law also makes changes in the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, teacher evaluations, and more.  For example, by August 31, 2013, the State Board must submit to General Assembly recommendations for a comprehensive statewide plan to intervene directly in and improve the performance of persistently poor performing schools and school districts. 

 

The following are some highlights of the main provisions of the law:

 

•Dropout Recovery Report Card:  This report card will be issued in lieu of the A-F report card for the 75 or so community schools in which the majority of students are in dropout recovery programs.  

 

The report card for dropout recovery schools will include three ratings: exceeds standards, meets standards, and does not meet standards.  The report cards will include three measures in 2013: graduation rate (4 year cohort up to 8 year cohort phased-in); high school assessment percentage; annual measurable objectives (AMOs); and for the 2015 report card, a nationally norm-referenced assessment for the reading and/or math progress measure. 

 

The new report card will be implemented over several years.  In August 2013 the report card will be issued without the ratings.  In August 2014 there will ratings for each individual measure except for the reading/math progress measure, and student outcome data will be reported. In August 2015 and annually thereafter, a report card will be issued with individual performance measures rated, and also an overall performance rating for the composite measures. The ODE shall also include student outcome data which shall not be included in the calculation of the overall performance rating.

 

To implement the law the State Board is required to adopt rules for the graduation rate, the high school assessment passage rate, and the AMOs by June 30, 2013, which means that the rules must be developed by May 2013. By December 31, 2014 the State Board must establish the benchmarks for the reading and math progress measure and, if determined by the State Board, an national standardized assessment. The Ohio Department of Education is also required to gather and analyze data from each dropout prevention and recovery school in consultation with stakeholders, and identify one or more states that have established, or are in the process of establishing, similar academic performance rating systems for dropout prevention and recovery programs, and consult with the departments of education of those states. Colorado has been working on dropout recovery programs for several years, and was suggested as a state to consult.

 

The ODE is also required to post on its website the ratings and relevant performance data for each community school, and provide a copy of the ratings and data to the governing authorities of community schools.

 

Community School Sponsor Ratings

The State Board is required to develop a rating system for community school sponsors, which will go into effect after January 1, 2015, based on three measures:  academic performance of students on state assessments; quality practices developed by a national association of community school organizations; and compliance with state and federal laws and rules.  

 

Community school sponsors will be rated exemplary, effective, ineffective, or emerging (applicable to sponsors within the first two years of sponsorship). Currently community school sponsors rated at the bottom 20 percent of sponsors on the ranking scale are not allowed to sponsor additional community schools.

 

To implement this part of the HB555, ODE must prescribe quality practices for community school sponsors and develop an instrument to measure these practices by March 31, 2013.  The State Board must also adopt the “compliance with standards” rules by July 1, 2013. 

 

Third Grade Reading Guarantee

HB555 includes more options for teachers to demonstrate their ability to provide reading instruction when a student is identified reading below grade level, and aligns the strategies that teachers must provide students who are retained and those who are on reading improvement monitoring plans (RIMPS). Currently, there are two sets of teacher credentials required based on the types of students served.  

 

Teacher Evaluation

Changes have also been made to the teacher evaluation process.  HB555 provides that certain statutory deadlines regarding teacher evaluations and timelines for non renewal notices prevail over any conflicting provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after the effective date of the bill; exempts instructors of adult education from performance evaluation requirements for public school teachers; and exempts substitute teachers and instructors of adult education from teacher evaluations conducted by state agencies that employ teachers.  

 

The most significant change in the law regarding teacher evaluations pertains to the way in which the value-added progress dimension for student academic growth must be used to evaluate teachers. Within the current framework adopted by the State Board of Education, up to 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation is based on the student academic growth, and the other 50 percent on teacher performance. HB555 now requires the part of the teacher evaluation framework based on student growth to reflect the proportion of a teacher’s schedule for which value added data is available. The State Board will need to update the teacher evaluation framework to reflect this change.

 

K-12 Report Card

HB555 replaces the current academic performance rating system for school districts, individual buildings of districts, community schools, STEM schools, and college-preparatory boarding schools with a phased-in letter grade system in which districts and schools are assigned grades of “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” based on various performance measures. 

 

The new accountability system was originally included in the request Ohio submitted to the U.S. Department of Education (U.S. DOE) seeking a waiver from compliance with certain provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left Behind. The waiver was granted by the U.S. DOE contingent upon the development of the A-F accountability system for schools. The waiver request must be re-submitted to the U.S. Department of Education by June 30, 2013.

 

The new report card measures will be grouped under the following components:  Achievement, Progress, Graduation Rate, K-3 Literacy Progress, Gap Closing (AYP alternative), and Prepared for Success (formerly College-and Career-Ready). 

 

•Achievement Component:  The Achievement component includes two measures: the Performance Index and the Performance Indicators, which will be graded starting in August 2013. A grade for the overall component will be calculated starting in 2015 and 2016.

 

The Performance Indicators include all of the tested items on Ohio’s 24 state assessments, while the Performance Index measures how well students do on the assessments, and assigns a weight for students achieving limited, basic, proficient, accelerated, and advanced on state exams. Students who are accelerated or advanced in a grade or subject area will have their test scores adjusted, so that the student gets credit for achieving at a higher level. 

 

•Progress Component:  The Progress component includes five measures: value-added (overall), value-added for gifted, value-added for students with disabilities, value-added for the lowest performing quintile of students statewide, and High School Progress. With the exception of the high school progress measure, these measures will be graded starting in August 2013, and a grade for the overall component will be calculated, but not graded, on the 2015 and 2016 report card. The high school progress measure will not be graded until August 2016. 

 

•Graduation Component:  The graduation component includes two measures: a four year cohort and a five year cohort graduation rate.  Both items will be graded starting in 2013. A grade for the overall component will be calculated, but not graded, for the 2015 and 2016 report cards.

 

•K-3 Literacy Progress:  The K-3 Literacy Progress component includes one measure: the Third Grade Guarantee Progress, which is a percentage of students who are not on track to read by the third grade.  The measure will be graded on the 2014 - 2016 report card.  A grade for the overall component will be calculated, but not graded, in 2015 - 2016.

 

•Gap Closing:  The Gap Closing (AYP alternative) component includes one measure: annual measurable objectives (AMOs), which will be graded starting in 2013. A grade for the overall component will be calculated, but not graded, in 2015 and 2016.

 

Annual measurable objectives replace adequate yearly progress (AYP), which measured student proficiency in reading and math, and set as a goal that all students would be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

 

As this goal became more and more impractical to achieve, Ohio proposed in its ESEA waiver application a new measure, annual measurable objectives.  AMOs measure how well schools/districts are closing the achievement gap among groups of students, such as students with disabilities, students who are learning English, students who are economically disadvantaged in the areas of math, reading, and graduation rate, and all students.

 

•Prepared for Success:  This component includes seven measures of student participation and/or scores in the following areas: college admission test; honors diplomas; dual enrollment; Advanced Placement; International Baccalaureate; industrial credentials; and college and career ready. 

 

The measures in this component will not be graded, but just reported, starting in 2014. An overall component grade will be calculated in 2015 and 2016.

 

The College and Career Ready Assessment measure will be “reported only” starting in August 2014, and could be included in the Prepared for Success component grade starting in 2015, if the State Board makes that determination.

 

•Safe Harbor Provision:  HB555 also requires the State Board of Education by March 31, 2013 to make recommendations to the General Assembly to create a one-year safe harbor for districts and schools for the first year that the PARCC assessments are administered. The recommendation must include a method to exempt districts, buildings, community schools, STEM schools, and college preparatory boarding schools that have a decline in performance index score from sanctions and penalties based on report card ratings.

 

Public Participation on Agenda Items

Sarah Clark from the Ohio School Boards Association addressed the State Board during public participation on agenda items regarding the Restraint and Seclusion policy and rules. According to the presentation, OSBA has participated in the development of the policy and rules, and appreciates that changes have been made to address their concerns.  However, OSBA still questions the timeline for implementing the rule, and believes that school districts need more time for adopting a policy and training staff.  OSBA also believes that the policy and rules should apply to all schools, including community schools.

 

State Board Action

The State Board of Education at the January 2013 meeting took the following actions regarding the Report and Recommendations of the Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction

 

#3 Approved a Resolution of Intent to Amend Rule 3301-24-08 of the Administrative Code entitled Professional or Associate License Renewal.  

#4 Approved a Resolution of Intent to Amend Rules 3301-24-19 to -22 of the Administrative Code regarding Alternative Resident Educator Licenses.

#5 Approved a Resolution of Intent to Amend Rule 3301-35-15 of the Administrative Code concerning the implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention Supports and the Use of Restraint and Seclusion. 

#6 Approved a Resolution of Intent to Confirm the Tuslaw Local School District’s Determination of Impractical to Transport certain students attending Heritage Christian School, Canton, OH.  

#7 Approved a Resolution to confirm and approve the Recommendation of the Hearing Officer to approve the transfer of school district territory from the Northwestern Local School District, Wayne County, to the Norwayne Local School District, Wayne County, pursuant to Section 3311.24 of the Ohio Revised Code.

#16 Approved a Resolution to Amend Rules 3301-13-01, -02, -05, AND -06 and to Rescind Rule 3301-13-08 of the Administrative Code regarding statewide assessments.

#17 Amended and approved the Resolution to Approve ODE Policy on Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, and Restraint and Seclusion. The Achievement Committee amended the policy, and then the State Board amended the resolution again to state that the records referred to in the policy are subject to the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). President Terhar referred to the Legislative and Budget Committee for consideration the concerns raised about the fact that the policy does not apply to community schools. 

 

New Business

C. Todd Jones explained that the State Board will restructure its Board meetings starting in March 2013, and add time to the agenda to conduct a panel discussion on a variety of topics on Monday afternoons.  The first topic that will be considered at the March 2013 meeting is school safety.

 

FYI ARTS

 

1)  What is the role of the arts in STEM? Lauren Williams describes in District Administration efforts to add the arts to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) initiatives to create STEAM programs that add opportunities for students to become more creative, expressive, and innovative. (“Should STEM Become STEAM? by Lauren Williams, District Administration, January 14, 2013.)

 

In 2011 Representative James Langevin, working with the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), introduced U.S. House Resolution 319, which would have added art and design into federal STEM programs. Although the resolution did not pass, advocates for STEAM intend to introduce the resolution again in the 113th Congress. 

 

However, some STEM advocates believe that the creative processes that are used by successful scientists are similar to those used by artists.  The author notes that Doug Haller, STEM consultant and education blogger, argues that “...while encouraging art and design in STEM is important, it is already represented in well-implemented K12 programs.” 

 

The author includes in this article the following web sites that support STEAM education:

 

-STEAM Education, www.steamedu.com

 

-STEAM-Manifesto, www.steammanifesto.com

 

-STEAM Through Education, www.steamthrougheducation.com

 

-STEAM Not STEM, www.steam-notstem.com

 

-Rhode Island School of Design, STEM to STEAM, www.stemtosteam.org

 

The article is available at 

http://www.districtadministration.com/article/should-stem-become-steam    

 

2)  ASCD Conference will Feature a STEAM Session: Linda Nathan, Mark Lonergan, and Ramiro Gonzalez will present a session at the ASCD Conference and Exhibit Show in Chicago on March 18, 2013 entitled “STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) at Boston Arts Academy.”

 

The presenters recently provided a preview of the session, entitled STEAMing Up Education, and described how adding the arts to STEM education at the Boston Arts Academy (BAA) provided students with “diverse experiences, creative problem-solving skills, teamwork skills, and the ability to communicate all of this to others to succeed in the working world.”

 

The authors found, for example, that, “The work done in art classes is often much more collaborative. This requires students to struggle together and build upon each other’s strengths and challenges. Persistence, energy, and the willingness to take risks are noticeable in these classrooms, and the focus is always on improvement and collaborating to do one’s best. The role of critique is paramount. Listening and exchanging ideas is also crucial.”

 

The session will also describe how integrating STEAM in a classroom requires making adjustments in the daily lessons; creating entirely new courses; and creating multiple modes of assessments. STEAM educators, who approach the content as artists, engineers, and designers, focus less on the final answer and give more attention to the process.  They also bring into the classroom outside experts to work with students. The authors note, “This means that we create time in our STEAM courses for students to take risks and think creatively and give them chances to learn from their mistakes.”

 

The authors write, “With STEAM, we take one step closer to ensuring that our students exit our doors not only with a diploma, but with a set of skills that will help them shape the future.”

 

The preview is available at 

http://inservice.ascd.org/annual-conference/steaming-up-education/

 

3)  ASCD Issue Focuses on the Arts:  The January 17, 2013 issue of ASCD Express focuses on the arts as an “essential part of the whole child education”. The issue offers several articles that provide strategies for infusing and preserving arts education during these “tough economic times”, and an article about how the arts intersect with the Common Core State Standards.  

 

The issue includes the following articles and a video:

 

Learn from the Experts: Arts-Integration Lesson Plans That Work by Willona M. Sloan

Creating Rigorous Arts Lessons Across the Content Areas:  Tips for Collaboration by Jane Remer

The Arts Make a Difference by Nick Rabkin and Robin Redmond

Arts with the Brain in Mind E-Book

21st Century Skills DVD

Teaching Through the Prism of Arts Integration:  Teach with O’Keefe (video)

Common Core Quick-Start:  How the Arts Intersect with the Common Core State Standards (column) by Kristen Miller

Field Notes:  Turn Your Classroom into an Inquiry-Based Design Studio (column) by Anne Hayden Stevens

Leader Links:  Fair is Not Equal -- A Differentiated Approach for Supporting Behavioral Growth in the Classroom by David Snyder

 

The issue is available at http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol8/808-toc.aspx?utm_source=ascdexpress&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=express808

 

4) Internships Available:  The DeVos Institute at the Kennedy Center offers competitive internships for aspiring arts managers to gain critical hands-on experience in many areas of performing arts management.  Applicants must be currently enrolled juniors or seniors in undergraduate programs, Master’s candidates, or have completed a degree within the past two years. The deadline for application to the Summer Program (June 3 - August 9, 2013) is March 15, 2013.

 

The DeVos Institute interns develop valuable relationships in the industry by training with Kennedy Center Staff within departments aligned with their interests. Interns also gain a broad understanding of the performing arts industry by participating in weekly seminars and activities, attending Kennedy Center performances and events, and connecting with a vast network of DeVos Institute alumni. Alumni have gone on to organizations such as The Atlanta Symphony, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The New York Philharmonic, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the offices of Renée Fleming, and The Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.

 

The DeVos Institute internships are full-time (40 hours per week) or part-time (20-30 hours per week) unpaid opportunities that are intended to complement a student’s current program of study or other employment. Interns may receive, complimentary tickets to Kennedy Center performances during the internship and/or academic credit for either their college or university upon request. Please note, the Kennedy Center is not an accredited institution; therefore college credit must be granted by the Intern’s current college or university.

 

The DeVos Institute Summer Internships are offered in the following departments: Advertising, Marketing, Arts Education, Development, DeVos Institute of Arts Management, Institutional Affairs, Information Technology, National Symphony Orchestra Administration, Press, Programming, Production, Volunteer Management, and Washington National Opera.

 

To apply please visit

http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/artsmanagement/internships/

 

 

Ohio Alliance for Arts Education

Arts On Line Education Update

December 17, 2012

Joan Platz

 

1) 129th Ohio General Assembly:  The Ohio House and Senate completed work on pending legislation last week and are not expected to meet again this session, which ends on December 31, 2012. 

 

The Ohio Senate approved SJR 5 (LaRose and Sawyer) Redistricting/Reapportionment and HB543 (Anielski) Suicide Awareness.  The Ohio House concurred with Senate amendments to Sub. HB280 National Guard Scholarship Program (Dovilla and Wachtmann) and Am. Sub. HB555 (Stebelton and Butler) Accountability/Schools/Districts Ratings.  Information about HB555 is included in #4 below.

 

SJR 5 is a proposed constitutional amendment to change redistricting and reapportionment in Ohio introduced in the Senate on December 11, 2012.  The constitutional amendment would create a seven member redistricting commission similar to the current Apportionment Board, to develop a redistricting plan for the state. The commission would include the governor, auditor, secretary of state, and one appointee from the leader of each caucus in the House and Senate. Five votes, including at least one vote from the minority party’s representative on the commission, would be required to approve a redistricting plan. The commission must consider compactness and contiguity of voting districts, avoid splitting political subdivisions, and preserve communities of interest when developing the plan. The constitutional amendment  requires that the public hearings on the proposed plan be broadcast.  No action is expected on this resolution in the Ohio House this session, but it is expected to be introduced again in the 130th General Assembly.

 

Lawmakers also acknowledged the impact of the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program on school district budgets by adding to HB280 (Dovilla, Wachtmann) the Ohio National Guard Scholarship Program and the Ohio War Orphans Scholarship Program, an amendment that offsets the cost of the voucher program for certain school districts. The amendment requires the Ohio Department of Education to reimburse school districts for those students who have never attended public school in Ohio, but are now participating in the Jon Peterson Scholarship Program. The funds, up to $3.2 million, will come from the Lottery Profits Education Fund. The amendment was added by the Senate, and concurred with by the Ohio House on December 13, 2012.

 

2)  Ohio News

 

•Election News:  Representative Al Landis (R-Dover) was declared the winner in the 98th House District race defeating former Representative Joshua O’Farrell (D- New Philadelphia) by eight votes.  The Tuscarawas County Board of Elections announced the certified results after a recount on December 13, 2012. According to the Dover-New Philadelphia Times Reporter, former Representative Josh O’Farrell will continue to contest the results, which give the Republicans a super majority of 60 Republicans to 39 Democrats in the Ohio House.  (O’Farrell, Democrats to fight GOP supermajority by Jon Baker, December 15, 2012, TimesReporter.com) 

 

•Quinnipiac Poll on School Funding:  The results of a recent Quinnipiac University survey of Ohioans found that 51 percent of respondents believe that in order to do a better job, public schools in Ohio need to spend the money they receive from the government differently, while 37 percent believe that public schools need to receive more money from government.  Respondents were asked: “ When it comes to public schools in Ohio, which best represents your view: A) In order to do a better job, public schools in Ohio need to receive more money from government B) In order to do a better job, public schools in Ohio need to spend the money they receive from the government differently?” Details of the survey are available at http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-centers/polling-institute/ohio/release-detail?ReleaseID=1823

 

•Columbus Education Commission Established:  Mayor Michael Coleman and Council President Andrew Ginther met with members of a new commission on December 12, 2012 to begin discussions about the future of education in Columbus. The Mayor charged the commission to develop recommendations that, 

-Enable all children to succeed in the city’s vibrant, growing economy

-Make Columbus a global leader in developing the highly skilled, creative, entrepreneurial workforce that will propel economic growth in the 21st Century, and

-Leverage the resourcefulness of the entire community to meet these goals. 

 

The commission, appointed by Mayor Coleman, is co-chaired by George Barrett, president and CEO of Cardinal Health, Judge Algenon Marbley, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and Kathy Ransier, partner for Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease.

 

Other members of the 25-member commission include 

E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University President

Carol Perkins, President of the Columbus Board of Education 

David Harrison, President of Columbus State Community College 

Dr. Abdinur Mohamud, Ohio Department of Education 

Alex Fischer, President and CEO of the Columbus Partnership 

Lolita Augenstein, Columbus Council of PTAs

Lois Carson, Columbus Schools Employee Association

Robert Chilton, Impact Community Action

Tanny Crane, The Crane Group

Rev. Otha Gilyard, Shiloh Baptist Church

Stephanie Hightower, Columbus Urban League

Mary Jo Hudson, Bailey Cavalieri

Janet Jackson, United Way of Central Ohio

Chad Jester, Nationwide Insurance

Rhonda Johnson, Columbus Education Association

Mary Lou Langenhop, Children’s Hunger Alliance

Pat Losinski, Columbus Metropolitan Library

Elizabeth Martinez, Big Brothers and Big Sisters

Jordan Miller, Fifth Third Bank

Nancy Michong Pyon, Korean American Society of Central Ohio

Chip Spinning, Franklin County Children’s Services

Priscilla Tyson, Columbus City Council 

 

Information is available at http://reimaginecolumbuseducation.org/

 

3)  State Board of Education:  The State Board of Education, Debe Terhar president, met on December 10 and 11, 2012 at the Ohio School for the Deaf in Columbus.

 

Monday, December 10, 2012 Meeting

 

Draft Restraint and Seclusion Policy Rules 3301-35-15

Senior Executive Director Sasheen Phillips of ODE’s Center of Curriculum and Assessment and Sue Zake, Director of the Office of Exceptional Children, presented an update to the Achievement Committee and the State Board regarding a draft policy and rule language of the proposed new Restraint and Seclusion Policy.

 

The rules are being developed in accordance with the Governor’s Executive Order 2009-13S, the State of Ohio Policy on Restraint and Seclusion Practices dated May 17, 2010, and in accordance with guidance from the United States Department of Education. 

 

An external committee of stakeholders has been working with the ODE to develop the policy and rules, which were posted on the ODE web site in October 2012 for comment. In addition to the stakeholder group, there have been extensive meetings with other education organizations, other state agencies and partners about the proposed policy and rules.

 

The purpose of the proposed policy is to “create a learning environment that promotes the use of evidence-based behavioral interventions, thus enhancing academic and social behavioral outcomes for all students.” 

 

The following are the key components of the draft policy and rule as presented: 

-Creates a statewide policy regarding seclusion and restraint that applies to all school districts

-Addresses the use of a non-aversive effective behavior system based on multi-tiered systems of supports through positive behavior intervention support (PBIS)

-Prohibits the use of restraint and seclusion in behavior management, including “mechanical” restraints, corporal punishment, prone restraints, etc. 

-Restricts the use of restraint and seclusion unless there is an immediate threat of physical harm to students and others.  “Physical restraint may be used only when there is an immediate risk of physical harm to the student or others and no other safe and effective intervention is possible, and only in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate.”

-Requires documentation and reporting of incidents of restraint and seclusion. A report on restraint and/or seclusion must be forwarded to parents within 24 hours of any incident.

-Provides guidance for training.  The ODE is preparing guidance for training of staff, because at this time the ODE does not have funding to provide training. 

 

According to the presentation, the external stakeholder committee has received 293 online comments, 53 form letters, and other letters regarding the draft policy and rules, and is now focusing its work on addressing the following areas:  the definition of seclusion; permissible and restrictive practices; training, supports, and costs; the complaint and whistle-blower language; data collection and reporting; and the tiered system for training and prevention. 

 

The ODE continues to work with stakeholders and cross-agency partners on the following issues: 

-What needs to be reported and to whom? What kind of supports will schools/districts need?  ODE has been working with EMIS about the reporting of incidents at the district, building, and state levels and what kind of supports will be needed.

-How will compliance with the rules be ensured?  What will be the whistle-blower language? The reporting requirements of incidents involving children in the draft policy do not change other reporting requirements in law to Children’s Service agencies, law enforcement agencies, or the Office of Professional Conduct. 

-What are the communication and outreach plans for school districts/schools?

-What kind of supports, training, and guidance are needed, and what are the costs?

 

The ODE is developing a training guidance chart for the field; will host in January meetings with education organizations to present the policy and rules and discuss the impact of the policy and rules; and is considering language for functional behavioral assessment, and what that means beyond the use of it in IDEA and with a broader range of students. 

 

To establish a statewide baseline, the ODE will survey in December 2012 local districts, county boards of Developmental Disability, and ESCs about the use of PBIS, crisis management, and restraint and seclusion.

 

In response to the presentation State Board members asked for clarification of some definitions and terms in the policy, and asked for more information about the cost to implement the policy (will additional staff be needed?) and the cost for training staff.

 

An intent resolution will be brought forward in January 2013 for the Achievement Committee and the State Board to consider.  

 

Committee Reports:

 

The Achievement Committee, chaired by Angela Thai Bennett, discussed three items:  

-The committee discussed changes to the draft Restraint and Seclusion Policy and Rules 

-The committee also received a presentation regarding proposed amendments to Rules 3301-51-01 to -09 and -11, Operating Standards for Children with Disabilities.  The rules are being updated pursuant to five-year review requirement.  The State Board of Education will consider a resolution of intent to adopt the amended rules at the March 2013 meeting.  

-The committee reviewed the draft Financial Literacy Standards for primary and middle grades.  The standards align to the financial literacy standards for high schools adopted by the Board in June 2012.  The draft standards have been posted on the ODE website for feedback.

 

The Capacity Committee, chaired by Tom Gunlock, discussed the following items:

-The committee voted to move Rule 3301-24-08, Professional and Associate License Renewal to the State Board, which will consider an intent to adopt resolution in January 2013.  The rule is being amended to align with HB153 FY2012-13 budget bill, and eliminates the requirement that teachers with career-technical licenses complete a degree in order to renew their license.

-The Committee requested that ODE staff bring the proposed Rules 3301-24-19 to -22, Alternative Resident Educator License Rules, back in January 2013 with more information about how the rules relate to the requirements for teachers under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee.  

 

As proposed the rules expand from grades 4-12 to grades K-12 the designated subject alternative license, which makes it valid for teaching a single subject in grades K-12; add the option for teachers to complete a summer training institute approved by the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents to meet the pre-service teacher training requirement for alternative licensure; add the option for teachers to complete a professional development program approved by the Chancellor in place of 12 additional semester hours of professional education college coursework in the principles and practices of teaching; and remove the requirement for applicants for alternative licensure to have completed a major in the subject area to be taught, and instead specifying a particular number of hours. 

 

-The Committee voted to recommend to the full State Board the approval of Craig Burford to serve as the third member of the panel of experts to evaluate the teacher licensure standards of identified states pursuant to ORC 3319.228.

-William Gorth of the Evaluation Systems Group of Pearson presented to the committee information about the transition to new licensure assessments provided by Pearson, which are to be administered to Ohio licensure candidates beginning in September 2013. 

 

The Committee on Urban Education, chaired by Joe Farmer, approved documents presented by the ODE staff related to single-gender schools after discussion and revisions, and discussed principles that support student achievement in high poverty schools identified in the report Failure Is Not an Option.  

 

The Legislative and Budget Committee, chaired by C. Todd Jones, discussed the federal sequestration process and its impact on Ohio’s schools, and received an update on HB555 (Stebelton) Accountability System for Districts/Schools.

 

Meeting on December 11, 2012 

 

Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

Acting Superintendent Michael Sawyers updated the Ohio Department of Education on a number of topics. The first part of his presentation included information on the following items:

•Dr. John Richard the current superintendent of the Perry Local School District (Stark County) has been appointed to the position of Senior Executive Director at the ODE.  He will start at the ODE in February 2013 and will oversee accountability and improvement.

•Auditor of State David Yost has informed the ODE that his office will release a data integrity report about the investigation of student attendance data irregularities in January 2013.  The report is likely to be released at the January meeting of the State Board of Education. The report will include the findings of the auditor’s investigation and recommendations.  The ODE is preparing to respond to the report and will release the complete local report cards as soon as possible after the release of the report.  According to Acting Superintendent Sawyers it will take 7-14 days to produce the report cards.

•The ODE has prepared a video to help parents and communities understand the implementation of the Third Grade Guarantee.  The ODE is also producing other videos for parents and communities, and the next video available will be about the Common Core Standards.

 

Acting Superintendent Sawyers spent more time with the State Board discussing a report released by the U.S. Department of Education on November 26, 2012 with preliminary data on the four-year high school graduation rates for the 2010-11 school year. The new method to calculate the graduation rate tracks individual students who start as first-time 9th graders and graduate with a standard diploma within four years.  The October 2008 federal Title I regulations require each state to establish a single graduation rate goal and annual targets that reflect improvement from the prior year.  Approved goals and targets for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are included in each state’s approved Accountability Workbook or in the state’s approved ESEA flexibility request.

 

According to the preliminary data released, the graduation rate in Ohio was 80 percent overall.  Ohio students posted a 59 percent graduation rate for African American students; 53 percent rate for students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP); and a 65 percent rate for students from economically disadvantaged families. Ohio’s goal is to reach a 90 percent graduation rate by 2019 through incremental increases.

 

Acting Superintendent Sawyers emphasized the need to motivate and create an urgency in the state and in the schools to ensure that all students graduate in four years.  Implementation of the Common Core standards, new rigorous assessments, and the more rigorous graduation requirements will raise the bar for students and schools even higher.  Ohio’s schools must be better prepared in the next few years to meet the higher standards and challenges.  Ohio’s schools, leaders, and policy-makers must not be pressured, like in the past, to lower the bar because it is difficult. 

 

Superintendent Sawyers also reminded the State Board about the “Are You Ready?” campaign that was launched last year to inform schools and communities about the higher standards that are going to required by 2014-15.  This year the campaign has been delayed because of the late release of the report card data, but Acting Superintendent Sawyers intends to reach-out to all districts over the next months to encourage them to take action to better prepare students to meet the higher standards.

   

Ohio Assessments for Educators:  The State Board of Education also received a presentation from Dr. Bill Gorth and Donna Hanby from Evaluation Systems (Pearsons), which will implement new assessments for Ohio teachers starting in September 2013.  The new assessments, referred to as Ohio Assessments for Educators, will replace the Praxis exams, published by Education Testing Services. 

 

According to the presentation, Ohio’s new teacher assessment program will be developed with Ohio educators.  Each of the 46 specific tests areas will be developed by an advisory committee of classroom teachers and college faculty. The committees will identify what is to be tested, and, after developed, will review the assessments for content accuracy and content bias.  A larger group of teachers will then be surveyed to ensure that the appropriate content is being assessed.  After the assessments are developed, the State Board will set the passing scores for the new assessments in June 2012.  The assessments will be administered by computer, throughout the year, in multiple sites across the state.

 

To communicate the new assessment program Evaluation Systems will create a web site that will include information about Ohio policies and regulations for teaching.  The web site will have registration and program preparation information, and candidates will be able to have preliminary results immediately. The results will be generated in reports for the ODE, other Ohio agencies, teacher preparation programs, and the U.S. DOE. 

 

Board President Debe Terhar and Acting Superintendent Michael Sawyers also proposed that the State Board of Education consider moving its meetings to the conference center at the Ohio Department of Education, 25 Front Street in Columbus.  The conference center is being renovated and will be able to seat 75 persons.  The renovations should be complete in February 2013.  The State Board discussed setting their March 2013 meeting at the new conference center. 

 

The following is a summary of the resolutions that the State Board of Education considered at their December 11, 2012 meeting:

 

#3 Approved. Resolution of Intent to Amend Rule 3301-4-01 of Administrative Code entitled “Notice of Meetings”.

 

#4 Approved.  Resolution of Intent to Amend Rule 3301-23-44 of the Administrative Code entitled “Temporary and Substitute Licenses.”

 

#5 Approved.  Resolution of Intent to Amend Rule 3301-24-09 of the Administrative Code entitled “Performance-Based Licensure for Administrators.”

 

#6 Approved.  Resolution of Intent to Consider Confirmation of the Rocky River City School District’s determination of impractical the transportation of certain students attending St. Bernadette Elementary School, Westlake, OH.

 

#7 Approved.  Resolution of Intent to Consider Confirmation of the Rocky River City School District’s determination of impractical the transportation of certain students attending St. Paul Lutheran School, Westlake, OH.

 

#8 Approved.  Resolution of Intent to Consider Confirmation of the Rocky River City School District’s determination of impractical the transportation of certain students attending St. Raphael Elementary School, Bay Village, OH.

 

#9 Approved.  Resolution to Confirm and Approve the Recommendation of the Hearing Officer and to Approve the Transfer of school district territory from the Toledo City School District, Lucas County to the Ottawa Hills Local School District, Lucas County, pursuant to Section 3311.24 of the Ohio Revised Code.

 

#18 Approved.  Resolution to Amend Rule 3301-24-01 of the Administrative Code entitled “Glossary/Definitions.”

 

#19 Approved.  Resolution to Amend Rule 3301-24-05 of the Administrative Code entitled “Licensure.”

 

#20 Approved.  Resolution of Appointment of Venezuela Robinson to the Educator Standards Board. 

 

#21 Approved. Resolution to Adopt Standards for Determining Annual Operating Expenditures Pursuant to ORC 3302.20.

 

#22  Approved.  Resolution to Approve a Third Member of the Panel of Experts to Evaluate the Teacher Licensure Standards of Identified States Pursuant to ORC 3319.228. The Committee voted to recommend to the full State Board the approval of Craig Burford to serve as the third member of the panel of experts.

 

#23  Approved.  Resolution to Adopt Standards Allowing the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to Grant Waivers of the Operating Standards for Schools in Accordance With R.C. 3301.07 (O).

 

#24  Approved. Emergency Resolution to Delegate the Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction to Engage a Hearing Examiner to Act as the State Board of Education’s Designee to Conduct a Hearing Pursuant to ORC 3314.074.

 

#25 Presented a Certificate of Commendation to Kristen McKinley for her service on the State Board of Education.

 

4) HB555 (Stebelton/Butler) Accountability/School/District Ratings:  The Ohio Senate completed work on Am. Sub. HB555 on December 12, 2012 after making several changes in the bill, and approved the bill by a vote of 27 to 6.  Some of the changes made in the Senate Education Committee were removed when the bill came to a vote in the Senate to avoid a conference committee in the Ohio House.  This strategy worked, because the Ohio House concurred with the Senate changes on December 13, 2012 by a vote of 56 to 31.  The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.  

 

Work on HB555 began last spring when lawmakers debated SB316 (Lehner), the mid-biennial review for education.  A new A-F report card rating system for schools/districts was originally included in SB316 to comply with Ohio’s application for waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind Act.  Lawmakers decided to hold-back on the changes in Ohio’s rating system for schools and pulled them from SB316 before it was approved and signed into law in June 2012. But, as a result, lawmakers were still required to return to the drawing board and finalized a new rating system for Ohio’s schools/districts in order to comply with the federal waiver Ohio was subsequently granted.

 

HB555 includes a variety of changes in education law, but primarily does the following: 

•Creates a new academic performance rating system for public schools

•Requires an alternative rating system for community schools with dropout prevention and recovery programs

•Creates a new evaluation process for community school sponsors

•Abolishes the Ohio Accountability Task Force

•Makes changes in the third grade reading guarantee and the requirements for qualified reading teachers

•Modifies the procedure for approving the opening of new Internet- or computer-based community schools 

•Makes changes in the War Orphans Scholarship and Ohio National Guard Scholarship programs

 

The act also includes a new section 3302.034 Additional Measures, which is of interest to arts education advocates. This new section of law requires the State Board of Education to adopt measures in addition to the report card, and report them separately for school districts, buildings, community schools, STEM schools, and college preparatory boarding schools. The new measures include the availability of courses in the fine arts and the amount of extracurricular services offered to students. The ODE is required to report this information annually beginning with the 2013-2014 school year, and make this information available on its web site for comparison purposes. 

 

The act directs the State Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Ohio Department of Education to calculate standards, benchmarks, and approve rules to implement the provisions in the act in a very short amount of time. Some lawmakers and school leaders are questioning the capacity of the ODE to complete this work after years of cut-backs and loss of staff.

 

The following is a summary of some of the provisions included in the act as passed by the Senate and concurred with by the House:

 

Amended Section 3301.079 (D) Academic Standards 

Replaces references to “English language arts” with the terms reading and writing.

 

Amended Sec. 3301.0710 (A)(2) Assessments 

Increases the number of statewide assessments in the forth grade to three:  English language arts, mathematics, and social studies.

 

Decreases the number of statewide assessments in the fifth grade to three:  English language arts, mathematics, and science.

 

Increases the number of statewide assessments in the sixth grade to three:  English language arts, mathematics, and social studies.

 

Decreases the number of statewide assessments in the eighth grade to three:  English language arts, mathematics, and science. 

 

Increases the number of ranges of scores students can achieve on the achievement assessments from three to five: advanced level; accelerated; proficient; basic; and limited.

 

Amended Sec. 3301.0711 Graduation Requirements 

Technical changes. Removes terms that are being phased-out.

 

Amended Sec. 3301.0714 EMIS 

Allows entities contracted by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to “develop” state assessments to access certain EMIS reports with staff and/or student information.

 

Amended Sec. 3301.0715 Diagnostic Assessments

Requires students in the third grade to take a diagnostic assessment.  Allows districts that received an excellent or effective rating to use an assessment other than the one determined by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE).

 

Amended Sec. 3302.01 Report Card Ratings Definitions 

Performance Index Score: Allows the ODE to assign an additional weight to students who have passed over a grade or subject and have attained a proficient score or higher on a state assessment. The ODE shall assign each year an additional proportional weight to students who attain an advanced score. For each school year that such a student’s score is included in the performance index score and the student attains the proficient score on an assessment, that additional weight shall be assigned to the student on a subject-by-subject basis. The State Board must approve this weight. 

 

Subsets of Students: Adds students identified as gifted and students in the lowest quintile for achievement to the subset of students included in the performance index score. Students identified as gifted in superior cognitive will be included in the subset, along with students identified as gifted in reading and math. The ODE shall also include data for students with specific academic ability in other fields, if the field is assessed.

 

Value Added progress dimension:  Requires the “value-added progress dimension” be developed and implemented in accordance with section 3302.021 of the Revised Code.

 

Graduation Rate: Includes the definition of the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and the five-year adjusted cohort.

 

Annual Measurable Objectives: Defines annual measurable objectives as the progress determined in accordance with an agreement between the ODE and the U.S. Department of Education.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.02, Performance Indicators

Requires the State Board to establish a “set” of performance indicators “that considered as a unit will be used as one of the performance categories for the report cards.”

 

Removes attendance from the set of performance indicators that the State Board of Education is required to establish, but retains the “breadth of coursework available within the district.”

 

Adds to the performance indicators for gifted education in the 2014-2015 school year the performance of students identified as gifted on state assessments and value added growth measure dis-aggregated for students identified as gifted.

 

Directs the State Board to set the percentage at 80 percent for all of the state achievement assessments for the 2013-2014 school year and 85 percent for 11th grade students. Permits the State Board to adopt rules by July 1, 2014, establishing a different percentage to begin with the 2014-2015 school year. 

 

Amended Sec. 3302.021 Value Added 

Eliminates the Ohio Accountability Task Force and the Ohio Accountability Advisory Committee, which was included in the House version of the bill.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.03 Report Cards 

Eliminates the current report card criteria.

 

States that annually, not later than the fifteenth day of September or the preceding Friday when that day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the ODE shall issue annual report cards for each school district and building.

 

Establishes a new system for rating school districts and buildings based on letter grades A-F outlined in division (E) of this section. The State Board of Education is required to establish the performance criteria for each letter grade and prescribe a method to assign a letter grade. The bill states in division (E) that “A” means making excellent progress; “B” means making above average progress; “C” means making average progress; “D” means making below average progress; “F” means failing to meet minimum progress. The current requirement in law to disaggregate the data according to certain categories is retained with some changes for gifted education, and added is a new category comprised of students who achieve in the lowest quintile. 

 

States that for a school building to which any of the performance measures do not apply, due to grade levels served by the building, the State Board shall designate the performance measures that are applicable to the building. This designation must be calculated separately and used to calculate the building’s overall grade.

 

Requires the ODE to issue annual report cards reflecting the performance profile of each school district, each building within each district, and for the state as a whole, using the performance measures and letter grade system. Requires the ODE to include on the report card for each district the most recent two-year trend data in student achievement for each subject and each grade.

 

Outlines in Section 3302.03 (A)(1) a-f; (B)(1) a-g; and (C)(1) a-n how grades in the performance measures for school districts and schools will be phased-in over school years 2012-13; 2013-14; and 2014-15. For some school years the percentage of students needed to receive a certain grade level changes, and indicators are added. States that there shall not be an overall letter grade for school districts or buildings for the 2012-13 or 2013-14 school years.

 

The following performance measures will be reported and graded starting in the 2012-13 school year: 

-Annual measurable objectives, which replaces adequate yearly progress.  

-Performance index score for a school district or building as a percentage of the total possible points as adopted by the State Board. 

-Performance Indicators earned expressed as a percent. 

-Four and five-year adjusted cohort graduation rates overall.  

-Value added score based on three years of value added data.  

-The value-added progress dimension score for a school district or building disaggregated for each of the following subgroups: students with disabilities and students whose performance places them in the lowest quintile for achievement on a statewide basis. Each subgroup shall be a separate graded measure. The Senate removed students who are gifted from this provision in 2012-13 school year, but added students identified as gifted in superior cognitive ability and specific academic ability fields starting in the 2013-14 school year. 

 

The following additional performance measure will be reported and graded starting in the 2013-14 school year: 

 

-The progress school districts and schools are making in improving literacy in grades kindergarten through three, as determined using a method prescribed by the state board. The state board shall adopt rules to prescribe benchmarks and standards for assigning grades to districts and buildings. In adopting benchmarks for assigning letter grades the state board shall determine progress made based on the reduction in the percentage of students scoring below grade level, or below proficient, compared from year to year on the English language arts diagnostic assessments and the third grade English language arts assessment as applicable. The state board shall designate for a “C” grade a value that is not lower than the statewide average value for this measure. No grade shall be issued for a district or building in which less than five per cent of students have scored below grade level on the diagnostic assessment administered to students in kindergarten. 

 

Beginning in the 2013-14 school year the following indicators will be reported, but not graded pursuant to (B)(2) a-f of this section.  Not later than December 31, 2013, the state board shall adopt rules that prescribe the methods by which the performance measures for value added and improving literacy in grades K-3 will be assessed and assigned a letter grade, including performance benchmarks for each grade.

 

-The percentage of students enrolled in a district or building participating in advanced placement classes and the percentage of those students who received a score of three or better on advanced placement examinations.

 

-The number of a district’s or building’s students who have earned at least three college credits through dual enrollment programs, such as the post-secondary enrollment options program and state-approved career-technical courses offered through dual enrollment or statewide articulation, that appear on a student’s transcript or other official document, either of which is issued by the institution of higher education from which the student earned the college credit. The credits earned shall not include any that are remedial or developmental and shall include those that count toward the curriculum requirements established for completion of a degree.

 

-The percentage of students enrolled in a district or building who have taken a national standardized test used for college admission determinations and the percentage of those students who are determined to be remediation-free.

 

-The percentage of the district’s or the building’s students who receive industry credentials. The state board shall adopt criteria for acceptable industry credentials.

 

-The percentage of students enrolled in a district or building who are participating in an international baccalaureate program and the percentage of those students who receive a score of four or better on the international baccalaureate examinations.

 

-The percentage of the district’s or building’s students who receive an honors diploma.

 

The following additional performance measures will be reported and graded starting in the 2014-15 school year: 

 

-The overall score under the value-added progress dimension, or another measure of student academic progress if adopted by the state board, of a school district or building, for which the department shall use up to three years of value-added data as available. The state board shall prohibit the assigning of a grade of “A” for this measure unless the district’s or building’s grade assigned for value-added progress dimension for all subgroups is a “B” or higher. The state board may adopt a student academic progress measure to be used instead of the value-added progress dimension. If the state board adopts such a measure, it also shall prescribe a method for assigning letter grades for the new measure that are comparable with other provisions in the act.

 

The following performance indicators will be included on the report card without a grade in the 2014-15 school year:

 

-The percentage of students enrolled in a district or building who have taken a national standardized test used for college admission determinations and the percentage of those students who are determined to be remediation-free in accordance with the standards adopted under division (F) of section 3345.061 of the Revised Code;

 

-The percentage of students enrolled in a district or building participating in advanced placement classes and the percentage of those students who received a score of three or better on advanced placement examinations;

 

-The number of a district’s or building’s students who have earned at least three college credits through dual enrollment programs, such as the post-secondary enrollment options program and state-approved career-technical courses offered through dual enrollment or statewide articulation, that appear on a student’s transcript or other official document, either of which is issued by the institution of higher education from which the student earned the college credit. The credits earned that are reported in this section shall not include any that are remedial or developmental and shall include those that count toward the curriculum requirements established for completion of a degree.

 

-The percentage of the district’s or building’s students who receive an honor’s diploma.

 

-The percentage of the district’s or building’s students who receive industry credentials

 

-The percentage of students enrolled in a district or building who are participating in an international baccalaureate program and the percentage of those students who receive a score of four or better on the international baccalaureate examinations;

 

-The results of the college and career-ready assessments.

 

Sets the deadlines for the State Board of Education to adopt resolutions describing the performance measures, benchmarks, and grading system for the 2012-13; 2013-14 and the 2014-15 school years. 

 

Does not require an overall letter grade for a school district or school in the 2012-2013 or the 2013-2014 school years, but requires the ODE to establish a method to assign an overall grade for a school district or school building for the 2014-2015 school year and each school year thereafter. The State Board shall adopt a grade for each separate component and an overall grade for the following:

 

(a) Gap closing, which shall include the performance measure for annual measurable objectives

(b) Achievement, which shall include the performance measures for the performance index score and performance indicators

(c) Progress, which shall include the performance measures, value added, and the rate of participation and scores on a national standardized test for college admission

(d) Graduation rates 

(e) Kindergarten through third-grade literacy 

(f) Prepared for success, which shall include the performance measures for participation and scores on a national standardized test for college admission, indicators for college and career ready, participation and scores on advanced placement exams, college credits earned, honors diploma, results of the college and career-ready assessments, and industry credentials.

 

States further that when determining the overall grade for the prepared for success component, no individual student shall be counted in more than one performance measure. However, if a student qualifies for more than one performance measure in the component, the state board may, in its method to determine a grade for the component, specify an additional weight for such a student that is not greater than or equal to 1.0. In determining the overall score the state board shall ensure that the pool of students included in the performance measures aggregated under that division are all of the students included in the four- and five-year adjusted graduation cohort.

 

Requires the ODE to conduct a public presentation before the House and Senate education committees at least forty-five days prior to the State Board’s adoption of rules to prescribe the methods for calculating the grades for the individual components and the overall grade for the report card and describe the format for the report card, the weights that will be assigned to the components of the overall grade, and the method for calculating the overall grade. 

 

Requires the State Board not later than July 1, 2015 to develop a measure of student academic progress for high school students, which shall be included on the report card beginning in the 2015-2016.

 

Requires the ODE to report when a particular student group did not receive a student performance data report, because there were less than ten students. 

 

Amended Sec. 3302.033 Report Cards for Joint Vocational School Districts and Career Technical Planning Districts. 

Allows data to be dis-aggregated for each joint vocational school district. Includes districts that are not joint vocational.

 

NEW Section 3302.034 Additional Measures

Requires the State Board of Education by December 31, 2013 to adopt measures in addition to the report card, and report them separately for school districts, school buildings, community schools, STEM schools, and college preparatory boarding schools. 

-Data for students who have passed over a grade or subject area under an acceleration policy prescribed under section 3324.10 of the Revised Code

-The number of students who are eligible to receive and those that are receiving free lunch under the “National School Lunch Act,” 42 U.S.C. 1751, as amended, and the “Child Nutrition Act of 1966,” 42 U.S.C. 1771, as amended 

-The number of lead teachers employed by each district and each building once the data is available through the education management information system established under section 3301.0714 

-The amount of students screened and identified as gifted under Chapter 3324. of the Revised Code 

-Postgraduate student outcome data as described under division (E)(2)(d)(ii) of section 3314.017 of the Revised Code 

-Availability of courses in fine arts

-Participation with other school districts to provide career-technical education services to students 

-The amount of extracurricular services offered to students. 

 

The department shall report this information annually beginning with the 2013-2014 school year and make this information available on its web site for comparison purposes. 

 

Amended Section 3302.04 Transition for Designations

Clarifies that after the 2014-2015 school year, when a provision in law refers to a school or school district in academic emergency, academic watch, continuous improvement, it means the following: Academic emergency = F, Academic Watch = D, Continuous Improvement = C.

 

Maintains current agreements with the U.S. Department of Education regarding low performing schools.

 

States that for the 2012-2013 school year schools or districts that receive an “F” rating for the number of performance indicators met; performance index score; or a rating of “D” or “F” for value added, shall be subject to intervention rules and a site evaluation. 

 

Amended Sec. 3302.041 Corrective Action Plans

Clarifies that corrective action plans for schools are contingent upon the approval of the U.S. Department of Education. 

 

The Senate Removed Changes to Amended Sec. 3302.042 Parent Trigger Pilot Project

 

Amended Sec. 3302.05 Exemptions from Mandates

Identifies the school districts eligible for exemptions from state mandates adopted by the State Board of Education based on the new rating system for schools.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.10 Academic distress commission

Identifies the school districts that must implement an academic distress commission based on the new rating system.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.12 Low Performing Schools

Identifies the school districts that must implement certain provisions regarding low performing schools based on the new rating system.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.20 Annual Operating Expenditures for Classroom Instruction

Removed the House requirement that data to be collected and reported from the college preparatory boarding school after two years of operations about operating expenditures for classroom instruction and non classroom purposes.

 

Excludes community schools subject to Section 3314.17 (dropout prevention and recovery schools) from performance index scores rankings.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.21 Ranking City, Exempted Village, Local School Districts, and Community Schools

States that community schools subject to Section 3314.17 (dropout prevention and recovery schools) and STEM schools subject to Section 3326 are excluded from rankings.

 

Permits the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop another measure of student academic performance based on similar data and performance measures and to rank districts, schools, or buildings to which the performance index score does not apply.

 

Allows alternative student academic progress measures to be used to rank schools if adopted under division (C)(1)(e) of section 3302.03 of the Revised Code.

 

Excludes from an annual report about school rankings issued by the ODE each September community schools subject to 3314.17; and STEM schools subject to 3326.

 

Amended Section 3310.03 Educational Choice Scholarship

Aligns the eligibility requirements for students seeking an Educational Choice Scholarship with the new rating/accountability system for schools/districts. 

 

A student shall not be eligible for a scholarship if the student’s resident building meets any of the following in the most recent rating under section 3302.03 of the Revised Code published prior to the first day of July of the school year for which a scholarship is sought:

 

-The building has an overall designation of excellent or effective under section 3302.03 of the Revised Code as it existed prior to the effective date of this amendment.

 

-For the 2012-2013 or 2013-2014 school year or both, the building has a grade of “A” or “B” for the performance index score and for the value-added progress dimension; or if the building serves only grades ten through twelve, the building received a grade of “A” or “B” for the performance index score and had a four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of greater than or equal to seventy-five per cent.

 

-For the 2014-2015 school year or any school year thereafter, the building has a grade of “A” or “B” and a grade of “A” for the value-added progress dimension; or if the building serves only grades ten through twelve, the building received a grade of “A” or “B” for the performance index score and had a four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of greater than or equal to seventy-five per cent.

 

A student who is eligible for kindergarten shall not be eligible for a scholarship if the student’s resident district meets any of the following in the most recent rating under section 3302.03 of the Revised Code published prior to the first day of July of the school year for which a scholarship is sought:

 

-The district has an overall designation of excellent or effective under section 3302.03 of the Revised Code as it existed prior to the effective date of this amendment.

 

-The district has a grade of “A” or “B” for the performance index score and for the value-added progress dimension for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years.

 

-The district has an overall grade of “A” or “B” and a grade of “A” for the value-added progress dimension for the 2014-2015 school year or any school year thereafter.

 

Amended Section 3310.06 Educational Choice Scholarship

Eliminates the terms academic emergency or academic watch and replaces them with “persistently low-performing school buildings” in the description of the intent of the Educational Choice Scholarship.

 

New 3310.16 Two Application Periods for the Educational Choice Scholarship

Establishes for the 2014-2015 school year and thereafter two application periods, the first day of February to July 1st and July 1st through mid August, for the Educational Choice Scholarship. 

 

Amended Sec. 3311.80 Municipal School District

Permits the municipal school district to use an alternative student academic progress measure adopted by the State Board of Education in place of value added as a component of teacher evaluation.

 

States that “Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in Chapter 4117. of the Revised Code, the requirements of this section prevail over any conflicting provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after October 1, 2012.”

 

Amended Sec. 3313.473 Site-based management councils

Aligns the requirements for a site-based management council with the new rating system for school districts and schools.

 

Amended Sec. 3313.608 Third Grade Reading Guarantee/Teacher Qualifications

Changes the term English language arts to reading and writing.

 

Requires students identified with a reading deficiency to receive intensive reading instruction services and regular diagnostic assessments until the development of the reading improvement and monitoring plan is implemented.  Students are to receive not less than 90 minutes of reading instruction per day.  

 

Includes in division (H) the qualifications of a teacher to provide the reading instruction. States that prior to July 1, 2014, each eligible student who enters third grade for the first time on or after July 1, 2013, shall be assigned a teacher who satisfies one or more of the following criteria:

-holds a reading endorsement on the teacher’s license and has attained a passing score on the corresponding assessment for that endorsement

-has completed a master’s degree program with a major in reading

-has demonstrated evidence of a credential earned from a list of scientifically research-based reading instruction programs approved by the department

-was rated “above value added,” which means most effective in reading, as determined by the department, for the last two school years

 

States that effective July 1, 2014, each eligible student shall be assigned a teacher who satisfies one or more of the following criteria:

-holds a reading endorsement on the teacher’s license and has attained a passing score on the corresponding assessment for that endorsement.

-has completed a master’s degree program with a major in reading.

-was rated “above value added,” which means most effective for the last two school years.

-has earned a passing score on a rigorous test of principles of scientifically research-based reading instruction. This test shall be selected through a competitive bidding process and shall be approved by the state board.

 

Also states that, if on the effective date of this amendment, a school district or community school cannot furnish the number of qualified teachers the school district or community school shall develop and submit a plan by June 30, 2013, in a manner determined by the department indicating the criteria that will be used to determine those teachers in the school district or community school who will teach and how the school district or community school will meet the qualifications.

 

A school district or community school may include in this plan the option to contract with another school district or private provider that has been screened and approved by the department to provide intervention services. If the school district or community school’s plan is not approved by the department by August 15, 2013, the school district or community school shall use a private contractor from a list approved by the department or contract with another district to provide intervention services for these students.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.011 Fiscal Officers

Requires fiscal officers of community schools to be licensed under Section 3301.074 of the Revised Code.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.012 Report Cards for Community Schools

Exempts schools subject to Section 3314.017 (dropout and prevention recovery schools) from the ODE requirement to issue annual report cards for community schools. 

 

Requires the report card for community schools to align with divisions (A), (B), (C) and (D) of Section 3302.03 of the Revised Code, rating system for schools.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.013 Internet or computer-based schools

Extends until the 61st day after the law has been enacted or after July 1, 2013 the prohibition regarding the opening of new internet/computer-based schools, with some exceptions. New schools may open subject to the approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

 

Requires the Superintendent to approve applications for new internet/computer-based school from only those demonstrating experience and quality.

 

Requires the Superintendent to adopt rules prescribing measures to determine experience and quality of applicants. Measures shall include, but are not limited to, the sponsor’s experience, the operator’s experience, the sponsor and operator’s previous record of student achievement, a preference for operators with previous experience in Ohio.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.015 Community School Sponsors

Requires the ODE to evaluate the effectiveness of any and all sponsors of community schools.

 

Requires the State Board rather than the ODE to determine whether the mission proposed in the contract of a community school to be sponsored by a state university board of trustees complies with the requirements in the division, and if any tax exempt entity is an education-oriented entity for the purposes of sponsoring a community school.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.016 Rating Sponsors of Community Schools

Prohibits an entity from sponsoring additional community schools if it is rated as ineffective.

 

Requires the ODE to develop and implement an evaluation system that rates each entity that sponsors a community school based on the following components:  

-Academic performance of students enrolled

-Adherence to the quality practices prescribed by the ODE. This provision can not be implemented until the ODE develops the quality practices and an instrument to measure adherence.

-Compliance with applicable laws and administrative rules by an entity.

 

Requires the ODE to exclude from the academic component community schools in operation for less than two full years and community schools in division (A)(4)(b) of Sec. 3314.35. (Dropout recovery and prevention)

 

Requires the ODE to prescribe quality practices for community school sponsors and develop an instrument to measure adherence to the quality practices.

 

Requires the State Board of education not later than July 1, 2013 to adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code prescribing standards for measuring compliance with applicable laws and rules under division (B)(1)(c) of this section. 

 

Requires the ODE to rate all entities that sponsor community schools as either “exemplary,” “effective,” or “ineffective,” based on the components prescribed by division (B) of this section, where each component is weighted equally, except that entities sponsoring community schools for the first time may be assigned the rating of “emerging” for only the first two consecutive years. 

 

Requires the ODE to publish the ratings between the first day of October and the 15th day of October.

 

States that prior to the 2014-2015 school year, student academic performance prescribed under division (B)(1)(a) of this section shall not include student academic performance data from community schools that primarily serve students enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program as described in division (A)(4)(a) of section 3314.35 of the Revised Code. 

 

For the 2014-2015 school year and each school year thereafter, student academic performance prescribed under division (B)(1)(a) of this section shall include student academic performance data from community schools that primarily serve students enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program. 

 

Allows the ODE to assume sponsorship of a community school that has not yet opened and for which the sponsor has becomes ineligible until the governing authority of the new community school has secured a new sponsor or until two years has expired. The sponsorship by the ODE of a school under these circumstances does not count toward the ODE sponsor limit.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.017 Report Cards for Dropout and Prevention Community Schools

Requires the State Board of Education to adopt academic performance rating and a report card system for community schools that primarily serve students enrolled in dropout prevention and recovery programs beginning in the 2012-2013 school year.

 

States that nothing in this section shall at any time relieve a school from its obligations under the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001” to make “adequate yearly progress.” The department shall continue to report each school’s performance as required by the act and to enforce applicable sanctions under section 3302.04 or 3302.041 of the Revised Code.

 

Requires the State Board to adopt the following performance indicators for the rating and report card system required by this section:   

-Graduation rate for students graduating in four years or less; those graduating in five years; those graduating in 6 years, 7 years, and 8 years with a high school diploma.

-The percentage of twelfth-grade students currently enrolled in the school who have attained the designated passing score on all of the applicable state high school achievement assessments required under division (B)(1) or (2) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code and other students enrolled in the school, regardless of grade level, who are within three months of their twenty-second birthday and have attained the designated passing score on all of the applicable state high school achievement assessments by their twenty-second birthday.

-Annual measurable objectives as defined in section 3302.01 of the Revised Code 

-Growth in student achievement in reading, or mathematics, or both as measured by separate nationally norm-referenced assessments that have developed appropriate standards for students enrolled in dropout prevention and recovery programs, adopted or approved by the state board.

 

Requires the State Board rules to prescribe the expected performance levels and benchmarks for each of the indicators based on the data gathered by the department. Based on a school’s level of attainment or non attainment of the expected performance levels and benchmarks for each of the indicators, the department shall rate each school in one of the following categories: Exceeds standards, Meets standards, or Does not meet standards.

 

Requires the State Board to establish performance levels and benchmarks for the indicators by certain dates. 

 

Prescribes the percentage of the score that will determine each indicator.

 

States that if both of the indicators for graduation rate and student achievement on certain state assessments improve by ten per cent for two consecutive years, a school shall be rated as “meets standards.” 

 

Prescribes the components of the report cards for the 2012-2013; 2013-2014; 2014-2015 school years. Requires the ODE to also include student outcome data such as postsecondary credits earned, nationally recognized career or technical certificates, military enlistment, job placement, attendance rate, and progress on closing achievement gaps for each school. 

 

Requires the ODE to gather data and work with stakeholders to determine how to measure student growth and requires schools to cooperate. 

 

Requires the ODE to identify one or more states that have established or are in the process of establishing similar academic performance rating systems for dropout prevention and recovery programs, and consult with the departments of education of those states in developing the system required by this section. 

 

Amended Sec. 3314.02 Challenged School District 

Aligns the definition of a challenged school district with the components of the new rating system. States that a challenged school district is one that: 

 

-On the effective date of this amendment, the district was in a state of academic emergency or in a state of academic watch as described in law section prior to the effective date of this amendment.

 

-For two of the 2012-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015 school years, the district received a grade of “D” or “F” for the performance index score and a grade of “F” for the value-added progress dimension.

 

-For the 2015-2016 school year and for any school year thereafter, the district has received an overall grade of “D” or “F”, or, for at least two of the three most recent school years, the district received a grade of “F” for the value-added progress dimension under division (C)(1)(e) of that section.

 

Allows the governing board of an educational service center to sponsor a new start-up school in any challenged school district in the state if all of the following are satisfied: If applicable, it satisfies the requirements of division (E) of section 3311.86 of the Revised Code; it is approved to do so by the ODE; or it enters into an agreement with the ODE under section 3314.015 of the Revised Code. 

 

Amended Sec. 3314.05 Community School Multiple Facilities

Allows community schools to be located in multiple facilities if certain conditions are met. Aligns those conditions with the new rating system for community schools.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.35 Community School Closure

Describes the circumstances that would lead to the closure of a community school using the new rating system for schools before July 2013 and after July 2013.  

 

States that for purposes of division (A)(3) of this section only, the value-added progress dimension for a community school shall be calculated using assessment scores for only those students to whom the school has administered the achievement assessments prescribed by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code for at least the two most recent school years.

 

New Sec. 3314.351 Dropout Prevention and Recovery Community Schools

States that beginning on or after July 1, 2014, any such community school that has received a designation of “does not meet standards” as described in division (D)(1) of section 3314.017 of the Revised Code on the report card issued under that section, for at least two of the three most recent school years, shall be subject to closure.

 

Requires the ODE to notify each school subject to closure by the first day of September. 

 

Amended Sec. 3314.36 Waivers for Dropout Prevention and Recovery Community Schools

States that until June 30, 2014, the ODE shall grant a waiver to a dropout prevention and recovery program, within sixty days after the program applies for the waiver, if the program meets all of the certain conditions unchanged by the bill.

 

States that beginning on July 1, 2014, all community schools in which a majority of the students are enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program are subject to the provisions of section 3314.351 of the Revised Code, regardless of whether a waiver has been granted under this section. Thereafter, no waivers shall be granted under this section. 

 

Amended Sec. 3314.361 Community School Drug Recovery Program

 

Defines a community school operating a drug recovery program with a court as a dropout prevention and recovery school program regardless of the ages of the students or grade levels served.

 

Amended Sec. 3319.11 Teacher Evaluations

States that “Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in Chapter 4117. of the Revised Code, the dates set forth in this section as “on or before the first day of June” or “on or before the fifteenth day of June” prevail over any conflicting provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after the effective date of this amendment.”

 

Amended Sec. 3319.111 Teacher evaluations/contracts

States that the teacher evaluation provisions do not apply to a person employed as an instructor of adult education.

 

Allows alternative student academic progress measures to be used if adopted by the state board of education.

 

States that “Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in Chapter 4117. of the Revised Code, the requirements of sections 3119.11 and 3119.112 of the Revised Code prevail over any conflicting provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after September 24, 2012 and the effective date of this amendment.” 

 

Amended Sec. 3319.112 Teacher Evaluation Framework Criteria

Requires multiple evaluation factors for the teacher evaluation framework. States that one factor shall be student academic growth which shall account for fifty per cent of each evaluation. When applicable to the grade level or subject area taught by a teacher, the value-added progress dimension or an alternative student academic progress measure shall be used in the student academic growth portion of an evaluation in proportion to the part of a teacher’s schedule of courses or subjects for which the value-added progress dimension is applicable. If a teacher’s schedule is comprised only of courses or subjects for which the value-added progress dimension is applied, until June 30, 2014, the majority of the student academic growth factor of the evaluation shall be based on the value-added progress dimension or after July 1, 2014, the entire student academic growth factor of the evaluation shall be based on the value-added progress dimension. In calculating student academic growth for an evaluation, a student shall not be included if the student has sixty or more unexcused absences for the school year.

 

States that the value-added progress dimension established under section 3302.021 of the Revised Code or an alternative student academic progress measure if adopted under division (C)(1)(e) of section 3302.03 of the Revised Code shall be used in the student academic growth portion of an evaluation. 

 

Amended Sec. 3319.58 Ineffective Teachers

Exempts community schools subject to Section 3314.017 (dropout prevention and recovery schools) from requiring classroom teachers in schools ranked in the lowest ten percent of all public school buildings to register for and take all written examinations of content knowledge selected by the ODE.

 

Amended Sec. 3326.03 STEM Schools

Allows an educational service center to submit proposals for new STEM schools through a partnership of public and private entities to the STEM committee.

 

Amended 5910.02 Ohio War Orphans Scholarship

Defines “veteran” as any person who was a member of the armed services of the United States and participated in an operation for which the armed forces expeditionary medal was awarded.

 

Permits the War Orphans Scholarship Board to apply for, receive, and accept, grants, gifts, bequests, and contributions from public and private sources, including agencies and instrumentalities of the United States and this state, and shall deposit the grants, gifts, bequests, or contributions into the Ohio war orphans scholarship fund. 

 

New Sec. 5910.07 Ohio War Orphans Scholarship Fund

Creates the Ohio war orphans scholarship fund in the state treasury. The fund shall consist of gifts, bequests, grants, and contributions made to the fund. Investment earnings of the fund shall be deposited into the fund. The fund shall be used to operate the war orphans scholarship program and to provide grants under sections 5910.01 to 5910.06 of the Revised Code.

 

Amended Sec. 5919.34 National Guard Scholarship Fund

Permits the chancellor and the adjutant general to apply for, and receive grants, gifts, bequests, and contributions, from public and private sources, including agencies and instrumentalities of the United States and this state, and shall deposit the grants, gifts, bequests, or contributions into the national guard scholarship reserve fund. 

 

Temporary Law:

 

Section 3:  Includes the following description of the General Assembly’s intent regarding these changes in law:  “As Ohio prepares to transition to the more rigorous Common Core State Standards that are scheduled to be fully implemented in the 2014-2015 school year, it is the intent of the General Assembly to put a new accountability system in place to help prepare the state’s students, parents, schools, and communities for the increased demands of a 21st Century education and to assure that our youngest students are provided the skills to successfully progress through our primary and secondary education system as evidenced by an emphasis on early literacy. The General Assembly intends that the system created in this act will assist our schools in the move to the Common Core through a comprehensive, data-driven evaluation system that can lead to academic excellence in schools across Ohio and will focus on the goal of assuring that all of our children graduate from high school adequately prepared to be successful in college or in the career of their choice. Further, the General Assembly intends that the system will pay special attention to closing the achievement gap that historically has left too many of our students behind.”

 

Section 4: Not later than August 31, 2013, the state board of education shall submit to the General Assembly under section 101.68 of the Revised Code recommendations for a comprehensive statewide plan to intervene directly in and improve the performance of persistently poor performing schools and school 

districts. 

 

Section 5. Not later than December 31, 2013, the Department of Education shall review the additional information included on the school district and building report cards described in division (H) of section 3302.03 of the Revised Code, as amended by this act, and shall submit to the Governor and the General Assembly, in accordance with section 101.68 of the Revised Code, recommendations for revisions to make the report cards easier to read and understand.

 

Section 6.  Requires the State Board of Education not later than March 31, 2013, to submit to the General Assembly a one-year safe harbor for districts and schools for the first year that the assessments developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers are administered in this state as achievement assessments.  The recommendations shall include a method to exempt from sanctions and penalties prescribed by law, based on report card ratings, school districts, buildings operated by districts, community schools, STEM schools, and college preparatory boarding schools that have a decline in performance index score that is within two standard errors of measure below the Ohio statewide average decline in performance index score when compared to the performance index score from the previous year as determined by the Department of Education. However, districts or schools that have received an “F” for performance index score on the report card issued for the previous school year shall not be eligible for the exemption.

 

The recommendations shall specify that for those districts and schools to which the exemption applies, for purposes of determining whether a district or school is subject to any sanctions or penalties, the year that the assessments developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers are first administered in this state shall not be considered.

 

However, the ratings of any previous or subsequent years shall be considered in determining whether a school district or building is subject to sanctions or penalties. Accordingly, the ratings for the year that the assessments developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers are first administered shall have no effect in determining sanctions or penalties, but shall not create a new starting point for determinations that are based on ratings over multiple years.

 

The recommendations shall include the provisions from which an applicable district or building would be exempt, including, but not limited to, the following:

-Any restructuring provisions established under Chapter 3302. of the Revised Code, except as required under the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001”;

-Provisions for academic distress commissions under section 3302.10 of the Revised Code;

-Provisions prescribing new buildings where students are eligible for the Educational Choice Scholarships under section 3310.03 of the Revised Code;

-Provisions defining “challenged school districts” in which new start-up community schools may be located, as prescribed in section 3314.02 of the Revised Code;

-Provisions prescribing community school closure requirements under section 3314.35 of the Revised Code.

 

Section 7.  Amends section 3314.016 (Sponsorship of Community Schools) to take effect January 1, 2015.

 

Section 8. Requires the Department of Education, in consultation with entities that sponsor community schools, to prescribe quality practices for community school sponsors, develop an instrument to measure adherence to those quality practices, and publish the quality practices and instrument, so that they are available to entities that sponsor community schools prior to their implementation. The quality practices developed under this section shall be based on standards developed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers or any other nationally organized community school organization.

 

Section 9. Amends Sec. 267.10.90 of HB153 of the 129th General Assembly to require the State Board of Education to set rules and dates for the administration of the English language arts assessments for the elementary grades.

 

FYI ARTS

 

1)  Vans Custom Culture Competition:  The Vans Custom Culture invites high school arts classes to compete in a competition to win money for their visual art program.  Registered schools will receive four pairs of blank Vans sneakers to be customized in four themes:  ART, MUSIC, ACTION SPORTS, AND LOCAL FLAVOR.  

 

Custom Culture is a national high school shoe customized contest where schools from all over the United States compete for a chance to win money for arts programs.  The Top Five finalists will be flown to New York City for an exclusive final event where the winner will be selected. The grand prize winning school will receive a $50,000 prize for their arts programs and the chance for their shoes to be produced and sold in Vans’ retail stores. The four runner up schools will also receive money for their arts programs. Additionally, national retail partner Journeys will award a separate $10,000 prize to one of the final five schools with the best local flavor themed pair of shoes. 

 

Registration for the competition begins on January 2, 2013.  

Information is available at http://www.vans.com/customculture/

 

2)  Arts Education Means More: Rob Schultz writes on the ARTSblog that arts education must exist beyond evaluation, measurement, and standards.  (Arts Education Must Exist Beyond Evaluation, Measurement, and Standards by Rob Schultz, ARTSblog, December 11, 2012.)

 

According to the author, comprehensive approaches to learning that include the arts are important to address the personalized needs of students, but sometimes it is important for arts education to exist “... simply for the sake of enjoying what our students are doing, and just letting them do it. Without demands. Without complications. To allow expression to happen without worrying about whether or not it’s planned, measured, defined, linked, collaborative, progressive, sustainable, integrated, modeled, informed, competent, or transformational.”

 

The blog is available at http://blog.artsusa.org/2012/12/11/arts-education-must-exist-beyond-evaluation-measurement-and-standards/

 

3) NEA Grants Awarded:  The National Endowment for the Arts announced on November 27, 2012 awards for 71 arts education programs totaling over $2.023 million.  Two awards were made to Ohio arts education organizations.  

 

The Granville Studio of Visual Arts in Granville, OH was awarded a $15,000 grant to support Journey: Art of the Self-Portrait, a studio arts program for high school students. Students will gain curatorial skills by developing a public exhibition of their own art work in a community setting. Teaching artists will document each phase of the project using photography, journaling, and video of peer critiques.

 

The other Ohio grant was awarded to YS Kids Playhouse in Yellow Springs, OH.  The program was awarded 

$10,000 to support the Summer Theater Arts Immersion program. Led by local, national, and international artists, students will study acting, technical theater, and music and create original and adapted performances that will be presented to the public.

 

Congratulations to the Ohio recipients!!

 

Information is available at http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/disciplines/disc13.php?CAT=Art%20Works&DIS=Arts%20Education&TABLE=1

  

4) Students Learn to Read Through the Arts:  Melissa Jenco writes in the Chicago Tribune that at-risk students in 21 Chicago city schools are using the arts to help them learn to read through the Reading in Motion’s Benchmarks program.  (A musical twist to reading education:  Reading in Motion’s Benchmarks program uses the arts to help at-risk students, December 12, 2012, by Melissa Jenco, Chicago Tribune.)

 

According to the article Reading in Motion, Karl Androes executive director, founded in 1983, partners with schools and teachers to create and deliver an innovative, supplemental reading program that uses music and drama to engage students. Reading In Motion’s mission is to get every at-risk student reading at or above grade level within the first years of school through the power and discipline of the arts. The program is supported by the Chicago Tribune Charities, a McCormick Foundation Fund.

 

The program uses the arts to reinforce reading including vocabulary development, sounding-out letters, and shaping letters using Play-Doh, pictures, and drawings.  Teachers use the program 40 to 50 minutes a day, five days a week with kindergarten and first graders. A study of the effectiveness of the program found that 92 percent of the kindergarten students in the program for one year were reading at grade level, compared to 63 percent at grade level when the program began. 

 

The program provides training for teachers during the summer and throughout the school year, and Reading in Motion coaches visit classrooms monthly to provide support.  

 

The article is available at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-12/news/ct-met-holiday-giving-reading-in-motion-20121212_1_grade-level-karl-androes-end-of-first-grade

Ohio Alliance for Arts Education

Arts On Line Education Update

December 3, 2012

Joan Platz

  

1) 129th General Assembly:  The Ohio House and Senate will hold hearings and sessions this week.

 

•Senate Leaders Elected:  Ohio Senate Republicans elected last week Keith Faber Senate President for the 130th General Assembly.  Senator Faber will take over the presidency from Senator Tom Niehaus, who was term-limited and will complete his term at the end of December 2012. Other members of the Senate Republican leadership team in the 130th General Assembly are Senators Chris Widener (Springfield) president pro tempore; Tom Patton (Strongsville) majority floor leader; and Larry Obhof (Medina) majority whip. 

 

•House Leaders Elected:  House Republicans re-elected William Batchelder (Medina) as speaker for the 130th Ohio General Assembly. Other members of the Republican leadership team include Representatives Matt Huffman (Lima) speaker pro tempore; Barbara Sears (Sylvania) majority floor leader; John Adams (Sidney) assistant majority floor leader; Cheryl Grossman (Grove City) majority whip, and Jim Buchy (Greenville) assistant majority whip.

 

•Education Bills Approved:  The Ohio House approved two education bills last week, Sub. HB555 (Stebelton) and HB191 (Patmon/Hayes). An analysis of HB555 is included at #5 below. 

 

HB191 was approved by a vote of 53 to 38.  The bill would establish a minimum school year for school districts based on hours, rather than days of instruction. No hearings on this bill have been scheduled in the Senate.

 

•Superintendent’s Search:  Ray and Associates, the search firm hired by the State Board of Education to help them hire a superintendent of public instruction, is seeking comments from stakeholders regarding the characteristics and qualifications of the new superintendent. Comments will be accepted until December 6, 2012 at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T55WDBV.

 

•House Education Committee Update:  The House Education Committee, Representative Stebelton chair, reported-out HB462 (Pelanda) Withholding grades or credits-abused child.  This bill addresses circumstances in which school districts withhold or transfer to another district or school the grades and credits of a child who is alleged or adjudicated as abused, neglected, or dependent. The bill was amended allowing schools to request a copy of any order regarding the child’s custody or placement issued pursuant to a complaint filed under Sec. 2151.27 of the Revised Code. 

 

2)  Hearings this Week:

 

•Senate Education Committee:  The Senate Education Committee, chaired by Senator Lehner, will meet on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 9:00 PM in the South Hearing Room and Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 10:00 AM in the North Hearing Room to consider Sub. HB555 (Stebelton) Accountability-New Report Cards and HB543 (Anielski) Suicide Awareness Training.

 

•Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee:  The Senate Government Oversight & Reform Committee, chaired by Senator Coley, will meet on Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 9:30 AM in the South Hearing room to receive sponsor testimony on SB391 (Niehaus) Ethics Laws, a proposal by Senate President Niehaus to modernize Ohio’s ethics laws.  The bill would require the Ohio Ethics Commission to publish the financial disclosure forms of public officials online and would update the reporting requirements for lobbyists.

 

•House Finance and Appropriations Committee:  The House Finance and Appropriations Committee, chaired by Representative Amstutz, will meet on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 9:30 AM in hearing room 313.  The committee will receive testimony regarding funding for primary and secondary education and funding online instructional models. 

 

3)  National News

 

•Finalists for Race to the Top:  Three Ohio school districts/partnerships are among 61 finalists in the federal 2012 Race to the Top - District Competition.  The Ohio finalists include the Cleveland Metropolitan School District; the Reynoldsburg City Schools, and the Ohio Appalachian Personalized Learning Network Collaborative. The schools are competing for funding from the $400 million federal Race to the Top - District Competition to support personalize learning, improve student achievement and educator effectiveness, close achievement gaps, and prepare every student for success in college and careers. According to the U.S. Department of Education only 15-25 applications will be accepted.  The awards will range from $5 million to $40 million, and will be announced at the end of December. 

 

•New Campaign to Support Learning:  The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) launched last week “Learning Is More Than a Test Score,” a campaign to inform the public about the components of high quality teaching and learning and de-emphasize high stakes testing.  The campaign promotes student access to instruction in the arts and physical education and high-quality standards such as the Common Core. The AFT believes that policy-makers are fixating too much on testing, which is limiting student access to a well-rounded education. 

 

According to the web site, “Public school educators, parents and students report that as low-quality standardized tests have taken on more importance, the amount of testing in school has increased while nontested subjects like social studies, art, music and hands-on science instruction have been reduced or squeezed out of the curriculum entirely. Because many of these subjects help students develop critical thinking, creativity and other vital 21st-century skills, forcing some students to forgo these experiences in exchange for testing and test preparation puts them at an unfair disadvantage.”

 

The AFT will be working with affiliates, communities, school districts, and states to help ensure that testing does not encroach on the instructional time students need to learn how to think critically and creatively. 

 

In the next few months, the AFT will convene leaders and external experts to look at promising practices and develop a road map of promising policy alternatives to balance the emphasis on testing. The Albert Shanker Institute also will devote its Good Schools conference to this topic. 

 

The AFT’s campaign includes a website, a toolkit and other items. The website is available at http://www.learningismore.com/. 

 

4) Court Decides on Redistricting Maps:  The Ohio Supreme Court issued a 4-3 decision on November 27, 2012 in Wilson et at v. Kasich, et. al denying plaintiffs’ request to declare unconstitutional the state’s current apportionment plan for the Ohio General Assembly.  The majority opinion was written by Justice O’Donnell. Justices  Lanzinger, Cupp and Judge Willamowski of the Third Appellate District concurred.  Justices O’Connor, Pfeifer, and McGee Brown dissented.  Judge Willamowski was sitting in for Justice Stratton.

 

The case was filed in January 4, 2012 by 36 electors living in various House Districts, and challenged the constitutionality of the apportionment plan approved by the Apportionment Board on September 30, 2011 based on Article XI, Sections 7 and 11. 

 

Justice Terrence O’Donnell wrote the majority opinion saying that “....The Ohio Constitution does not mandate political neutrality in the reapportionment of house and senate districts” and that the burden of proof is on the plaintiffs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the apportionment plan developed by the apportionment board is unconstitutional. 

 

The minority disagreed with the majority’s arguments regarding burden of proof and whether or not the constitutional requirements for compactness and minimal splitting within single governmental districts had been met by the apportionment board.

 

The opinion is at 

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/SlipOpinion.pdf

 

5)  Update on HB555:  The Ohio House approved on November 29, 2012 HB555 (Stebelton) School Accountability/Local Report Card by a vote of 58 to 27. The bill now moves to the Senate Education Committee, which is expected to complete action on it before the 129th General Assembly ends this month. 

 

The bill includes a variety of changes in education law, but focuses on three main issues:  a new rating system for Ohio’s schools/districts; evaluations of sponsors of charter schools; and evaluations of dropout prevention and recovery schools. The bill directs the State Board of Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Ohio Department of Education to calculate standards, benchmarks, and approve rules to implement the provisions in the bill in a very short amount of time. Some school leaders are questioning the capacity of the ODE to complete this work after years of cut-backs and loss of staff.

 

Some of the provisions in the bill were originally included in SB316 (Lehner), the mid-biennial review for education, to comply with Ohio’s application for waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind Act.  Lawmakers decided to hold-back on the accountability changes, which were pulled from SB316 before it was approved and signed into law in June 2012. As a result, some provisions need to be finalized in order to comply with the waiver Ohio was granted.

 

The following is a summary of some of the provisions included in the bill:

 

Amended Section 3301.079 (D) Academic Standards 

Replaces references to “English language arts” with the terms reading and writing.

 

Amended Sec. 3301.0710 (A)(2) Assessment  

Increases the number of ranges of scores students can achieve on the achievement assessments from three to five:  advanced level; accelerated; proficient; basic; and limited.

 

Amended Sec. 3301.0711 Graduation Requirements 

Technical changes.

 

Amended Sec. 3301.0714 EMIS  

Allows entities contracted by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to “develop” state assessments to access certain EMIS reports with staff and/or student information.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.01 Report Card Ratings Definitions  

Performance Index Score:  Allows the ODE to assign an additional weight to students who have passed over a grade or subject and have attained a proficient score or higher on a state assessment. The ODE shall assign each year an additional proportional weight to students who attain an advanced score.  The State Board must approve this weight.

 

Subsets of Students: Adds students identified as gifted and students in the lowest quintile for achievement to the subset of students included in the performance index score. Students identified as gifted in superior cognitive will be included in the subset, along with students identified as gifted in reading and math.  The ODE shall also include data for students with specific academic ability in other fields, if the field is assessed.

 

Graduation Rate: Includes the definition of the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and the five-year adjusted cohort.

 

Annual Measurable Objectives:  Defines annual measurable objectives as the progress determined in accordance with an agreement between the ODE and the U.S. Department of Education.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.02, Performance Indicators

Removes attendance from the set of performance indicators that the State Board of Education is required to establish, but retains the “breadth of coursework available within the district.”

 

Adds to the performance indicators for gifted education in the 2013-2014 school year, the level of gifted services provided; performance of students identified as gifted on state assessments; value added growth measure dis-aggregated for students identified as gifted; the level of gifted identification effort; appropriate licensed gifted staff levels; and the level of professional development provided to general education teachers working with gifted students and gifted spending.

 

Directs the State Board to set the percentage at 80 percent for all of the state achievement assessments for the 2013-2014 school year.  Permits the State Board to adopt rules by July 1, 2014, establishing a different percentage to begin with the 2014-2015 school year. 

 

Amended Sec. 3302.021 Value Added 

Retains this section mostly unchanged, but eliminates the Accountability Task Force and creates the Ohio Accountability Advisory Committee, which consists of 14 members, and changes the membership categories and voting privileges of members of the new committee.  

 

-Retains the chairs and ranking minority members of the House and Senate education committees as voting members; 

-Retains the superintendent of public instruction or designee, but removes the voting privilege; 

-Removes one representative from the teachers’ unions, but adds three members from the public who have experience or expertise in education, statistics, and student data analysis or education public policy, appointed by the Speaker of the House; 

-Removes one representative of school boards of education, but adds three members of the public who have experience in education, statistics, and student data analysis or education public policy, appointed by the President of the Senate; 

-Removes one school district superintendent, but adds two members of the public who have experience in education, statistics, and student data analysis or education public policy, appointed by the Governor; 

-Removes members representing business, nonprofit organizations, school building principal, and a member of the State Board of Education, and replaces them with a member, who shall have experience or expertise as an analyst or auditor appointed by the Auditor of State.  

 

Requires the committee to meet at least twice each calendar year, and report to the Governor, General Assembly, and State Board about the state’s accountability system.  

 

Requires the committee to adopt recommendations to improve the school district and building accountability system.

 

Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually submit to the Accountability Advisory Committee the results of the report cards.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.03 Report Cards  

Eliminates the current report card criteria and establishes a new system for rating school districts and buildings based on letter grades A-F outlined in section (E).  The State Board of Education is required to establish the performance criteria for each letter grade and prescribe a method to assign a letter grade.  The bill states in part (E) that “A” means making excellent progress; “B” means making above average progress; “C” means making average progress; “D” means making below average progress; “F” means failing to meet minimum progress. The current requirement in law to disaggregate the data according to certain categories is retained with some changes for gifted education, and added is a new category comprised of students who achieve in the lowest quintile. 

 

States that for a school building to which any of the performance measures do not apply, due to grade levels served by the building, the State Board shall designate the performance measures that are applicable to the building.  This designation must be calculated separately and used to calculate the building’s overall grade.

 

Requires the ODE to issue annual report cards reflecting the performance profile of each school district, each building within each district, and for the state as a whole, using the performance measures and letter grade system. Requires the ODE to include on the report card for each district the most recent two-year trend data in student achievement for each subject and each grade.

 

Outlines in Section 3302.03 (A)(1) a-i; (B)(1) a-l; and (C)(1) a-n how grades in the performance measures for school districts and schools will be phased-in over school years 2012-13; 2013-14; and 2014-15. For some school years the percentage of students needed to receive a certain grade level changes, and indicators are added. 

 

The following performance measures will be reported:

-Annual measurable objectives, which replaces adequate yearly progress

-Performance index score for a school district or building as a percentage of the total possible points as adopted by the State Board 

-Performance Indicators earned expressed as a percent 

-Four and five-year adjusted cohort graduation rates overall
-Value added score based on three years of value added data 

-The rate of participation and average score among students enrolled in a district or building on a national standardized test for college admission, selected by the State Board 

-The percent of students in a district or building who enroll in state institutions of higher education or enroll out of state, and who are determined not to be college ready. (Excludes students not enrolled in college or who go in the military.) 

-Value added scores for subgroups of students 

-The percent of students who receive an honors diploma 

 

Adds for the 2013-2014 school year three additional indicators:  whether a school district or building is making progress in improving literacy in grades K through 3 as determined by the State Board of Education; the percentage of students who receive an honors diploma; and the results of the college and career ready assessments.

 

Adds for the 2014-2015 school year additional indicators: the results of the college and career-ready assessments and the percentage of students who receive industry credentials. 

 

Includes on the report card without an assigned letter grade the rate of participation among students enrolled in a district or building in advanced placement classes and the percentage of those students who receive a score of three or better on advanced placement examinations; and the number of high school and college credits a district’s or building’s students have earned in that school year through dual enrollment programs.  

 

Sets the deadlines for the State Board of Education to adopt resolutions describing the performance measures, benchmarks, and grading system for the 2012-13; 2013-14 and the 2014-15 school years. 

 

Does not require an overall letter grade for a school district or school in the 2012-2013 or the 2013-2014 school years, but requires the ODE to establish a method to assign an overall grade for a school district or school building for the 2014-2015 school year and each school year thereafter. The State Board shall adopt a grade for each separate component and an overall grade for the following:

 

(a) Gap closing, which shall include the performance measure for annual measurable objectives

(b) Achievement, which shall include the performance measures for the performance index score and performance indicators

(c) Progress, which shall include the performance measures, value added, and the rate of participation and scores on a national standardized test for college admission

(d) Graduation rates 

(e) Kindergarten through third-grade literacy 

(f) Prepared for success, which shall include the performance measures for participation and scores on a national standardized test for college admission, indicators for college and career ready, participation and scores on advanced placement exams, college credits earned, honors diploma, results of the college and career-ready assessments, and industry credentials.

 

Requires the ODE to conduct a public presentation before the House and Senate education committees at least forty-five days prior to the State Board’s adoption of rules to prescribe the methods for calculating the overall grade for the report card and describe the format for the report card, the weights that will be assigned to the components of the overall grade, and the method for calculating the overall grade. 

 

Requires the State Board not later than July 1, 2015 to develop a measure of student academic progress for high school students, which shall be included on the report card beginning in the 2015-2016.

 

Requires the ODE to report when a particular student group did not receive a student performance data report, because there were less than ten students.  

 

Amended Sec. 3302.033 Report Cards for Joint Vocational School Districts and Career Technical Planning Districts. 

Allows data to be dis-aggregated for each joint vocational school district.

 

Includes districts that are not joint vocational.

 

NEW 3302.04 Additional Measures

Requires the State Board of Education by December 31, 2013 to adopt measures in addition to the report card, and report them separately for school districts, school buildings, community schools, STEM schools, and college preparatory boarding schools.

 

-Data for students who have passed over a grade or subject area under an acceleration policy prescribed under section 3324.10 of the Revised Code; 

 

-The number of students who are eligible to receive and those that are receiving free lunch under the “National School Lunch Act,” 42 U.S.C. 1751, as amended, and the “Child Nutrition Act of 1966,” 42 U.S.C. 1771, as amended; 

 

-The number of lead teachers employed by each district and each building once the data is available through the education management information system established under section 3301.0714 

 

-The amount of students screened and identified as gifted under Chapter 3324. of the Revised Code; 

 

-Postgraduate student outcome data as described under division (E)(2)(d)(ii) of section 3314.017 of the Revised Code; 

 

-Availability of courses in fine arts;

 

-Participation with other school districts to provide career-technical education services to students; 

 

-The amount of extracurricular services offered to students. 

 

The department shall report this information annually beginning with the 2013-2014 school year and make this information available on its web site for comparison purposes. 

 

Amended Section 3302.04 Transition for Designations

Clarifies that after the 2014-2015 school year, when a provision in law refers to a school or school district in academic emergency, academic watch, continuous improvement, it means the following: Academic emergency = F, Academic Watch = D, Continuous Improvement = C.

 

Maintains current agreements with the U.S. Department of Education regarding low performing schools.

 

States that for the 2012-2013 school year schools or districts that receive an “F” rating for the number of performance indicators met; performance index score; or a rating of “D” or “F” for value added, shall be subject to intervention rules and a site evaluation. 

 

Amended Sec. 3302.041 Corrective Action Plans

Clarifies that corrective action plans for schools are contingent upon the approval of the U.S. Department of Education. 

 

Amended Sec. 3302.042 Parent Trigger Pilot Project

Specifies that for the 2014-2015 school year and thereafter, schools in the pilot project (Columbus City School District) with a rating of “D” or “F” on the value-added progress dimension for three or more consecutive school years are eligible for the pilot project in addition to a school ranked by the performance index in the lowest five percent of public school buildings statewide.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.05 Exemptions from Mandates

Identifies the school districts eligible for exemptions from state mandates adopted by the State Board of Education based on the new rating system for schools.

   

Amended Sec. 3302.10 Academic distress commission

Identifies the school districts that must implement an academic distress commission based on the new rating system.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.12 Low Performing Schools

Identifies the school districts that must implement certain provisions regarding low performing schools based on the new rating system.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.20 Annual Operating Expenditures for Classroom Instruction

Requires data to be collected and reported from the college preparatory boarding school after two years of operations about operating expenditures for classroom instruction and non classroom purposes.

 

Adds the requirement that the ODE categorize all college-preparatory boarding schools in a single category. 

 

Excludes community schools subject to Section 3314.17 (dropout prevention and recovery schools) from performance index scores rankings.

 

Amended Sec. 3302.21 Ranking City, Exempted Village, Local School Districts, and Community Schools

States that community schools subject to Section 3314.17 (dropout prevention and recovery schools), STEM schools subject to Section 3326, and college-preparatory boarding school subject to Section 3328 are excluded from rankings.

 

Permits the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop another measure of student academic performance based on similar data and performance measures and to rank districts, schools, or buildings to which the performance index score does not apply.

 

Allows alternative student academic progress measures to be used to rank schools if adopted under division (C)(1)(e) of section 3302.03 of the Revised Code.

 

Excludes from an annual report about school rankings issued by the ODE each September community schools subject to 3314.17; STEM schools subject to 3326; and college preparatory schools subject to 3328. 

 

Amended Section 3310.03 Educational Choice Scholarship

Aligns the eligibility requirements for students seeking an Educational Choice Scholarship with the new rating system for schools/districts. 

 

New 3310.16 Two Application Periods for the Educational Choice Scholarship

Establishes for the 2014-2015 school year and thereafter two application periods, the first day of February to July 1st and July 1st through mid August, for the Educational Choice Scholarship. 

 

Amended Sec. 3311.80 Municipal School District

Permits the municipal school district to use an alternative student academic progress measure adopted by the State Board of Education in place of value added as a component of teacher evaluation.

 

States that “Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in Chapter 4117. of the Revised Code, the requirements of this section prevail over any conflicting provisions of a collective bargaining 

agreement entered into on or after October 1, 2012.”

 

Amended Sec. 3313.473 Site-based management councils

Aligns the requirements for a site-based management council with the new rating system for school districts and schools.

 

Amended Sec. 3313.608 Third Grade Reading Guarantee

Changes the term English language arts to reading and writing.

 

Requires students identified with a reading deficiency to receive intensive reading instruction services and regular diagnostic assessments until the development of the reading improvement and monitoring plan is implemented.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.011 Fiscal Officers

Requires fiscal officers of community schools to be licensed under Section 3301.074 of the Revised Code.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.012 Report Cards for Community Schools

Exempts schools subject to Section 3314.017 (dropout and prevention recovery schools) from the ODE requirement to issue annual report cards for community schools.  

 

Requires the report card for community schools to align with divisions (A), (B), (C) and (D) of Section 3302.03 of the Revised Code, rating system for schools.

 

Amended  Sec. 3314.013 Internet or computer-based schools

Extends until the 61st day after the law has been enacted or after July 1, 2013 the prohibition regarding the opening of new internet/computer-based schools, with some exceptions. New schools may open subject to the approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

 

Requires the Superintendent to approve applications for new internet/computer-based school from only those demonstrating experience and quality.

 

Requires the Superintendent to adopt rules prescribing measures to determine experience and quality of applicants.  Measures shall include, but are not limited to, the sponsor’s experience, the operator’s experience, the sponsor and operator’s previous record of student achievement, a preference for operators with previous experience in Ohio.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.015 Community School Sponsors

Requires the ODE to evaluate the effectiveness of any and all sponsors of community schools.

 

Requires the State Board rather than the ODE to determine whether the mission proposed in the contract of a community school to be sponsored by a state university board of trustees complies with the requirements in the division, and if any tax exempt entity is an education-oriented entity for the purposes of sponsoring a community school.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.016 Rating Sponsors of Community Schools

Prohibits an entity from sponsoring additional community schools if it is rated as ineffective.

 

Requires the ODE to develop and implement an evaluation system that rates each entity that sponsors a community school based on the following components:

 

-Academic performance of students enrolled

-Adherence to the quality practices prescribed by the ODE.  This provision can not be implemented until the ODE develops the quality practices and an instrument to measure adherence.

-Compliance with applicable laws and administrative rules by an entity.

 

Requires the ODE to exclude from the academic component community schools in operation for less than two full years and community schools in division (A)(4)(b) of Sec. 3314.35. (Dropout recovery and prevention)

 

Requires the ODE to prescribe quality practices for community school sponsors and develop an instrument to measure adherence to the quality practices.

 

Requires the State Board of education not later than July 1, 2013 to adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code prescribing standards for measuring compliance with applicable laws and rules under division (B)(1)(c) of this section. 

 

Requires the ODE to rate all entities that sponsor community schools as either “exemplary,” “effective,” or “ineffective,” based on the components prescribed by division (B) of this section, where each component is weighted equally, except that entities sponsoring community schools for the first time may be assigned the rating of “emerging” for only the first two consecutive years. 

 

Requires the ODE to publish the ratings between the first day of October and the 15th day of October.

 

States that prior to the 2014-2015 school year, student academic performance prescribed under division (B)(1)(a) of this section shall not include student academic performance data from community schools that primarily serve students enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program as described in division (A)(4)(a) of section 3314.35 of the Revised Code. 

 

For the 2014-2015 school year and each school year thereafter, student academic performance prescribed under division (B)(1)(a) of this section shall include student academic performance data from community schools that primarily serve students enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program. 

 

Allows the ODE to assume sponsorship of community schools that has not yet opened and for which the sponsor has becomes ineligible until the governing authority of the new community school has secured a new sponsor or until two years has expired. The sponsorship by the ODE of a school under these circumstances does not count toward the ODE sponsor limit.

 

New Sec. 3314.017 Report Cards for Dropout and Prevention Community Schools

Requires the State Board of Education to adopt academic performance rating and a report card system for community schools that primarily serve students enrolled in dropout prevention and recovery programs beginning in the 2012-2013 school year.

 

States that nothing in this section shall at any time relieve a school from its obligations under the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001” to make “adequate yearly progress.” The department shall continue to 

report each school’s performance as required by the act and to enforce applicable sanctions under section 3302.04 or 3302.041 of the Revised Code.

 

Requires the State Board to adopt the following performance indicators for the rating and report card 

system required by this section: 

 

-Graduation rate for students graduating in four years or less; those graduating in five years; those graduating in 6 years, 7 years, and 8 years with a high school diploma.

 

-The percentage of twelfth-grade students currently enrolled in the school who have attained the designated passing score on all of the applicable state high school achievement assessments required under division (B)(1) or (2) of section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code and other students enrolled in the school, regardless of grade level, who are within three months of their twenty-second birthday and have attained the designated passing score on all of the applicable state high school achievement assessments by their twenty-second birthday.

 

-Annual measurable objectives as defined in section 3302.01 of the Revised Code 

 

-Growth in student achievement in reading, or mathematics, or both as measured by separate nationally norm-referenced assessments that have developed appropriate standards for students enrolled in dropout prevention and recovery programs, adopted or approved by the state board.

 

Requires the State Board rules to prescribe the expected performance levels and benchmarks for each of the indicators based on the data gathered by the department. Based on a school’s level of attainment or non attainment of the expected performance levels and benchmarks for each of the indicators, the department shall rate each school in one of the following categories: Exceeds standards, Meets standards, or Does not meet standards.

 

Requires the State Board to establish performance levels and benchmarks for the indicators by certain dates.  

 

Prescribes the percentage of the score that will be based on each indicator.

 

States that if both of the indicators for graduation rate and student achievement on certain state assessments improve by ten per cent for two consecutive years, a school shall be rated as “meets standards.” 

 

Prescribes the components of the report cards for the 2012-2013; 2013-2014; 2014-2015 school years.  Requires the ODE to also include student outcome data such as postsecondary credits earned, nationally recognized career or technical certificates, military enlistment, job placement, attendance rate, and progress on closing achievement gaps for each school.  

 

Requires the ODE to gather data and work with stakeholders to determine how to measure student growth and requires schools to cooperate. 

 

Requires the ODE to identify one or more states that have established or are in the process of establishing similar academic performance rating systems for dropout prevention and recovery programs and consult with the departments of education of those states in developing the system required by this section. 

 

Amended Sec. 3314.02 Challenged School District 

Aligns the definition of a challenged school district with the components of the new rating system.

 

Allows the governing board of an educational service center to sponsor a new start-up school in any challenged school district in the state if all of the following are satisfied: If applicable, it satisfies the requirements of division (E) of section 3311.86 of the Revised Code; it is approved to do so by the ODE; or it enters into an agreement with the ODE under section 3314.015 of the Revised Code. 

 

Amended Sec. 3314.05 Community School Multiple Facilities

Allows community schools to be located in multiple facilities if certain conditions are met. Aligns those conditions with the new rating system for community schools.

 

Amended Sec. 3314.35 Community School Closure

Describes the circumstances that would lead to the closure of a community school using the new rating system for schools.

 

States that for purposes of division (A)(3) of this section only, the value-added progress dimension for a community school shall be calculated using assessment scores for only those students to whom the school has administered the achievement assessments prescribed by section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code for at least the two most recent school years.

 

New Sec. 3314.351  Dropout Prevention and Recovery Community Schools

States that beginning on or after July 1, 2014, any such community school that has received a designation of “does not meet standards” as described in division (D)(1) of section 3314.017 of the Revised Code on the report card issued under that section, for at least two of the three most recent school years shall be subject to closure.

 

Requires the ODE to notify each school subject to closure by the first day of September. 

 

Amended Sec. 3314.36 Waivers for Dropout Prevention and Recovery Community Schools

States that until June 30, 2014, the ODE shall grant a waiver to a dropout prevention and recovery program, within sixty days after the program applies for the waiver, if the program meets all of the certain conditions unchanged by the bill.

 

States that beginning on July 1, 2014, all community schools in which a majority of the students are enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program are subject to the provisions of section 

3314.351 of the Revised Code, regardless of whether a waiver has been granted under this section. Thereafter, no waivers shall be granted under this section.  

 

Amended Sec. 3319.111 Teacher evaluations/contracts

States that notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in Chapter 4117. of the Revised Code, the requirements of sections 3119.11 and 3119.112 of the Revised Code prevail over any conflicting 

provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after September 24, 2012 and the effective date of this amendment. 

 

Amended Sec. 3319.112 Teacher Evaluations

States that the value-added progress dimension established under section 3302.021 of the Revised Code or an alternative student academic progress measure if adopted under division (C)(1)(e) of section 3302.03 of the Revised Code shall be used in the student academic growth portion of an evaluation.  

 

Amended Sec. 3319.58  Ineffective Teachers

Exempts community schools subject to Section 3314.017 (dropout prevention and recovery schools) to require classroom teachers in schools ranked in the lowest ten percent of all public school buildings to register for and take all written examinations of content knowledge selected by the ODE.

 

Amended Sec. 3326.03 STEM Schools

Allows an educational service center to submit proposals for new STEM schools through a partnership of public and private entities to the STEM committee.

  

Amended 5910.02 Ohio War Orphans Scholarship

Permits the War Orphans Scholarship Board to apply for, receive, and accept, grants, gifts, bequests, and contributions from public and private sources, including agencies and instrumentalities of the United States and this state, and shall deposit the grants, gifts, bequests, or contributions into the Ohio war orphans scholarship fund. 

 

New Sec. 5910.07 Ohio War Orphans Scholarship Fund

Creates the Ohio war orphans scholarship fund in the state treasury. The fund shall consist of gifts, 

bequests, grants, and contributions made to the fund. Investment earnings of the fund shall be deposited into the fund. The fund shall be used to operate the war orphans scholarship program and to provide grants under sections 5910.01 to 5910.06 of the Revised Code.

 

Amended Sec. 5919.34 National Guard Scholarship Fund

Permits the chancellor and the adjutant general to apply for, and receive grants, gifts, bequests, and contributions, from public and private sources, including agencies and instrumentalities of the United States and this state, and shall deposit the grants, gifts, bequests, or contributions into the national guard scholarship reserve fund. 

 

Temporary Law:

 

Section 4:  Not later than August 31, 2013, the state board of education shall submit to the General Assembly under section 101.68 of the Revised Code recommendations for a comprehensive statewide plan to intervene directly in and improve the performance of persistently poor performing schools and school 

districts. 

 

Section 5. Not later than December 31, 2013, the Department of Education shall review the additional information included on the school district and building report cards described in division (H) of section 3302.03 of the Revised Code, as amended by this act, and shall submit to the Governor and the General Assembly, in accordance with section 101.68 of the Revised Code, recommendations for revisions to make the report cards easier to read and understand.

 

Section 7. Requires the Department of Education, in consultation with entities that sponsor community schools, to prescribe quality practices for community school sponsors, develop an instrument to measure adherence to those quality practices, and publish the quality practices and instrument, so that they are available to entities that sponsor community schools prior to their implementation. The quality practices developed under this section shall be based on standards developed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers or any other nationally organized community school organization.

 

Section 8.  Amends Sec. 267.10.90 of HB 153 of the 129th General Assembly to require the State Board of Education to set rules and dates for the administration of the English language arts assessments for the elementary grades. 

 

6)  Higher Education Leaders Propose New Funding Formula:  Governor Kasich requested in September 2012 that a commission of college and university leaders propose a new state funding system for higher education based on the current level of state funding, which is expected to be available in the FY14-15 biennial budget.  On November 30, 2012 the commission, led by Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee, presented the recommendations and policy changes to Governor Kasich and Chancellor Jim Petro in a report entitled, Recommendations of the Ohio Higher Education Funding Commission. The recommendations and policy changes will be phased-in over three years.

 

According to the report, Ohio’s is leading the nation in efforts to “invest in institutions that demonstrate a commitment to student success and economic development”. The Ohio Higher Education Funding Commission will remain intact throughout the budget process to continue to refine the recommendations and to support the implementation of the policy changes.

 

The following recommendations are included in the report:

 

•Funding for community colleges in Ohio should transition from a system that mainly rewards enrollment in classes to one that rewards the completion of classes, certificates and degrees. 

•All university students on all campuses (main or regional) should be treated equally in the funding formula and in any relevant state laws. 

•Colleges and universities should be rewarded if they attract out-of-state students to Ohio and keep them in the state for employment or continued education. 

•Historical set-asides and earmarks should be eliminated so that all of the state’s funding flows through the new completion-based formula. 

•Ohio’s community colleges should review the current success points incentive system, which has proven very successful, to ensure it is fully capturing the range of activities that lead to completion. 

•Ohio’s community colleges should develop a new degree incentive component for the second year of the biennium that rewards the completion of an associate degree, certificate or transfer to a university. 

•The Ohio board of regents should work with campus leaders and faculty to begin establishing statewide standards for certificates.  Once a standard is developed for a specific certificate, it should be rewarded through the state formula. 

•A new weighting system is recommended in the second year of the biennium for non-traditional and at-risk students to ensure that Ohio’s schools maintain their access mission.

 

To implement the recommendations, the commission proposed the following policy changes incorporated into the new university formula:  

 

-Move 50 percent of state funding into degree completion.  In the current formula, 20 percent of state funding is awarded based on degree attainment.  This proposal increases the percentage to 50 percent. 

 

-Remove the separate funding formula for regional campuses.  In the current formula, funding is set aside for regional campuses and distributed on a course completion basis.  This proposal removes the set-aside, and treats all students in the university sector the same, regardless of where they are located. 

 

-Out of state undergraduate students. The new formula proposes a 50% FTE credit in the degree attainment portion for out-of-state undergraduate degrees.  However, those students would have to remain in Ohio after graduation to be counted in the formula.  The State of Ohio would be asked to cross-reference student graduation data with other state data to ensure they are still in Ohio one year after being awarded a degree.  Graduate funding would apply to all students. 

 

-Award credit for Associate Degrees.  The new proposal gives credit within the state formula for associate degrees earned at all regional and main campuses.  Currently, only a small number of main campuses earn credit for associate degrees.

 

-Remove the stop loss.  This historical safeguard, which redistributes funding from high performing 

schools to prevent funding losses at other schools, is recommended for elimination.  

 

-Remove Access Challenge & square footage (POM) based earmarks from regional campuses.  These historical earmarks are applied to a limited number of campuses.  In the most recent budget, Access Challenge totaled $17 million (mostly at regional campuses) and POM totaled $3 million.  The commission recommends removing the Access and POM set-asides on regional campuses for the FY13 budget, and fully removing the appropriations for main campuses in the following budget.  

 

-Adopt a standard three-year average The current formula uses several different methods of averaging.  In the interest of appropriate planning and transition, the commission recommends adopting a standard three-year average in year one of the budget and all future years.  

 

-Apply STEM weights to degree completion model.  In the current formula, the STEM weights only apply at the course level.  Under the new proposed formula, STEM weights would also apply at the degree level.  

 

-Proportional credit for transfer students.  In the current formula, degree attainment funding is awarded exclusively to the institution from which the student graduated.   The new formula proposes to award proportional degree credit to each university based on the actual amount of credits taken at that university. 

 

-Apply at-risk weights at the student level in the formula.  In the current formula, at-risk weights are applied at the campus level through a campus index, which attempts to reflect the proportion of at- 

risk students at each campus.  The new formula proposes to remove the campus index, and instead apply the at-risk weights directly at the student level when they graduate based on their precise level of at-risk categories.

 

The following are policy changes for the community college formula:

 

-Transition funding from enrollment to completion. In the current formula, only 10 percent of state funds are distributed by success points.  Recommendation: In the first year of the biennium, funding is distributed 25 percent to success points, 25 percent based on course completion and 50 percent based on enrollment.  In the second year of the biennium, the community colleges will make a recommendation to the Chancellor on how to distribute the funds, although none of those categories will be awarded based on enrollment.

 

-Develop a degree completion incentive.  A new formula provision will be developed for the second year of the budget to reward the successful completion of an associate degree, certificate or transfer to a university. 

 

-Develop a new at-risk formula weight.  In order to protect the access mission of Ohio’s community colleges, a new formula weight is recommended for the second year of the budget to reward schools that are successful in educating non-traditional and at-risk student populations.

 

-Remove the stop loss. This historical safeguard, which redistributes funding from high performing schools to prevent funding losses at other schools, is recommended for elimination.

 

-Remove Access Challenge earmarks from regional campuses.  These historical earmarks are applied to a limited number of campuses.  In the most recent budget, Access Challenge totaled $54.4 million.   

 

The recommendations are available at https://www.ohiohighered.org/sites/ohiohighered.org/files/uploads/financial/ssi/Ohio%20Higher%20Education%20Funding%20Commission%20-%20Report.pdf

 

FYI ARTS

 

1) Governor’s Awards in the Arts Announced:  Governor Kasich's office  announced last week the following winners of the 2013 Governor’s Awards for the Arts in Ohio: 

 

Arts Administration - Jill Snyder, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (Cleveland); 

Arts Education - Stivers School for the Arts (Dayton); 

Arts Patron - Charlotte Kessler (New Albany) and Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Schuster (Dayton); 

Business Support of the Arts - PNC Bank (Statewide) 

Community Development and Participation - Raymond Shepardson (Cleveland);  

Individual Artist - Jack Earl (Lakeview) and Joseph O’Sickey (Kent).

 

The winners were selected from 66 nominations submitted by individuals and organizations throughout Ohio. They will receive an original work of art by Parma painter Susan Danko at the 2013 Governor’s Awards for the Arts luncheon ceremony, which will be held at 12:00 PM on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at the Columbus Athenaeum in downtown Columbus. The event will be hosted by the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation and presented in partnership with The Ohio Channel. The award luncheon is held each year in conjunction with ARTS DAY, a day-long event sponsored by the Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation.  Other ARTS DAY events include an arts advocacy briefing, legislative visits by students representing ten high schools in Ohio, an arts showcase, and student exhibitions. 

 

More information on Arts Day 2013 can be obtained at http://www.ohiocitizensforthearts.org, or by calling 614-221-4064.

 

2) The 2013 Best Communities for Music Education survey has launched! Teachers, parents, school administrators and board members are invited to complete the 2013 Best Communities survey online now through Friday, January 18, 2013. Many districts reported that making the “Best Communities” list has had a positive effect on their ability to sustain and advance music education programs. In 2012, 176 communities were recognized, including 166 school districts and 10 schools.

 

“The designation has helped to validate the work of the students, faculty, administration and community in building a music program of which we all can be proud,” said Brian P. Timmons, district music coordinator of Bergenfield public schools, in Bergenfield, N.J. “Though the economic crisis, we have been able to continue to grow and develop our program with unprecedented participation. Our designation has undoubtedly been a positive factor in that success.”

 

The BCME survey asks detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, and other relevant factors about their communities’ music education programs. One application may be submitted for school districts and community members are encouraged to work together to complete the comprehensive survey. 

 

The Institute for Educational Research and Public Service of Lawrence, Kansas, an affiliate of the University of Kansas, hosts the survey and has updated and refined processes for assessment of community selection. Survey responses are verified with district officials and then advisory organizations review the data.

 

The survey is available for review at

http://www.nammfoundation.org/research/best-communities-music-education-survey>.

 

Complete the District Survey today at

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JXHRLFZ>!

 

Complete the School survey today at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2013SCHOOLCOMPETITION>!

 

3)  Holiday Performances at the Statehouse:  Musical groups from schools in central Ohio will be performing at the Statehouse starting Wednesday December 4, 2012 at noon.  The performances will take place in the Museum Gallery on the ground floor of the Ohio Statehouse. The concerts are free and open to the public. 

 

Scheduled musical performances include the following: 

 

Dec. 4 - Westland High School, Galloway 

Dec. 5 - Hamilton Twp. High School, Columbus 

Dec. 6 - Eastmoor Academy, Columbus 

Dec. 7 - Grove City Christian School, Grove City 

Dec. 10 - Johnstown-Monroe High School, Johnstown 

Dec. 11 - Jackson Center High School, Jackson Center 

Dec. 12 - FCI Kindergarten Village, Columbus 

Dec. 13 - Kenton Ridge High School, Springfield 

Dec. 14 - Lancaster High School, Lancaster 

Dec. 17 - Centennial High School, Columbus 

Dec. 18 - Northside Christian School, Westerville 

 

 

Joan Platz

Director of Research

 

Ohio Alliance for Arts Education

77 South High Street Second Floor

Columbus, OH 43215

614-446-9669 - cell

joan.platz@gmail.com