Arts on Line Education Update for June 30, 2008

PLEASE NOTE:  The next Arts on Line - Education Update will be published in September 2008.

IN THIS ISSUE:

1) MEETINGS AND EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR SUMMER AND FALL

2) RESULTS FROM NATIONAL CIVIC INDEX POLL RELEASED

3) GOVERNOR SIGNS CAPITAL/CORRECTIONS BILL

4) MASSACHUSETTS’ EDUCATION PLAN PRESENTED

5) REPORT ON CHARTER SCHOOLS RELEASED

6) CONDITION OF EDUCATION 2008 RELEASED

7) BILLS INTRODUCED

FYI ARTS

1) Meetings and Events Scheduled for the Summer and Fall:

-Public Private Collaborative Committee (P2C2) July 2, 2008, 9:00 AM at the Ohio Board of Regents, 30 E. Broad Street, 36th Floor, Columbus

-State Board of Education Budget Subcommittee July 8, 2008 at the ODE

-State Board of Education Committee and Business Meeting July 13-15, 2008, Columbus, OH

-Governor Strickland's Outreach Meetings for Education July 2008 throuGh September 2008. Locations, Dates and Time TBA.

-Partnership for Continued Learning, August 6, 2008 at 9:30-11:30 AM in Columbus, Ohio - Ohio Board of Regents.

-State Report Cards Released by ODE, August 19, 2008

-Coalition for Public Education Press Conference on State Report Cards September 3, 2008.  Time and Location TBA.

-ODE Ohio Performance Assessment Conference September 17, 2008 (Tentative) Franklin County Educational Service Center

-OSBA Capital Conference, November 9-12, 2008 in Columbus at the Greater Columbus Convention Center Recognition of Outstanding Public Schools by the Coalition for Public Education  Date, Time, Location TBA.

2) Results from National Civic Index Poll Released:  The Public Education Network, Wendy Puriefoy president, released on June 25,

2008 the results of their latest National Civic Index Poll conducted in May 2008 by Lake Research Partners. The civic index was designed to measure a community's perception of itself and its public schools.  The research-based index was developed in consultation with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Maryland, and with other social scientists and national experts.  The index is composed of several indicators that are combined into results for the following ten categories:  tolerance and inclusiveness, performance data, active parents, officeholder leadership, youth involvement, business community, media, school board, higher education, and civic organizations.

The purpose of the index is to identify and respond to inequities or problems in community support for the local public school system.

The Civic Index poll was first conducted in 2006 at the national level and in four locations. This year the Index has been completed nationally and in Paterson, New Jersey, and San Francisco, California.

According to the poll, Americans rate gas prices and jobs/economy over education as a "top concern", although education bests health care and other national issues.  47 percent of respondents say that education is one of the most important or a very important issue when voting for the President.  This is a drop from 2006, when 56 percent of respondents reported that education was one of the most important or a very important issue in the presidential campaign.

Public reaction to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is mixed.  A quarter of respondents believe NCLB has made no difference in their communities, while two-thirds of respondents are split between believing it has hurt their local schools or helped them. 68 percent of respondents report that the people in their communities take responsibility for ensuring the quality of their public schools. This response has been steady since 2006. Sixty-three percent of respondents also report that there is a lack of accountability for public education by elected officials, while 29 percent believe that public officials are being held accountable for their public schools. Respondents were also asked to rate from 0 to 5 their communities on the civic index categories.  The combined indicators for tolerance and inclusiveness received the strongest rating at 3.9, while civic organizations and their impact on public schools were rated the least strongest at 2.9.

To learn more and view a power point of the results of this poll, please visit http://www.publiceducation.org/press_releases.asp and follow the links.

3)  Governor Signs Capital/Corrections Bill:  Governor Strickland signed into law the biennial capital budget and corrections bill, Am. Sub. HB562 (Hottinger), on June 24, 2008, and vetoed 13 items.  The bill was approved on June 12, 2008 after lawmakers agreed to a conference committee report, which accepted the Senate version of the bill with changes.

According to the Governor's veto message, "The $1.3 billion capital and corrections bill reflects our continuing efforts to make Ohio an attractive place for increased economic development and job-creating opportunities. We know that by upgrading our infrastructure and by funding projects that improve our communities, we greatly enhance the quality-of-life of Ohioans and increase our ability to grow and keep jobs in the state."

The capital appropriations include funds to support state and local building and renovation projects for state agencies, prisons, mental health facilities, colleges and universities, eTech, parks and recreation centers, court houses, cultural facilities, roads, bridges, dams, etc.  Funds through the Ohio School Facilities Commission are also included to support the construction of new facilities for the Ohio School for the Deaf and the Ohio School for the Blind.

HB562 also includes a variety of changes in law.  Some of the changes relate to the budget reductions proposed by Governor Strickland in February 2008 to address a potential budget deficit.  Technical corrections in HB119 - the operating budget - are also included.  In addition there are a number of other changes in law that impact education and tax policies.

The following is a summary of the education and tax policy provisions, prepared from the analysis of the bill prepared by the Legislative Service Commission and a Fiscal Note prepared by LSC, and Governor Strickland's veto statement. The analysis is available at http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/analyses127/h0562-rs-127.pdf

USE OF BUDGET STABILIZATION FUND TRANSFERS VETO - Use approximately $18 million from the Budget Stabilization Fund to balance the FY08 and FY09 budget.

REDISTRICTING

-Appropriates $750,000 in FY09 to appropriation item 035-407, Legislative Taskforce on Redistricting, and reappropriates any unexpended and unencumbered amount of this appropriation at the end of FY09 to FY 2010.

LOCAL/COUNTY GOVERNMENT

-Creates the Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration to develop recommendations on ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of local government, achieve cost savings, and facilitate economic development.

-Creates the Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform.

AUTISM

-Requires the Franklin County Educational Service Center to establish the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence.  Requires the ODE to contract to provide services to individuals with autism and low incidence disabilities with the OCALI or another entity.

-Requires the Executive Director of the OCALI, working with the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, to establish the Autism Preschool Program.

MEDICAID SCHOOL COMPONENT OF MEDICAID PROGRAM -Medicaid School/Medicaid Program:  Establishes, with federal approval, the Medicaid School Component of the Medicaid Program as a joint program with the Department of Jobs and Family Services and the Ohio Department of Education.

EDUCATOR LICENSE

-Specifies that if a person holds multiple educator licenses, the person must undergo a criminal records check only when renewing the license with the longest duration or, if the licenses have the same duration but expire in different years, only when renewing the license designated as the primary license.

-Requires the State Board of Education, prior to renewing the non-primary license or the license with a shorter duration, to determine if the Department of Education has received notification from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCII) of the person's arrest or criminal conviction.

-Reinstates an exemption from certain child care licensure requirements for certain after-school programs.

SCHOOL FACILITIES COMMISSION

-Accelerates by one year the policy of including open enrollment net gain in calculating a district's percentile ranking to determine school facilities funding for FY 2009 funding, under certain conditions.

-Allows in certain cases a recalculation of the percentile share for districts awaiting state assistance based on open enrollment net gain.  "Look back provision."

-Requires the ODE to calculate for school districts an alternative ranking for FY 2009 funding for school facilities assistance (Ohio School Facilities programs) based on single-year adjusted valuation per pupil rather than a three year average, and use the alternative ranking under certain conditions.

-Makes adjustments regarding the local share of costs for new projects for districts that previously received assistance.

-Permits the School Facilities Commission (OSFC) to increase the set-aside to 3 percent in FY08 only for joint vocational school districts participating in the Vocational School Facilities Assistance Program.

-Permits districts other than those participating in the Accelerated Urban School Building Assistance Program to segment the projects under certain conditions.

VETO- Allows the segments to be completed as separate projects, and requires the OSFC to recalculate a district's local share each time it implements a new segment.

VETO - Expands eligibility for the Exceptional Needs School Facilities Assistance Program to all school districts. (Currently, districts are eligible only if they are ranked in the 75th percentile or lower on the equity list, or have a territory of more than 300 square miles.) VETO - Specifies that, for purposes of the state Uniform Trade Secrets Act, "trade secrets" include payroll records relating to employees' wages and benefits that are provided to the Ohio School Facilities Commission by a contractor or subcontractor that bids on or is awarded a state-assisted school facilities project.

TAXATION

-Modifies the provision requiring the recalculation of a district's state education aid and its wealth percentile ranking for school facilities if certain tax exempt public utility was included erroneously in the districts valuation.  The change clarifies that the adjustments must include gap aid.

-Shortens the timeline for school district income tax rate reductions to become effective relative to January 1st, under certain conditions.

-Requires the school district personal property tax reimbursement calculation to be reconciled at the end and in the middle of each fiscal year.

-Clarifies provisions related to the computation of the state education aid offset and reimbursements to school districts for tax losses associated with the phase-out of personal property taxes; the reconciliation of state aid payments; and the recomputation of prior offsets.

-Lengthens the maximum allowable life of school district emergency property tax levies from five years to ten years.

-Authorizes school boards that levy an emergency levy to "substitute"

a new kind of levy for one or more emergency levies. This new type of levy would yield increasingly more revenue as new property is added to the tax list. Specifies that the computation of permissible revenue growth of substitute levies is based only on new real property, rather than on all new taxable property (which would include both new real property and new public utility personal

property.)

NON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

-Permits chartered nonpublic schools to purchase goods and services through group purchasing contracts negotiated and arranged by the Department of Administrative Services.

VETO - Requires the Department of Education to proportionally distribute to chartered nonpublic schools the unspent amount appropriated in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 for reimbursement of their administrative costs.

-Requires the Seniors to Sophomores program to permit students of nonpublic high schools, both chartered and nonchartered, to participate.

TRANSFER OF PROPERTY

-Requires the written consent of 75 percent of the affected property owners when a school district proposes on its own initiative to transfer five or more acres of its territory to an adjoining school district.

TUITION PAYMENTS

-Allows a school district that has entered into an agreement with one or more other districts for joint or cooperative operation of an educational program to charge fees or tuition to its resident students who participate in the program.

DATA VERIFICATION

-Permits the Department of Education to have access to student data verification codes to administer the Cleveland Scholarship Program and the Autism Scholarship Program, and to verify the accuracy of payments to county boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities (county MR/DD boards) for special education services, but generally prohibits the Department from releasing the codes to any other party.

-Specifies that documents held by the Department relative to the scholarship programs or county MR/DD board services that contain both a student's name or other personally identifiable information and the student's data verification code are not public records.

CHARTER SCHOOLS

-Grants an exception to the moratorium for certain start-up community schools sponsored by a Big Eight school district in which the school is located to open an additional start-up school in that district serving any of grades K to 5, under certain conditions.

-Grants an exception to the prohibition for start-up school location.  Allows a start-up community school to locate facilities in two separate school districts, under certain conditions.

-Grants an exception regarding the location of community schools in multiple facilities.  Permits a start-up community school to be located in multiple facilities and to assign students of the same grade to different facilities, under certain conditions.

-Waives hours or days a community school was closed for certain calamities in the 2007-2008 school year, as long as the school provided at least 920 hours of learning opportunities to students.

-Authorizes the governing authorities of two or more community schools to enter pooling agreements to jointly purchase goods and services, including health insurance for employees or liability insurance for the schools, or to provide student transportation.

-Establishes a five-year demonstration project at three ISUS community schools in Dayton (Institutes of Construction Technology, Manufacturing, and Health Care), beginning in the 2008-2009 school year, to collect and analyze data regarding community schools that operate dropout prevention and recovery programs.  The ODE must approve an independent evaluator for the project.

EDUCATIONAL SERVICE CENTERS

-Permits an educational service center to sponsor a conversion community school.

-Qualifies an educational service center (ESC) to receive per pupil state funds in fiscal year 2009 for services provided to a "city" or "exempted village" school district, under certain conditions.

-Permits a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) school to contract with an educational service center (ESC) or joint vocational school district for services.

-Allows an ESC that contracts with a STEM school to receive per-pupil state payments for certain services (in addition to fees paid by the STEM school), to the extent there are available funds remaining after the Department of Education has paid the ESCs for students enrolled in the school districts they serve, and the community schools they sponsor.

STEM

-Permits a school district, with the approval of the Partnership for Continued Learning, to be the governing body of a STEM school for which it is a partner, in the same manner that a board of education would govern a school within a district.

-Requires the Auditor of the State to "audit" schools district for "compliance with" the bill's requirements for financing of district-operated STEM schools.

HEAD START

-Clarifies a discrepancy in law regarding the obligation of a current Early Learning Initiative provider to repay by June 30, 2009 a start-up grant from the former Title IV-A Head Start or Head Start Plus program.  Extends by ten years (to June 30, 2019) the deadline for repayment of the Head Start start-up grants.

CALAMITY DAYS

-Waives the requirement for a school district to make up days or hours a school was closed during the 2007-2008 school year because of flooding from a burst water pipe, under certain conditions.

HIGHER EDUCATION

-Qualifies one more class of proprietary school students for Ohio College Opportunity Grants by extending eligibility to such students who first enroll in the 2008-2009 academic year, if the sponsor has an application for a certificate of authorization pending as of July 1, 2008.

-Qualifies certain nursing students for Ohio College Opportunity Grants.

-Transfers the Distance Learning Clearinghouse from the eTech Ohio Commission to the Chancellor of the Board of Regents; expands access to the clearinghouse; and authorizes the Chancellor to contract with another entity to operate the clearinghouse.

-Allows the Chancellor to restructure previously existing higher education consortia.

-Codifies the creation of the Ohio Appalachian Center for Higher Education at Shawnee State University, which includes the presidents of several universities in southern Ohio.

4)  Massachusetts' Education Plan Presented:  Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick unveiled on June 25, 2008 a forty page report called "Ready for 21st Century Success:  A New Promise for Public Education".  The report is the result of the Commonwealth Readiness Project, which brought together a variety of stakeholders over the past nine months to identify the goals and strategies that Massachusetts needs to take to prepare students for the 21st Century.

The plan includes 55 points for administrative and legislative action for early childhood education through college/universities, organized under four broad goals. According to the transmittal letter from Governor Patrick,

"The following report outlines the challenges, opportunities, needs and imperatives in public education today. Most notably, it provides an action agenda for establishing universal excellence over the next decade. Recognizing that no one idea will transform the system, the agenda leverages the relationships within the education sector and among all sectors of society. As we implement these action items, my administration will continue its commitment to the collaboration and cooperation that are the hallmarks of the Commonwealth Readiness Project. Taken together, and with all stakeholders working together, I am confident that we can deliver on a new 21st century promise of high-quality public education for all Massachusetts residents."

The following are the broad goals identified in the "Patrick Administration Action Agenda":

-Raise the achievement of all students. "Children's learning needs must be paramount, notwithstanding any inconvenience to adults inside and outside of our schools."

-Elevate teaching to a recognized profession capable of attracting the most highly qualified candidates to the field.

-Broaden and deepen our commitment to public education so that every student is prepared to take advantage of higher education, employment and lifelong learning opportunities;  extend the definition of a basic public education to include at least two years of postsecondary learning; align the curriculum with 21st century knowledge and skills.

-Unleash innovation broadly; confront old constraints; effectiveness must trump ideology; mission must triumph over tradition.

Some of the recommended changes follow:

-Develop a comprehensive, statewide child and youth data and reporting system that will enable development of a "Readiness Passport" for every child and youth enrolled in Massachusetts schools.

-Establish differentiated pay for qualifying teachers in high-needs districts and schools, in high-demand disciplines, and for those who possess highly needed, extraordinary skills and knowledge, or who volunteer for particularly challenging responsibilities.

-Accelerate efforts to make available to teachers an online, formative assessment system that will provide "real-time" data on student performance as measured against state standards.

-Maintain the current MCAS graduation requirement and strengthen the system by adding complementary measures of student growth and 21st century skills. This could include a culminating, multi-disciplinary senior project on a student-selected topic of interest.

-Provide opportunities for accelerated graduation and early entry into college for qualifying students who at age 16 or over pass an internationally benchmarked exam, such as the International Baccalaureate, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), or Advanced Placement exams, to bypass all other requirements, graduate from high school, and enter college.

-Establish the Commonwealth Education Innovation Fund, a public-private fundraising partnership to strengthen our collective capacity to meet pressing, statewide education challenges. Building on a modest annual investment, the state will seek additional funds from the business and nonprofit communities, as well as individual donors and philanthropists.

-Launch a Statewide Master Teacher Contract Initiative that would start a critical conversation about transforming the educator compensation and benefit structure to attract top talent into teaching by, for example, offering flexibility for teachers to receive different pay and benefit packages at different stages of their careers.

-Increase the size while reducing the number of the Commonwealth's current school districts to streamline administration and management structures, which will expand opportunities to ensure strong oversight and leadership and improve teaching and learning.

The full report is available at http://www.mass.gov/Agov3/docs/Readiness%20Final%20Report.pdf.

5) Report on Charter Schools Released:  The Ohio Education Association (OEA) released in early June 2008 "Ohio's Charter School Program 2007 Report" by Andy Jewell, Education Research Development Consultant for the OEA.  This annual report provides information about charter school demographics and growth; academic performance; efficiency; impact on public schools; and internet schools.

According to the report, in 2007 there were 310 charter schools enrolling nearly 77,000 students from 607 out of 610 school districts.  Ohio has invested approximately $2.7 billion in charter schools since charter schools began in the 1998-99 school year.  The following are some of the observations noted in the report:

-In 2007 $110 million in state aid was redirected from excellent and effective traditional schools to charter schools.  These monies were largely reallocated to charter schools in academic watch or emergency.

-Charter schools spend per pupil over twice as much on administrative costs (26.8 percent) as traditional public schools (11.8 percent).

-Charter schools spend less per pupil (59.9 percent) than traditional public schools (65.9 percent) for instruction and pupil support.

-Charter schools (excluding internet schools) enroll on average less than 200 students per school.

-Charter school enrollment has shifted from large urban centers to other parts of the state.

-Charter schools perform significantly lower on state-administered tests.

-Internet schools are the fastest growing segment of charter schools

(11 percent growth).  The for-profit internet-based schools enroll the most students, and exhibit the lowest performance on statewide assessments.

-57.8 percent of students in charter schools are categorized as economically disadvantaged compared to 80.2 percent for traditional public schools.

For more information, or to receive a copy, please email resweb@ohea.org.

6)  Condition of Education 2008 Released:  The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Mark Schneider Commissioner, released on May 29, 2008 the "Condition of Education 2008".  This is a congressionally mandated annual report that compiles and analyzes data from a variety of sources, and identifies trends in education based on certain indicators.  This year there are findings based on

43 indicators in the areas of Participation in Education, Learner Outcomes, Student Effort and Educational Progress, Contexts of Elementary and Secondary Education, Contexts of Postsecondary Education, and Conclusion.  The following findings were listed in the "Conclusion" of the Commissioner's Statement.

-There has been improvement in the scores of 9- and 13-year-olds on national reading and mathematics assessments since the early 1970s, but the scores of 17-year-olds have remained flat.

-Progress on national assessments in reading and mathematics has been made among 4th- and 8th-graders since the early 1990s, but reading scores for 12th-graders have declined.

-Significant achievement gaps among racial/ethnic groups remain.

-International assessments show that U.S. students are in the top third of 4th-graders in reading, but below the international averages in science and mathematics at age 15.

-There has been an increase in the high school graduation rate since 2000 and a decline in the dropout rate.

-Rates of enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels have increased and are projected to continue to do so throughout the next 10 years.

-The number of school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home more than doubled between 1979 and 2006, and the number and percentage of children receiving special education services in our elementary and secondary schools have increased nearly every year up until 2004-05.

For more information please visit the Condition of Education web site at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/.

7)  Bills Introduced

HB597 (Chandler) School Transportation.  Requires school districts to transport pupils in grades K through 8 who live within two miles of school, but do not have access to a sidewalk constructed for pedestrian use en route to school.

HB598 (Huffman) School Booster Clubs.  Prohibits public schools or interscholastic athletic organizations sanctioning or controlling fund-raising and expenditures by head coaches or school booster clubs, and permits booster clubs to pay compensation to coaches.

FYI ARTS

*Grants for Nonprofit Music Programs:  The Guitar Center Music Foundation supports nonprofit music instruction programs.  The maximum award is $5000. 501(c)(3) organizations with established, ongoing, and sustainable music programs that provide music instruction for people of any age are eligible to apply.  For more information please contact http://www.guitarcentermusicfoundation.org

*The Future of Creativity:  The June 25, 2008 issue of Teacher Magazine includes an article edited by John Norton entitled "The Power of the Imaginative Mind." The article describes an online exchange prompted by the question, "Do you agree that creativity should be a strategic priority like literacy and numeracy?  If so, what should it look like in classrooms and schools right now?  If creativity were a new strategic priority for you, what changes would have be made in your classroom?

Jennifer B. posed this questions after viewing a speech delivered by Sir Ken Robinson at the Apple Education Leadership Summit.  Sir Ken defines creativity as a process of having original ideas that have value.  There is a misconception that only certain people are creative, but creativity can be cultivated in everyone.

Respondents to the online question believe that creativity is a priority for education, but expressed their concern that student success currently does not include creativity.  Art, music, and dance, pursuits associated with valuing and nurturing creativity in students, are often considered "extras" in schools and are cut from the school curriculum.  Creativity is nurtured in learning environments where students and educators can explore, experiment, and take chances.  Students need time to think about an idea, concept, experiment, or historical event, and can ask questions, which helps develop critical thinking skills, which can lead to deeper understanding, reflection, and new ways of knowing.  Nurturing creativity in students takes time, which many educators do not have during the school day.  One of the respondents shared information about what was happening in the state of Oklahoma, which has been selected by the Creativity World Forum as one of the twelve global "creativity districts," the only district in North America.

To read this article please visit http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/06/25/38tln_norton.h19.html?print=1.

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Much thanks to the Ohio Music Education Association, Ohio Art Education Association, OhioDance, and Ohio Educational Theatre Association for supporting the work of the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education and the weekly Arts On Line.