October 2005: Education Updates
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Political Landscape Archives >
Political Landscape section is a collection of news items, updates, and essays on policy issues, state and federal legislation, academic standards, testing issues, the politics of funding, and other issues.
Joan Platz from the league of Women’s Voters summarizes current legislative activity in her Education Update, published weekly. The entire text of Education Updates can be found on Ohio Fair Schools Campaign Website. Snippets from her summary about activities of the state legislature of particular interest to principals include:
2004-2005 State Report Card
The State Board of Education met on Tuesday, September 13, 2005. Associate Superintendent for Policy and Accountability Mitch Chester led the Board through a policy discussion called “Where are we in reaching our achievement targets?” based on the results of the 2004-2005 state report card data. The following results were highlighted:
- Students across Ohio are achieving at higher levels. Over the past 6 years the Performance Index Score has increased by more than 17 points, from 73.7 to 90.8.
Five out of six school districts improved their index score over last year. - Almost 96 percent of school districts are rated as Excellent, Effective, or Continuous Improvement (583 out of 609), but 59 districts and 512 schools are in improvement status.
- A disproportionate number of community schools are in the lower performance categories.
- This is the first year that Ohio has increased its AYP goal in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act, and a smaller number of districts and schools met AYP. 55.5 percent of districts met AYP this year compared to 64 percent last year, and 75.7 percent of schools met AYP this year compared to 83 percent last year.
- 64.6 percent of 10th-grade students (Class of 2007) met the state standards for the Ohio Graduation Test in four out of five subjects.
- Ohio’s graduation rate increased by 1.6 percent to 85.9, but did not meet the 90 percent standard.
- The achievement gap is narrowing in some subjects and for some groups of students.
92.5 percent of teachers statewide are highly qualified in the subjects that they are teaching.
Adopted Rule 3301-24-11, regarding alternative licensure for principals.
Support for Public Schools
The Learning First Alliance has updated A Practical Guide to Promoting America’s Public Schools. The guide provides educators, policymakers, and community leaders with ways to promote the value of public schools. The recommendations in the guide are based on an extensive analysis of new data on the opinion of voters on topics such as values, the mission of the public schools, and the vision of a good public school. For more information >
Education for the Whole Child
The September 2005 issue of Educational Leadership features articles about the importance and impact of educating the “whole child” on children, parents, and our society. The narrow focus of the No Child Left Behind Act on student achievement in reading and mathematics, has led to a national debate about the moral and social purposes of public education in the United States. This issue of “Educational Leadership” explores the components of a comprehensive education system for our children, including health and well being, cognitive development, multilingual classrooms, emotional and social development, social justice in the classroom, the arts and aesthetics, character education, and more. Abstracts of the articles >
