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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Strickland: Give me feed back on education reform ideas
(Gov. Ted Strickland at Tuesday’s event in Dayton)
Gov. Ted Strickland outlined 10 ideas for education reform — some of them controversial — in the latest in a series of forums seeking feedback as he builds a wider plan to overhaul the state’s education system.
Strickland has promised a plan by next March and said Tuesday there would be follow up meetings to talk specifically about school funding. This time, he laid out what he called his “mission and principles” and asked for feedback.
“Every parent, student, teacher, educator, business person and taxpayer — every Ohioan — has something important at stake when we discuss education,” Strickland told a room of more than 100 people at the Dayton Convention Center. “We want to hear their voices and your voices as as we seek to improve our system of education. It cannot be changed overnight.”
In his opening remarks, Strickland touted the same guiding principals he laid out in his February State of the State address — stronger public schools, better links between schools and economic needs, building on existing strengths, using top teachers to guide the process, more personalized instruction and improved assessments.
He went on to list reform ideas, ranging from longer school days and more hands-on learning to tougher teacher training programs and giving more power to principals.
During the question period, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Walter E. Rice asked Strickland about charter schools.
“Distrust and antipathy between traditional schools and charters is mostly over competing for a share of finite funding,” Rice said. I would hope you would preside over a small summit to try to get the groups on the same page around reform.”
Strickland agreed but stopped short of committing to the summit.
“If we have the same goals it would be possible to find a significant measure of common ground.”
Bryant Scott, a student at Belmont High School, cited the city schools recent decision to drop high school busing as a concern.
“With longer school days our dropout rate is going to be higgher because we have no more transportation to get to school,” Scott said.
Strickland responded by highlighting a program he launched to try to raise the graduation rate of black high school students.
“We are very concerned about those who drop out of school,” he said.
Here are the reform ideas he mentioned:
—Interdisciplinary teaching. The idea would be to teach students several subjects as part of each assignment or task.
—Hands-on learning. Rather than require memorization, student would need to apply lessons for several disciplines in their work.
—Longer school days. Strickland raised the idea of 200 school days a year rather than 182, with classes continuing through the summer and later in the day.
—Use different tests. The PISA international test uses more open ended questions and requires more analysis than the Ohio Graduation Test.
—A focus on major skills. There are key “life learning” skills that are wrapped around all subjects and themes, Strickland said.
—Redefining teacher training. A system more like medical school, with an internship after classes but before moving to a full-time job, could be a benefit, he said.
—Tie “value-added’ tests to teach compensation and tenure. Value-added test compare where student score at the start and end of the school year.
—Give principals more authority. Principals could be given control over budgeting and other key decisions.
—Performance agreements. Schools that met their goals could get more funding while those who do not could face quicker state takeover.
—A focus on collaboration. Using academic and social skills together is what employers want students to be able to do, Strickland said.
This was the fourth of 12 forums Strickland is holding around Ohio. For more information, go to a Web site he set up for this issue at conversationoneducation.org.
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