The Education Gadfly

Search for cost-savings is nothing new for local school districts
Ohio remains firmly in the throes of the economic recession and analysts predict that recovery is a long way off. The state was able to postpone much of the financial pain in the current biennial budget but faces an estimated $8 billion deficit in the next two-year budget. Work to address this shortfall has been slow to start in the Statehouse. A bipartisan panel formed last fall to address the looming crisis will finally hold its first meeting next week, and last month Governor Strickland commissioned the KnowledgeWorks Foundation to seek cost-savings opportunities in K-12 education.

In schoolhouses across the state, the story is much different. Local school districts have been living with the pain for the last few years, pain that is getting worse. And despite a new state school funding model that promises billions in new education funding over the next decade, superintendents are preparing for funding cuts upward of 10 percent for the coming school years. Gadfly's Mike Lafferty explores how local educators are slashing dollars to make ends meet, while still preserving the quality of education they provide to their students.

When teachers in the Southwest Licking School District agreed to a base pay freeze earlier this month they joined a growing number of teacher union local affiliates that accept the idea that the bustling economic powerhouse they grew up in has faltered.

School districts, some faster than others, are struggling to navigate an Ohio economy brought to its knees by chronic 10 percent unemployment, devastated property values, abandoned real estate, and an economic recovery so tepid economists actually recently rejoiced at an anticipated 3 percent increase in average wages over the next three years.

Pay freezes in education are becoming more common. Wealthy districts such as Oakwood, in suburban Dayton, have negotiated freezes. So have not-so-well-off ones like Leetonia in Columbiana County. In fact, Leetonia teachers have agreed to pay freezes in each of the last four years.

Transportation is another popular target for cost cutting. Medina schools have reduced busing to the state minimum. In Dayton, the school board is considering scaling back busing to help eliminate an anticipated $6.3 million shortfall in 2011. The Columbus Board of Education will close nine schools and reduce busing in order to keep a promise to the city's voters and business community to cut $70 million in costs. But proving that threats still work, near Cleveland, in Shaker Heights, the highest-taxed school district in the state, voters approved a levy in May after the school board said 10 percent of the district's employees would have to be furloughed if new spending wasn't passed.

In Southwest Licking, a rural bedroom community near Pataskala in Licking County, the 3,900-student district is not filling vacancies and has reduced school budgets and classroom supplies.

"We have a librarian who can teach English so she's going to be a part-time librarian," said Superintendent Forest Yocum. Students pay to participate in extracurricular activities -- $600 per sport.

And the pay freeze for the coming year may not be enough. "For our five-year (financial) forecast, we have not built in any raises," Yocum said. A levy that expired at the end of last year means the district could have to begin searching for more than $3 million in additional cuts for the 2011-12 school year. If the money isn't replaced with a new levy in November, the district eventually could be forced to trim up to $8 million, about 22 percent of its budget. Even if the Southwest Licking budget levy had passed, the district would still have had to cut $600,000.

Southwest Licking is also a growing district. In the last five years it has added 485 students. The district's middle school was built for 700 students and houses 900. The high school was built for 950 students and now serves 1,200.

Statewide, however, public school enrollments have been falling, especially in urban areas. In 1979 there were about 2.1 million students in public schools, according to the Ohio Department of Education. In 2009, there were 1.8 million -- a drop of about 15 percent in 30 years.

State aid is likely to fall. Ohio is one of 46 states facing budget shortfalls. At least an $8 billion deficit is anticipated when the next two-year budget is hashed out. After escaping draconian cuts in the current budget cycle thanks to a one-time infusion of federal stimulus funds, state school spending is bound to be on the chopping block with anticipated cuts from a few percent to as much as 20 percent.

"If it's an $8 billion to $10 billion (state budget) hole, how is that going to be filled?" said Scott Ebright of the Ohio School Boards Association. And with high unemployment, many of the 178 districts with school income taxes are taking a hit, he said.

Ebright said districts are realigning schools to make class sizes more uniform, outsourcing transportation and food service, consolidating purchasing with other districts and sometimes instituting joint hiring functions. Two districts -- Rittman and Orrville in Wayne County have been sharing a superintendent and treasurer, along with other central office staff.

Real savings, however, mean reducing labor costs, which make up 70 percent to 80 percent of a district's spending. West Carrollton schools, in suburban Dayton, have been reducing staff for years following a wrenching budget battle in 2003. "We we will never be in that situation again," said West Carrollton Schools Superintendent Rusty Clifford. "It's devastating to the community."

Clifford said the district now looks years ahead to anticipate costs. For example, the district is planning reductions for 2013 when the board will ask voters to approve a levy. "Five of the last seven years we've reduced the budget. We've cut costs. The real savings are cumulative. Three years down the road a cut makes a big difference," he said. That means when voters passed a renewal levy in May but rejected a second request for new money, the board didn't have to wring its hands and threaten more cuts.

Cutting costs now is part of the district's culture. "We're on the ballot in November with the smallest millage in history," said Clifford said. "We're not threatening to reduce staff, cut transportation or athletics."

It's become the culture in the Columbiana County community of Leetonia, too. The district has been slashing budgets -- and reducing staff -- for years. Levies have failed seven times in the last two years, including most recently in May. The district has eliminated one principal position and nine teaching jobs as well as other positions since 2007 in an attempt to stay above water financially.

Columbiana County's 13 percent unemployment rate is at least partially to blame, says Leetonia Superintendent Robert Mehno. "We now have two teachers teaching all math courses in the high school -- six different courses," he said. The high school also has only two science teachers to teach biology, chemistry, physics, anatomy, and physiology.

Menho said he is planning on a 10 percent reduction in state funds. The district receives more than 70 percent of its funding from the state and the last time voters approved a levy request was 1991.

However, at least one cost reduction had unintended consequences. When the district reduced bus transportation, Menho said nearby neighboring districts (there are three districts within six miles) sent buses into the Leetonia district to poach students. They picked up the kids and transported them out of the district to their schools.

Meanwhile, in Southwest Licking, Superintendent Yocum is still looking for ways to save. State auditors are examining district spending to make recommendations on what expenses could be reduced or eliminated.

"We may not be able to make enough cuts to be solvent," Yocum said.

by Mike Lafferty

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Capital Matters

If Ohio wins Race to the Top, what type of students will funds reach?
Should Ohio win the $400 million it is seeking in Race to the Top, it's important to know who will be affected. Specifically, what type of student will the much-talked-about funding touch? The state education department has touted that nearly 62 percent of the state's public school kids will be impacted, including high numbers of African-American, Hispanic, limited English proficient, and economically disadvantaged students.

But what about participation of students according to how well their schools perform academically?

We've broken down the data to look at RttT participation among district and charter schools according to four performance-related measures. Regardless of which performance metric is used, a theme emerges: among students in the state's lowest performing schools (defined in any one of the four ways) a significant number won't benefit from RttT dollars, assuming Ohio wins them. Conversely, among the students in schools doing seemingly well, many will get the funds.

(If Ohio wins Race to the Top, the Ohio Department of Education will receive funding to do work at the state level that has the potential to impact all Buckeye State schools, including those that did not sign on to Race to the Top. However, it's unclear to what extent a district or charter school that couldn't muster the local support to sign up for RttT in the first place, and which will not receive dollars to do RttT work at the local level, would participate in any reforms.)

RttT participation by buildings' state academic rating
Of the students in RttT-participating charter schools, only 37 percent of those that will get funding attend the lowest performing schools in the state (those rated D or F by the state in 2008-09). Among district students, the number is starker: just 12 percent of district students in RttT -- participating schools attend one that is currently rated D or F.

Chart 1

Chart 2

It is important to note that this distribution of students in RttT schools by performance rating is roughly proportional to the overall distribution of students by school rating. Still, for a program whose primary emphasis includes turning around the lowest performing schools, this data show that -- in Ohio at least -- Race to the Top funds won't flow in any targeted or strategic fashion to actually reach the schools serving the lowest performing students.

Table 1 shows the percentage of kids (charter and district) within each performance category that are signed on for RttT -- and what percentage is not. Among all Ohio students in schools rated Academic Emergency (F), 17 percent of them are in schools not participating in Race to the Top. Among students in the next-to-worst category, Academic Watch, 15 percent of them won't receive funding.

Table 1

RttT participation by state "Performance Index" score
Ohio's A-F grading system is far from perfect and suffers from widespread grade inflation, with an overwhelming number of schools rated A or B. A school's "Performance Index" score reflects a more accurate measure of schools' true academic achievement, since it is a weighted average of student performance in all tested subjects or grades.

Table 2 shows that of Buckeye State students in the lowest performing district and charter schools (those that score below 80 and therefore fall below proficiency), 16 percent won't get funds. Even worse, when the numbers are broken down to look only at the state's charter students, almost one-third of kids in Ohio's worst-achieving charter schools won't get RttT funds.

Conversely, among students in the best performing schools (100 or above), over half will get Race to the Top funds.

Table 2

RttT participation by AYP
Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is an accountability metric that is the hallmark of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. AYP uses achievement results to measure growth over time -- and schools that are otherwise high-performing can fail to make AYP with particular subgroups of students and therefore fail to make overall AYP.

Table 3 shows that 31 percent of all Ohio students in schools (district and charter) that did not meet AYP will not receive RttT funds. When the data are analyzed to look at district and charter schools separately (not shown in the table), 32 percent of students in district schools will not receive RttT funds. Charter students fare better -- just 18 percent of students in charter schools that missed AYP will not receive RttT funds. While a majority of students in schools that did not meet AYP will be receiving RttT funds, one-third of all students equates to over 230,000 youngsters.

Table 3

RttT participation by graduation rate
The final table illuminates what high school students will be impacted by funds. As Table 4 illustrates, over half (55 percent) of Ohio students in district and charter high schools with a graduation rate of 90 percent or higher (the goal set by the state) will receive RttT funds. Meanwhile, among those schools with a graduation rate below 90 percent, almost a third won't receive RttT funding.

Table 4

Overall, among all high school students in district and charter schools signed up for RttT, over two-thirds are in a high-graduation rate school (90 percent or above).

Chart 3

It is not surprising that many of Ohio's disticts and charter schools -- regardless of their academic performance-- signed up for Race to the Top. As chronicled in the piece above, the state's schools are facing serious fiscal pain. But Race to the Top was billed as a program that would help the country's neediest students by getting better leaders into their buildings and better teachers into their classrooms.

According to this analysis, as many as a third of students in the most troubled schools won't get funding. This is unfortunate because it's precisely those students in districts or charters with low graduation rates, poor academic ratings, and failure to make AYP that stand to benefit most from RttT's reforms and resources.

If Ohio follows through with its application promises and requires districts to include student performance data in teacher evaluations, redistribute teachers and principals to the neediest schools, or implement a number of other RttT-related provisions -- it isn't the kids in decently performing schools that need those reforms. This seems like a Race to the Top for many of the kids who are already close to the peak, while those in the valley can only watch and wait.

A PDF version of this analysis is available here.

by Jamie Davies O'Leary, Emmy Partin, Bianca Speranza, and Eric Ulas

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In Case You Missed It

Teachers union leaders can be reformers, too
In the national Gadfly, Checker Finn and Stafford Palmieri highlight and commend teach union leaders across the country who are reform-minded visionaries and pragmatists that don't always let the short-term self-interest of adults blind them to the long-term interests of children. Find out who these admirable men and women are and why they deserve a pat on the back here.

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News & Analysis

Policy changes necessary for Cleveland to see Baltimore-like success
The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently lifted up Baltimore City Schools as a possible model for Cleveland. In fact, Cleveland Metropolitan Schools CEO Eugene Sanders' district transformation plan sounds remarkably similar to Baltimore's 2008 Great Kids Great Schools Initiative, which aimed to lift student achievement, raise graduation rates, and overhaul the district via a portfolio-management style of schools.

But Cleveland has a long way to go to achieve either the reforms implemented by Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso (who earned no mention in the Plain Dealer article despite being the primary driver of reform) or the resulting achievement gains -- among students in grades 3-8, the percent scoring proficient or advanced in reading on state tests has gone up twenty percentage points over the past four years (52.8 to 72.4 percent), while math proficiency levels have risen 22 points (41.5 to 63.5 percent).

Simply put, Baltimore has four policies in place that Cleveland does not.

Robust choice. Baltimore has a robust school choice climate, with an open enrollment process for middle and high school students, and transfers within the district allowed for elementary students. There are 30 charter schools, 15 "transformation" schools (which combine middle and high school around a particular theme) and 10 innovation schools. Cleveland should consider a similar open-enrollment program so as to expand intra-district choice. Further, Sanders will need to have a zero-tolerance attitude toward scenarios such as the CTU's attempt to unionize charters.

Weighted-student funding. One of the boldest changes that Alonso has enacted is weighted-student funding, making Baltimore one of 15 major school districts utilizing WSF. Under WSF, funding amounts are determined by "weights" assigned to students based on their individual education needs (e.g., poor or limited-English proficient children get extra dollars), and funds flow directly to the school where children enroll, rather than pooling at the district level. Cleveland's intention to expand school choice and adopt a portfolio style of school management will hinge on having a modern, flexible funding system, not an antiquated method that funds traditional schools at a greater level than schools of choice.

Building-based decision making. WSF calls for decision making authority to be devolved down to the building level. Funds flow directly to the schools where children enroll, and principals have the freedom to determine how most of those dollars are spent. In Baltimore, Alonso trimmed the size of the central district office (by $165 million), cutting non-essential positions and directing 80 percent of Baltimore's operating funds directly to schools. If Sanders hopes to spur innovation and expects principals to achieve dramatic results, he should offer them freedom over their budgets, personnel, and curriculum. Sanders has already defended his move to force Cleveland teachers to reapply for their own positions (rather than upholding seniority-based transfers) but is being sued by the Cleveland Teachers Union. How this shakes out will be indicative of the likelihood that Sanders' vision for the district can be realized.

Emphasis on teacher contract reforms. Seniority-based layoffs are already threatening Cleveland's innovation schools. For the transformation plan to succeed, Sanders must fight for changes to the union contract that will protect quality teachers over seniority rules. In Baltimore, Alonso has indicated his support for reforms suggested by the National Council on Teacher Quality, including changes to teacher pay, teacher dismissal, and the school calendar. Baltimore Schools and their union are currently in the midst of negotiations, but Alonso has instituted "mutual consent" hiring (which allows principals to have a say in who they hire for their school). The district is also supportive of using student performance data to inform teacher evaluations. This is evidence that the district realizes the need to reform teacher contracts in parallel with other structural changes. This is an important lesson for Cleveland, whose district has the second-most restrictive teacher contract in the nation (according to a 2008 Fordham study) and which threatens to seriously inhibit Sanders' plan.

Sanders' vision for CMSD is based on good things happening elsewhere -- a "portfolio of choices," transformation of the lowest performing schools, and innovative partnerships (including collaboration with charters). This vision, however, will be difficult to translate into meaningful changes to what happens in classrooms unless leadership and the union are able to agree to some bold policy changes.

by Jamie Davies O'Leary

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Flypaper's Finest
A selection of the best offerings from Flypaper, Fordham's blog

Ivory Coast Soccer Academy -- playing the beautiful game and getting an education, by Jamie Davies O'Leary
For all you die-hard futbol fans out there, you probably saw the World Cup special prior to this year's kickoff. And if your timing was right, you saw this inspirational clip on the Ivory Coast Soccer Academy. If you missed it, take a minute to watch it. Not a fan? No excuses -- there's an uplifting edu-message for even the staunchest of futbol critics (even the types that unleash Mike Ditka's lame quote about God giving us arms to play football or whatever). Read the full post here.

What do you think -- second half of the charter school bargain? by Terry Ryan
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers recently issued its latest annual report on the policies and practices of the nation's charter authorizers. Despite the fact that the charter school movement turns 20 next year, it's remarkable that states and authorizers still struggle mightily with issues of accountability. And it's all the more unsettling given that there are an estimated 872 authorizers across the nation, and that collectively these entities oversee and hold accountable 4,956 charter schools serving about 1.6 million students.Read the rest of the post here.

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Short Reviews

Libertad de la Educación: School Choice Solutions for Closing the Latino Achievement Gap
Lori Drummer and Don Soifer
Lexington Institute
June, 2010

Latino children are twice as likely as white children to score "below basic" in reading on both the fourth and eighth grade NAEP tests; this figure has remained relatively unchanged over the past decade. Latino students also drop out at high rates and are less likely to go on to earn college degrees. In Libertad de la Educacion, Drummer and Soifer lament these data and argue for school choice strategies to close the achievement gap between Latino students and their white peers: specifically, online education, school vouchers, and special education scholarships.

Online learning -- which allows for a more individualized study plan for each student, as well as access to qualified faculty regardless of geographic location -- is especially beneficial for poor and rural Latinos who may lack access to highly effective instructors or robust curricular offerings.

Vouchers to send low-income students to private schools can help improve Latino performance, as well. If the experience of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (the nation's oldest tax-payer-supported voucher program serving over 20,000 children) is any indication, Latinos are well served. According to the University of Arkansas' School Choice Demonstration Project, MPCP students outpaced their counterparts in almost all indicators by eighth grade -- and 15 percent of the students served are Latino. Latino students using MPCP vouchers scored higher than their peers in all content areas. Expanding Ohio's EdChoice Scholarship (which recently reached its 14,000 cap) could serve Latino students well, especially as the Ohio Department of Education is now collecting data on the academic performance of EdChoice students which can be broken down by racial group.

Ohio's Autism Scholarship Program applies only to the parents of children with autism (other states, like Florida, allows the scholarship to serve children with all disabilities). Overall, minority students -- including Latinos -- have higher rates of learning disabilities. Expanding Ohio's special education scholarships would open opportunities for Latino students to receive the type of education they need.

Latino students in Ohio underperformed their white peers at every grade level and in every content area on 2009 state tests. If the Buckeye State is serious about lifting the performance of Latinos, the school choice recommendations laid out in this report are a good starting point. Read it here.

by Lauren Karch

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Devil in the Details: An Analysis of State Teacher Dismissal Laws
Saba Bireda
Center for American Progress
June 2010

Momentum is building to reform teacher dismissal policies. Federal and state policymakers alike are calling for changes to K-12 education's highly complex and costly dismissal procedures, especially as school districts face looming budget cuts.

In Devil in the Details, author Saba Bireda takes an in-depth look at all fifty states' dismissal policies, and provides several recommendations for improvement. Dismissal procedures were originally established to protect teachers from unfair management decisions. However, due to the lack of sound policies informing the selection, evaluation, and development of teachers, the dismissal hearing is often the first time that performance issues are seriously discussed.

The report describes numerous problems that make the dismissal process cumbersome and difficult to manage. Among the most astonishing is that the same hearing procedures are used for all teachers regardless of the reason for dismissal. This means that teachers being accused of incompetence in the classroom go through identical dismissal procedures as though that have violated criminal laws. After a thorough description of the problems surrounding current teacher dismissal policies, the report lays out five recommendations for improvement. Among these is one especially critical for Ohio: the need to spell out what defines "ineffective" classroom performance. In particular, the report suggests multiple measures, including student achievement on standardized tests, to inform how we measure classroom effectiveness.

This report is important. Currently, tenured teachers are protected from dismissal except in rare cases. Worse, teacher evaluation systems do not attempt to define "effectiveness" or "ineffectiveness," or tie tenure and dismissal to classroom performance. As Ohio moves forward with its new four-tier teacher licensure system (and its Race to the Top plan, should it win), the state should spell out what constitutes effective teaching. This will not only help to reduce the ambiguity, time, and cost involved in dismissal processes, but will align the teacher evaluation system with how teachers are retained, developed, and dismissed.

Read the report here.

by Bianca Speranza

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Editor's Extras

US vs. the World (hint: we're not talking about soccer)

Digital-game-inspired instruction isn't the only thing that makes one New York City charter school unique. At Quest to Learn, professional development is focused on helping teachers infuse technology with instruction, and it isn't just a one-off session. Every Wednesday kids are sent home two hours early so that teachers can begin their weekly training sessions, known as Studio Q. Sounds like a fun place to teach.

Do quirky but still precocious students get overlooked by school gifted programs in place of more outgoing kids? Turns out that social and emotional skills play a role in whether kids are to gifted programs, a fact that this Out of Left Field blogger weighs in on.

Here's a bit of NOLA news we like. A group of students is taking matters into their own hands to help rebuild Valena C. Jones School in New Orleans The school fell victim to Hurricane Katrina, and was left abandoned and boarded up along with surrounding neighborhoods. Students are now working on a new vision and design for their school, one that includes solar panels and a school garden. The hope is that by fixing up the school, people will want to move nearby, helping to jumpstart the community once again.

We know that many Ohio districts are resorting to teacher layoffs as a way of reducing costs, but what else are districts doing to save? According to this graph -- how about a four-day school week, cutting electives, or suspending maintenance? For more ways that districts are getting creative to deal with budget cuts, check out this Wall Street Journalarticle.

Loving the World Cup and wanting even more? Check out this US vs. the World info-graphic highlighting the differences between the US and other contenders as it relates to education (broadly). Did you know that Yemen ranks highest for percent of total government spending on education (32.8 percent), or that more students in Ireland than anywhere else find school to be boring?

by Bianca Speranza

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Announcements

Much more on the Common Core
As we recently noted, the Ohio State Board of Education voted to adopt the Common Core academic standards. Curious about the background of these standards and what they'll mean for the Buckeye State? Head on over Fordham's new Common Core Resource Page for a collection of timely commentary, reports, and videos all profiling the Common Core in depth. This page serves as an excellent primer for anyone interested in catching up on or learning anew about the Common Core.

The Buckeye State is moving forward in thinking about how to align curriculum and assessments with the new standards. But beyond immediate implementation questions remain broad ones about the future of the common standards. How should the Common Core standards initiative be governed? Who will "own" these standards (and related assessments) 20 years from now? To stir smart thinking around such questions, the Fordham Institute invited knowledgeable experts to share their opinions through a series of white papers. Visit our website to read the papers and stayed tuned for tomorrow's national Education Gadfly for more on this important topic.

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About Us

The Ohio Education Gadfly is published bi-weekly (ordinarily on Wednesdays, with occasional breaks, and in special editions) by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Have something to say? Email the editor at [email protected]. Would you like to be spared from the Gadfly? Email [email protected] with "unsubscribe gadfly" in the text of your message. You are welcome to forward the Gadfly to others, and from our website you can even email individual articles. If you have been forwarded a copy of Gadfly and would like to subscribe, you may email [email protected] with "subscribe gadfly" in the text of the message. To read archived issues, go to our website and click on the Ohio Education Gadfly link. Aching for still more education news and analysis? Check out the original Education Gadfly.

Nationally and in Ohio, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, along with its sister organization the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, strives to close America's vexing achievement gaps by raising standards, strengthening accountability, and expanding high-quality education options for parents and families. As a charter-school sponsor in Ohio, the Foundation joins with schools to affirm a relentless commitment to high expectations for all children, accountability for academic results, and transparency and organizational integrity, while freeing the schools to operate with minimal red tape. The Foundation and Institute are neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University.