DaytonDailyNews.com

Reconsidering the former school board

By selliott | Saturday, September 6, 2008, 07:32 PM

Let’s remember back for a moment to the excitement of 2001. Gail Littlejohn, a retired corporate attorney, and three allies won four seats on the school board, taking control with a majority and promising big changes that would help lead the district back to respectability.

And for the first few years, the Kids First team had a remarkable run of successes. They replaced a well meaning but floundering superintendent with an efficient manager in Percy Mack, a move that was well received in the community. They put a reform in place that emphasized teacher training and focused on math and reading instruction. The got the NAACP and the state to agree to settle the 20-year-old desegregation case, bringing millions in cash and releasing the district from court supervision. They got a huge bond issue passed to rebuild all the schools in the city. Eventually, Dayton even had enough test score gain to jump from “academic emergency to “continuous improvement” in the state ratings. And for at least those first few years, Kids First got support from the rest of the school board, business leaders and much of the community.

But by 2007 a weary Littlejohn had stepped down as school board president and then left Dayton altogether, a crucial school board levy was soundly defeated and two key remaining Kids First allies on the board suffered stunning defeats to little known and underfunded challengers.

How did it all come apart? The dismantling was helped along by a handful of key missteps by the board and school administration. Some of the moves this year by the new school board and its hand-picked interim superintendent Kurt Stanic demonstrate that some of those past decisions haven’t worked out as the old board had hoped. Let’s consider a few examples:

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I’m trying to check this out

By selliott | Thursday, September 4, 2008, 09:20 PM

I got a phone message from Oakwood school board Jim Uphoff this week and he had a theory about why charter school test scores are gaining in Dayton while the school district’s scores are going down. He thinks it’s because charters are now attracting a significant number of suburban kids, even from districts like Oakwood and Kettering.

It is true that Dayton charter schools do draw kids from a wide variety of districts. But the numbers from the suburbs have always been pretty small with the vast majority of charter kids coming from Dayton Public Schools. I haven’t seen any signs that there has been a big shift towards the burbs, but I have asked the state department of education if they can give me any data to prove or disprove this theory.

Anyone have any insights as to whether there had been an influx of suburban kids to Dayton charters?

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An unexpected consequence of a bad economy

By selliott | Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 07:10 AM

The New York Times’ national education correspondent Sam Dillon wrote an interesting story Monday about one consequence of a bad economy. More kids are poor enough to qualify for free breakfast and lunch, driving up costs for those programs.

This is just one example of how a poor economy really hits schools hard. Just ask local districts who have been on the ballot lately. It’s rough out there.

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My changing role at the DDN

By selliott | Tuesday, September 2, 2008, 10:35 PM

I have some news to share with Get on the Bus readers. My role at the Dayton Daily News has changed. As of today, I am now a columnist and editorial writer for the newspaper and I no longer am a reporter covering the education beat after nine years in that role.

This means I have joined the editorial board, a group that together decides the newspaper’s position on local, state and national issues. My role will be to participate in deliberations about the issues, write editorials representing the newspaper’s views on the editorial page and write columns on the op-ed page. My writing will be more analytical and opinion-based in those venues.

I do not know who will replace me covering K-12 education and Dayton Public Schools, but I will introduce that person here as soon as he or she is named. My plan is to continue to write about education in the newspaper often, through editorials and in columns. I also plan to continue blogging about education here at Get on the Bus.

I remain highly interested in education issues facing Dayton, the state of Ohio and the nation. I will continue to pay close attention to everything from congressional actions to local school board decisions when it comes to teaching and learning.

So I hope you’ll stay with me here at Get on the Bus and help me keep the conversation going. Thanks.

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March of the penguins … in Ohio?

By selliott | Tuesday, September 2, 2008, 12:54 AM

I took my eight-year-old to Saturday’s Ohio State football game for some quality father-daughter time. Kate is a big OSU fan and we had a blast. In the first quarter, red-shirted, buckeye-nut-necklace-wearing Kate looked up from under her new block-O, Woody Hayes-style Buckeye hat with a few questions:

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Supporters launch drive to save Stivers art teachers (again)

By selliott | Monday, September 1, 2008, 10:21 PM

Once again, the Seedling Foundation is seeking to rescue the arts program that has helped Stivers School for the Arts become one of the Miami Valley’s best rated high schools.

Seedling, a fund-raising support group for the school, typically raises smaller sums for expensive instruments or other enhancements to Stivers’ arts program. But last year, when the school board moved to cut most of the professional artists who make up the adjunct arts faculty at Stivers, Seedling came to the rescue.

The group last year surpassed its initial goal of $145,000 and reached a revised goal of $180,000 to pay the salaries for adjuncts, convincing the school district to restore their jobs. This year, Seedling is hoping for a repeat performance.

Like last year, the fund-raising campaign will kick off with an event downtown at Courthouse Square, featuring artwork and performance by dozens of Stivers students. The event will be at noon on Sept. 10.

Seedling’s commitment to raise funds again this year is the reason adjunct faculty positions were not again eliminated. The group is seeking big and small donations. A commitment of $18 pays for one hour of adjunct faculty instruction time.

To donate to the Seedling Foundation, mail a check to P.O. Box 1858, Dayton, Ohio, 45401-1858. E-mail Seedling President Bill Pflaum at wdpflaum@ix.netcom.com with questions or call the school at 542-7380.

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Study: Ohio tests invalid for rating schools

By selliott | Sunday, August 31, 2008, 01:11 PM

A Youngstown State professor’s study of testing data suggests Ohio cannot validly claim schools are improving or slipping based on state ratings and says the achievement gap between black and white students is exaggerated.

Randy Hoover’s research showed Ohio has a large poverty gap in test performance between poor students and their wealthier classmates, regardless of race or ethnicity. Hoover said the correlation of non-school factors like family income with test performance was off the charts.

“This is an extremely high correlation for social science research,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything this high.”

Hoover’s findings support a Dayton Daily News 2006 study of test performance and poverty in Ohio’s 610 school districts that produced similar results. For that study, the newspaper’s computer analysis of the impact of several student characteristics on test scores found median income of the district had by far the most powerful impact on its test performance.

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