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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > August
August 2007
Mobile passes on Percy Mack
After a three-hour meeting, the Mobile, Ala., school board ultimately did not pick Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack as a finalist, even though the Mobile Press-Register called him the “favored” candidate this morning.
Instead, the finalists are Cindy Elsberry, superintendent of a small Alabama school district and the only home state candidate, and Roy Nichols, a retired superintendent and college professor who led Norfolk, Va., schools and two districts in Georgia.
Elsberry was considered Mack’s primary competition from the start but Nichols is a big surprise. He was the last semi-finalist picked to be interviewed and has told the board he would only come if they agree to boundries to protect against micro-managing.
The board voted on each candidate, and the result was quite divided. Elsberry and Nichols won with 3-2 votes. Mack’s result was two votes in favor, three against.
So it looks like Mack will be staying put, at least for now.
UPDATE: The Press-Register’s breaking news blog points out that the vote broke down along racial lines, with the two black board members pushing for Mack and the three white board members opting for white candidates as finalists. At the meeting’s end, one angry black board member said, “I thought we’d come further than this.”
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Mack looking like a finalist
The Mobile school board meeting began two and a half hours ago and they have not yet voted to pick the two finalists for superintendent. They’re discussing the five candidates one-by-one. Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack has support from two of the five board members. But at least one board member opposes Mack, saying Dayton’s May levy defeat was a high concern.
They have one more candidate to discuss and then they should vote. As soon as I know more, I’ll post again.
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Mack and Mobile: We’ll know more Friday
(Percy Mack interviews in Mobile, Ala., Thursday)
[UPDATE: A new story from the Mobile Press Register is calling Mack the “favored candidate.” One board member said he was the best candidate from the start. Here’s some video of Mack from a TV station report too.]
I just got off the phone with Dayton school Superintendent Percy Mack, who is back from interviewing for the top school district post in Mobile, Ala.
Mack didn’t give much away, but said he was inclined to continue with the process. The five semi-finalists interviewed today and the board has said it will name two finalists on Friday afternoon. Those two will be invited back for further interviews in September.
So depending on whether Mack is still in the running or not, we’ll know Friday how serious the possibility is that he might be gone by December.
The Mobile Press Register covered the interviews, which were held in public with cameras and tape recorders rolling. Their story says Mack talked up the 2002 bond issue win but didn’t bring up the May levy defeat, although he did talk about it afterward in media interviews and in further conversations with Mobile board members.
You can listen to audio of the public interviews of Mack and all the candidates with the board at the Press Register’s web site here.
In our conversation, Mack said he was inclined right now to let the process play out, which seems to suggest his interest hasn’t waned following his trip south. He also emphasized that he is not unhappy in Dayton despite the tough times recently. He said again that the big factor driving his interest was the proximity of Mobile to his home state of Georgia where his children and grandchildren reside. Mack said he was not shopping for a job when Mobile called and that has turned away several callers who inquired about his availability, including other big districts like Portland, Ore.
“If it wasn’t the right fit, Dayton was fine and its fine now,” he said. “The people here have treated me well. It was a tough year, but those things come with the job.”
(Image credit: Mobile Press Register)
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Stivers to kick off fundraising drive
I just got this press release from the Seedling Foundation, the support group for Stivers School for the Arts, announcing a big kick off for its fundraising drive. Seedling has already raised about half of what it needs to restore adjunct staff who were cut and many are already back on the job.
Now it is after small donors, asking for $18 contributions to cover an hour of adjunct instruction. It looks like they’re kicking this off with some fun downtown. Here’s what they sent me:
Students from Stivers School for the Arts will gather at Court House Square on Wednesday, Sept. 12 to perform and show their support for Stivers adjunct teachers. The gathering will formally kick off a community-wide drive for $18 donations. Each $18 gift will support one hour of adjunct instruction.
Forty students dressed in formal wear, some playing stringed instruments, will stroll through the Square during the noon hour. They will entertain, talk with lunchtime visitors and appeal for donations to the $18 effort.
Three Stivers groups will perform on the Courthouse Square stage. These will include the Stivers Jazz Orchestra, student actors, writers, and members of the Stivers dance ensemble.
The Stivers students are helping to fund adjunct teacher positions cut following the May defeat of Dayton’s school levy. Thirty of Stivers’ 55 adjuncts were released. The seedling Foundation, a Stivers support group and non-profit, has initiated a fund-raising campaign to bring these teachers back into Stivers arts classrooms.
Of the adjuncts’ importance, Liz Whipps, director of Stivers arts magnet programs, said, “They are the core of our success with students.”
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Proposal: Lower minority target for building projects
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
The school board next week will consider lowering its target for the percentage of smalll and minority companies working on its construction projects.
The board met Tuesday night without Superintendent Percy Mack, who was traveling to Mobile, Ala., to interview for the superintendent’s job there.
Terri Allen, the district’s diversity and outreach coordinator, proposed the changes, which would drop the district’s goal for in the inclusion of small and minority companies to 20 percent of the district’s construction spending, down from 35 percent, and expand the definition of a local company beyond Montgomery County.
Allen said the board’s original goal proved too ambitious as there were too few companies that qualified to work on school projects and a 20 percent goal would match Columbus, Cincinnati and other nearby cities with similar programs. The board expects to vote next Tuesday.
Allen said for the money spent so far on five schools in the first construction phase and nine schools in the second phase, 6 percent was spent with small and minority firms and 40 percent with local companies. The board’s goal for local companies is 25 percent.
Allen said an analysis of payroll on the construction program showed the percentage of school district residents working on school projects ranged from as low as 2 percent at Dunbar High School to as high as 17 percent at Thurgood Marshall High School.
Allen also recommended the board hire a consulting firm to help with recruiting of small, minority and local companies.
Board members asked for more time to consider the proposal, which was on the agenda for a vote Tuesday.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Lots going on with Dayton schools
Besides Tuesday’s news about inclusion on school construction, I’ve gathered a bunch of small news items this week, none of which has made it into the paper. But some will be of interest to those who work in Dayton schools, have kids attending them or follow board politics.
Some of this comes from Tuesday’s board finance committee meeting or the regular board meeting that followed. Some I just gathered by talking to folks over the past few days. I’ve got stuff on vouchers, charter schools, enrollment, textbooks, teaching materials, finances, job cuts, middle school sports, arts instruction, labor relations, the Ludlow buildings, Montessori instruction, Julienne High School, teacher raises and Percy Mack’s pay.
Read all about it by clicking the “continued” link.
—Voucher cost more than doubles. Stan Lucas told the board’s finance committee Tuesday that the cost to the district for students using the state’s voucher program to attend private schools more than doubled last year.
The program was expanded by the legislature last year, making more kids in low scoring schools eligible. More than 1,200 Dayton kids now use vouchers, each taking more than $5,000 in state aid with them. In the first year of the program, Lucas said, vouchers cost the district about $2.5 million. For last year, his office had estimated about $5 million in voucher costs, but the real cost was $5.5 million.
—Enrollment. Dayton’s enrollment may have actually gained a couple hundred kids this year, according to the district’s early estimates. School officials had feared a decline after sports and other programs were cut in the wake of a levy defeat.
Charter enrollment appears to have dipped slightly, Lucas told the finance committee. He speculated some charter students opted for vouchers. The district’s charter school cost was down slightly from the prior year at $42.7 million.
—Materials and supplies. Lucas mentioned during the finance committee meeting that the district was keeping a close eye on its expenses for materials and supplies. That prompted a question from school board President Yvonne Isaacs.
“Are the staff and teachers getting what they need, though?” she said.
“Yes ma’am. They are,” Lucas answered.
—A thin margin of error. The district ended the fiscal year with $11.1 million in cash on a $212 million budget.
—Textbooks. Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite told the finance committee the district skipped its planned purchase of new Alegbra I textbooks this year because of the district’s financial crisis.
—Staff reductions. Lucas told the finance committee the district employed 3,111 people at the end of May. Today, after layoffs and job cuts, the district employs 2,624 — 487 fewer. That was less than the district’s original estimated need for 500 job cuts, he said. Of the cuts, 251 were employees represented by the teachers’ union — teachers, nurses, counselors and other instructional staff.
—Middle school sports are back. In response to a question from the teachers’ union vice president David Romick, athletic director Jonas Smith said middle school volleyball and football were restored for the fall after successful fundraising by a parent group and from local business. Smith said fundraising continues in hopes of restoring some winter and spring sports.
—No raises this year. Romick also told me the teachers’ union did not ask for a reopener to discuss salary for the upcoming school year, which means teachers will get no raise this year after getting just 1.25 percent last year. They will still get step increases based on experience and the board will continue to pay the same portion of their health care premiums.
—Mack gets no raise either. One reason why Percy Mack might be looking around at other opportunities is that he is taking no raise again this year, just as he didn’t last year. Mack makes about $140,000 annually.
By the way, the superintendent in Mobile, who is not being renewed when his contract runs out, was only making $148,000 before the board bumped his pay about $10,000 in anticipation of the search. Board members, though, are reportedly willing to pay more than $200,000 and possibly up to $250,000 for their next superintendent. Mack interviews Wednesday along with the other four candidates.
I asked Yvonne Isaacs if the board would try to compete for Mack by offering him more money to stay. She said board members have not discussed anything like that yet but that finances were so tight that she was not sure how competitive the board could be in a bidding war.
—Aid for Arts. Board member Stacy Thompson said the district should know by weeks’s end if a grant it is seeking with Culture Works is successful in bringing artists in residence to Dayton schools. Thompson said Dayton Philharmonic also is seeking to restore its concert series for young people with support from the Dayton Foundation.
—Lynch rips the board. During Tuesday’s regular board meeting, teachers’ union president Pay Lynch was very critical of the school board. Lynch said the union warned the board that early August would be too hot for school and only agreed to the current calendar because it would have taken a strike to stop it.
She alluded to the board’s purchase of the Ludlow administration buildings, complaining that that it spent “$20 million of the children’s money on something other than children,” which she said helped cause cuts. She said the district should restore assistant principals and “eliminate at least half the central office staff.” Lynch said called the central office “unneeded make-work jobs” and said new central administration jobs had been created and open positions filled instead of cut.
Lynch urged the board to try to sell the Ludlow buildings and “end the conspiracy to deliberately violate collective bargaining agreements.” That irked board President Yvonne Isaacs, who responded, “I’m not sure I now what you’re talking about with conspiracy and so forth Ms. Lynch.”
—Julienne High School controversy. Dale Huffman wrote this week about how some Julienne alumni are angry that the district plans to demolish the school.
I spoke to John Carr, the district’s construction chief, about this. It’s a complicated problem. The district has tons of kids in the area around the school and wants an elementary school on that site. But they only need about half the square footage that the building has. So Carr had hoped to renovate part of the building to use as an elementary school.
But, Carr said, the Ohio School Facilities Commission nixed the idea. The OSFC said the building would cost too much to renovate, preferring a new building. Carr said the district will re-use the school’s auditorium, which Dayton Christian Schools renovated at a cost of more than $2.5 million before moving to Miami Twp a couple years ago.
Demolition should begin in the spring followed by work on a new elementary school there unless opponents of the plan can convince the board otherwise.
—New Montessori school. The district will announce next month that a new Montessori elementary school will be built across the river from downtown along the river bank near Deeds Point. The property, being offered by the city and Citywide Development Corporation, is just upriver from Rockwell’s restaurant and the Danis company’s headquarters.
In exchange, the district will sell the Patterson Career Center, which was to house the Montessori school, to the city. The city has been trying to work a deal to obtain the career center so the property can be used for the proposed “ballpark village” redvelopment plan around Fifth Third Field.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Percy Mack a finalist in Mobile, Ala.
Percy Mack
Dayton school Superintendent Percy Mack is a finalist for superintendent in Mobile, Ala. He expects to interview Wednesday or Thursday.
Mack said was not looking for a job when he was contacted about the position in June by a search firm. He said he was interested in Mobile because at 67,000 students it is a large, countywide school district similar to the metro Atlanta district where he spent much of his career. Mobile also is only a four-hour drive from where his children and grandchildren live in Georgia.
Mack said the process is still a few steps from the possibility of a job offer. There are five finalists. Mack said the search firm told him he was one of two that were picked by all five Mobile board members to be interviewed.
Permalink | Comments (44) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What we can (and can’t) learn from test scores
Local blogger Thespis Journal isn’t a big fan of newspaper stories about state achievement test results. Thespis goes so far as to call the ranking of schools based on their test performance “lurid.”
Thespis has a point. Test scores have limited value. Many studies have shown the strong correlation between family income and test scores or parental education level and test scores. The wealthier and more educated your parents are, the more likely you are to be a high test scorer.
This is not even to get into the very open question of what standardized tests actually measure and how good the information they give about a student or a school really is. A school that scores badly is not necessarily a bad school.
That doesn’t mean there is NOTHING that can be learned from comparing test results. Consider the examples in Sunday’s stories about high schools.
Going back to the argument about family income and its strong connection to test scores — you see that in the top 15 highest scoring high schools. Only two of the 13 are from outside a small, elite group of the richest 6 percent of communities in the state.
But one of those top scorers is Ft. Recovery, not a rich district by a long shot. How do they do it?
Superintendent David Riel said it is a combination of factors that explains the district’s test success. The community values education greatly and has high expectations for their children academically. Good teachers from the community return to teach there for less money because of their commitment to their friends and families. And there is a cultural work ethic that shows itself in the classroom, on the athletic field and in the blue collar work of the local people.
Taken together, those factors help overcome a deep income divide with the other top schools.
Even Oakwood is an interesting example. Oakwood is plenty wealthy — ranking 9th richest of all the school districts in Ohio. But even so, there is a pretty big gulf between it and the Orange school district near Cleveland at No. 1. The median income in Oakwood is about $10,000 less than Orange. That’s a lot.
Oakwood should be one of the best scoring school districts in the state. But you wouldn’t necessarily expect its high school to come in No. 1.
And what do we know about Oakwood? It’s a rich Ft. Recovery. Families in Oakwood also place a high value on education. It’s also a community with great school support and with high-end teachers. And again, the school has better than expected test results.
On the flip side, you see the impact of poverty on low income districts like Dayton, Jefferson Township and Trotwood. And in charter schools, you see the difficulties of high risk populations — most of Dayton’s charter high schools serve dropouts, or kids at risk to drop out of school. Even the best of those schools struggle with test scores.
So I think there is some value in looking at these scores and rankings. It does tell you something about schools and school districts, even if it doesn’t tell you everything.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Testing
The valley’s elementary schools ranked
In Sunday’s paper, I wrote about how high schools in the greater Miami Valley ranked for test performance on state report cards released earlier this month. But if you’re interested in how an area elementary or middle school scored, you’ve come to the right place.
Click the “continued” link to see 402 elementary and middle schools from the 12-county area around Dayton ranked by “performance index score,” the state’s measure of test performance across all tests taken. The first number is the school’s rank on the list out of 402. Then the school is listed with the school district in parenthesis. The final number is the performance index score. A perfect score is 120.
Here’s the list:
( 1 ) Bowman Primary School ( Lebanon ) 120
( 2 ) Stephen Bell Elementary ( Sugarcreek ) 115
( 3 ) Broadway Elementary ( Tipp City ) 113.7
( 4 ) Minster Elementary ( Minster ) 112.5
( 5 ) Mason Heights Elementary ( Mason ) 111.4
( 6 ) Sugarcreek Elementary ( Sugarcreek ) 111
( 7 ) Western Row Elementary ( Mason ) 110.5
( 8 ) Nevin Coppock Elementary ( Tipp City ) 110.2
( 9 ) Whittier Elementary School ( Sidney ) 109.9
( 10 ) Emerson Elementary School ( Sidney ) 108.8
( 11 ) J F Burns Elementary School ( Kings ) 108.4
( 12 ) Hamilton-Maineville Elementary ( Little Miami ) 108.4
( 13 ) Westbrook Elementary School ( Brookville ) 108
( 13 ) Coldwater Elementary School ( Coldwater ) 108
( 13 ) Harman Elementary School ( Oakwood ) 108
( 16 ) Kings Mills Elementary School ( Kings ) 107.8
( 16 ) Mason Intermediate School ( Mason ) 107.8
( 18 ) Mason Middle School ( Mason ) 107.4
( 19 ) Weller Elementary School ( Centerville ) 107.3
( 20 ) St Henry Elementary School ( St Henry ) 107.2
( 21 ) Smith Elementary School ( Oakwood ) 106.7
( 22 ) Prass Elementary School ( Kettering ) 106.6
( 23 ) South Lebanon Elementary ( Kings ) 106.2
( 23 ) Concord Elementary School ( Troy ) 106.2
( 25 ) Russia Elementary School ( Russia ) 106.1
( 26 ) Valley Elementary School ( Beavercreek ) 105.9
( 26 ) Fort Loramie Elementary School ( Fort Loramie ) 105.9
( 26 ) High Street Elementary School ( Piqua ) 105.9
( 29 ) Oakwood Junior High School ( Oakwood ) 105.8
( 30 ) Main Elementary School ( Beavercreek ) 105.7
( 31 ) Five Points Elementary East ( Springboro ) 105.5
( 32 ) Helke Elementary School ( Vandalia ) 105.4
( 33 ) Shaw Elementary School ( Beavercreek ) 105.3
( 34 ) Driscoll Elementary School ( Centerville ) 105.3
( 35 ) Botkins Elementary School ( Botkins ) 105.2
( 35 ) Minster Middle School ( Minster ) 105.2
( 35 ) St Henry Middle School ( St Henry ) 105.2
( 38 ) Demmitt Elementary School ( Vandalia ) 105.1
( 39 ) Fairbrook Elementary School ( Beavercreek ) 104.8
( 39 ) Parkwood Elementary School ( Sidney ) 104.8
( 41 ) Fairfield North Elementary ( Fairfield ) 104.7
( 41 ) Five Points Elementary West ( Springboro ) 104.7
( 43 ) Englewood Elementary School ( Northmont ) 104.5
( 43 ) Phillipsburg Elementary School ( Northmont ) 104.5
( 45 ) Union Elementary School ( Lakota ) 104.4
( 46 ) Columbia Elementary School ( Kings ) 104.2
( 46 ) W. Liberty-Salem Elementary ( W. Liberty-Salem ) 104.2
( 48 ) Charity Adams Earley Academy ( Dayton ) 104.1
( 49 ) Anna Elementary School ( Anna ) 103.9
( 50 ) Monroe Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 103.8
( 51 ) Dr John Hole Elementary School ( Centerville ) 103.5
( 51 ) Englewood Hills Elementary ( Northmont ) 103.5
( 53 ) Springboro Intermediate School ( Springboro ) 103.4
( 54 ) Heritage Elementary School ( Lakota ) 103.3
( 55 ) Fort Recovery Elementary School ( Fort Recovery ) 103.2
( 55 ) Kramer Elementary School ( Talawanda ) 103.2
( 57 ) Magsig Middle School ( Centerville ) 103.1
( 57 ) Hopewell Elementary School ( Lakota ) 103.1
( 57 ) Union Elementary School ( Northmont ) 103.1
( 57 ) Dennis Elementary East ( Springboro ) 103.1
( 57 ) L. T. Ball Intermediate School ( Tipp City ) 103.1
( 62 ) Hayes Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 103
( 62 ) Lakota Ridge Junior School ( Lakota ) 103
( 62 ) Donovan Elementary School ( Lebanon ) 103
( 62 ) Tecumseh Elementary School ( Xenia ) 103
( 66 ) Dennis Elementary West ( Springboro ) 102.9
( 66 ) Kyle Elementary School ( Troy ) 102.9
( 68 ) Hadley E Watts Middle School ( Centerville ) 102.8
( 68 ) Morrow Elementary School ( Little Miami ) 102.8
( 68 ) Miami View Elementary School ( Southeastern ) 102.8
( 71 ) Marion Local Elementary School ( Marion ) 102.7
( 71 ) Newton Elementary School ( Newton ) 102.7
( 73 ) Murlin Heights Elementary School ( Vandalia ) 102.6
( 74 ) Beavertown Elementary School ( Kettering ) 102.5
( 74 ) New Bremen Elementary School ( New Bremen ) 102.5
( 74 ) Waynesville Elementary School ( Wayne ) 102.5
( 77 ) Fort Recovery Middle School ( Fort Recovery ) 102.4
( 77 ) Northmoor Elementary School ( Northmont ) 102.4
( 79 ) Tower Heights Middle School ( Centerville ) 102.3
( 79 ) Independence Elementary School ( Lakota ) 102.3
( 81 ) Stingley Elementary School ( Centerville ) 102.2
( 81 ) Gorman Elementary ( Dayton ) 102.2
( 81 ) Bloomfield Elementary School ( Edgewood ) 102.2
( 81 ) Valley Forge Elementary School ( Huber Heights ) 102.2
( 81 ) Versailles Elementary School ( Versailles ) 102.2
( 86 ) Liberty Elementary School ( Lakota ) 102.1
( 86 ) Favorite Hill Elementary School ( Piqua ) 102.1
( 88 ) Woodland Heights Elementary ( Greenville ) 102
( 89 ) Fairfield West Elementary School ( Fairfield ) 101.9
( 89 ) Liberty Junior School ( Lakota ) 101.9
( 91 ) Hopewell Junior School ( Lakota ) 101.8
( 92 ) Fairfield East Elementary School ( Fairfield ) 101.7
( 92 ) Miami East Junior High School ( Miami East ) 101.7
( 92 ) Versailles Middle School ( Versailles ) 101.7
( 92 ) Mills Lawn Elementary School ( Yellow Springs ) 101.7
( 96 ) Morgan Elementary School ( Ross ) 101.6
( 97 ) Woodland Elementary School ( Lakota ) 101.5
( 98 ) Ferguson Middle School ( Beavercreek ) 101.4
( 99 ) Coldwater Middle School ( Coldwater ) 101.3
( 99 ) Adena Elementary School ( Lakota ) 101.3
( 99 ) Neff Building Elementary School ( Miamisburg ) 101.3
( 99 ) O R Edgington Elementary School ( Northmont ) 101.3
( 99 ) Northridge Elementary School ( Wapakoneta ) 101.3
( 99 ) Waynesville Middle School ( Wayne ) 101.3
( 105 ) Orchard Park Elementary School ( Kettering ) 101.2
( 105 ) Elda Elementary School ( Ross ) 101.2
( 107 ) Lakota Plains Junior School ( Lakota ) 101.1
( 107 ) Harlan-Butlerville Elementary ( Little Miami ) 101.1
( 109 ) Parkwood Elementary School ( Beavercreek ) 101
( 109 ) Greeneview Primary School ( Greeneview ) 101
( 109 ) Bell Creek Elementary School ( Sugarcreek ) 101
( 112 ) Freedom Elementary School ( Lakota ) 100.9
( 112 ) North Star Elementary School ( Versailles ) 100.9
( 114 ) Ankeney Middle School ( Beavercreek ) 100.8
( 114 ) Titus Elementary School ( Huber Heights ) 100.8
( 114 ) J F Kennedy Elementary School ( Kettering ) 100.8
( 114 ) Cherokee Elementary School ( Lakota ) 100.8
( 118 ) W O Cline Elementary School ( Centerville ) 100.7
( 118 ) Longfellow Elementary School ( Sidney ) 100.7
( 120 ) Northmont Middle School ( Northmont ) 100.6
( 121 ) Normandy Elementary School ( Centerville ) 100.5
( 121 ) Southdale Elementary School ( Kettering ) 100.5
( 121 ) Rosedale Elementary School ( Middletown ) 100.5
( 124 ) VanGorden Elementary School ( Lakota ) 100.4
( 125 ) Bethel Elementary School ( Bethel ) 100.3
( 125 ) Hunter Elementary School ( Franklin ) 100.3
( 125 ) Menlo Park Elementary School ( Huber Heights ) 100.3
( 128 ) Bellbrook Middle School ( Sugarcreek ) 100.1
( 129 ) Tippecanoe Middle School ( Tipp City ) 100
( 130 ) Arrowood Elementary School ( Xenia ) 99.9
( 131 ) Fairfield South Elementary ( Fairfield ) 99.8
( 131 ) Camden Elementary School ( Preble Shawnee ) 99.8
( 133 ) Shawnee Elementary School ( Lakota ) 99.7
( 133 ) Beverly Gardens Elementary ( Mad River ) 99.7
( 135 ) Celina Middle School ( Celina ) 99.6
( 135 ) Lebanon Junior High ( Lebanon ) 99.6
( 135 ) Little Miami Intermediate ( Little Miami ) 99.6
( 135 ) Monroe Elementary School ( Monroe Local ) 99.6
( 139 ) Reid Elementary School ( Clark-Shawnee ) 99.5
( 139 ) Springboro Junior High School ( Springboro ) 99.5
( 139 ) Donnelsville Elementary School ( Tecumseh ) 99.5
( 142 ) Brookville Intermediate School ( Brookville ) 99.3
( 143 ) Milton-Union Middle School ( Milton-Union ) 99.2
( 143 ) Northwood Elementary School ( Northmont ) 99.2
( 145 ) Medlar View Elementary School ( Miamisburg ) 99.1
( 145 ) Van Cleve Elementary School ( Troy ) 99.1
( 147 ) Seven Mile Elementary School ( Edgewood ) 99
( 147 ) Kings Junior High School ( Kings ) 99
( 149 ) Dayton Boys Prep Academy ( Dayton ) 98.9
( 149 ) New Miami Elementary School ( New Miami ) 98.9
( 151 ) Enon Elementary School ( Greenon ) 98.8
( 151 ) Milton-Union Elementary ( Milton-Union ) 98.8
( 151 ) Morton Middle School ( Vandalia ) 98.8
( 154 ) Bauer Elementary School ( Miamisburg ) 98.7
( 154 ) Smith Middle School ( Vandalia ) 98.7
( 156 ) Rockway Elementary School ( Clark-Shawnee ) 98.6
( 157 ) Fairborn Primary School ( Fairborn ) 98.5
( 157 ) Fairfield Central Elementary ( Fairfield ) 98.5
( 159 ) Fairfield Intermediate School ( Fairfield ) 98.4
( 159 ) Wantz Middle School ( Miamisburg ) 98.4
( 161 ) Maude Marshall Elementary ( Talawanda ) 98.4
( 162 ) Butler Middle School ( Arcanum ) 98.3
( 162 ) Cedarville Elementary School ( Cedar Cliff ) 98.3
( 164 ) Berry Intermediate School ( Lebanon ) 98.2
( 164 ) Mcbroom Junior High School ( St Marys ) 98.2
( 166 ) Bogan Elementary ( Talawanda ) 98.2
( 167 ) East Elementary School ( Celina ) 98.1
( 168 ) Franklin Monroe Elementary ( Franklin Monroe ) 98
( 168 ) West Elementary School ( St Marys ) 98
( 170 ) New Knoxville Elementary ( New Knoxville ) 97.9
( 170 ) Cridersville Elementary School ( Wapakoneta ) 97.9
( 172 ) Covington Elementary School ( Covington ) 97.8
( 172 ) Lincoln Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 97.8
( 172 ) Mound Elementary School ( Miamisburg ) 97.8
( 175 ) Bear Elementary School ( Miamisburg ) 97.7
( 176 ) Hook Elementary School ( Troy ) 97.6
( 176 ) Germantown Elementary ( Valley View ) 97.6
( 178 ) Ansonia Elementary School ( Ansonia ) 97.5
( 178 ) Valley View Middle School ( Valley View ) 97.5
( 180 ) Babeck Elementary School ( Edgewood ) 97.4
( 180 ) Adams Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 97.4
( 180 ) Mark Twain Elementary ( Miamisburg ) 97.4
( 183 ) Van Buren Middle School ( Kettering ) 97.3
( 183 ) Miami East Elementary ( Miami East ) 97.3
( 183 ) Washington Intermediate ( Piqua ) 97.3
( 183 ) Miami View Middle School ( Southeastern ) 97.3
( 183 ) Forest Elementary School ( Troy ) 97.3
( 188 ) Kettering Middle School ( Kettering ) 97.2
( 188 ) Dixie Elementary School ( New Lebanon ) 97.2
( 190 ) Farmersville Elementary ( Valley View ) 96.8
( 191 ) Fairfield Middle School ( Fairfield ) 96.7
( 191 ) Harrison Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 96.7
( 191 ) Little Miami Junior High School ( Little Miami ) 96.7
( 191 ) Talawanda Middle School ( Talawanda ) 96.7
( 195 ) Snowhill Elementary School ( Springfield ) 96.6
( 196 ) Hustead Elementary School ( Greenon ) 96.4
( 196 ) Cleveland Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 96.4
( 198 ) Parkway Elementary School ( Parkway ) 96.3
( 199 ) Ross Middle School ( Ross ) 96.1
( 199 ) East Elementary School ( St Marys ) 96.1
( 201 ) Springcreek Primary School ( Piqua ) 96
( 201 ) Wapakoneta Middle School ( Wapakoneta ) 96
( 203 ) Hardin Elementary School ( Hardin-Houston ) 95.9
( 204 ) William C Schenck Elementary ( Franklin ) 95.7
( 204 ) Troy Junior High School ( Troy ) 95.7
( 206 ) Pierce Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 95.6
( 206 ) Kinder Elementary School ( Miamisburg ) 95.6
( 206 ) Heywood Elementary School ( Troy ) 95.6
( 209 ) Triad Elementary School ( Triad ) 95.5
( 210 ) Oakview Elementary School ( Kettering ) 95.4
( 211 ) South Elementary School ( Greenville ) 95.3
( 211 ) Brantwood Elementary School ( Mad River ) 95.3
( 213 ) Tri-County North Elementary ( Tri-County North ) 95.2
( 214 ) Northwestern Elementary ( Northwestern ) 95.1
( 214 ) Parkway Middle School ( Parkway ) 95.1
( 216 ) Indian Valley Middle School ( Greenon ) 95
( 216 ) Moraine Meadows Elementary ( Kettering ) 95
( 216 ) Rolling Hills Elementary School ( Northeastern ) 95
( 216 ) Harold Schnell Elementary ( West Carrollton ) 95
( 220 ) Greenmont Elementary School ( Kettering ) 94.9
( 221 ) Fairlawn Elementary School ( Fairlawn ) 94.8
( 221 ) Central Elementary School ( Sidney ) 94.8
( 223 ) Saville Elementary School ( Mad River ) 94.7
( 224 ) Northwood Elementary School ( Sidney ) 94.5
( 225 ) Miss. Valley Elementary ( Mississinawa Valley ) 94.4
( 226 ) Possum Elementary School ( Clark-Shawnee ) 94.3
( 227 ) Ansonia Middle School ( Ansonia ) 94.2
( 228 ) Graham North Elementary ( Graham ) 94.1
( 229 ) Graham South Elementary ( Graham ) 93.9
( 230 ) Fillmore Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 93.8
( 230 ) Cookson Elementary School ( Troy ) 93.8
( 232 ) Indian Riffle Elementary ( Kettering ) 93.7
( 233 ) Spring Hill Elementary School ( Xenia ) 93.5
( 234 ) Weisenborn Middle School ( Huber Heights ) 93.4
( 234 ) Virginia Stevenson Elementary ( Mad River ) 93.4
( 234 ) Northridge Middle School ( Northeastern ) 93.4
( 237 ) Greeneview Intermediate ( Greeneview ) 93.3
( 238 ) East Elementary School ( Greenville ) 93.2
( 238 ) Lamendola Elementary School ( Huber Heights ) 93.2
( 238 ) Northwestern Middle School ( Northwestern ) 93.2
( 238 ) Waynesfield-Goshen Ele. ( Waynesfield-Goshen ) 93.2
( 242 ) Chamberlain Middle School ( Carlisle ) 93.1
( 242 ) Monroe Junior High School ( Monroe Local ) 93.1
( 244 ) TV South Middle School ( Twin Valley ) 93
( 245 ) Covington Middle School ( Covington ) 92.8
( 245 ) Anthony Wayne Elementary ( Franklin ) 92.8
( 247 ) Celina Intermediate Elementary ( Celina ) 92.7
( 247 ) Graham Middle School ( Graham ) 92.7
( 249 ) Rushmore Elementary School ( Huber Heights ) 92.6
( 249 ) Shawnee Elementary School ( Xenia ) 92.6
( 251 ) Pennyroyal Elementary School ( Franklin ) 92.5
( 252 ) West Elementary School ( Celina ) 92.3
( 252 ) Northridge Elementary School ( Northeastern ) 92.3
( 252 ) Richard Allen — Dayton View ( Charter ) 92.3
( 255 ) Harry Russell Elementary ( West Carrollton ) 92.2
( 256 ) Edgewood Middle School ( Edgewood ) 92
( 256 ) Studebaker Middle School ( Huber Heights ) 92
( 256 ) Madison Intermediate School ( Madison ) 92
( 259 ) Bobby F. Grigsby Intermediate ( Carlisle ) 91.9
( 259 ) Gettysburg Elementary School ( Greenville ) 91.9
( 261 ) George H Gerke Elementary ( Franklin ) 91.8
( 262 ) Van Buren Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 91.7
( 262 ) Tri-County North Middle ( Tri-County North ) 91.7
( 264 ) Bradford Central Elementary ( Bradford ) 91.5
( 264 ) Monticello Elementary School ( Huber Heights ) 91.5
( 266 ) Arcanum Elementary School ( Arcanum ) 91.4
( 267 ) Dohron Wilson Elementary ( Mechanicsburg ) 91.3
( 267 ) East Elementary School ( Urbana ) 91.3
( 269 ) Kitty Hawk Elementary School ( Huber Heights ) 91.1
( 269 ) Spinning Hills Middle School ( Mad River ) 91.1
( 269 ) Sidney Middle School ( Sidney ) 91.1
( 272 ) Baker Middle School ( Fairborn ) 91
( 273 ) South Vienna Middle ( Northeastern ) 90.8
( 273 ) Park Layne Elementary ( Tecumseh ) 90.8
( 275 ) Dixie Middle School ( New Lebanon ) 90.6
( 275) Local Intermediate School ( Urbana ) 90.6
( 277 ) Grant Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 90.5
( 277 ) Piqua Junior High School ( Piqua ) 90.5
( 279 ) William Bruce Elementary ( Eaton ) 90.2
( 280 ) McKinley Elementary School ( Xenia ) 90.1
( 281 ) Wilder Intermediate School ( Piqua ) 90
( 281 ) Twin Valley South Elementary ( Twin Valley ) 90
( 283 ) Bethel Junior High School ( Bethel ) 89.9
( 283 ) Eaton Middle School ( Eaton ) 89.9
( 285 ) C F Holliday Elementary ( West Carrollton ) 89.6
( 285 ) Central Middle School ( Xenia ) 89.6
( 287 ) Lowell Elementary School ( Sidney ) 89.5
( 288 ) National Trail Middle School ( National Trail ) 89.3
( 288 ) Medway Elementary School ( Tecumseh ) 89.3
( 290 ) Franklin Junior High School ( Franklin ) 89.2
( 291 ) Bennett Intermediate School ( Piqua ) 89.1
( 292 ) Tri-Village Elementary School ( Tri-Village ) 88.9
( 293 ) Madison Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 88.6
( 293 ) Olive Branch Middle School ( Tecumseh ) 88.6
( 293 ) West Carrollton Middle School ( West Carrollton ) 88.6
( 293 ) Cox Elementary School ( Xenia ) 88.6
( 297 ) Central Academy Elementary ( Middletown ) 88.5
( 298 ) Frank Nicholas Elementary ( West Carrollton ) 88.4
( 299 ) Horace Mann Elementary ( Dayton ) 88.3
( 299 ) New Carlisle Elementary ( Tecumseh ) 88.3
( 301 ) Richard Allen — Downtown ( Charter ) 88.2
( 302 ) Fairborn Intermediate School ( Fairborn ) 88.1
( 303 ) Graham Digital Academy ( Graham ) 88
( 303 ) National Trail Elementary ( National Trail ) 88
( 303 ) New Carlisle Middle School ( Tecumseh ) 88
( 303 ) Urbana Junior High School ( Urbana ) 88
( 307 ) West Elkton Elementary ( Preble Shawnee ) 87.9
( 308 ) North Middle School ( Greenville ) 87.8
( 309 ) Jefferson Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 87.7
( 310 ) South Vienna Elementary ( Northeastern ) 87.6
( 311 ) Triad Middle School ( Triad ) 87.5
( 312 ) Richard Allen — Edgemont ( Charter ) 87.2
( 313 ) Jackson Center Elementary ( Jackson Center ) 87
( 314 ) Buchanan Elementary School ( Hamilton ) 86.9
( 314 ) Mann Elementary School ( Springfield ) 86.9
( 316 ) Mad River Middle School ( Mad River ) 86.2
( 317 ) Wilson Middle School ( Hamilton ) 86
( 318 ) Greenville Junior High ( Greenville ) 85.8
( 318 ) Mayfield Elementary School ( Middletown ) 85.8
( 318 ) Simon Kenton Elementary ( Xenia ) 85.8
( 321 ) Pathway School of Discovery ( Pathway ) 85.6
( 322 ) Warner Middle School ( Xenia ) 85.5
( 323 ) Creekview Elementary ( Middletown ) 85.4
( 324 ) Wildwood Elementary School ( Middletown ) 85.3
( 325 ) Emerson Academy ( Charter ) 84.9
( 325 ) Grafton Kennedy Elementary ( Northridge ) 84.9
( 327 ) Valerie Elementary School ( Dayton ) 84.8
( 328 ) Stephen Vail Middle School ( Middletown ) 84.4
( 329 ) Lagonda Elementary School ( Springfield ) 84
( 330 ) Eastmont Park Elementary ( Dayton ) 83.8
( 331 ) Preble Shawnee Junior High ( Preble Shawnee ) 83.4
( 332 ) Garfield Middle School ( Hamilton ) 83.3
( 333 ) Esther Dennis Middle ( Northridge ) 83
( 334 ) Perrin Woods Elementary ( Springfield ) 81.6
( 335 ) Middletown Fitness & Prep ( Charter ) 81.5
( 336 ) Westbrooke Village Elementary ( Trotwood ) 81.2
( 337 ) Roosevelt Middle School ( Springfield ) 80.9
( 338 ) Shilohview Elementary School ( Trotwood ) 80.3
( 339 ) Schaefer Middle School ( Springfield ) 79.5
( 339 ) Kenton Elementary School ( Springfield ) 79.5
( 341 ) Richard Allen — Dayton View ( Charter ) 79.3
( 342 ) Townview Elementary School ( Trotwood ) 78.9
( 343 ) Morrison Elementary School ( Northridge ) 78.7
( 344 ) Broadmoor Elementary School ( Trotwood ) 78.5
( 345 ) Fairborn Digital Academy ( Fairborn ) 78.3
( 346 ) Franklin Elementary ( Dayton ) 78.2
( 347 ) Trotwood Fitness & Prep Acad ( Charter ) 77.5
( 348 ) World of Wonder Elementary ( Dayton ) 76.6
( 349 ) Verity Middle School ( Middletown ) 76.4
( 350 ) Dayton Academy, The ( Charter ) 75.8
( 351 ) Springfield Acad Of Excellence ( Charter ) 75.7
( 352 ) Summit Academy-Xenia ( Charter ) 75.6
( 353 ) East End Community School ( Charter ) 75.3
( 354 ) Highview Elementary School ( Middletown ) 75
( 355 ) Horizon Science Academy-Dayton ( Charter ) 74.7
( 355 ) N. Dayton School Of Discovery ( Charter ) 74.7
( 355 ) Kenwood Elementary ( Springfield ) 74.7
( 358 ) Hayward Middle School ( Springfield ) 74.4
( 359 ) Snyder Park Elementary ( Springfield ) 74.3
( 359 ) Trotwood-Madison Middle ( Trotwood ) 74.3
( 361 ) Warder Park-Wayne ( Springfield ) 74
( 362 ) Orville Wright ( Dayton ) 73.7
( 363 ) Carlson Elementary ( Dayton ) 73.4
( 364 ) Amanda Elementary ( Middletown ) 72.5
( 365 ) Loos Elementary School ( Dayton ) 71.7
( 366 ) Clark Middle School ( Springfield ) 71.6
( 367 ) Blairwood Elementary ( Jefferson ) 71.5
( 368 ) Patterson/Kennedy Elementary ( Dayton ) 71.2
( 369 ) Dayton View Academy ( Charter ) 70.5
( 370 ) Allen Elementary School ( Dayton ) 70.3
( 371 ) Omega School Of Excellence ( Charter ) 70.1
( 372 ) Lincoln Elementary School ( Springfield ) 70
( 373 ) Cleveland Elementary School ( Dayton ) 69.4
( 374 ) Moraine Community School ( Charter ) 69.1
( 375 ) Kemp Elementary School ( Dayton ) 68.7
( 376 ) Belle Haven Elementary School ( Dayton ) 68.5
( 377 ) Jefferson I Elementary School ( Dayton ) 67.8
( 378 ) Rosa Parks Elementary School ( Middletown ) 67.7
( 379 ) Springfield Preparatory and Fitness ( Charter ) 67.5
( 380 ) Kiser Elementary School ( Dayton ) 67.4
( 381 ) Meadowdale Elementary School ( Dayton ) 66.8
( 382 ) Fulton Elementary School ( Springfield ) 66.5
( 382 ) Cornell Heights Elementary School ( Dayton ) 65.5
( 384 ) Wogaman Elementary School ( Dayton ) 65.2
( 385 ) Arise Academy ( Charter ) 64.5
( 386 ) Summit Academy-Middletown ( Charter ) 64
( 387 ) Van Cleve Elementary School ( Dayton ) 62.6
( 388 ) City Day Community School ( Charter ) 62.5
( 389 ) Edison Elementary School ( Dayton ) 62.2
( 390 ) Auglaize County Academy ( Charter ) 62.1
( 391 ) Wilbur Wright Middle School ( Dayton ) 61.7
( 392 ) Jefferson II Elementary School ( Dayton ) 60.9
( 393 ) Academy Of Dayton ( Charter ) 60.3
( 394 ) Fairview Middle School ( Dayton ) 59.5
( 395 ) Colin Powell Leadership Acad ( Charter ) 59.4
( 396 ) Nu Bethel Center of Excellence ( Charter ) 57.3
( 397 ) Fairview Elementary School ( Dayton ) 57.2
( 398 ) Keifer Alternative Center ( Springfield ) 54.5
( 399 ) Gardendale Academy ( Dayton ) 52.4
( 400 ) Summit Academy Dayton ( Charter ) 47.2
( 401 ) New City School ( Charter ) 45.7
( 402 ) Urbana Community School ( Urbana ) 44.4
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Testing
Dayton charters: A sign of hope
Charter schools in Ohio have taken a lot of criticism for their poor test performance. Critics charge that the schools promised to do better than their public school counterparts and, after nine years in Ohio, they flat haven’t done it. Even in urban centers, where they are matched up against some of the state’s worst scoring schools, charters, overall, score worse.
Even so, charter proponents may see a glimmer of hope in the latest report card numbers. And that glimmer is shining from our corner of the state — Dayton, the charter school capital of the nation.
Earlier this week I reported that charters students slightly bettered their school system counterparts here on state tests last year. School by school, charters overall don’t look much different than the schools in the district — a few are very good, some are very bad and most are in the middle.
But on reading and math, charter kids did better, too. Across the city, test achievement is overall pretty low compared to the state averages. But Dayton is the only city in Ohio where charter performance actuallly exceeds the district.
Why? There are a lot of possible explanations. But one that proponents will like is that the charter school movement here is simply bigger, better organized and a longer running force in the community than anywhere else in the state, or for that matter, the country.
What do you think? Can supporters of school choice rightfully point to Dayton as evidence that, given time, organization and a big enough market share, charter school can really begin to make a difference?
And what do you make of the fact that the best scoring district schools — the single gender schools, the Dayton Early College Academy and Stivers School for the Arts — are the most charter-like? All operate with a great deal of independence and are organized around a novel concept.
Give us your thoughts.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Seven running for Dayton school board
Today is the deadline to file petitions to run for office in November and seven people turned in their paperwork out of 13 who picked up materials from the Montgomery County Board of Elections.
Here are the candidates:
Four incumbents:
—Mario Gallin, who was first elected in 1999. She is the board’s lead member for school construction.
—Lee Massoud, appointed to the board in 2005 to replace Tony Hill, who is now its vice president.
—Stacy Thompson, joined the board in 2006 to replace Tracy Rusch. Thompson is an assistant vice president at Key Bank. (I incorrectly referenced a prior job for her in today’s paper. She gives more details about herself in the comments.)
—Jeffrey Mims, a retired school administrator who was just appointed to the board to replace Ronald Jackson.
Two people who have sought board seats in the past:
—Nancy Nerny, who retired in 1997 after 32 years teaching in the district and now volunteers at Loos Elementary School.
—Sheila Taylor, deputy clerk of Dayton Municipal Court, who applied in 2006 but was not picked when the board selected Thompson.
One newcomer:
—Shriley Crisp, a Quality supervisor for Integrated Logistic Solutions in Dayton. Crisp lives near Wilbur Wright Middle School and opposes the district’s plan to tear it down. She has eight step grandchildren, three of whom attend the district.
Thompson and Crisp will face off for a two-year term. The other five — Gallin, Massoud, Mims, Nerny and Taylor — will compete for three four-year terms.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
School canceled for heat on Friday
Dayton has cancelled school again for Friday because of the heat. The district’s operating plan is that after the five alloted calamity days are gone, up to five additional days can be made up at the end of the school year in June. That means as of right now that means the school year will be one day longer.
So if you work for the district, don’t plan a vacation for the first week after school ends. If there are more than five additional calamity days this year, the district would have to come up with a plan. That could mean reducing spring break.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Heat closes Dayton schools again
Apparently after 8 p.m. tonight Dayton Public Schools alerted televison stations that there will be no school Thursday because of the heat. The DDN didn’t learn about it until after 9 p.m.
I’m sure many teachers and students in the district will welcome this decision. But that is awfully late to let people know.
This also exhausts the district’s “calamity” days. If it needs any days off for bad winter weather, it will require tacking days onto the end of the school year.
Give us your thoughts on the district’s move.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Obama silent on education on national T.V.
Barack Obama was on Comedy Central’s Daily Show tonight. Not a word about education policy during two interview segments. It was a pretty friendly chat, with Obama answering questions like “Have you gotten used to how crazy this process is?”
This post also appears on the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Warren County has teaching jobs … and hot competition
(Mason Intermediate School rookie teacher DeAuna Dews preps her classroom)
My education writing counterpart at the Hamilton News-Journal, Richard Wilson, on Sunday showed once again how tight the job market is for teachers. Wilson reports that districts like Mason and Little Miami in fast-growing Warren County had lots of open jobs between them this summer — more than 110 combined — but they were overwhelmed with more than 2,000 applicants each.
I’ve heard similar stories in other local districts — there was huge demand for few available teaching jobs this summer. With Dayton, Kettering and others cutting positions, the market was flooded.
This is a function of the bad economy in Ohio. In the late 1990s, Ohio was trying to entice senior teachers to stay instead of retire and talking about an impending teacher shortage. How quickly things change.
(Image credit: Linda Weisenborn, Hamilton News Journal)
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Building schools with local and minority workers
On Friday night, the Greater Dayton African American Chamber of Commerece and president, Eleanor Stocks, managed a pretty neat trick — they got the head of the Ohio School Facilities Commission to come to one of their meetings and talk about minority contracting.
That is not something that ever would have happened under the prior administration, but Gov. Ted Strickland’s appointee is former Democratic legislator named Michael Shoemaker, a man who likes to say he’ll talk to anyone about just about anything.
Shoemaker is a former teacher and later a construction company owner. He is from southern Ohio and projects a classic country boy, straight-talking charm. Given all that, supporters of urban districts are hopeful that Shoemaker’s OSFC might be more supportive of programs that make it easier for local and minority firms to get business on school construction projects.
Shoemaker, a very smooth talker, expressed a lot of support for those sorts of efforts Friday. At the same time, he repeatedly said that school construction projects must stay within established budgets.
This is the central tension of school construction — the state’s desire for the lowest possible cost and local school district’s interest in picking local companies and minority owned firms sometimes, even if it costs a few dollars more.
The one big achllies heel of Dayton’s $627 million, 28-school construction program so far has surrounded this issue — while projects have mostly been on time and on budget, participation by local and minority companies has not been what school leaders hoped for.
School districts like Dayton have in the past said the state tied their hands. OSFC, they said, would not give them the flexibility to create programs that would give at least some preference to local and minority companies, even if meant it might cost slightly more to build some schools.
Shoemaker walked a careful edge on this question. He repeatedly said he is for those programs and would support school districts that wanted to create them if that is the district’s choice. At the same time, he said he wanted schools to stay on budget, which could mean OSFC would stop short of agreeing to higher school costs, which could effectively kill those programs.
OSFC has just begun the process of picking a new construction manager for Dayton. Shoemaker said a key question for the bidders seeking that job is what specific steps they will take to increase minority and local participation on Dayton’s school construction jobs?
We should know who the new management team is by the end of September. It will be interesting then to see what that group has to say on this issue.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: School Construction
College readiness: New clues from report cards
(Princeton University’s Nassau Hall. Will our grads be ready for college?)
In Sunday’s DDN, Stephanie Gottschlich and I write about new state report card measures for each district that tell us something about the college readiness of their graduates.
If you want to look at all the data, I’ve compiled it here:
—Greater Miami Valley districts ranked by average ACT score.
—Greater Miami Valley districts ranked by average SAT score.
—Greater Miami Valley districts ranked by the percent of their graduates who earned honors diplomas.
—Greater Miami Valley districts ranked by the success rate of their graduates who took AP tests.
—Greater Miami Valley districts listed by their state report card rating
UPDATE: Read a local blogger’s take on this data over at Thespis Journal.
(Image credit: Llinas Laboratory)
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Testing
Union fires another shot; schools back at it
A few items I’ve been meaning to make mention of:
—The Dayton teacher’s union has filed a grievance and expects to file another unfair labor practice against the school board.
This time the issue is the shorter school day. Union President Pat Lynch said teacher planning itme has been moved to the beginning or end of the day, which she said is not permitted under the district’s labor contract. And she said as a result the planning time is being taken up with other tasks, like attending meetings or getting kids to the bus.
This is the second unfair labor practice in a month. The other one complained that the district could not convert the Dayton Early College Academy to a charter school without talks with the union.
—Speaking of DECA, school started back there this week under the new charter school design. I’ll be trying to get over there in the next couple of weeks to see how it goes.
—The district’s other high profile high school program is Stivers School for the Arts. On Tuesday, the board accepted a pledge of $40,000 per quarter from the Seedling Foundation, a support group for the school. It then restored about 25 adjunct faculty jobs. Those teachers should be back on the job this week.
Permalink | Comments (35) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Obama’s statements on education
Barack Obama
Researching Barack Obama’s education positions, I came across a website that lists some of his education policy statements that was helpful, if somewhat light on specifics.
Some of the statements go back as far as 1998. Others are as recent as 2007 and all are sourced. Among the issues the page covers:
—Teacher hiring incentives
—Teacher pay
—The problems of the education status quo
—Teacher accountability
—Life-long learning
—School funding
—The achievement gap
—Attracting teachers to high need areas
—Charter schools and private investment in schools
—College affordability
(This post can also be found at the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog, where I am part of a group of reporters across the nationa tracking the positions of presidential candidates.)
(Image credit: Sydney Morning Herald)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Districts send collectors after parents
On Thursday, my colleague Chris Magan has a very interesting story on the front page of the DDN that I thought we might discuss.
Magan set out to learn how much parents around the Miami Valley pay in school fees. Along the way, he discovered that some districts were hiring collectors to go after parents for the $35 to $100 student fees that families are expected to pay each year.
The cost of annual fees have been growing for parents in recent years, not to mention the long list of supplies that kids are now expected to bring to school on the first day in many districts.
What do you think about the idea of sending collectors after parents who don’t pay these fees?
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
The changing Dayton school board
In the crush of state report cards this weeks, we sort of flew past the Dayton school board’s very interesting choice of Jeff Mims to replace Ronald Jackson on the board.
The pick of Mims is a sharp departure from the sorts of choices the board made in appointing Lee Massoud, Stacy Thompson and Jackson to the board in recent years. For those choices, the board very intentionally picked outsiders — people who had no prior history with the district and few connections to the key political players within it — and they were, from the start, very bought into the reforms initiated when Gail Littlejohn, Yvonne Isaacs and two others took control of the board in the 2001 election.
Mims, on the other hand, is deeply connected within the school district and very much “of the system,” having spent 35 years as a district employee and as an influential internal player for many of those years. And Mims has many strong personal views about education and Dayton schools that may not match exactly with the Littlejohn-Isaacs approach.
Add to that some early tension between Mims and Littlejohn, and it makes this choice even a bit surprising. In fact, there was a time early in the Littlejohn era when I thought Mims’ job might be in jeopardy.
Let’s take a step back and remember what the old school board was like.
When I first began covering the district in 1999, the board was very heavily influenced by the connections the individual board members had with others in the district. Three of the seven board members were retired district teachers. Of the other four, one was the son of a district administrator and one was a long time volunteer in the district. The other two had aspirations for higher office.
There was also a big financial crisis going on that cost the superintendent and treasurer their jobs and the district was facing stiff competition from new charter schools. Voters that year picked two outsiders for the board — Mario Gallin and Tony Hill.
In 2001, Littlejohn’s run was a reaction to the turmoil and her team very much ran against the sitting school board as “outsiders.”
After taking control, Littlejohn’s team began ordering big changes in the academic program and began questioning a lot of the district’s spending habits. One question that came up was why Dayton had a “legislative liaison,” essentially a lobbyist in Columbus, when no other urban districts did? That liaison was Jeff Mims.
Littlejohn came into office bringing good relationships with local state lawmakers like Jon Husted and Jeff Jacobson. They were unhappy with Mims, who was strongly connected to the Democratic caucus in Columbus and had been highly critical of Republican lawmakers on the issues of school funding and charter schools. I recall Littlejohn asking if it was helping the district to have a liaison who could not even get a meeting with key local lawmakers because they were unhappy about his public statements on these issues? That’s when I began to think Mims could be in trouble.
In the end, Mims worked it out with the board. He agreed to take on other duties and spend more time in Dayton. And he toned down his public comments on some of the hot button issues.
As an applicant for school board now in 2007, the recently retired Mims had a very impressive resume as an educator and leader. He started as a teacher’s aide, just back from service in Vietnam as a squad leader in a special forces-type unit, and worked his way up to be a top administrator. He is a former teacher of the year, an ex-coach (soccer and track) and a former teachers’ union president. And he is deeply knowledgeable about the recent legislative history of school funding and other state education laws.
But, again, he is very much an insider. The board may have decided that was less of a concern today or that it was trumped by his strengths. But it was interesting that Yvonne Isaacs also mentioned Mims’ electability among the reasons the board chose him.
Four seats are up for election this November. In addition to Mims, two of the other three incumbents will be political novices, too — Lee Massoud and Stacey Thompson. Mims has already gathered signatures to run for the school board and he is a good bet to win because he is very well known in the community.
So the board faced a practical choice, too — pick Mims now, try make him an ally and have him running in the fall as part of the board or pick someone else and face a formidable run from a potentially angry Mims instead running as an outsider against the board.
We don’t yet know who all will run this fall, but I can tell you this — the school board is a very different group going forward than it has been in recent years already.
Mims is a potential ally for Joe Lacey, who defeated one of Littlejohn’s team by knocking Doniece Gatliff out of office in 2005. Lacey has been a bit of a thorn in the side of the rest of the board, the one board member who tends to view issues differently than Isaacs and Littlejohn. Mims and Lacey share a passion for Democratic politics.
Isaacs and Littlejohn, today, have a pretty strong coalition — Massoud, Thompson and Gallin all generally share their view of the issues and are on board with their approach, giving them at least a five-vote majority on most issues (their number was six strong before Jackson stepped down).
But if Mims and even one more newcomer are elected this fall, suddenly the balance of power on the board could tilt 4-3 on some controversial issues. That would make the political decision making trickier and present more of a governing challenge for Isaacs and Littlejohn.
Mims was an interesting choice. In November, things could get even more interesting.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Brookville moved up, too
In the crush of data from the state report card this week, we overlooked one local district that made a significant gain. Brookville schools, which have faced a lot of bad news over the last six months with a levy defeat followed by budget cuts, moved up from “effective” to the top rating cateogry of “excellent.”
That was no easy feat this year — about 50 districts that had been rated excellent in Ohio actually went down one step.
In fact, of the 94 districts in the 12-county area we track, only five went up in the ratings — Brookville, Southeastern, Tri-Village, Miami East and Twin Valley. And of those, only Brookville, Southestern and Miami East made it to the excellent rating.
“Our district achieved an Excellent rating for the first time in the history of the school,” Brookville Superintendent Tim Hopkins told me in an e-mail. ” I am very proud of our staff and students for this accomplishment.”
(Image credit: Chris Stewart, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Testing
With test monitors, City Day’s scores fell
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
City Day Community School, under state investigation for possibly cheating on Ohio achievement tests in 2006, saw its scores plummet in 2007 when testing there was monitored.
Last year, City Day jumped two steps from the bottom rating of academic emergency to continuous improvement on Ohio’s five-step scale after huge test score gains.
The Dayton Daily News first reported in February that 44 questions on practice tests taken by City Day students were identical or substantially the same as questions that appeared on the actual state exam they took just days later in March 2006.
On last August’s report card, City Day made big gains. For instance, at sixth-grade math, no students passed in 2005 but 57 percent passed in 2006. No City Day students passed fourth-grade math in 2005, but 52 percent passed in 2006.
When the state tests were given in the spring of 2007 in the midst of a state investigation, the charter school’s sponsor sent proctors. They sent one teacher home for allegedly taking notes on a state test to be given later in the week.
The 2007 report card show just 25 percent passing sixth-grade math and 9 percent passing fourth-grade math. In all, City Day’s reading and math scores at grades four through seven dropped by at least 10 percent on seven of eight state tests.
City Day’s sponsor, Education Resource Consultants of Ohio, dismissed its governing board in June and a new board fired Superintendent Roseda Goff, whom ERCO blamed for problems at the school.
Phyllis Brown, legal counsel to ERCO, said the sponsor had no further comment on the testing irregularities at City Day.
“We’re glad there is a new and aggressive board that runs the school and we are hopeful that the scores will improve,” she said.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: City Day Investigation
Is it racist to track minority group scores?
I got a couple of curious calls this morning from angry Fairborn residents. One caller was very blunt — based on the story I wrote this morning, either I was a racist or Fairborn Superintendent Dave Scarberry was.
Why?
Because the story noted that in Fairborn, the school district was prevented from making “adequate yearly progress” under the federal No Child Left Behind law because the test scores of the district’s African American students, special education students and poor students were too low.
The callers said it was unfair to single out these groups. In their minds, it was akin to blaming these kids for blocking the district’s success on the state report card.
But here’s the irony of this complaint — No Child Left Behind required school districts to track and report the scores of minority groups and penalized those that failed to help the kids in those groups achieve better as a way to FORCE districts to pay MORE attention to them.
Let’s start with what today’s story actually said:
“At Fairborn, Superintendent Dave Scarberry said the district missed AYP because black children, kids in special education and poor children did not score well enough on state tests.”
(Note: Scarberry actually used the term “African-American” instead of “black” in our interview and my story included that phrase. But it was changed by editors because the Dayton Daily News’ style is to use the term “black.” An editor said paper does not identify any minority groups by their continent of origin in this way. We also use the term “white” rather than “European American” for the same reason, the editor said.)
This is, first of all, completely true. NCLB requires Fairborn to show steady progress for students in nine “subgroup” categories — African American, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, multi-racial, white, special education, economically disadvantaged (a euphemism for poor) and for those learning English as a second language.
Fairborn made enough progress in six of those categories. For three of them, the school district did not meet NCLB’s expectation — African Americans, kids in special education and poor children. If a district falls short on any of these subgroups, NCLB says they failed to make AYP.
Fairborn was not alone. In the graphic in today’s paper, 38 of the 60 area districts failed to meet AYP. There are a couple of other ways you can miss AYP, but for most of them one of these subgroups didn’t make enough test score gain.
Why does NCLB place such an emphasis on this? Lawmakers were responding to a hidden crisis that was typical to many school districts in the past — schools reported average scores that disguised just how badly they were neglecting minority kids.
Consider a typical suburban district that might have only about 25 percent of kids who fall into one of the “subgroup” categories other than “white.” In the past, this school might have been meeting most of the state standards and looking pretty good come report card time.
But what we didn’t know back then was that while the average scores compared well to other districts, there was a huge disparity between the majority and minority kids within the district. While 75 percent might have been doing very well, the 25 percent of kids who were still learning in English, in special education classes or who were black or Hispanic might have been scoring dreadfully low. And nobody knew about it.
This was a common problem before No Child Left Behind, a big enough problem that lawmakers wrote a law with the expressed intention of shining a bright light on the performance of minority students and requiring school districts to help those kids achieve.
That is the exact opposite of racist.
But it is worrisome that when we tell people what the data shows some react with anger. One caller told me we should not be identifying which groups of kids did poorly and to do so was blaming them and that was racist.
Let’s look again at what the story said. It identified three Fairborn subgroups as failing to make AYP. In the next paragraph, Scarberry is quoted saying the district is studying the test questions and has targeted the kids in those subgroups for extra help.
Again, is this a bad thing? NCLB forced school districts to pay attention to the minority groups that are not keeping pace academically and as a result Fairborn is making plans to help those kids do better.
What is your take on NCLB subgroups? Is it the right or wrong to identify which minority groups are not making progress?
Permalink | Comments (32) | Categories: Testing
Dayton slips back into “academic watch”
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
Dayton schools slid a step backward Tuesday on its state report card, a year after making a big jump forward.
Dayton was rated in “academic watch” based on test scores and attendance and graduation rate — the fourth out of five state rating categories. Last year, the district celebrated a leap to the middle category, “continuous improvement” after years in “academic emergency,” the lowest rating level.
“We’e not in give up mode,” Superintendent Percy Mack said. “We have one message — for the past two years we’re not in academic emergency. We lived there a long time.”
Elsewhere across the greater Miami Valley, report card performance was largely unchanged, mirroring the statewide result. Out of 94 districts in 12 counties, 15 were downgraded one category while four moved up one.
For Dayton, the news mostly was bad. The district was second worst in Ohio for both the number of state standards met — Dayton met just two of 30 this year — and for “performance index score,” the state’s measure of test performance across all grades.
Only East Cleveland was worse, meeting no state standards and coming in just fractions of a point below Dayton for its index score.
Mack said Dayton still showed much progress, especially at elementary grades.
“We just have to continue to work hard in the early years to get kids going,” he said. “We may even have to look at how we can go into those pre-school years and sooner.”
Dayton failed to make “adequate yearly progress” on its test scores for the fourth straight year. If it misses AYP again next year, the state could intervene with the power to dictate program changes.
School officials in Ketteriing already knew they would start the school year with $2 million in budget cuts in place and a levy on the ballot for November.
On Tuesday, the district got another challenge for the new year — raising its state rating back to the top score of “excellent.”
“We’ll strive for that excellent rating next year,” said Kari Basson, the district’s community relations coordinator.
Cuts in staff and increased class sizes as the resulted a narrow defeat of 4.9-mill levy in May but should not affect the district’s ability to educate kids, she said.
“We wouldn’t have made those decisions if we thought it would negatively impact achievement or our results on the report card. The cuts won’t be a factor,” Basson said.
Kettering was one of 15 out of 94 districts in the greater Miami Valley that slipped one spot on Ohio’s five-step school rating scale.
That followed a statewide trend that saw overall report card performance decline slightly with the addition of new tests to the report card at grades five and eight.
Other local districts falling one rung on the state’s rating later included Miamisburg, West Carrollton, Jefferson Twp., Franklin-Monroe and Milton Union.
Three districts moved up one level in the ratings — Miami East, Twin Valley and Tri-Village.
Miami East, with 1,300 students in rural Miami county, had the state’s ninth biggest gain out of 610 Ohio districts in “performance index score,” the state’s measure of test performance across all tests taken. The accompanying climb to an excellent rating was “if not for the first time ever, definitely the first time in a long time,” Superintendent Todd Rappold said.
Students took advantage of after-school intervention programs and new online software for doing remediation at home last year helping to raise test scores, Rappold said, along with hard work by teachers and parents.
Tri-Village, in Darke County had the 11th biggest index score gain in the state. Meanwhile, Preble County’s Tri-County North school district saw the area’s biggest drop and the 13th largest index score slide in the state.
Warren County’s Mason schools, a perennial top scorer, ranked fourth best in Ohio for its performance index score. Oakwood was close behind with Ohio’s sixth best score.
Overall, districts also found it tougher in 2006-07 to make “adequate yearly progress,” a standard set by the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act, which requires test-score improvement in several categories of students broken down by income, race and disabilities.
Of the 60 core Miami Valley districts in the seven counties that surround Dayton, 24 districts met AYP on this year’s report card, down from 36 last year, 37 in 2005 and 42 in 2004.
Four of those districts missed AYP while still scoring an excellent rating on the report card — Vandalia, Tipp City, Yellow Springs and Sugarcreek schools.
Districts that continually fail to make adequate progress can face sanctions under the federal law. Six districts in the greater Miami Valley this year reached “year 4 improvement status,” meaning they are one step away from facing state intervention.
For those districts — Dayton, Fairborn, Xenia, Springfield, Middletown and Trotwood — failing to meet AYP again could bring corrective action from the state such as installing new curriculum, replacing key district personnel, establishing new governance structures for some schools, replacing the superintendent or school board or withholding federal funds.
At Fairborn, Superintendent Dave Scarberry said the district missed AYP because African-American children, kids in special education and poor children did not score well enough on state tests.
“We’re working hard on item analysis of the test results and trying to target the nitty gritty,” he said. “We know who the kids are and we will be targeting those areas and those children.”
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, Testing
Jeff Mims picked for school board
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
Jeffrey Mims, who retired from Dayton Public Schools after 35 years in June, is the newest city school board member.
Mims replaces Ronald Jackson, who resigned after less than a year on the board citing growing personal commitments. Jackson took over for Clayton Luckie, who left when he was elected state representative last November.
“The district has served me well and served my children well,” said Mims, the father of two district graduates. “As a result of what the system has done for me and my family, I owe back to this community. There is no better place for to be than to be here.”
Mims attended the district as a child before graduating from Jefferson High School. He began work as an aide before earning his teaching certificate from Central State University. He went on to be a teacher and coach and was teacher of the year in 1975.
He was teacher’s union president from 1983 to 1988 before becoming an administrator. Since 1994, Mims has been the board’s legislative liason, lobbying for the district with lawmakers and handling community relations. He has a masters degree in education from Wright State University.
Board President Yvonne Isaacs said Mims was picked for several reasons — he can contribute right away without any need to learn about the district, he has deep knowledge of politics and the state funding system and he will be a strong candidate for election in November because of his deep community roots.
But most of all, she said, the board believed Mims cared deeply for Dayton’s kids.
“He is passionate about Dayton Public Schools,” she said. “I don’t know if anyone is more of a cheerleader for the district than he is.”
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Some highlights of the state report card release
Here are some of the local trends I’ve identified from today’s state report card release:
State rating categories
More districts are scoring well on the state’s rating system. There are five rating categories — excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.
—There are no emergency districts for the second straight year.
—Only 11 Ohio districts are rated in academic watch.
—80 percent of all Ohio districts are rated effective or better.
But more area districts went down than up this year. Most districts stayed the same.
—In the greater Miami Valley, 15 of 94 districts slipped a category while four district moved up one.
—Moving down one category: New Knoxville, St. Marys, Fairfield, Hamilton, Ross, Triad, Northeastern, Tecumseh, Franklin-Monroe, Milton-Union, Dayton, Jefferson, Kettering, Miamisburg and West Carrollton.
—Moving up one category: Brookville, Southeastern, Tri-Village, Miami East and Twin Valley.
AYP
Fewer districts are meeting the federal requirement that they make “adequate yearly progress” on state tests.
—Of the 60 core Miami Valley districts (Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, Shelby and Warren counties) a total of 24 districts met AYP this year, down from 36 last year, 37 in 2005 and 42 in 2004.
—Of the 94 districts in the greater Miami Valley, 12 improved their AYP status while 18 saw their AYP status worsen.
—Eight greater Miami Valley districts — Vandalia, Tipp City, St. Henry, Ft. Recovery, Coldwater, Yellow Springs, Sugarcreek, Southeastern — earned the state’s top rating of “excellent” but failed to meet AYP under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
—Six greater Miami Valley districts are in “year 4 improvement status” under AYP — Springfield, Fairborn, Xenia, Dayton, Middletown, Trotwood. These districts could face federal sanctions beginning next year.
Performance Index Score
This score is the state’s measure of test performance across all tests taken.
—Mason ranked best in the greater Miami Valley and fourth best in Ohio. Oakwood was second best locally and sixth best in the state.
—Dayton ranked worst locally and second worst in the state behind just East Cleveland schools by fractions of a point.
—Jefferson Twp was second worst locally and third worst in Ohio.
—Springfield was third worst locally and 11th worst in the state.
—Miami East made the area’s biggest gain on performance index score and the ninth biggest gain our of 610 districts in Ohio.
—Tri-Village had the second biggest gain locally and 11th biggest in the state.
—Tri-County North made the biggest slide in performance index score locally and had the 13th biggest drop on that score in the state.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Testing
State report cards: How local schools rate
UPDATE: Go here for more local highlights from the state report card release.
State report cards are out today for school districts and individual schools. I’ll have a lot more later, but for now I’ve put together a list of all school districts in the 12 counties that surround Dayton that shows which of the five state rating categories they fall into — excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.
I did notice Dayton Public Schools fell back from continuous improvement to academic watch. And I noticed fewer districts are now rated excellent. Very few are now rated in continuous improvement or academic watch and no local districts now are in academic emergency. Again, I’ll have more information on other trends in the data as the day goes on.
Here’s the list of how are school districts rate:
Excellent
Anna
Beavercreek
Botkins
Brookville
Cedar Cliff
Centerville
Coldwater
Fort Loramie
Fort Recovery
Kings
Lakota
Lebanon
Little Miami
Marion
Mason
Miami East
Minster
New Bremen
Newton
Northmont
Oakwood
Russia
Southeastern
Springboro
St Henry
Sugarcreek
Tipp City
Vandalia-Butler
Versailles
Wayne
West Liberty-Salem
Yellow Springs
Effective
Ansonia
Arcanum
Bethel
Carlisle
Celina
Clark-Shawnee
Covington
Eaton
Edgewood
Fairfield
Fairlawn
Franklin
Franklin Monroe
Graham
Greeneview
Greenon
Hardin-Houston
Huber Heights
Jackson Center
Kettering
Mad River
Madison
Mechanicsburg
Miamisburg
Milton-Union
Mississinawa Valley
Monroe
New Knoxville
New Lebanon
New Miami
Northwestern
Parkway
Piqua
Ross
Sidney
St Marys
Talawanda
Tri-County North
Tri-Village
Troy
Twin Valley
Valley View
Wapakoneta
Waynesfield-Goshen
Continuous Improvement
Bradford
Fairborn
Greenville
Hamilton
Middletown
National Trail
Northeastern
Northridge
Preble Shawnee
Tecumseh
Triad
Trotwood-Madison
Urbana
West Carrollton
Xenia Community
Academic Watch
Dayton
Jefferson Township
Springfield
Academic Emergency
None
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Testing
AP test success ranked for area schools
(NOTE: When I first posted this data, there was a sorting problem and some of the districts were matched to the wrong numbers. The list is correct now. Sorry for the confusion.)
Some area high schools offer Advanced Placement courses. Students who complete those courses, which are designed to offer college-level instruction, can take an AP test in that subject.
AP tests are graded on a five point scale. Scores of 3 or better are often rewarded by colleges, who may allow students to skip introductory course in those subjects in their first years of college.
This list ranks the percentage of students who earned a 3 or better out of those who took AP tests at each area district. Keep in mind that the number of students who took AP exams varied dramatically.
The first number is the number of students at the district who took an AP test. The second is the percent who passed. Districts with less than 10 students passing do not report data. These districts are noted with NC. Districts that had no students taking AP exams are noted with NA.
348 Lakota 93.1
305 Mason 90.5
60 Celina 86.7
15 Minster 86.7
63 Troy 85.7
203 Beavercreek 84.7
385 Centerville 84.4
24 St Henry 83.3
16 West Liberty-Salem 81.2
84 Northmont 81.0
25 Coldwater 80.0
178 Oakwood 79.8
48 Little Miami 79.2
48 Tipp City 77.1
39 Springboro 76.9
24 Cedar Cliff 75.0
68 Ross 75.0
21 Brookville 71.4
90 Kettering 71.1
103 Fairfield 68.9
19 Edgewood 68.4
63 Vandalia 68.3
30 Yellow Springs 66.7
158 Sugarcreek 65.8
46 Tecumseh 65.2
37 Sidney 64.9
17 Urbana 64.7
152 Kings 64.5
51 Talawanda 62.7
161 Lebanon 62.1
55 Hamilton 61.8
40 Huber Heights 60.0
69 Miamisburg 59.4
38 Piqua 55.3
38 Xenia 55.3
61 Fairborn 50.8
24 Mad River 50.0
31 Greenville 48.4
92 Clark-Shawnee 47.8
51 Wayne 43.1
38 Northwestern 42.1
36 Graham 41.7
98 Springfield 38.8
29 St Marys 37.9
74 Middletown 36.5
74 Wapakoneta 33.8
130 Dayton 14.6
17 Bethel NC
34 Carlisle NC
6 Covington NC
2 Fort Loramie NC
33 Fort Recovery NC
7 Franklin NC
5 Franklin Monroe NC
24 Marion NC
4 Mechanicsburg NC
7 Miami East NC
2 Milton-Union NC
32 Monroe NC
24 Northeastern NC
11 Northridge NC
9 Preble Shawnee NC
10 Southeastern NC
4 Tri-County North NC
20 Trotwood-Madison NC
4 Twin Valley NC
15 Valley View NC
13 Versailles NC
11 Waynesfield-Goshen NC
19 West Carrollton NC
0 Anna NA
0 Ansonia NA
0 Arcanum NA
0 Botkins NA
0 Bradford NA
0 Eaton NA
0 Fairlawn NA
0 Greeneview NA
0 Greenon NA
0 Hardin-Houston NA
0 Jackson Center NA
0 Jefferson NA
0 Madison NA
0 Mississinawa Valley NA
0 National Trail NA
0 New Bremen NA
0 New Knoxville NA
0 New Lebanon NA
0 New Miami NA
0 Newton NA
0 Parkway NA
0 Russia NA
0 Triad NA
0 Tri-Village NA
Permalink | | Categories: Testing
Percent of grads with an honors diploma
This is a list of greater Miami Valley school districts ranked by the percentage of 2006 graduates who received an honors diploma from the state. To earn this credential, students must take extra math, English, science and foreign language, including specific challenging courses, while maintaining a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale and scoring a 27 ACT score or 1210 on the SAT.
The first number for each district is the number of 2006 graduates. The second is the percent who earned an honors diploma.
(Note: There may be some problems with the data here. I corrected Oakwood’s percentage from 0 on the state report card because the district said the actual percentage was 49. I think it is doubtful that Springboro had 0. There is probably a data entry error there, too, and possibly for others who reported 0.)
75 Minster 49.3
118 Oakwood 49
66 Fort Loramie 42.4
70 New Bremen 40
94 Monroe 36.2
559 Mason 35.4
252 Sugarcreek 34.9
81 Marion 34.6
52 Botkins Local 34.6
197 Clark-Shawnee 33.5
661 Centerville 33
256 Kings 31.6
126 Coldwater 31
90 Greeneview 30
559 Beavercreek 29.5
51 Yellow Springs 29.4
110 Brookville 29.1
116 Wayne 29
148 Valley View 28.4
89 St Henry 28.1
1081 Lakota 28
25 Russia Local 28
101 National Trail 27.7
208 Little Miami 27.4
567 Kettering 27.3
85 Arcanum Butler 27.1
526 Fairfield 26.6
51 Cedar Cliff 25.5
63 Ansonia 25.4
208 Edgewood 24.5
218 Talawanda 24.3
337 Miamisburg 22.8
66 Mechanicsburg 22.7
331 Troy 22.6
201 St Marys 21.9
240 Wapakoneta 21.7
189 Tipp City 21.6
136 Greenon 21.3
94 Anna 21.3
52 Fairlawn 21.2
351 Middletown 21.1
264 Vandalia-Butler 20.8
94 West Liberty-Salem 20.2
76 Fort Recovery 19.7
224 Celina 19.2
42 Jackson Center 19
121 Madison 19
148 Northwestern 18.9
161 Franklin 18.6
72 New Lebanon 18.1
39 Newton 17.9
234 Greenville 17.5
218 Ross 17.4
178 Graham 17.4
133 Eaton 17.3
254 Sidney 17.3
491 Huber Heights 16.1
282 Northeastern 16
226 West Carrollton 15.9
63 Southeastern 15.9
405 Northmont 15.8
335 Xenia 15.8
103 Miami East 15.5
59 Franklin Monroe 15.3
381 Springfield 15.2
59 Jefferson 15
140 Milton-Union 14.3
210 Mad River 13.3
91 Northridge 13.2
223 Tecumseh 13
62 Tri-Village 12.9
240 Piqua 12.1
225 Trotwood-Madison 11.9
118 Carlisle 11.9
76 Tri-County North 11.8
34 Mississinawa Valley 11.8
70 Covington 11.4
89 Parkway 10.1
90 Bethel 10
89 Preble Shawnee 9
127 Urbana 8.7
48 Waynesfield-Goshen 8.3
484 Hamilton 7.9
80 Twin Valley 6.2
57 Hardin-Houston 3.5
786 Dayton 3.3
65 Triad 1.5
298 Lebanon 0.3
292 Springboro 0
277 Fairborn 0
40 New Knoxville 0
54 Bradford 0
106 Versailles 0
49 New Miami 0
298 Triad 1.5
118 Lebanon 0.3
292 Springboro 0
277 Fairborn 0
40 New Knoxville 0
54 Bradford 0
106 Versailles 0
49 New Miami 0
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Testing
Miami Valley SAT scores ranked
Here are the seven greater Miami Valley school districts that had at least half their 2006 graduates take the SAT college entrance test ranked by average score from best to worst.
The first number is the average SAT score (top score is 1600) This does not include the score for the writing portion of the SAT. The second number is the percent of graduates who took the SAT:
1131 Mason 56.9
1118 Oakwood 89.8
1106 Lakota 56
1102 Beavercreek 59.9
1100 Yellow Springs 70.6
1099 Centerville 70.3
1098 Sugarcreek 52.4
Other districts
These are the other greater Miami Valley districts — those with less than 50 percent of students taking the SAT, ranked by average score. Again, the first number is average ACT score for 2006 graduates and the second number is the percentage of the graduating class that took the test:
1450 Tri-County North 1.3
1323 Fort Loramie 6.1
1281 New Knoxville 17.5
1275 West Liberty-Salem 4.3
1254 Marion 6.2
1225 Preble Shawnee 2.2
1221 Graham 4.5
1210 Anna 1.1
1177 Minster 4
1176 Arcanum 5.9
1173 Fairlawn 5.8
1162 Cedar Cliff 19.6
1155 Twin Valley 2.5
1154 Coldwater 4
1144 Milton-Union 3.6
1139 Tipp City 31.2
1136 Southeastern 7.9
1133 Waynesfield-Goshen 6.3
1126 Tri-Village 8.1
1122 Talawanda 28.9
1118 Vandalia-Butler 35.2
1118 Edgewood 5.3
1115 Kings 33.6
1110 New Bremen 1.4
1109 Lebanon 14.4
1104 Eaton 6
1102 Troy 11.8
1101 Piqua 2.9
1097 Miamisburg 11.9
1093 Kettering 38.8
1091 Springboro 49.3
1090 Fairfield 33.1
1090 Celina 8
1090 Jefferson 1.7
1087 Tecumseh 10.3
1085 Little Miami 17.8
1084 Valley View 6.1
1080 Miami East 4.9
1076 Urbana 8.7
1074 Northeastern 7.8
1068 Clark-Shawnee 28.9
1067 Wapakoneta 3.8
1065 Northwestern 11.5
1064 Brookville 8.2
1063 Greenville 6
1060 New Miami 2
1060 New Lebanon 1.4
1058 Greenon 10.3
1057 Northmont 32.3
1056 Madison 4.1
1053 West Carrollton 20.8
1048 Middletown 10.8
1045 Sidney 3.1
1040 Franklin Monroe 1.7
1040 Hardin-Houston 1.8
1040 National Trail 4
1040 St Marys 2.5
1037 Franklin 1.9
1033 Xenia 14
1032 Huber Heights 25.7
1030 Jackson Center 7.1
1026 Bethel 14.4
1020 Hamilton 24.2
1020 Covington 1.4
1019 Ross 40.8
1019 Greeneview 17.8
1012 Wayne 21.6
1010 Ansonia 1.6
1010 Versailles 2.8
1005 Mad River 13.8
1000 Mechanicsburg 1.5
1000 Carlisle 4.2
998.8 Fairborn 30.7
987.5 Springfield 23.4
974.6 Monroe 13.8
970.0 Northridge 3.3
915.7 Triad 10.8
905.0 Bradford 3.7
880.0 Trotwood-Madison 14.2
861.3 Dayton 16.7
NA Russia 0
NA St Henry 0
NA Fort Recovery 0
NA Botkins 0
NA Parkway 0
NA Newton 0
NA Mississinawa Valley 0
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Testing
Miami Valley ACT scores ranked
Here are the 59 greater Miami Valley school districts that had at least half their 2006 graduates take the ACT college entrance test ranked by average score from best to worst.
The first number is the average ACT score (top score is 36). The second number is the percent of graduates who took the ACT:
24.8 Oakwood 78.8
24.6 Yellow Springs 54.9
24.1 Centerville 65.8
24.0 Cedar Cliff 62.7
23.9 Minster 85.3
23.7 Mason 73.0
23.7 Tipp City 63.5
23.6 Springboro 76.4
23.4 Vandalia 59.1
23.3 Lakota 70.9
23.1 Versailles 74.5
23.1 Sugarcreek 60.3
22.9 Kings 80.9
22.9 Marion 75.3
22.8 New Bremen 85.7
22.8 New Knoxville 70.0
22.8 Talawanda 63.3
22.6 Russia 88.0
22.3 St Henry 76.4
22.3 West Liberty-Salem 54.3
22.2 Coldwater 66.7
22.2 Celina 64.3
22.2 Northwestern 54.1
22.1 Fairfield 65.2
22.0 Little Miami 68.8
21.9 Clark-Shawnee 60.4
21.9 Ross 57.8
21.9 Miamisburg 51.0
21.8 Fort Loramie 77.3
21.8 Urbana 59.8
21.8 Greenville 53.0
21.8 Brookville 50.9
21.7 Lebanon 60.7
21.7 Covington 52.9
21.6 Greenon 55.1
21.5 Valley View 60.8
21.5 Jackson Center 59.5
21.5 St Marys 53.7
21.5 Graham 52.2
21.4 Anna 63.8
21.4 Wayne 62.9
21.4 Edgewood 61.1
21.3 Northeastern 64.2
21.3 Fort Recovery 61.8
21.3 Wapakoneta 58.3
21.3 Eaton 51.1
21.2 Arcanum 68.2
21.1 Miami East 56.3
21.0 Bethel 50.0
20.9 Southeastern 58.7
20.5 Greeneview 57.8
20.5 Parkway 57.3
20.3 Madison 52.9
20.1 Monroe 67.0
19.8 Triad 60.0
19.8 Carlisle 54.2
19.3 Franklin 51.6
19.0 Botkins 57.7
15.6 Jefferson 54.2
Other districts
These are the other greater Miami Valley districts — those with less than 50 percent of students taking the ACT, ranked by average score. Again, the first number is average ACT score for 2006 graduates and the second number is the percentage of the graduating class that took the test:
23.8 Beavercreek 47.6
23.2 Kettering 45.9
22.8 Franklin Monroe 49.2
22.6 Northmont 49.1
22.5 Troy 49.5
22.1 Milton-Union 42.1
21.9 Ansonia 42.9
21.7 Newton Local 38.5
21.5 Tecumseh 45.7
21.5 Hardin-Houston 40.4
21.5 Huber Heights 40.3
21.5 Sidney 39.0
21.2 New Lebanon 48.6
21.2 Waynesfield-Goshen 43.8
21.2 Piqua 39.2
21.2 Fairborn 34.7
21.1 West Carrollton 38.5
20.8 Tri-Village 45.2
20.8 Mississinawa Valley 32.4
20.7 Mechanicsburg 48.5
20.6 Twin Valley 38.8
20.6 Mad River 36.7
20.5 Xenia 42.4
20.3 Hamilton 37.6
20.2 National Trail 49.5
20.2 Fairlawn 36.5
20.2 Tri-County North 35.5
20.0 Bradford 46.3
20.0 Middletown 44.2
19.9 Preble Shawnee 40.4
19.8 Springfield 38.6
19.8 New Miami 12.2
17.8 Northridge 34.1
17.7 Trotwood-Madison 47.6
17.0 Dayton 42.7
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Testing
Too much science and math?
(Will future generations know what’s happening in this photo?)
In the Wall Street Journal last week, the Fordham Foundation’s Checker Finn and education historian Diane Ravitch forcefully address an issue that has troubled me some recently.
Ohio is one of several states that is pushing schools — from the elementary grades through college — to emphasize more science, technology, engineering and math in instruction. Dayton is even angling for a “STEM” high school. Lawmakers want to start a bunch of them around the state.
But Finn and Ratvich have an important question — if science and math instruction grows, will other important subjects be crowded out? And, interestingly, they seem to take a shot at standardized testing, despite Finn’s long running support of standards and judging schools by their test scores.
You need a subscrption to read the whole story at WSJ.com. But here’s their core argument:
“But there is a problem here. Worthy though these skills are, they ignore at least half of what has long been regarded as a “well rounded” education in Western civilization: literature, art, music, history, civics and geography. Indeed, a new study from the Center on Education Policy says that, since NCLB’s enactment, nearly half of U.S. school districts have reduced the time their students spend on subjects such as art and music.
This is a mistake that will ill-serve our children while misconstruing the true nature of American competitiveness and the challenges we face in the 21st century.”
And
“The liberal arts make us “competitive” in the ways that matter most. They make us wise, thoughtful and appropriately humble. They help our human potential to bloom. And they are the foundation for a democratic civic polity, where each of us bears equal rights and responsibilities.
History and literature also impart to their students healthy skepticism and doubt, the ability to question, to ask both “why?” and “why not?” and, perhaps most important, readiness to challenge authority, push back against conventional wisdom and make one’s own way despite pressure to conform. (How will that be viewed in China?)”
And here’s the quote that blew me away on testing:
“We’re already at risk of turning U.S. schools into test-prepping skill factories where nothing matters except exam scores on basic subjects. That’s not what America needs nor is it a sufficient conception of educational accountability.”
That one’s an eye-popper because few have done more than Finn to push standards-based testing as the primary accountability measure in the U.S.
But overall, it’s hard to argue with their core point — math and science are very important and generally undervalued in the U.S. education system. Yet, emphasizing one or two subjects in schools generally has the effect of crowding out other subjects.
Finn is a history nut and I know it drives him crazy that schools faced with testing benchmarks in reading and math often skimp on subjects like history to spend more time preparing for state exams.
Is there a way we can safeguard history, literature, art, music and physical education while still prioritizing science and math? Give us your take.
(Image credit: University of Iowa)
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Isaacs: Heat won’t change calendar
(Marshall High School students walk the steamy halls on the first day of school last week.)
In today’s paper, school board President Yvonne Isaacs says a freak heat wave that closed school this week has not caused the district to rethink the early August start for its calendar.
By my count, four Dayton schools have air conditioning right now — Belle Haven, Wogaman, Cleveland and Kiser elementary schools, the four new schools that opened last year. Four new schools will open this year and by the end of next school year close to half of the new schools will be open.
Essentially, Isaacs said the district just has to hang in there until the new, air conditioned buildings are open and then summer heat no longer will be a problem. She said the board still believes in the educational benefits of a longer school year. And she points out that the district for more than a decade had schools that opened in July and only rarely had to close schools or dismiss early because of hot weather.
One other thing, school officials said they might have just dismissed schools early this year rather than close if they had that option. But they say the district’s busing system so complex now with 30 district schools, 30 charter schools, RTA routes and a handful of private schools that closing early no longer is an option.
(Image credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
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Goff trial set for October
Former City Day Community School Superintendent Roseda Goff appeared at a pre-trial hearning Friday, facing a misdemeanor charge of attempted obstruction of official business. Juvenile Court Judge Tony Capizzi set a trial date of Oct. 5, noting that Julie Bruns, chief of the juvenile division of the Montgomery County prosecutor’s office, did not offer a plea deal during a meeting in chambers. Prosectuors allege Goff, 60, of Jefferson Twp., discouraged teachers at the charter school from reporting suspected child abuse to authorities. Goff appeared at the hearing but did not speak. Her attorney, David Turner, declined comment after the hearing.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: City Day Investigation
No new board member yet
The Dayton Board of Education finished its interviews late Thursday with six candidates for school board but did not reach a decision. Board members plan to finish up consideration and announce the new member on Tuesday prior to a 6 p.m. board meeting.
Board President Yvonne Isaacs also told me the district plans to open up and air out school buildings over the weekend in hopes of letting some of the heat out and improving the chances that classes can be held Monday.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Make it four straight: DPS cancels Friday classes
Dayton Public Schools will be closed for a fourth consecutive day Friday because of hot weather, a district spokeswoman said late Thursday.
School officials said even though temperatures are forecast to be slightly lower Friday, schools that have been closed for most of the week will likely still be very hot inside. Many of the older schools are made of heat-retaining bricks.
School is expected to be in session on Monday.
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Dayton should get new board member today
The Dayton school board will hold a second day of interviews tonight for the six candidates to replace Ronald Jackson, who resigned in late July, on the board.
Assuming the board reaches a consensus, they will announce their choice tonight and vote on it at the next board meeting.
Also today we should find out if school will be open or closed again for heat on Friday. Check back here later for details.
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
No school Thursday either
(Kevon Johnson,7, cools off at Dayton’s W.S. McIntosh Memorial Park)
Dayton Public Schools has called off school on Thursday for a third straight day because of the continuing heat emergency. School officials say they will wait until tomorrow to decide about Friday.
So here’s the question if you are Superintendent Percy Mack. If Friday continues to be forecast as a comparatively mild 85 degrees, do you hold school?
One reason to hold school: It will save you a calamity day. Under state law, Dayton is only permitted five calamity days for the whole year. The district has used three of the five and it still has the whole, snowy winter yet to come.
One reason not to hold school: Some teachers tell me having school Friday is pointless. There is little that can be accomplished in one day, plus many parents will just keep their kids home anway and hurt attendance. The schools might as well just come back Monday and start over.
Which camp are you in?
(Image credit: Teesha McClam, DDN)
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Living the virtual dream
Apparently, that’s what I’d look like in Simpsonsland, poised outside Springfield Elementary School to interview kids, parents and teachers. How would you look if you were a charecter on the Simpsons? You can use this Web site to find out.
I thought I’d use the virtual me to celebrate a milestone today. Believe it or not, this blog is two years old today. I began on Aug. 8, 2005 writing about the first day of school for Dayton that year.
Today Get on the Bus is by far the most popular of the many blogs at DDN.com and the longest running newspaper education blog written exclusively by one journalist in the nation (and possibly the world for all I know).
So let me again thank you, the readers. As I’ve said many times, I truly appreciate GOTB readers and the mostly cordial, thoughtful discussions that take place here in the comments. While I was traveling around the district on the first day school Monday, at least a half dozen teachers stopped me to say they are regular GOTB readers.
And it was a teacher’s observation, both in the comments and when I met her in person Monday, that several of the laid off teachers had returned to work that led to the news in my story Tuesday that a quarter of those let go had been called back.
That’s what I think a blog should do. It should be a two-way street where we can share information. It’s very helpful to me when those in the trenches tell me what’s going on. I believe it makes our education reporting much better. And the blog gives me a place to go where space is not limited, allowing me to share additional stories and information of interest to those who really care about education issues. And I’ve been pleased to learn there is a market for education news online.
There also are fewer constraints here than in the paper. Anyone can have their say, as long as they don’t use defamatory, racist or profane speech.
So far, in my view, this experiment in online journalism has been a success. And it can only work with your continued participation. So thanks!
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Excuse me, Mr. Obama?
Barack Obama
Want to know what a presidential candidate thinks about No Child Left Behind? Here’s a way to find out that’s not as hard as you might think this early in the campaign — walk up to them at a campaign stop and ask.
That’s exactly what Mike Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation did. Petrilli gives his play-by-play of his interaction with Obama in Fordam’s weekly online newsletter The Gadfly.
Petrilli was on vacation in New Hampshire when he spotted a flyer for an Obama whistle stop nearby. So he went.
Obama took a couple shots at NCLB in his speech and afterward Petrilli got in a line to meet the candidate. Minutes later, he was face-to-face with Obama and asked what he would do to make NCLB better?
Petrilli said Obama sized him up and said his goal would be to improve the education law by getting “buy in” from teachers. Petrilli spends the rest of his essay detailing the reasons why “teacher buy in” is, in his view, the wrong thing for Obama to be focused on, equating teacher buy in to teacher union buy in. Check it out.
Note: This post also appears at the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
(Image credit: Chicago Tribune)
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
DPS calls off school for Wednesday, too
(Students sweat in the sweltering Stivers School for the Arts Spanish class I visited Monday)
Dayton Public Schools has cancelled class Wednesday in anticipation of another day of high temperatures and humidity. Administrative and other non-instructional buildings will be open.
Summer break ended when school began Monday but class was cancelled Tuesday after the National Weather Service issued a heat warning. The warning extends through Friday but a district spokeswoman said school leaders will continue looking at the forecast day by day before deciding if school will be closed other days this week.
(Image credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
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When silence speaks volumes
Let me tell you about Ciara.
I met her in the office of the Dayton public school I visited on today’s first day of classes. By then I had already talked to a school board member, the superintendent, four principals, a dozen students, several teachers and a couple of parents in an effort to gauge some of the challenges facing the school district.
But it turned out I learned more from Ciara than from anyone else today about the really tough challenges facing Dayton schools. And she never said a word to me.
In fact, she never said a word to anyone.
I’d guess she was about 10 years old. An aide brought her into the office while I was waiting for the principal. Ciara smiled in her blue and white school uniform, but crouched a little behind the aide. Her hair was carefully braided with purple and pink balls.
The aide said the girl got off the bus and didn’t know where to go.
“That’s OK, honey. What’s your name?” the attendance lady in the office asked in a soothing tone.
The girl just smiled. The aide shook her head. “That’s the problem,” she said.
The attendance lady tried a couple more times to ask her name. Eventually, the girl gave out a little grunt. Then she made song-like sigh a couple of times. After a while she let out with “woooo” or “nanagh” in response to questions.
“That’s all we could get out of her,” the aide said as she headed back to her post.
The attendance lady tried a couple new strategies. She read to her from the list of kids who were absent. “Is that your name?” she asked each time. The girl nodded yes each time.
A male teacher walked into the room and she crouched behind the attendance lady, who explained the situation to him. The man began to try, too.
“Just tell us what your name starts with,” he said. “What letter?”
The girl pointed to a large “Welcome” banner behind him.
“Is the letter up there? Does your name start with W? Does it start with E?” he tried, hopefully.
She seemed to nod at “E.”
“Is it Erica?” the man asked. “Elaine? Eloise?”
The girl smiled and nodded every time.
Just then, the principal leaned into the office from the hallway and motioned for me to follow. Outside the door, Superintendent Percy Mack also was standing in the hallway. I told him what was going on in the office and he went in.
Later on, Mack saw me in the hallway. “It’s Ciara,” he said. “That was her name.”
Mack said as he spoke to the girl, he tried some of the same strategies the others had to no avail. Finally, he wrote out his own name on paper to try to encourage her to write her name down. She pointed to the “c” in his name. Mack then got the attendance list and read the “c’s” aloud. At the name Ciara she really lit up. That was it, Mack said. Finally they got her to her classroom.
So here were some of the things that came to my mind.
First, it was somewhat shocking see a girl who should probably be in third grade but who could not speak, although I know many Dayton school staff regularly see severely delayed children like this.
Second, it seemed clear that this was a new school for Ciara. Otherwise, it was almost certain that someone — staff or students from last year — would have recognized her and been able to tell others who she was. If she, in fact, was new to the school, a parent probably should have taken her to school on the first day to get her situated, rather than send her on the school bus alone. I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t. Ciara certainly did not seem neglected. It appeared she was well cared for. Perhaps the parents need to be at work early? Who knows. Could they have called ahead to ask the school to be on the look out for her?
Third, altogether it took about a half dozen school staff, including the superintendent, more than half and hour to get this girl to the right place. Imagine how much time must be spent this way, solving difficult problems that other schools just don’t see.
It was a relief to hear there was a happy ending for Ciara. It would seem she has a long way to go academically. I hope her schooling experience overall has a happy ending, too.
(NOTE: This is a real story, but I changed the girl’s name.)
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, My Favorite Posts
Heat closes school in Dayton Tuesday
A Dayton Public Schools spokeswoman just announced that the district will close Tuesday because the National Weather Service has upgraded a weather advisory to a weather warning for Tuesday.
The weather service says the heat index will exceed 100 Tuesday. And Wednesday and Thursday are forecast to be even worse — heat indexes are expected to be between 105 and 110.
Will school be closed those days?
“We’re taking this one day at a time,” district spokewoman Jill Moberley said.
Permalink | Comments (42) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Patterson-Kennedy: World’s hottest school?
(Patterson-Kennedy Elementary School sixth grader Jacob Fuller waits for the school day to begin)
OK, maybe Patterson-Kennedy Elementary is not the world’s hottest school, but I’ll nominate it as Dayton’s hottest. At least it was the hottest school I was in today of the eight that I visited.
The original part of the building there is about 100 years old and that is where the heat is really unbearable. I visited Sue Seelig’s special education sauna, I mean classroom, in the southeast corner of the third floor in the old portion of the school just before dismissal at 3:25 p.m. and by the time I walked out of there I looked like I had taken a dip in a pool. I wish I had!
Seeling said her kids got through the day with lots of water breaks and popsicles in the afternoon. Even so, as we talked a boy in her class put his head on the desk and said, “I want to go to sleep.”
Patterson-Kennedy was one of three schools I visited this afternoon. For a report on the schools I visited this morning, go here. For more on my afternoon school tour, hit the “continued” link.
Cleveland Elementary School
At Cleveland, I concentrated on talking to parents about the cuts. They were a combination of worried about the cuts and angry about them.
Raymond Gevedon said his sixth grade son used to go to private school until he couldn’t afford it anymore. Then he tried a charter school last year before switching to Cleveland, where he said his son has done well.
“I like the teachers,” he said. “I think they’re all great here and they have good programs.”
Gevedon said he is most worried about discipline and class size. One of the things he liked best about private school was the no-nonsense discipline. He worried that with fewer staff it could be harder to enforce the rules. Small class size was a staple of the private school his son attended, too. So far class size at Cleveland has been good, but he worried that could change.
Teresa Noyes, grandmother of a first and third grader, said class size is her big concern too. She said her first grader’s class has 28 kids.
“That’s a lot for a first grade class, I think,” she said.
Then there was Delores Saunders, who was angry. She was at Cleveland to pick up her great nephew, a third grader. Saunders said the district’s priorities for the cuts were all wrong.
“They don’t need to have so many administrators,” she said. “The should have curbed the administration more and left sports, activities and teachers alone.”
Saunders said the district will never pass a levy until it can prove it has a much leaner administration.
Kemp at Grant Elementary School
Kemp was formerly located on Shedbourne Avenue but has moved to the former Grant School on Arcadia in Belmont. The new Kemp is due to open next August, so these are temporary digs for the Kemp folks.
But I was impressed by what a nice building Grant was inside. For years the district leased the school to the Montgomery County Educational Service Center, which offered an alternative school there. But the board has since dumped the ESC, offering alternative schools within the district instead.
So this was the first time I had actually been inside Grant. It is fairly old but seemed well maintained.
Kemp is the only school where I saw evidence of transportation trouble. A couple buses were probably a half-hour late picking kids up. We had a photographer downtown this morning to check on RTA transfers but that appeared to go smoothly. Kids I asked about riding the bus said some buses were late and at least one new driver got briefly lost but otherwise there were no major problems.
(Image credit: Ron Alvey, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Dayton Public Schools: Off to a hot start
(Students hustle to class at the high school formerly known as Colonel White.)
In a couple months, the students at what used to be called Colonel White High School in Dayton will be in the cool comfort of a new, air conditioned building on Hoover Avenue, where Roth High School once stood.
But today, they were sweltering in an old building going by a new name. Colonel White is now called Thurgood Marshall High School, a name picked by the students.
“It’s 94 outside, so you know its like 110 in here,” said senior Ci’Erra Mallory as she sat with friends at a round lunch table, out of reach of one of the tall fans placed around the room.
That was nothing. Earlier at Stivers School for the Arts I visited a freshman Spanish class with 32 kids and one of four old wooden windows stuck shut. A small box fan pulled air in from the outside and an even smaller oscillating fan did its best to move it around within the room. Principal Erin Dooley told me 35 kids are actually registered in the class.
It was hot all around the district this morning on the first day of school in Dayton. So far I’ve visited five schools. Here’s a quick summary of what I saw and what I learned:
Stivers School for the Arts
I was surprised to learn that the $70,000 raised by the school’s support group, the Seedling Foundation, has not yet been spent to hire back any adjunct staff that was laid off. Just 25 of 70 adjunct staff were kept from last year, Dooley said.
Even so, the school managed to keep its arts program largely intact. Dooley said all eight arts magnet programs are still operating and she didn’t have to drop a single advanced placement or honors course. How did she do it?
“It was the teachers,” she said simply.
In the summer, about three quarters of the teaching staff showed up for a meeting at which the future Stivers was plotted out. Teachers agreed to take larger class sizes and teach extra sections without extra pay to balance out for small high-end classes that were kept in the schedule. With adjuncts, they tried to keep those that taught classes on, with hopes of hiring back those who taught private lessons and other specialties.
Dooley said meetings are planned soon to figure out how to bring back some of the adjuncts and how many will return. This also was the first of two schools where I ran into Superintendent Percy Mack and board member Stacy Thompson.
Thurgood Marshall High School
There was mixed reaction among the students at the former Colonel White to the idea of renaming this school. Everyone will move into a new school building in October. Some students liked the idea of being the first to open the new school. Some said they felt a little sad leaving a school they think of as home behind. And some wondered if history wasn’t being lost a little with the discarding of the Colonel White name.
I also spoke to Phyllis J. Edmons, principal of the Academic Magnet Academy — a college prep program within Colonel White that has had success raising test scores and the graduation rate.
She said magnet teachers, who previously were confined to the AMA, will now have to teach classes that include non-AMA students. The AMA teachers also have lost their dedicated time for working on collaborative projects. I suppose this is why I’ve heard from some uneasy AMA parents worried about the future of the program. But Edmons was optimistic things would be OK.
Fairview Elementary School
I was hoping to get to Fairview in time to catch some parents dropping kids off, but I got there about five minutes too late. Still, I had a nice chat with second year Principal Charles Davis, who said the morning had gone pretty smoothly thus far.
I also got to talk with a few of the teachers, who seemed in good spirits. For an old school, Fairview is nicely maintained and clean. A teacher mentioned to me that the school is getting an influx of African immigrant families.
Fairview Middle School/Edison Elementary School
This was an unusual set up. As part of the budget cuts, the board closed Edison and moved the entire school — staff, students, etc. — to Fairview. Edison now operates in half the building.
In the other half, last year’s seventh grade from Fairview Middle School is now the eighth grade class. New seventh graders were not added and after this year, the middle school will cease to exist. Then Edison can occupy the building alone until a rebuilt Edison school reopens back on its old location in west Dayton.
The school sign in front has been split down the middle with Edison now on one side and Fairview Middle on the other. There are two offices — one for each school. Edison’s administration operates out of the former attendance office.
The Fairview Middle kids were pretty down on the whole idea. They said they felt like they got the worst side of the building. Several were disappointed, also, that middle school sports were cut. A tall young man named Ryan Durr who played on the basketball team pointed me to a trophy case.
“See those three with the nets over them?” he said. “We won those last year in basketball. We were city champs.”
The plan right now is for no middle school sports this year. But I also ran into Randy Faison, a teacher at Fairview, who hopes to change that. Faison, a football coach at Dunbar High School this year and a one time school board candidate, said a concerned parents group has raised about a third of the $200,000 needed to restore middle school sports. He said he would get me information about how people could contribute to the effort.
Belle Haven Elementary School
You know, one of the things I like about covering Dayton Public Schools is that people tend to be very open and friendly, even when I show up unexpectedly. That’s not always true.
I stopped at Belle Haven late this morning because earlier in the day someone told me only about a third of the staff there returned from last year. Many of their teachers, I was told, were young and lost their jobs to the cuts.
Belle Haven was close to the other schools I was visiting this morning, so I stopped in just to ask about this.
It’s a beautiful new school with air conditioning and many other amenities. That includes tight security. Unlike other buildings, where I often let myself in and meander to the office, at Belle Haven you are ushered via electronic locked doors into the main office first. For safety’s sake, that’s probably a good thing. But it’s not as fun for me.
At the office they called down second year Principal Wyetta Hayden, who took me to her office and asked why I was there. I told her what I heard about the staff changeover.
“We have a full staff here,” she said.
That’s not what I asked. Had there actually been two-thirds of the staff leave and replaced by new people?
She repeated “we have a full staff here” about 10 or 11 times in the next few minutes of conversation.
How many teachers do you have total, I asked?
“Couldn’t you get that information from Jill Moberley (the district’s communication’s chief)?” she asked.
“Yes, I could,” I said. “But since you are the principal and I’m in your office right now I thought I’d ask you.”
That was about as good as it got. I apologized for interrupting her day and arriving unannounced, excused myself and headed off for the next school on list.
Check back here on the blog later for more on the first day of school.
(Image credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
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Believe it or not, school’s back in
(Teacher’s aide Leroy Luckie carries desks to rooms as staff at Wogaman Elementary School prepares for the first day of school)
Why is Dayton back in school so early? Well, about two years ago, the district merged two calendars — most schools were on a traditional school year plan while others followed a year-round schedule that began in late July and had three week breaks in October, December and March.
As a compromise, Dayton now follows a calendar that was supposed to be a middle ground. Classes start in early August and the breaks are two weeks each. I hear teachers from the old traditional calendar schools are getting pretty weary of the new calendar after two years. They’d rather have their summer back.
Another good reason to stay out of school buildings this early is the heat, and the heat will be on today. Forecasts say it will reach the 90s. In fact, a “heat alert” has been issued for Monday, the first such alert of the entire summer.
I’ll be traveling around to schools all day today, gauging teacher, parent and student reactions to budget cuts and other changes. I’ll try to write a few blog updates through the day, so check back here later.
(Image credit: Ron Alvey, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Budget cuts reached beyond layoffs
Jalma Fields and McKenzie Costello
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
Jalma Fields, the principal of Meadowdale Elementary School, never thought she would dread a phone call from one of her top teachers, McKenzie Costello.
But she knew Costello was up for a job in Troy and that the job was perfect for her. So when Costello called in the car on the way to the third interview, they were both in tears within minutes.
“She asked me what I thought she should do,” Fields said. “There was no way I could respond to that. But in my heart I wanted to say ‘Please don’t leave.’ “
In June, more than 200 teachers were laid off in Dayton as the district instituted $30 million in budget cuts following the May defeat of its 15.17-mill operating levy. McKenzie Costello was not among them.
She was part of an unseen secondary impact of the cuts — some top staff who would have survived the layoff left the district, too, seeking the stability of suburban schools or protection against the possibility of future reductions.
The absence of those teachers and others who are no longer there to help kids achieve will have a subtle impact that could last for years. They won’t be there to inspire kids this year and, in some cases, to lead the district in the future.
Just three years ago, Fields was teaching fifth-grade language arts at Meadowdale and Costello was the rookie sixth-grade language arts teacher in the next room. The talented pair instantly bonded. Fields was newly minted as Dayton’s teacher of the year.
Costello, a graduate of Wright State University, had originally hoped to teach in Vandalia, where she grew up and where her father taught his whole career. But she put Dayton on her list because she had such good experiences in the district during teacher training visits at Wilbur Wright Middle School and Loos Elementary School.
When Fields became principal at Meadowdale two years ago, she put Costello in her old classroom. The next year, Costello had followed her footsteps again — she was named the district’s elementary school teacher of the year. With Fields’ support, she was selected for the district’s elite leadership training program that identifies high potential teachers and train them to be future principals.
But after Dayton’s levy defeat in May, a nervous Costello checked the district’s seniority list. She kept her job, but it was close. Too close.
Costello felt deep loyalty to Meadowdale — to her students and their parents, to her fellow teachers and most of all, to Fields. She thought she’d spend her career in Dayton schools.
But she was worried.
“I saw people I started with lose their jobs,” she said. “I thought if they did another round of cuts, that would be me. I wouldn’t have gone looking if I wasn’t fearful of not having a job the following year.”
This year, Costello will teach in Troy. It’s a good fit for her, Fields said. Costello, who has been working toward a gifted and talented certification, will be able to use those skills there.
But back at Meadowdale, Fields can’t help but think it didn’t have to be this way, and about what the kids will miss.
“There are some excellent teachers out there to fill the void,” she said. “But McKenzie had a method. She had a way of working with the students that involved them. It was enjoyable and the students learned and achieved. That is something you just can’t go grab any person and put them in a classroom and expect to get. She was one of a kind.”
After the interview in Troy, Costello was excited by what that district had to offer. She instinctively called Fields to share her good news. As Fields’ phone flashed Costello’s number, she could not bring herself to answer it just then. She knew Costello had gotten the job. Troy’s gain was Meadowdale’s loss. “I knew I just couldn’t handle it right then,” she said. “I had to wait a while. It was a brave and bold move for McKenzie. She is only going to get better. I waited and called her the next day. But we were still crying.”
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, My Favorite DDN Stories
Students will feel district’s cutbacks
(Wogaman Elementary School teacher Ellen Burt prepares her classroom for the first day of school)
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
Jalma Fields calls it the “trickle down” effect.
A given child in Dayton Public Schools may not be into music or art, which were reduced. She may not play on the sports teams that were cut. He may not attend one of the schools that was closed.
But starting Monday, when classes begin in Dayton, that student will feel the $30 million in cuts the district put in place July 1.
The impact may be as obvious as classrooms packed with more kids for fewer teachers. Or it could be as invisible as missing a chance to learn from last year’s teacher of the year.
“Everyone has been touched in one way or another,” said Fields, principal of Meadowdale Elementary School.
At Meadowdale, Fields is looking for creative ways to keep up music and arts programs that were scaled back, so kids won’t notice a big change. A popular band teacher was lost to layoffs.
That worries Nichole Neal. Neal is in charge of engineering for the district’s school construction program, but she’s also president of the parent group at Meadowdale. And her first-grade daughter is into music.
“I’m concerned about it for her,” Neal said. “That’s what engages her and keeps her active in school.”
At Van Cleve Elementary School, Principal Hindy Gruber is doing lots of math. Her school lost seven of its 25 teachers from last year. Class sizes are creeping up. Last year kindergarten had a class size of about 18. This year, it looks to be about 25. Fields said teachers must smooth the process for the district’s 15,500 students.
“We’ve got to move beyond it,” she said of the cuts. “The students are hearing all this. They know. We have to show them we are still here and we welcome them back and we’re ready to serve them regardless of the economic situation of the district.”
(For a timeline of the disrict’s financial crisis, go here.)
(Image credit: Ron Alvey, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
How we got here: Timeline of DPS financial crunch
Here is a timeline of events as Dayton’s financial crisis grew over the last 15 months:
May 2006: Ohio Department of Education rules against urban districts in a charter school enrollment dispute and deducts $9 million in aid from Dayton’s state funding. Cincinnati schools file suit. Board president Gail Littlejohn announces a levy is likely.
October 2006: School leaders announce tight finances may force mid-year cuts. Talks with the teachers’ union intensify.
November 2006: Teachers ratify a two-year contract that includes a 1.25 percent raise in the first year. A judge rules in favor of Cincinnati schools in the enrollment dispute. The state later appeals.
December 2006: A tax lien sale by the county auditor nets the district $6 million in unpaid taxes, cutting the amount of immediate spending reductions needed in half.
January 2007: Gail Littlejohn steps down as board president, replaced by Yvonne Isaacs. Sixty-one jobs are cut, including 30 teaching positions.
February 2007: The school board formally announces it will seek a 15.17-mil operating levy on May 8.
April 2007: Business, government and community groups endorse the levy. The campaign committee spends more than $300,000 to promote it.
May 2007: The levy is soundly defeated. Superintendent Percy Mack announces $30 million must be cut from the budget.
June 2007: The district lays off about 400 employees, including about 200 teachers. Mack announces cuts in music, arts and athletics along with larger class sizes, a shorter school day and no bus transportation for high school.
July 2007: A partnership between the district, the RTA, the city and the county restores high school busing.
August 2007: A new school year begins.
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Chemicals, schools and safety
This week, environmental experts laid out the test results that led Superintendent Percy Mack to move students out of the former McGuffey school.
This was a fairly easy move for the district. It just so happened the district had decided to close nearby Allen Elementary School in June. So they had an empty building nearby that was school ready. Neither McGuffey nor Allen are part of the future plan as the district rebuilds its schools. The kids will eventually end up at Kiser, E.J. Brown and Ruskin schools.
It still seems a bit of a shame to empty McGuffey. It’s a good old building that has character and is in good shape. And questions remain about Kiser Elementary School, a brand new building also in the spill zone.
The chemical spilled into the groundwater by a former Chrysler plant was found in the air inside the school at pretty high levels this summer. EPA officials say the building is perfectly safe with a new venting system installed to flush chemical vapors out from under the school building. But Mack didn’t want to take any chances.
Fine. So McGuffey eventually gets the wrecking ball and the problem is solved. But what about Kiser Elementary School? The school, which opened last summer, also is a modern building so it offers extra protection against contaminated vapors. The building is believed to have a vapor barrier build into it’s concrete base. Plus, its ventilation system flushes the building completely about 20 times a day. That’s probably why the air inside Kiser has never yet shown any signs of the chemical from the spill.
But under the building is a different story. Tests from below the school show fairly high levels of the vapor. As long as its not getting into the school, that’s not a problem. Things should be OK.
Still, a question that came up this week is this — how long did Chrsyler know about the spill? Could the company have warned Dayton about the vapors three years ago, before the district began building on that site? Perhaps Dayton might have picked a different location for a new school?
Something tells me these issues may come up again. This spill likely is going to be a continuing story.
(Image credit: Jim Witmer, DDN)
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Goff to appear in court next week
Roseda Goff, the former superintendent of Dayton’s City Day Community School, was arraigned Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of attempted obstruction of official business. Prosectuors allege Goff, 60, of Jefferson Twp., discouraged teachers at the charter school from reporting suspected child abuse to authorities. Attorney David Turner entered a not guilty plea for Goff, who did not attend the hearing. Judge Tony Capizzi set a pre-trial hearing for Aug. 10 and instructed Turner to alert Goff that she is required to attend that hearing.
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Mack: Dayton stays out of academic emergency
In his annual convocation address to staff this morning, Dayton school Superintendent Percy Mack said the district would not fall back into “academic emergency” — the lowest of five state rating categories — when its state report card is issued Aug. 14.
Afterward, Mack said the district is still verifying its data with the state and that it is not yet clear whether Dayton will remain at the middle category of “continuous improvement” or drop down one rung to “academic watch.”
At convocation last year, Mack set off a huge celebration among more than 1,500 staff gathered at the University of Dayton Arena when he announced Dayton had escaped academic emergency for the first time since the state began issuing district report cards eight years earlier. This year’s speech was delivered live on the district’s television network and viewed by employees, most of whom started work Monday, gathered around video screens at the schools. School starts for students next Monday.
Mack’s speech focused primarily on how much had changed in the district since 2001 — attendance and graduate rates are much improved, the report card rating has jumped, a 1,000-student per year enrollment decline has stabilized, the district now offers more programming choices and kids are learning from new textbooks.
He acknowledged that much had been lost from last year because of $30 million in budget cuts in the wake of the levy, but tried to cheer staff by arguing that much was saved, even if service levels were reduced.
Mack asked district employees to consider how far the district had come in six years and work hard to maintain those gains, even in difficult times.
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Mack to speak to staff
Percy Mack
Dayton school Superintendent Percy Mack is set to deliver his convocation address in a few minutes at 9 a.m. from the district’s television studio at Patterson Career Center.
The annual “convocation” event, usually held at the University of Dayton Arena featuring bands, musical performances and speeches to inspire district employees at the kick-off of the school year. But this year, school officials decided the $5,000 cost to rent the arena for the morning was too much, given the district’s tight financial budget.
So instead Mack will speak to employees, many of whom returned to work on Monday, through an internal television network at the schools. Other speakers include Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite, board President Yvonne Isaacs and the district’s teacher of the year Keith Cosby.
More on the speech shortly.
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