A data-tampering scandal may cause the Ohio Department of Education to delay the release of the school report cards until September, reports the Columbus Dispatch.
The report cards are slated to be released Aug. 29. But State Board of Education President Debe Terhar has requested that the release of report cards be delayed until at least Sept. 10 when the state board meets again.
The concern is that the school report card data may not be accurate. The Dispatch reports that the state auditor is currently investigating whether some districts, including Columbus, have manipulated data to obtain a better score.
The allegations, which began in Columbus schools, are that school employees withdrew and then re-enrolled students so their test scores wouldn’t be included. Other school districts are suspected of the same practice.
The newspaper reports that acting State Superintendent Michael Sawyers will release a plan for the report cards at a special meeting today.
Patch will provide you more information on when report cards will be released as soon as we can.
Design a system that eliminates or at least minimizes the ability of all parties to manipulate it and it will garner overwhelming bipartisan support; and if it requires additional funding to implement it I would gladly work to see this accomplished.
It's just really, really complex James. There's just so many different dynamics at play in education (student body demographics, different levels of academics, classroom dynamics, etc. etc.) across so many different variables (geography, economic status, time spent in the classroom, etc.) that it's nearly impossible to find a system that eliminates all those variables to ensure a fair comparison. And politically speaking, it's a nightmare; because everyone in school administration and politics wants a nice, tidy number that everyone can understand. And as long as we focus on making students a number, someone will always be there who wants to fudge those numbers. Even if you sat down and asked everyone you knew what the definiton of an "excellent" education was, you'd probably find out that they'd say things that are not numerically measurable. They want "great teachers" in their schools, but how do you judge a great teacher? And relative to what/whom? They want kids who are critical thinkers and can apply their core skills, but whose judgment dictates if they have succeeded? I can tell you that we have broken this system so badly that we are nowhere near the answer. And we're heading in a direction that breaks the system further each day, as we're seeing plans to use these very same broken metrics applied to things like teacher pay.
There's the rub. You take care of the education end and, I kid you not, I will take on the political end. I believe that if you could come up with the Idea part, I could work the political side successfully. I truly do believe that the "Right Idea" can take care of the politics every time.
It's the worst system ever devised; except for everything that came before it.
Not to insult we are no more thatn an average school district with below average staff...
And a B- is still above average.
perhaps we're looking at the wrong model. Don't the Catholic schools deal with the same issues? How do they deliver the education that they do, and could that be duplicated or at least modified to work in the Public School arena?
Plus, most of those models of schools, remember, can essentially discriminate their student body. They mostly set their own rules. They can say "Our minimum GPA is 1.5, and anyone who doesn't have that gets kicked out." Public schools can't do that. The same goes with behavior. If a kid in a school that privately sets their own rules wants to expel a kid, they just do it. It's quite a bit harder to expel a kid in the public schools for fear of lawsuits. Now, I'm not suggesting the public schools should start practicing minimum GPAs or become more heavy-handed with expulsions (necessarily), but what I am saying is you can't make a comparison between two different types of schools when one has the ability to adjust its population and the other does not.
that's kind of what I had thought in the back of my mind but that's also why I asked.
It's amazing how clear the stories become once actual factual data is gathered and reported. But that's no fun.
Diana Sabitsch Revere Schools
is the only to gettith thiy comment , only one must knoweth what the trueth must holdis store for those whoeth steel, cheeteth and lye and are thus the biggest loost hypycrits. So in retrospect I would think you three paranoid morons would be better off barking up another tree. Because the conspiracy you create. Will feed the light until it's to late. Bulldog Mula
The Brecksville/Broadview Hts District received a B- grade under the new scoring system despite the complaints of our super. No matter what the standard we are comapared agianst our peers... Other districcts around us received A's. Factually we are cheating published in the Gazette our Super Mr. Prebbles is investigating the standards used to evaluate.....Its the same as knowing the answers before you take the test. All things and districts equal we scored B-.... But please call the OBE like I did to verify.......
Our teachers thrown in East Cleveland would do not better than the teachers that are there now. We should give pay raises to our teachers base on their ability to teach. The BOE should lift the max pay a teacher can top out at substanially. Remove step, base, and longevity raises and go directly to merit. Further we should ask our teachers to have a Masters Degree in the subject they teach and pay them for their degree. Wouldn't it be great if our teachers had a "Masters in English" Masters in Math" etc....How can you have a teacher that has a undergrad degree in English and a "Masters in Teaching" teach advanced math in our district.... Perhaps this is the reason why our district has an average rating of B- and the number parents sending their kids to private school is growing.. Your thoughts please
"Now, I'm not suggesting the public schools should start practicing minimum GPAs or become more heavy-handed with expulsions (necessarily), but what I am saying is you can't make a comparison between two different types of schools when one has the ability to adjust its population and the other does not." Should We?