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E-mail Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2009 > February > 05 > Entry
A review of Strickland’s education plan, Part 2
Gov. Ted Strickland’s education plan is so big, I couldn’t fit my analysis of it into one post! Here’s part one and this post is part two.
—Create a new “center for creativity and innovation” within the Ohio Department of Education. This idea was not fully explained. I guess the idea is to cull good ideas from classrooms around the state and spread them. The only other thing I think this would mean is direct research by the DOE. That doesn’t sound like a great idea. Side note: Strickland’s plan really grows the education department between this and the plan for a new accountability arm to conduct performance audits on school districts.
—Replace the OGT with the the ACT and other measures. Other states have opted for the ACT with some success. NCLB requires a high school level test and when states like Michigan dumped their own test and paid for every student to take the ACT it led to a jump in college attendance. That’s because the state pays for the college entrance exam and students who might have skipped it find they have college-qualifying scores and are encouraged to apply.
The part of this plan that concerns me is the new graduation requirement. Students would need to meet some combination of factors to qualify for a diploma — a minimum ACT score or pass end-of-course exams or complete a service learning project or complete a senior project.
This raises many questions. First of all, it is inappropriate for the state to set a minimum score on a nationally normed test like the ACT. It is the equivalent of requiring every student to be above average. At least Ohio will allow kids to pick other measures if they don’t do well on the ACT. End-of-course exams were first proposed by Bob Taft in 2000 but then scrapped when Ohio couldn’t get the Bush Administration to agree to allow for them under NCLB. So they went with the OGT instead. End-of-course exams are good because they are given immediately after a student takes a course like Algebra II or American History. And the tests are sort of like AP subject tests, focused on the topic of the class.
On the projects, my big question is who will grade them? Kentucky tried requiring “portfolios” of student work in the early 1990s and grading was overwhelming. They couldn’t figure out how to get project-style work graded on a large scale.
—Junk the grade 3-8 assessments. This is costly plan to create all new tests for lower grades right after Ohio just got done redesigning the tests. And it is not clear what these “new” assessments will look like.
—Conduct performance audits on school districts. This sounds like a big job. The education department will now assess district on fiscal, operational and academic performance and take action against those that don’t live up to the state’s expectations. Seems like this would require a lot of people. Again, an example of how the department would grow under this plan.
—If a school district fails, it will be shut down. I asked Strickland how this would work and, in essence, he said shutting a district down would be a last resort that would rarely, if ever, occur. I wanted to know what would happen to the kids and schools, etc., were a school to be shut down. Strickland said the kids and resources of the district could be disbursed to neighboring districts by the education department.
—Overhaul school funding. A lot has been said about the school funding portion of this plan and it is difficult to boil down. In essence, Strickland is trying to create mechanisms to allow some school district local taxes to grow with inflation and shift more burden for funding schools to the state. If it works, district should get more money and have to be on the ballot less often.
So there it all is. What do you like? What do you hate? Tell us your thoughts on the Strickland plan.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Schools and Politics, Teaching and Learning
Comments
By Sally
February 8, 2009 5:41 PM | Link to this
Here is a shocker…kids still end up in high school who can’t read even with the current tests. They might not be able to read for a few reasons - constantly moving every three months because the rent is due, parents not working with their child nightly to help them practice their reading, or with a select few they are high needs students who unfortunately are not going to meet the average yearly progress. State testing is not necessarily the answer because it doesn’t determine if a teacher is doing their job - it all depends on the type of child that you have in your classroom. Also in todays world teachers are encouraged to teach to all different learning styles and needs and then we turn around and test all students the same way. We should have more than one way to test students to determine if they are on track and not place all of our eggs into one basket.
By Rick
February 8, 2009 11:31 AM | Link to this
Scrapping the tests for various grades is a step in the wrong direction. We need assessments along the way so some kid does end up in high school unable to read.
By Concerned Mom of 3
February 7, 2009 11:56 AM | Link to this
Max- you raise some good points… What would the suburban districts look like with the Dayton students infused among the suburban students??? I am almost certain that the “troubled, at risk” students would quickly pull even the best districts down from their “Outstanding” status… The problem isn’t with good/bad teachers and administrators- the root of the problem lies in bad parenting… Davidss2- I also agree with you. Why isn’t the State bold enough to tackle the failure where it originated- with the parents? When a family is in need, give the money to the parents who are actually doing their part. Withhold the money from the parents who don’t do their part. If their children aren’t meeting the 93% attendance requirement- don’t cut the check. (Money can be a great motiviator for doing the right thing.) Until the “system” is fixed, the governer can propose all kinds of educational solutions, but the solutions are like trying to put out a 5 alarm fire with a garden hose.
By Oldprof
February 7, 2009 10:17 AM | Link to this
Scott, you’re wrong about nationally-normed tests—they make it EASIER to set a fair passing score. See, the OGT was stupid because no one knew what the passing score was until after the state graded it—the standards for passing changed annually. (Not to mention that the OGT was created by incompetents and graded by amateurs.) If you take a valid, normed test like the ACT and set the passing score at one standard deviation below the mean (which is a generally accepted standard for tests like this) then it will be fair and reliable while not requiring all students to be above average—contrary to what you wrote. Any experienced teacher knows that this will be a better standardized test for Ohio.
By Laura
February 6, 2009 10:52 PM | Link to this
So, if a school district is shut down, the Gov. is going to disperse the students and resources to neighboring districts? As in, DPS students will all be bused to Trotwood, Jefferson Township, Oakwood, Kettering, Huber Heights, Faiborn? And, who decides where they go? To a highly successful district or to one that is also in serious trouble? One that has adequate local funding or one that is in or near fiscal trouble? Sounds like this needs some work.
By davidss2
February 6, 2009 7:21 AM | Link to this
These look like a laundry list from the ODE executives in Columbus to maintain lots of high-paying jobs there reworking all the testing that was done 12 years ago or so. BUT BUT BUT there’s nothing in Strickland’s wish list that changes the #1 problem of parent responsibility is lacking. I guess that wouldn’t fit in the cradle to grave nanny state system we’re evolving into. Acting as though incompetent teachers are the problem and fixing that with 4 year residency and changing the training again in colleges (more job security for deskchair jockeys at UD)fixes nothing. 10 years later someone will be proposing more changes. Throughout posting in different threads here we read about discipline problems and homes where education is not a high priority. FIX IT. Make parents accountable. School performance audits are a joke. Audit the parents. Post videos of parent conferences with the druggie parent collecting all kinds of public money there yelling at your teachers for trying to do their job with her child (no father in sight). Let the principals start telling the parents to bug out; the principal will run the school. Get discipline back in the schools.
By max
February 6, 2009 5:14 AM | Link to this
Like NCLB, this is a one size fits all plan. This plan does not address the different needs of different districts…..Is the State of Ohio really going to be able to shut down districts like the urban districts? Can you imagine the ruckus raised when some of the the kids from Dayton land in Oakwood or Kettering?!?!?! No where does his plans allow urban districts, for example, to do something different and out of the box that might actually work.