Division I regional track finals
Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > January
January 2008
America’s worst jobs (and the kids who work them)
(Young workers at the counter of an A&W American fast food restaurant in Bellbrook in a 2002 DDN file photo.)
I’ve written here before about how Americans romanticize teen-age jobs and fervently believe they build character and work ethic while several studies suggest after school jobs lower grades and result in bad behavior. No other county expects its teenagers to work the way we do. Elsewhere around the world teens are expected to commit themselves to study in those years and avoid distraction.
I was thinking about this earlier this week when I came across a list of the 10 worst jobs in America. Some examples — restaurant hosts, food concession workers, ticket takers, waiters and life guards.
What do all those jobs have in common? Oh yeah — those are exactly the jobs many of our kids slave away at for hours each week.
As I’ve written before, I am not against jobs for teens. I think the right after school job can have great benefits. But it’s these bad jobs — low pay, bad working conditions and physically exhausting work in some cases — that most teens end up in.
If the choice is between a bad job and no job but more study time, are millions of kids making the wrong choice to work at fast food restaurants and movie theaters?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
A science high school for the Dayton area
In Monday’s paper I wrote about an effort locally to open a specialty high school focused on science, technology, engineering and math that would open on the campus of Wright State University in 2009 if the proposal gets funding from the state.
The conventional wisdom is that Dayton has a strong plan and a very strong science and math organizational structure thanks to EDvention, a collaborative of universities, school districts and private industry trying to improve math and science instruction. It’s school proposal seems likely to earn funding.
It’s interesting that only a few school districts have signed on to be full partners in this effort. The downside for districts is they lose students — and the state aid that follows them — when kids choose the science high school. Some districts may fear losing money and top students.
But those kids can leave anyway. Under state law, the school can enroll any students from Montgomery, Greene or Clark counties, regardless of whether their home districts agree, and the state money goes with them — much like a charter school. And under state rules the districts have to provide transportation and allow students to participate in sports and activities in their “home” districts. And the science high school will enroll a maximum of 600 students in grades 6 to 12 from three counties, which doesn’t seem like enough to hurt any one district too badly.
The plans for the school are very ambitious. Developers hope that college faculty will join classroom teachers to instruct the students and build curriculum that can be spread to interested school districts. They hope the school’s students will study and work (thourgh internships) at science-based companies in the area, in Wright State’s science labs and at the highly regarded Wright-Patterson Air Force Base research labs.
West Carrollton Superintendent Rusty Clifford says in the story that he is thrilled his kids could get this opportunity and enthusiastically signed up as a partner. But other districts — notably big suburbans like Centerville, Kettering, Northmont, Oakwood, Beavercreek and Bellbrook — are missing from the partner list.
So is Dayton, which is developing a science-oriented career technical school in partnership with Sinclair Community College. Superintendent Percy Mack told me the district hopes to forge partnerships between that school and the proposed school at Wright State. But Dayton’s school will have more of a techinical training focus and the district has been asked — and so far declined — to join as a full partner with the school at Wright State.
Developers of the science high school hope more districts will come along if the school gets state funding and moves closer to launching.
What do you think of this idea of a specialty science high school for the Dayton area? Would you consider sending your children to such a school?
(Image credit: PBS.org)
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Breaking News: Lucas a candidate in Lakota
Stan Lucas
Dayton Treasurer Stan Lucas is one of eight candidates who will interview for the vacant treasurer job with Lakota schools in Butler County.
Lucas confirmed Tuesday he applied after being approached by a recruiter working for the school district. He said he still loves his job in Dayton but would like to be closer to his native Cincinnati and family members who live there.
“I have told the board many times that I love what I do and I am doing what I love,” he said. “But when you’re dealing with family issues, sometimes there truly is a need to be close to home.”
Lucas’ interest in moving south comes just months after Superintendent Percy Mack interviewed in September in Mobile, Ala., for the top school job there. The Mobile board picked a different finalist.
But Lucas said there were no factors in Dayton that pushed him to consider other jobs.
“I love working with the board and I love being in Dayton,” said Lucas, who moved into the city shortly after he was hired in 2002. “I am very proud of our accomplishments in the last five and a half or six years. This is not me running away or the board wanting me gone.”
Lucas spent nearly all he working career in Cincinnati in the county auditor’s office and in private industry before working as budget director for Cincinnati schools just prior to his move to Dayton.
He said he was interested in Lakota because it is slightly larger than Dayton, located close to family members’ homes and has challenging issues.
“They have their challenges,” he said. “They have built a lot of buildings and they will build more. It’s a good opportunity. It’s a little bigger in terms of students and the district has a different make up, but they are challenged with growth and levies and those sorts of things.”
Former Lakota Treasurer Alan Hutchinson, who left in December to take a job in Columbus with the Frankin County Educational Service Center, was paid $113,000 annually. This year, Lucas’ salary in Dayton is $117,832.
In Dayton, Lucas has been credited by board members with professionalizing the financial operation of the district and was a key player in Dayton’s 2002 bond levy campaign that raised $245 million in local match for the $627 million districtwide, 28-school building project in partnership with the state.
He also coordinated the financing of the district’s controversial $15.5 million purchase of the former Reynolds & Reynolds headquarters for an administrator and negotiating a deal with the Internal Revenue Service that allowed Dayton to issue bonds early to take advantage of low interest rates in 2003.
From my colleague Lindsey Hilty at the Pulse-Journal in Butler County, here are the other candidates for the Lakota job:
—Robert A. Hancock, Hamilton City Schools treasurer
—Alana G. Cropper, treasurer of West Clermont Local Schools in Cincinnati
—Craig A. Jones, assistant treasurer of the Lakota Local School District
—Ari Jason Khan, treasury cash manager of the Catholic Healthcare Partners
—Stan Lucas, chief financial officer and treasurer of the Dayton Public Schools
—Robert A Morales, former chief financial officers of the Cobb County School District
—Paul J. Scheuermann, former chief executive and president of the Community National Bank in Franklin, Ohio
—Thomas E. Sheeran, assistant superintendent for Finance and Operations from the Richmond City Public Schools in Richmond, Virginia
Interesting notes: Craig Jones is a former assistant treasurer in Dayton who left before Lucas arrived here. Also, I just got the list of all 22 applicants and Dayton’s school district budget director Robyn Essman also applied. David Robinson, treasurer of Jefferson Twp. schools, applied, too.
(Image credit: Dayton Public Schools)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What do you think about the “bodies” exhibit?
In today’s paper we have a story about how the local Catholic archdiocese is discouraging parents from allowing their children to see an exhibit at a Cincinnati museum that displays dissected human bodies.
The show’s promoters say they are unclaimed bodies from a China morgue and that they are displayed respectfully. The museum is promoting the exhibit as a rare opportunity to get a first-hand look at how the complicated human body works.
But the church is concerned that these bodies should have been laid to rest out of respect for the dead.
I see boths points of view here. I have a daughter who is extremely interested in science and medicine. When I read about this show, I thought it did sound like a great opportunity for a kid like her to have a unique learning experience (although my own daughter is still probalby a little too young for the exhibit).
On the other hand, I see the archbishop’s point. I am not offended by the concept of the exhibit (although I am Catholic), but it did make me wonder if I would want my own body or that of a close relative traveling the world on display in this way. Just because the bodies were unclaimed does not mean the deaceased do not deserve the same consideration as those that are claimed.
Medical schools, of course, use cadavers so that their students can learn about the body. Commonly, though, those bodies were explicitly donated for study by the decased in their wills before they died. If the people whose bodies are in the museum exhibit had expressed a wish to be part of the display, I don’t think I’d have any problem with it.
Still, the exhibit is a rare learning opportunity for young students.
I’d like to hear what you think. If you had a child who was, say, in high school and interested in going into medicine, would you encourage or discourage them from going to see this exhibit?
(Image credit: humanillnesses.com
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Nothing “preliminary” about it
(Matthew Pillion, county spelling bee winner, with his mom, Deanna)
At the Montgomery County Spelling Bee in New Lebanon last night, Dixie Middle School student Matthew Pillion came away the winner after he spelled “preliminary” correctly.
As I’ve written here before, I enjoy covering spelling bees. It’s always nice to write about an academic-based competition and to get kids’ names in the paper for doing something smart. Plus, the spelling bee is an easy sell to editors because of the competition’s long-running noteriety. We can’t cover every student competition, but this is one that people know and are interested in. (Fulll disclosure: the DDN sponsors the regional bee held next month.)
I’ll be at the city spelling bee Thursday at Meadowdale High School at 6 p.m. Dayton Public Schools will be seeking a three-peat, having won the last two city spelling bees after several years of losing to private schools.
(Image credit: Teesha McClam, DDN)
Permalink | | Categories: Teaching and Learning
As race heats up, education simmers down
I wish I could report Ted Kennedy was endorsing Barack Obama after a long talk about education policy. But Kennedy, an key ed policy player, has not mentioned education in any of his quotes about Obama.
In fact, as Obama has emerged as a top candidate and the primaries have heated up, there isn’t much talk at all about education. Since Iowa, where schools at least were coming up in conversation, education has fallen off the radar while the economy has exploded as a top concern.
Even when Obama sits for an interview he is sticking with the general themes of his education platform.
This post also appears at the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
(Image credit: eonline.com)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Bonaparte: Support to save Roosevelt not there
(Bonaparte in front of Roosevelt in 2006.)
In Saturday’s paper, one of the leaders of the effort to save Roosevelt High School from the wrecking ball did an abrupt public about-face.
Annie Bonaparte, a neighborhood activist in west Dayton who has been one of the most energized advocates for Roosevelt for most of this decade, said she now favors a plan to replace the 1923 high school with a new elementary school and city recreation center.
My colleague Joanne Huist Smith took the call from Bonaparte on Friday and said it was an emotional conversation with Bonaparte crying through much of it. But her bottom line reasoning was this — over her seven years working to save the school, Bonaparte did not see the kind of community support needed to make it happen. And if it’s not going to be saved, then Bonaparte wants to see the more than $30 million the city and school district have on the table for their plan spent in west Dayton.
Her comments echoed something former board member Gail Littlejohn said to me in the summer of 2006 when the school board voted to change its master plan to include the replacement of Roosevelt with a new school. Littlejohn said in the month or so between the board’s announcement that Roosevelt would be demolished and the final vote she only had a couple of phone calls of complaint. If the school were truly a treasure that the city wanted to save, she said, there would be a groundswell of support that the board wouldn’t be able to ignore.
What is your reaction to Bonaparte’s view that the community simply did not step up to save the school and now it is time to move on?
(Image credit: Bill Reinke, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Take a tour of Thurgood Marshall High School
(Senior Joshua Scales, right, uses a computer in the multimedia room last Friday.)
DDN photographer Ty Greenlees has produced a video tour of Thurgood Marshall High School that is worth checking out.
Or see the school in person this Sunday at 3 p.m. during its open house. It is easy to get to. Take West Third Street or U.S. 35 West from downtown to Gettysburg Avenue. Turn right (going north) on Gettysburg to Hoover Avenue (just past the now-closed Kroger). Turn left on Hoover and the school will be on your right after a block or two. You can’t miss it.
Also mark your calendar for Feb. 10 at 3 p.m. when the renovated and rebuilt Stivers School for the Arts will hold its open house.
For more on Marshall High School, go here.
(Image credit: Ty Greenlees, DDN)
Permalink | | Categories: School Construction
Is it too late to revive the Roosevelt debate?
(Roosevelt High School in its glory days in an undated DDN file photo.)
We’ve had some discussions here at GOTB about when the appropriate time is for a community to object to the school board’s plans for demolishing schools to make way for new construction and when it is simply too late to change course.
The latest example is Roosevelt High School. In today’s paper, I wrote about the internal debate at the NAACP about whether that group has formally endorsed a last ditch effort to save the school or not. That’s still unclear. The NAACP’s leaders need to get on the same page.
But near the end of today’s story, a bigger question emerged — is it too late to save Roosevelt?
Remember, this issue is more than four years old. The question of what to do with Roosevelt has been up in the air since school administrators moved out and left the building empty in the summer of 2003.
In May 2006 — 18 months ago — the board announced its final decision to raze the school and replace it with a new elementary school and a city-owned recreation center at the site.
That last serious discussion about the issue came in late 2006, when developer Beth Duke asked the city to block demolition. Nothing came from that.
But for today’s story, school construction chief John Carr said the school’s boilers already have been removed (they will be re-used in newly constructed schools), asbestos removal is underway and bids already were received for demolition last week. He said school officials believe they have an acceptable low bidder, although they are researching the company, and if that bid is accepted, demolition would likely begin by April 1.
At this stage of the game, the decision appears all but irreversable. Now, there is a new school board, so attitudes about the school could have changed. Two board members — Joe Lacey and Shelia Taylor — have expressed clear support for preservation of historic schools and a third, Nancy Nerny, expressed some support for preservation during the fall election campaign.
We don’t know for sure where two other new board members — Jeff Mims and Ronald Lee — stand. I am presuming Yvonne Isaacs and Stacy Thompson remain supportive of the direction set by the prior board.
Reversing field on Roosevelt now would be a tough call. Some of the work at the school may have already damaged the integrity of the building. It may be too late for a new direction.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
NAACP disavows plan to save Roosevelt
Derrick Foward
I just spoke with Derrick Foward, the president of the Dayton NAACP. He said a UD law student named Adam Stone and the group’s treasurer, Creola Reese, and who spoke during and after the Dayton school board Tuesday were not representing the view of the NAACP’s executive committee.
Reese is a member of the executive committee, Foward said. Stone spoke during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s school board meeting and he and Reese spoke with a reporter after the meeting, saying the NAACP was supporting a redevelopment plan for Roosevelt. But Foward said the plan has not been endorsed or discusssed by the group’s executive committee.
Foward said the local NAACP has taken no position on Roosevelt High School and is not endorsing any plan to try to rescue the building. Foward said he was not aware anyone representing the NAACP were attending Tuesday’s school board meeting and only learned of their statements when he read today’s Dayton Daily News. Foward said he has not seen any redevelopment plan for Roosevelt.
Stone went to the microphone during the public comment period of Tuesday’s meeting and asked for a meeting with the board to allow the NAACP, Roosevelt alumni and a group called the Community Justice League to present a proposal to save Roosevelt High School. Afterward I spoke with Stone and Reese who both said they had a viable plan to save Roosevelt, but they declined to give any details.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Has the clock struck midnight on Roosevelt HS?
The Dayton chapter of the NAACP made an 11th hour plea Tuesday for an audience with the Dayton school board about saving Roosevelt High School from the wrecking ball. But the clock may have already struck midnight for the school.
Adam Stone, representing the NAACP, asked the board during the public comment period of its meeting at Cleveland Elementary School to allow the group to present what it believes is a viable plan to save and redevelop the school.
School board President Yvonne Isaacs did not respond but after the meeting said she is unsure how the board will proceed. Considerable preparations already have been made to demolish the 1923 school, she said.
The board voted in May of 2006 — nearly 18 months ago — to tear the school down and replace it with a new elementary school for boys and a city-owned recreational complex. That decision came after more than two years of discussions about Roosevelt and two outside development plans that the board ultimately rejected because it did not believe they were adequately financed.
Demolition was delayed from the original plan to raze the school in 2007 but is expected early this year.
This was a tough decision that begged some even more difficult questions about how the community should make these choices.
The old school board made it clear last year that it did not intend to look back on the 2006 decision. But this is a new year and a new school board with some new faces. It remains to be seen if their outlook will be different.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Tonight is your chance to see a new school
Some critics of Dayton school construction program say the new schools aren’t as sturdy as schools built 100 years ago and that they won’t last.
The question is whether ANY building constructed today matches the sturdiness of the past? The simple fact is we just don’t build today the way we once did.
Even so, school construction folks say they are certain the schools they are building today will last 60 years or better and the district now has a maintenence only levy (passed along with the bond issue) to guarantee money is available to care for these buildings in a way those old buildings were not cared for when money got tight. That should exend the lives of the schools being built today.
So are the new buildings really as flimsy and ugly as some preservationist say? The school board tonight will meet at Cleveland Elementary School — a new building located at 1102 S. Pursell Ave. This is the first of four meeting this year held at new schools around the district.
Cleveland is easy to get to. Just take Wyoming Street east from Miami Valley Hospital for a couple miles. Just before it hits a dead end you will see the new Cleveland on the right. The meeting is at 6 p.m.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What a new school means to the kids
(Thurgood Marshall High School students file through the rotunda on the way to lunch.)
Last week I wrote about the real, undeniable value an old school has to its community. At the “closing ceremony” for Colonel White High School, we saw how much a school truly is a part of a million personal histories in a community and how those individuals see the bricks-and-mortar structure as important to the character of the neighborhood and city.
Today, we see the other side of the story — what a new school can mean for the kids who go there to learn.
Overall, I could find no kids while visiting the new Thurgoood Marshall High School who had any sentimental sorrow about leaving the old Colonel White. Top student Adrienne Fairbanks summed up the feelings of her classmates nicely as she described the academic and attitude benefits of attending high school in a state-of-the-art building.
The new school offers technology and flexibility, she said, that made it easier to comprehend the work in her math class. A new school built in an orderly, planned way eliminates excuses for being late to class and new security features made Fairbanks feel safer at school.
More importantly, Fairbanks and others told me they felt an old school building forced teachers and students to think and work “the old way.” Whereas the new building gives them modern tools and infuses new college-like learning spirit into the classrooms.
So that was the students’ take at Thurgood Marshall on my visit last week. I’ll start the discussion by saying both points of view have validity — the students who want a modern place to learn and the community folks who want to preserve their history. That’s what makes this a tough problem.
Ideally, old schools might be saved but used for other purposes, not as schools, going forward. The problem is a lack of money and re-use options for so many old schools. Ultimately, a lack of resources is forcing these tough choices.
What is your reaction to the differing points of view of today’s Marshall students vs. graduates of Colonel White?
To view the Thurgood Marshall High School floor plan, go here.
(Image credit: Ty Greenlees, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: School Construction
MLK Day march: Where are the burbs?
(Chaminade-Julienne High School students at Monday’s MLK Day march.)
I took my daughter to today’s march and rally in downtown Dayton in recognition of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. This was the first time in my working career that I had the day off, so I enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the day’s festivities.
And Dayton had a very good event, including Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland as the keynote speaker. There were lots of children involved, too. Many kids from Dayton Public Schools were there, including the winners of the MLK oratory contest. About 100 kids from Chaminade-Julienne Catholic High School were there singing, too.
What was noticeably absent to me, as someone who now lives in the suburbs, was any sign of participation by suburban school children. Perhaps they were attending events in their own communities?
The Dayton event begins with a march from all corners of the city — east, west, north and south. The symbolic coming together occurs at Courthouse Square in the center of downtown. It’s a great event. But I couldn’t help thinking it could be enhanced with participation by more schools from more parts of the Miami Valley.
(Image credit: Peter Wine, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Teaching overrated?
A friend who covers education elsewhere pointed me to this list of the most overrated professions in U.S. News and World Report.
Yep. You guessed it. One of the 13 most overrated professions is teaching.
The magazine says idealistic young teachers go into the profession to change lives and make a difference only to find many barriers to doing so. It’s just not as heroic as it seems in the movies.
I know there are a lot of teachers who read GOTB. What do you think? Is the profession overrated? Do you still feel you can make a difference? Would you recommend teaching to a young person today?
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Wake up people!
(A student falls asleep at her desk in a Kentucky high school.)
My oldest daughter is only 9 and already I have to practically drag her out of bed some mornings. For teenagers, it’s an epidemic. Why do they seem so sleepy and cranky every morning?
A New York Times contributor suggests an answer — it’s their body chemistry. Apparently, their brains are getting different signals than the rest of us get about when to sleep and when to wake up.
Even so, school tends to start earlier for teens than for younger kids, who are more adept at waking up early. Some research shows high school kids show up late to school frequently and fall asleep in first period routinely.
Is it time for schools to take this science seriously and move start times later? Or is this just excuse making for kids who need to suck it up?
(Image credit: Cincinnati Enquirer)
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Why a school is more than bricks and cement
(Students rush to class on the first day of school in August at Colonel White High School.)
We’ve talked a lot here at GOTB about school preservation. Overall, my sense of the regular readers here is that most are not overly sentimental about Dayton’s old schools. While I think most here favor preserving historic buildings, I think they also believe (as the voters did in 2002) that in most cases Dayton needs new, updated schools.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think that is the general sentiment.
On Saturday, I went to the “closing ceremony” for Colonel White High School and witnessed something that challenged the view of the most jaded anti-preservationists.
What I saw suggested schools truly are more than just bricks and cement — that they have a permanent and personal connection with the community.
The story of Samuel and Cynthia Crosby proves it. Follow the link and read the story of why they wanted to renew their vows in a dusty hallway of a this soon-to-be-demolished high school and you’ll get a sense of the role the school played in their personal histories. You’ll see why Cynthia Crosby said she wouldn’t have traded that old hallway for a trip to the islands.
This is a good demonstration of what I’ve termed “emotional signficance”, rather than “historic” significance of old schools. The do matter to a community, even if they are not truly historic.
There was a huge crowd at Colonel White this weekend. There were a lot of tears. Many people hadn’t set foot in the school in years. But the place still mattered to them in a very personal way.
(Image credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (32) | Categories: School Construction
New board keeps Isaacs at helm
A reconstituted Dayton Board of Education began 2007 by agreeing to keep board President Isaacs at the helm.
Issacs prevailed Thursday unanimously even after the defeat in November of close allies Mario Gallin and Lee Massoud and the departure a few weeks before of her friend and mentor Gail Littlejohn.
The new board began the year with just three holdovers from the first meeting of the year — Isaacs, Joe Lacey and Stacy Thompson. Newly elected Jeff Mims, Nancy Nerny and Shelia Taylor were sworn in, joining Ronald Lee, who was appointed late last year. Despite all the change and upheaval from 2007, including a levy defeat last May that prompted deep cuts and widespread layoffs, Isaacs struck an optimistic tone.
“There has been much speculation about how this board will operate going forward,” she said. “I believe we will continue to be strong, focused and work cohesively to make the best decisions for children.”
Isaacs said the district must continue its academic reforms, add rigor to its programs and regain the “continuous improvement” rating it held before slipping one step on the state’s rating system to “academic watch” in 2007.
Among other 2008 priorities Isaacs outlined were advocating for better state funding, conducting an outside performance audit of the district’s business practices, improve customer service, communicate better inside the district and with the community, deliver construction projects on time and budget, find solutions for neighborhoods with school construction concerns and live within the district’s budget.
In other news from the meeting:
—Students from Patterson Career Center recommended a new mascot and colors when the move to the new David Ponitz Career Technology Center next to Sinclair Community College. After much discussion, debate and polling the students recommended the nickname of “Golden Panthers” with blue and gold as colors.
—The board announced it will hold four meetings this year at school sites, beginning with a Jan. 22 meeting at Cleveland Elementary School. The others will be April 15 at Thurgood Marshall High School, July 15 at Kiser Elementary Schoool and Oct 21 at Wogaman Elementary School.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Goff to lose license, avoid jail
Roseda Goff
A stern Judge Tony Capizzi bluntly lectured former City Day Community School Superintendent Roseda Goff to take responsibility for her actions that endangered children at the school and said he would strongly consider sending her to jail if she failed to follow his sentencing orders.
Capizzi gave Goff six months probation, the maximum $500 fine and a 60-day suspended jail sentence for her conviction in December of attempted obstruction of official business for discouraging teachers from reporting child abuse. He also ordered her to surrender her teaching license or he would ask the Ohio Department of Education to revoke it and he required her to complete 120 hours of community service at Childrens’ Medical Center working with child abuse victims.
“In many ways you deserve to go to jail today,” Capizzi told Goff. “There is a very strong agrument to order you to spend time in the Montgomery County Jail. If I was using you as an example to other teachers and people in authority, that would be a strong reason to put you in jail.”
Capizzi said he was irked that Goff told a probation officer that she still believed she was not guilty and he said only her more than 30 years of service to the community as a teacher and a spotless criminal record saved Goff from going to jail.
“You have to be held accountable for what you did,” Capizzi said. “You sat through a trial and heard witnesses testify and didn’t listen to a word they said. You’ve gone home and spent the last month or so, again, in complete denial of what occured.”
At the trial, former City Day teachers testified that a girl at the school told them last April her mother had beaten her with a belt and an extension cord. Educators in Ohio are required by law to report to law enforcement any suspicion of child abuse, but the teachers said Goff told them that was her decision. They said Goff called the girl a liar and sent her home without taking action. Capizzi said the girl was beaten again that night.
“Teachers, principals and individuals with control over children’s lives can’t expect to do what you did and get away with it,” Capizzi said. “Somewhere along the way you lost your acceptance of responsiblity for your position. I’m not sure if was pressure of the job or because you wanted to absoultely control every person under your school system. But something happened.”
This was the end of one chapter of a nearly year-long saga involving Goff and City Day that began last February when the Dayton Daily News reported students at the school had practiced on actual test questions taken from the 2006 Ohio Achievement Test prior to taking the test that year. That launched investigations by the state and the school’s sponsor into possible cheating. The state investigation still is ongoing.
In May, with test proctors on site during the administration of the 2007 state exams, a teacher was caught taking notes on the test. That prompted the sponsor, Cincinnati-based Education Resource Consultants of Ohio, to demand that the school’s governing board fire Goff. When the board refused, ERCO fired the board.
A newly installed governing board fired Goff in July and later that month the criminal charge related to a child abuse case was filed in Capizzi’s court. The school’s test scores, released in August, showed a dramatic drop in performance from the prior year.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: City Day Investigation
Post industrial Midwest: not sure education matters
A good friend in Chicago pointed me today to a big story in the Chicago Tribune Sunday magazine called “Can the Midwest regain its economic clout?”
The story discussed Midwestern industrial cities in general and Dayton specifically, describing how they became fat and happy as the Silicon Valley of the industrial age. People who live in Dayton and other cities were conditioned to believe there would always be union jobs with good wages that didn’t require an advanced education, the story argues.
And, it says, that attitude persists today. From the story:
A Michigan scholar, John Austin, has written about how Midwestern innovation curdled into “a culture of expectation and entitlement around the success of the mass-production economy and the prosperous middle-class life it afforded. A sense that this relative prosperity would always endure, that the region could reap good wages without education and continuing innovation, stilled the dynamic of entrepreneurialism and economic churn that built the nation.” This attitude is on full view in Austin’s Michigan. A poll there revealed that 60 percent of Michigan parents did not see higher education as crucial to their children’s future. They weren’t hostile, exactly, but didn’t think it was vital. When I told experts in Ohio and Indiana about the Michigan results, they gasped, then agreed that similar polls in their states would produce similar answers.
Education — and a changed attitude about its value — is what the Midwest needs to regain its edge, the story argues.
What do you think of this premise? Do you agree that Daytonians don’t place enough value on education and that is a major factor in the city’s decline?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Attorney: Dann overstepped authority
In a court filing today in Montgomery County, the attorney for Dayton’s New Choices Community School argued that Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann overstepped his authority when he filed suit to try to close the charter school.
The filing says Dann is not authorized to regulate charter schools, even though they operate as charitable trusts. Dann’s suit asked courts to close the schools arguing they failed to live up to their purposes as “charitable trusts” under Ohio law because their bad academic performance indicated they are not adequately helping students learn.
See the press release from the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools by clicking the “continued’ link:
As legal counsel for New Choices Community School, the defendant in Attorney General Marc Dann’s law suit filed on September 12, 2007, Jones Day filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings with the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas on December 26, 2007.
“Ohio law does not permit the Attorney General to close New Choices Community School, or any other public school for that matter, simply because he does not like the way the school is operated,” said Chad Readler, lead attorney in the case. “While the Attorney General is authorized to regulate certain charitable trusts, community schools are a far cry from the trusts over which the Attorney General typically and historically has exercised his powers.”
Readler also noted that Ohio law makes clear that it is the General Assembly, the Department of Education, and community school sponsors — not the Attorney General — who are responsible for community school regulation.
Additionally, New Choices is succeeding in its mission of providing an alternative educational choice to its students, many of whom have struggled in traditional school settings, as proven by its popularity with parents and students and its recent recognition by the State Superintendent of Instruction.
“No Attorney General, not in Ohio or anywhere else, has ever sought such broad authority over a state’s public school system,” observed Readler. “This unprecedented attempt by the Attorney General to interfere with public education should be rejected.”
The Ohio charter school community has rallied to the defense of New Choices. “We see this as an unwarranted attack on all of Ohio’s community charter schools,” said Bill Sims, CEO for the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “Legislators have already taken steps to close chronically low-performing charter schools, making the attorney general’s actions completely unnecessary and inappropriate.”
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Clean your desk, find good advice
Back from vacation this week, I was cleaning off my desk and found a humorous, but potentially helpful, list of tips from Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews for what not to do on your college application. Jay apparently wrote this in October and I meant to blog about it then. It may still be useful to a few seniors with applications to do. Juniors, print it out and save it for next year.
As the husband of a guidance counselor, let me add a few additional college application tips:
—Get to know your counselor. It’s a big mistake to go four years through high school and talk to your counselor for the first time when you bring your applications in for processing as a senior. Savvy top students begin building this relationship as underclassman and it makes a difference.
Your guidance counselor becomes very important in application process. Many colleges require a letter of recommendation from your counselor. The better they knows you, the better the chances that they will know you enough to write a convincing letter. Also, your counselor will be key to helping your applications along and getting them in on time. Trust me, you will need your counselor to do you favors. They will be more inclined to help you if they know who you are.
—Get your applications in early. If there is one complaint every counselor has it is the kid who wants to apply to and Ivy League school and drops the complicated application on their counselor’s desk the day before it is due. Not only is that aggravating and unfair to your counselor, it also increases the likelihood that mistakes will be made or things will be left out. And how good of a recommendation letter will that counselor be able to write in such a rush?
—Take the SAT or ACT a lot. I think I’ve told this story here before. My best friend in high school got a shockingly bad SAT score his first time taking it. In a panic, he asked a counselor if he should take it again. She gave him the worst possible advice, which no decent counselor would give today. She told him it wouldn’t be “fair” to the other test takers if he took it again. What about being “fair” to yourself? At my urging, that old pal took the test six times, doing better each time, until he raised his score 200 points and got into a decent college.
—Put your heart into it. Don’t try to “spin” your way into a good college when you write your essay. Write from the heart about something you really care about. And when you pick your schools to apply to, don’t focus too much on where your parents went or where your friends think you should go. Look for schools that match your personality and interests. Visit your top choices and pick the one that feels like home.
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Boys are a mess academically
A typical high school boy’s backpack is cloth-and-paper equivalent of what you see in the photo above, according to college counselors.
That’s according to a New York Times story that says professional counselors — the kind wealthy parents hire to help get their kids into to college — have realized they need to start with the basics with many boys. They help them organize their papers and build a system of filing and they keep on them. But after a while it tends to stick.
This story was No. 1 most emailed at NYTimes.com today. If you have boys, you may want to start now to get them organized. That’s becasue the No. 2 story on the Times best-read list is about disorganized adults who struggle to control clutter in their homes.
Maybe it’s best to try to address this problem with your kids now.
(Image credit: talesfromthebranches.com)
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
