We seek to make information about school choice more accessible. Toward that end, we now have an Excel spreadsheet that lists charter school information for Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. It contains the schools' contact information, latest student counts, financial data, and academic ratings.
We seek to make information about school choice more accessible. Toward that end, we now have an Excel spreadsheet that lists charter school information for Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. It contains the schools' contact information, latest student counts, financial data, and academic ratings. We plan to update it quarterly and eventually expand it to other cities in Ohio, but if you see information you know is incorrect, we welcome the feedback.
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is looking for talent. They are forming National Advisory Panels "to help shape our response to challenges facing the charter school authorizer profession." Additionally, NACSA is looking for a Chief Operating Officer. For a description of the position and directions on how to apply, please follow this link.
There has been a lot of talk lately about value-added assessment in Ohio (including a high profile conference by Battelle for Kids last month). The day is nearing when the Buckeye State goes "value-added." A pilot run is set for next school year and full-scale implementation is set for 2007-08. Naturally, plenty of questions still surround this new assessment model and what it will mean for students, schools, and district accountability. In an effort to help shed light on this, Gadfly has decided to explore some of the most asked questions about value-added assessment.
What does value-added assessment really mean?
It's a method of analyzing individual student test scores over time. The statistics used in value-added assessment virtually eliminate non-school factors that affect student achievement, providing a reasonably accurate indication of how effective schools are at "adding value" to the academic performance of their students. It does not, however, focus on whether or not students have reached proficiency on state standards. Some schools may measure high on growth indicators but low on achievement indicators (say, a high school with lots of students who start out far behind but make great progress over time, yet still are not up to standards). Under No Child Left Behind, and Ohio's current accountability system, such schools are punished. One may wonder whether that's fair. (But one may also wonder whether it's fair to praise a school for adding value if its students are still not performing satisfactorily in relation to absolute standards.)
How will value-added assessment be factored into the state's accountability system?
It's supposed to supplement the state's current accountability system (which is aligned with the federal No Child Left Behind law), but the Ohio Accountability Task Force is still working to determine how best to accomplish this goal. The questions they are dealing with include such issues as how much growth is enough and how much progress is enough? How can we focus on growth while still ensuring that all children ultimately reach proficiency in reading and math standards by 2014 (which NCLB requires)? And, what does value-added assessment mean for accountability and charter schools, especially for schools that serve drop-outs? Will value-added measures be used to provide financial awards to schools and teachers, as is the case in some other states?
As this unfolds in the coming months, Gadfly will provide our readers with updates. In the meantime, if you'd like more information, check out these websites:
In Ohio, approximately 42 percent of school districts have student enrollments less than 1,500. (Most of the state's 250 plus charter schools are even smaller.) For these districts, meeting a reasonable target of spending 60 percent of their budgets on instruction and 40 percent on administration proves difficult, due to mounting costs for health insurance, fuel for buses, education specialists, and other non-instructional items. Large districts can defray costs by spreading them over several schools. Small districts don't have that luxury. A new report from Deloitte describes ways for small districts to set up partnerships that allow them to benefit from economies of scale resulting from sharing services such as accounting, building maintenance, and school nursing. If cost sharing is executed well, the report notes, districts can benefit from scale and still maintain control over important matters like curricula, professional development, and teacher hiring. This report should serve as bedside reading for school administrators (in small districts and charter schools) who face increasing costs and shrinking or static budgets. You can read it here.
School Choice Demonstration Project, Georgetown University
Thomas Stewart,
Ph.D., Patrick J. Wolf, Ph.D., and Stephen Q. Cornman, Esq.
October 2005
While choice opponents sometimes argue cynically that poor parents cannot be
trusted to make good decisions for their children, these Georgetown researchers
(and their funders at the Annie E. Casey Foundation) respected parents enough to
ask them (in a series of focus groups) about their experiences in Washington,
D.C.'s new, federally funded voucher program. Their answers are illuminating.
Most families' and students' experiences with the program were overwhelmingly
positive, and many parents reported that, after receiving an Opportunity
Scholarship their children were more confident, performed better academically,
and demonstrated increased enthusiasm for school. Says one elementary school
parent: "This is what I tell my kids. I tell them that this is an opportunity
for you to strive, do your best, take advantage of it, that's what I tell my
children." Parents were especially enthusiastic about the rigorous standards of
their children's new schools and the opportunity to get involved, though both
presented challenges. Says one Hispanic parent, "For us there was a significant
change more than anything because we were forced to go to English school to
learn English ... when I realized all the homework was in English, so I had to
stay awake all night with a translator and a dictionary." There have been bumps,
such as the incident in which a teacher told a scholarship student (whose
involvement in the program was supposed to be confidential): "If you don't stop
acting like this, remember, you are here on a scholarship and we could put you
out." The principal quickly handled that situation (one of the few examples of
ostracism that researchers could find) to the parent's satisfaction. On the
whole, participating private schools, including some of the nation's ritziest,
are making the scholarship families feel like they belong. A middle school
parent explains: "It's like the people there treat me like I'm a part of their
family. The school is just so family-oriented. I mean I am so happy." If Jonathan Kozol wants to see people of different races and
classes coming together to educate their children together, he could do worse
than to visit some of the schools participating in the D.C. voucher program. See
it for yourself here.
We seek to make information about school choice more accessible. Toward that end, we now have an Excel spreadsheet that lists charter school information for Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. It contains the schools' contact information, latest student counts, financial data, and academic ratings. We plan to update it quarterly and eventually expand it to other cities in Ohio, but if you see information you know is incorrect, we welcome the feedback.
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is looking for talent. They are forming National Advisory Panels "to help shape our response to challenges facing the charter school authorizer profession." Additionally, NACSA is looking for a Chief Operating Officer. For a description of the position and directions on how to apply, please follow this link.
