Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
I can barely believe it, but I have been graduated from Miamisburg High School for 31 years! I was part of the class of 1979. Nothing made that more clear to me then the Miamisburg Alumni Dinner we attended last week. Since my husband graduated the year ahead of me we both knew a lot of people at the dinner. His class was also celebrating a milestone in their lives, most were turning 50 sometime within the year of 2010. During the alumni weekend we also attended a “Happy 50th Birthday” party for the class.
It was a lot of fun catching up with people I knew from high school. Many of these people I hadn’t seen since graduation, and it was interesting to see how everyone had changed and what they were doing in life. The scariest part was realizing all of us, (not I since I never had the privilege of having kids,) were grandparents! The last time I saw many of these same “kids” they were talking about who they were going to prom with and what college they were planning to attend. Now we were talking about hot flashes, and grand babies, and retirement!
For myself, and it’s hard for people to believe now, but I was painfully shy in high school, a wallflower, and I enjoyed the look of surprise on faces when I told them my maiden name. I heard, “Wow, you’ve changed”, a dozen times. Reminiscing about the past was the bulk of the conversations at the parties we attended. During our era computers were the size of a room, gigantic 8 track tapes were all the rage, boom boxes were carried on shoulders with the dimensions of a small suitcase, and we tottered around on platform shoes while wearing jeans with such wide legs they were called elephant bottoms!
All the talk about the 1970s got me interested in reading up on the history of that time in my life. The book, “The 1970s: A Cultural History of the United States”, by Gail B. Stewart, helped jog my memory. One of the greatest things about the 70s was the music. During the 50s and 60s, Rock and Roll was introduced and flourished, but when the 70s came along the Roll was dropped and it was just called Rock. All different genres were developed; Heavy metal, Punk rock, and disco. I only have to hear, “How Deep is Your Love”, by the Bee Gees, and I am transported back to my teenage bedroom listening to 45 records on my humongous stereo.
Television saw great strides in controversial shows. All in the Family, with Archie Bunker, broke all kinds of boundaries. There were shows on racial issues, atheists, and women’s rights. Another ground breaker was, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was a single woman living on her own and managing without a man!
The 70s were filled with the tragedy at Kent State, resignation of President Nixon, Iran hostage crisis, women’s rights, and much more. Head over to your local library and check out a book with the historical happenings from your past. You might be surprised at how important your own era was.
Bringing Clarity to the Way Ohio Measures Academic Progress
For parents, choosing where to send their children to school is one of the most important decisions they will make. They want their children to have a safe environment in which to learn and grow, and one that will provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and the workforce.
To help parents, school officials and others gauge the academic progress of their local schools, legislators implemented a report card system for school districts in 1997. These annual report cards allow people to evaluate and compare a district’s performance on proficiency tests, attendance and graduation rates. Since then, the system has been modified to take into account changes in state and federal education laws.
Currently, the rankings are determined based on a combination of four factors: student performance on 30 state indicators involving proficiency tests in third through eighth grades and the Ohio Graduation Test as well as attendance and graduation rates; a performance index which measures the achievement of every student during the school year; a value-added measure that reflects how much progress students have made in the past year; and whether or not the district met Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), a federally required measure of reading and math proficiency in 10 student subgroups.
Based on a district’s performance in these areas, they are assigned one of the following rankings: “Excellent with Distinction,” “Excellent,” “Effective,” “Continuous Improvement,” “Academic Watch” or “Academic Emergency.” Parents use these report cards to help determine where they send their children to school and districts rely on the results to help them pass levies.
While I believe we need to hold our schools accountable for ensuring our children are making progress in their education, I feel the current system unfairly punishes high-achieving schools based on the performance of a handful of students. When the annual district report cards for the 2008-2009 school year were released earlier this fall, Lebanon City Schools received a rating of Continuous Improvement –down from its previous Excellent with Distinction designation.
The reason for this drop in the ratings is due to the district failing to meet AYP for reading in two student subgroups – Hispanic and Limited English Proficient – and under the current ranking system, districts that fail to meet AYP for three or more consecutive years can be ranked no higher than “Continuous Improvement,” regardless of their performance in other areas. I spoke with the Ohio Department of Education about this issue, and learned that the two subgroups involved have almost entirely the same students. Simply put, Lebanon is getting penalized twice for the same group of students. This drop in ranking can give parents the impression that a school’s academic quality has dropped, when in fact it has not. A similar situation also occurred this year in the Kettering School District, which qualified for an “Excellent” ranking but was dropped to “Continuous Improvement” due to not meeting AYP in two student subgroups.
A closer look at Lebanon’s report card further highlights this inequity. For the 2008-2009 school year, Lebanon had a 98.1 percent graduation rate, met 29 of 30 state indicators, received a score of 101.6 on the performance index and scored above average for the value-added measure. Another district ranked “Continuous Improvement” for the same year met 0 out of 30 state indicators, received 80.4 on the performance index and did not pass all subgroups for the last three years and failed in seven subgroups this past year. This clearly indicates the current rating system does not provide the accurate, consistent assessment tool that is needed to properly express the academics of a school district.
To address this situation, my colleagues and I in the Senate recently passed Senate Bill 167, which would reform the rating system for Ohio school districts to prevent a school from dropping more than one classification simply for not meeting federal AYP standards for certain subgroups of students. Under Senate Bill 176, schools failing to meet AYP three or more years in a row in the same subgroups may only have their ranking lowered to “Effective” instead of the current “Continuous Improvement.”
Penalizing a successful, high-performing district based on essentially one subgroup failing to meet AYP seems very severe and inequitable – and potentially undermines the confidence placed in this accountability system altogether. Lebanon, by all other categories included on the state report card, is a high performing and very successful school district. This year’s rating of Continuous Improvement does not properly reflect the quality school system in Lebanon and, as a result, can cause great harm to the community. Senate Bill 167, in my opinion, addresses this issue while holding schools accountable and still providing a clear and accurate report of the academic conditions of a school district.
Senate Bill 167 has moved to the Ohio House of Representatives for further discussion, and I am hopeful that it will pass in the coming months so that next year’s school report cards can provide a more accurate picture of student progress and we can avoid situations like those in Lebanon and Kettering.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact my office if you have questions or concerns about any state-related matter. You can reach my office by phone at (614) 466-9737, by e-mail at SD07@senate.state.oh.us or by writing State Senator Shannon Jones, Ohio Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus, OH 43215. I look forward to hearing from you.
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BECK PAIRS WITH LOCAL LIBRARIES TO PROMOTE READING CONTEST
Columbus- Local elementary school students could find themselves at the State Capitol as a “Lawmaker for a Day” if they participate in this fall’s unique reading contest sponsored by State Representative Pete A. Beck (R-Mason).
Beck is teaming with local libraries to help promote their fall reading program through his sponsorship of the contest, in hopes to help retain and improve students’ reading skills while encouraging a lifelong passion for reading. Students can pick up special contest bookmarks at any of the libraries within the 67th Ohio House District, starting Friday, November 13.
“We need to do everything possible to show our children how important and exciting reading can be and to make sure reading doesn’t become a lost art,” Beck said. “I encourage parents to get their young children involved with the reading contest. It’s a fun, simple way to help students continue to learn during the school year and develop that healthy thirst of knowledge.”
Students can use the back of the contest bookmarks to list the books they've read. They can then drop off the bookmarks in contest boxes at the libraries. Completed bookmarks should be dropped off at the libraries by December 18th, and the drawing will take place at a later date.
The number of books read by young people during the fall is consistently related to academic gains, according to several studies. Children in every income group who also read six or more books over the fall gained more in reading achievement. Local libraries involved in the contest are Mason, Springboro, Franklin, and Lebanon Public Libraries.
Beck said the program also will provide the added benefit of encouraging young people to use local libraries. For more information about the contest or for additional bookmarks, residents can contact State Representative Pete A. Beck at 77 S. High St, Columbus, Ohio 43215, by phone at (614) 644-6027, or email district67@ohr.state.oh.us.
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