Winter 2015COMMUNIQUÉ

Publication for Members of Central OEA/NEA Adrienne M. Bowden, President

Toxic Testing. Hyperbole or Actuality?

Brittany Alexander, Hilliard EA

Toxic testing. Hyperbole or actuality? You decide. Merriam-Webster defines toxic as “containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation.” Students have taken tests since the invention of school. So what’s with the “toxic” label you’ve heard recently?

It cannot be understated that teachers do not abhor tests. Tests are an integral part of the learning process, helping teachers to understand where their students are with presented concepts and helping to inform continuing instruction. Assessment is essential to a teacher’s purpose. We want to know whether students “get it” or not.

However, children today face a barrage of tests, both standardized and teacher-created, that reaches a level of absurdity. Beyond the tests teachers create for their students, there are: Common Formative Assessments (in each core subject with Pre and Post tests), district level diagnostic tests (MAP,

SRI, etc.), SLO tests (in every “non-tested” subject with Pre and Post tests), and who could forget the impending PARCC Assessments? This year, students will face two testing sessions of PARCC in Reading and Math, while some grades also face PARCC-like tests in Science and Social Studies. This grueling testing schedule leaves precious little time for the learning that is supposedly being measured.

It is not just the increase in the number of tests, but the lack of valuable, if any, information useful to teachers sounding the alarm. Teachers receive a

Scaled Score (in the case of OAAs) that tells them nothing more than whether a student passed or failed, and whether by a little or by a lot. Even this useless information does not arrive until the summer after the students have moved on to yet another year of testing. If the results did tell teachers something of value, there is nothing they could do to help those students. It is an exercise in futility.

Despite the lack of instructional value in state test results, students are subjected to high-stakes decisions based upon them. School districts, forced to comply with mandates,

assign students who scored below a set Scaled Score (again in OAAs) to remedial classes or in the case of third graders, retention. There are high-stakes for high achieving students as well. Often, cut-off scores are used as prerequisites for placement in advanced classes. Additionally, high school students are required to reach a minimum score to be eligible for a diploma. These stakes are real, and their toll is high.

Within this toxic sludge of tests, students are being smothered and their education is being stolen from them.

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Winter Area MeetingsLocal Leaders and Local Education Advocate Leaders are invited to the winter round of Central Area dinner meetings.

These meetings are a great opportunity to learn what is going on in your area and to network with fellow leaders.

Area 3 Jan. 26, 5:30 - 8 p.m. Simon Kenton Inn, Springfield

Area 1 Jan. 27, 6 - 8 p.m. Shaw’s Restaurant, Lancaster

Area 4 Feb. 10, 6 - 8 p.m. J.R. Hook’s, Circleville

Area 5 Feb. 11, 6 - 8 p.m. OSU Golf Course, Columbus

Area 2Feb. 12, 6 - 8 p.m. Tavern 42, Delaware

The Area dinners are free to attend, but registration on Central’s website is required.

Central Winter Leadership ConferenceCentral is hosting its Winter Leadership Conference on Sat, Feb. 28 from 8 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. The conference is being held at the Dublin Crowne Plaza, 600 Metro Pl N, Dublin, OH

The conference theme this year is “Who Are the Experts? We Are!”Members wishing to attend this free conference are invited to register for 1 of 4 tracks on the Central website

Track A: ABC’s of ESP

Track B: What’s With All These Assessments?

Track C: Technology – What’s It Good For

Track D: A Few Good Leaders – What You Should Know

Presidents Plus DinnerThis year’s Presidents Plus dinner will take placeafter the conference, on Saturday, February 28 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Dublin Crowne Plaza.

Local leaders and their guests wishing to attend can register on Central’s website.

Ready to Save Money? I am sure we would all answer with a resounding “Yes!” to that question. NEA Members Benefit Click and Save website (http://neamb.affinityperks.com) has many money-saving opportunities for all OEA mem-bers. On the website you will find deals on computers, electronics, apparel, home, travel, tickets, and gifts.

During these cold winter months, start planning your warmer getaway. You can find great deals on a cruise, flights, car rentals, or a vacation package. Whether it be sand, snow, or an historic tour, NEA member benefits will help you find the vacation that works best for you, and at the best possible price.

Save the Date

Volume 42, Number 5 Winter 2014

COMMUNIQUÉPublished four times a year as a service of

CENTRAL OEA/NEA, INC.947 Goodale Blvd.Columbus, OH 43212

Adrienne M. Bowden, PresidentKevin Griffin, Vice PresidentRussell Hughlock, Communications & Organizing Coordinator

Editors Ann Eblin, Judy Furnas & Carla Noll Fiscal Manager Tim SkamferProduction Russell Hughlock Design Pam McClung

Phone 614-222-8228 E-mail aa@centraloeanea.org

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The Ohio Education Association and Innovation Ohio have launched a new website for parents, taxpayers and educators that allows detailed comparisons between charter schools and traditional public school districts.

The new website – KnowYourCharter.com – not only provides access to the state’s most recent Report Card informa-tion, but improves transparency by showing how much money each school district in Ohio loses to charter schools.

By simply visiting the site and typing in your school district, you can compare the performance of your district to that of the charter schools your district is losing money to.

For example, Newark City schools has a performance index rating of B, but loses $4.62 million to 13 charter schools, none of which have a higher performance rating. Newark City Schools receives $4,070.16 per student from the state, but loses over $6,100 for every student who goes to a sub-par charter school.

This is a story that is repeated district, after district, after district. Now with www.knowyourcharter.com, you can check for yourself.

In February, the ESP Advisory Committee will join forces with the Leadership Committee to bring professional develop-ment/leadership opportunities to the Education Support Professionals of Central OEA/NEA. This track will be called the ABCs of ESP.

Nearly four of every ten public school employees are Education Support Professionals. ESPs work together with teachers and administrators to ensure the basic right of every student to attend a great public school. They perform a variety of jobs that promote quality education, foster positive learning environments, offer nutritious meals to make sure students are ready to learn, provide reliable transportation, and maintain safe and clean schools for all students. ESPs are often the first to greet students at the beginning of the day and the last people they see as they go home.

Education Support Professionals in our schools include: Clerical Services, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Services, Health and Student Services, Paraeducators, Security, Skilled Trades, Technology Services and Transportation.

Sessions at the Winter Leadership Conference ESP Track will address many topics. Communicating with our members for growth of the association will cover networking, reaching out to members, messaging and social media basics. Working for a Living deals with privatization and how it affects classified employees and the ever-present threat of Right to Work legislation. Finally, there will be a session that covers the Nuts and Bolts of association work. Understanding officers’ roles, LRC roles, and running a meeting are just a few of the essentials for an effective local.

This event will be held at the Dublin Crowne Plaza on Saturday, February 28, 2015 beginning at 9 a.m. Pre-registration is on the Central OEA/NEA website.

Please join us as we work together to enhance the role of the ESP through collaboration and professional development.

www.knowyourcharter.com

Cheryl Williams, Central Executive Board ESP RepresentativeThe ABCs of ESP

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Charters and the Privatization of ESPs and TeachersKevin Griffin, Central OEA/NEA Vice President, Dublin EA

The Downward Spiral

Get this straight first: char-ter schools are businesses designed to make money for their owners. They are designed to maximize profits for their owners, not to do what is in the best interests of students.

Charters continue to expand through their unethical use of tax dollars on slick advertising to lure students into their inferior schools. Friendly politicians continue to accept campaign contri-butions and give these se-cretive and unaccountable businesses your tax dollars.Quite a bit has been written about charter schools failing their students. Recently, former charter school teach-ers have been speaking out about the injustices occur-ring within their schools and OEA has launched knowyourcharter.com. But little has been written about the charter’s effect on Education Support Profes-sionals (ESPs), our secretar-ies, custodians, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers.

According to a financial analysis from the Ohio Department of Education in June 2014, public school districts receive, on aver-age, $3,662 while charter

schools receive $7,074 per student. When a student leaves a school district for a charter, the state deducts the cost being paid to the district, meaning that on average $3,411 dollars of lo-cally voted tax dollars go to the charters instead of the school district.

The June 2014 analysis shows that almost 400 mil-lion dollars of locally voted tax dollars were subverted to charters. How does a local school board deal with lost funding from the state that not only eliminates the state’s portion of the fund-ing but also cuts into the lo-cally voted portion of taxes as well? They must look for ways to reduce costs, and that often results in cutting or outsourcing the jobs of ESPs.

Districts around Central Ohio have already begun outsourcing jobs. Many districts hire companies like First Student for busing and others use Chartwells for their food services. By con-tracting with these compa-nies, the district is basically saying, “You’re in charge of this operation for X dollars. Do it however you can to make a profit for yourself.”

Districts then cut the posi-tions from their payroll. The ESPs, assuming they want to keep their jobs, must ap-ply and then work for a third party for lower pay, lesser benefits, and no pension. This may be happening in your district without you even knowing about it.

If you’re a teacher and think you’re immune to privatiza-tion, think again. Legislation has been proposed in Michigan to allow districts to hire teachers through private, for-profit compa-nies. The education of our students would be sold to the lowest bidder.

As charter school owners continue to slowly bleed the funding from our districts, districts look for ways to cut costs. Will you be advocat-ing for fairness before you get cut, or outraged after it’s too late?

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NEA President Lily Eskel-son-Garcia and OEA Presi-dent Becky Higgins offered stinging indictments of education reform and the use of standardized tests in speeches given to nearly 900 elected delegates at the 2014 Ohio Education Association Fall Represen-tative Assembly held in Columbus.

Eskelson-Garcia laid out the pillars of education reform as the move to “privatize, standardize, de-profession-alize” and said teachers are threatened to “hit your numbers or be punished.” It was a message well re-ceived by delegates weary of current education reform efforts in Ohio.

President Eskelson-Garcia said the methods, which are used by education reform-ers, include a two-pronged effort that includes a public relations campaign that disparages public education and public school teachers while, in her words, “pre-tending to care about kids.” Education reformers, ac-cording to Eskelson-Garcia, work to remove resistance to their efforts by attack-ing the power of teachers unions as seen in efforts in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona and here in Ohio. President Eskelson-Garcia cited the $500 billion per year spent on public educa-tion as the motivation for the efforts to undermine public education. “High stakes tests are bad for education…. follow the money,” she said.

Eskelson-Garcia and Higgins Set Their Sights on Education ReformMark Hill, President Worthington EA

OEA President Becky Hig-gins picked up the theme set out by President Eskel-son-Garcia, “I have heard from teachers who tell me how ‘reformers’ have sucked the joy out of teach-ing.” President Higgins also said education reform is turning off students,”… many students have quit trying and it can be tracked back to overtesting.”

President Higgins then cast her gaze inward to OEA, likening the strength of the organization to that of a tree, asking, “… how do we get OEA’s tree to weather the storms coming our way?” Citing the experience in Wisconsin where, accord-ing to Higgins, the Wiscon-sin Education Association Council membership has fallen by over 60% due to Gov. Scott Walker’s move to eliminate collective bargaining in that state. Higgins said that OEA could benefit from Wisconsin’s experience, “We need to learn the lessons from

other affiliates and show members the value of OEA membership.”

President Higgins implored delegates to build a stron-ger union by focusing efforts on advocating for professional issues and for students in addition to traditional union functions. She said, “It’s not just about negotiating contracts. It’s about our collective power advocating for students and educators.”

The Representative Assem-bly also passed three new business items. The first item, in accord with angst over standardized testing, calls on OEA to support and spur grassroots efforts at the national, state and local levels to address the overuse and misuse of high-stakes standardized testing. The second new business item calls on OEA lead-ers and staff to address implementation and admin-istration problems with the Resident Educator Summa-tive Assessment (RESA) and work with state policy

makers to resolve those issues.

The last new business item calls on OEA to conduct a lobby day in the spring of 2015 and formally invite local boards of education, local superintendents, administrators, and support-ive parent groups to talk to legislators alongside OEA members. This lobby day would focus on topics of joint concern such as testing, school funding, and charter school account-ability.

Jeff Rhodes (North Royalton EA) was elected by acclima-tion as NEA Director #5 and Tai Hayden (Columbus EA) was endorsed for the STRS board.

NEA President Lily Eskelson-Garcia

OEA President Becky Higgins

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At its regular November meeting, the State Board of Education began consideration of a change to Ohio’s operating standards for public schools, which could be the first salvo in the effort to “deregulate” public education in Ohio.

One of the proposed changes is the elimination of the so-called “5 of 8 rule”. The 5 of 8 rule requires that a minimum of five full-time personnel be employed for each 1,000 stu-dents and assigned to at least five of the following eight areas: coun-selor, library media specialist, school nurse, visiting teacher, social worker and elementary art, music and physi-cal education. Opponents of the rule change, which include OEA, argue that changing the minimum standards will allow districts facing budget shortfalls to slash vital programming that enhances student learning. OEA Vice President Scott DiMauro said the elimination of the 5 of 8 rule would “…significantly cuts the state’s commitment to ensuring that all children have a well-rounded edu-cation no matter where they live.” Parents and teachers took to so-cial media to voice their opposi-tion to the change, even creating a #ohio5of8 thread on Twitter. Many teachers and public education advocates attended the State Board of Education Meeting to protest the proposed rule change. As a result, State Board of Educa-tion President Debe Terhar suddenly changed the meeting schedule to

move back public participation in the hearing so that the audience could hear the board’s presentation on the rule change first. That prompted four board members to walk out of the meeting in protest. This proposal could be the first of many attempts to “deregulate” public education in Ohio. Governor Kasich was quoted in February as saying he talked to State Superin-tendent Dick Ross about the need to deregulate schools so “…we can bring more common sense to the rules and more trust to the people in the local communities who are run-ning our schools.” Kasich’s deregulation comments were echoed by Board President Terhar when she said that “…the responsibility for educating our kids is local; it belongs to the parents, it belongs to the students, it belongs to the boards that are elected by the taxpayers, and it belongs to the superintendent they hire,” and that “We have to get away from this idea that only if Columbus tells us what to do, it will get done.” Most recently Ohio Senate President Keith Faber said that the General As-sembly was going to look at ways to set high-performing public school dis-tricts free of “unnecessary bureau-cratic regulation from Columbus.” Ohio’s school community has gotten their first look at what’s meant by “deregulating” schools in the elimination of public schools, and many don’t like what they see.

#5 of 8counselor

library media specialist

school nurse

visiting teacher

social worker

elementary art

music

physical education

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counselor

library media specialist

school nurse

visiting teacher

social worker

elementary art

music

physical education

January 31, 2015DIVERSITY CONFERENCECentral OEA/NEA is pleased to invite you to an exciting, empowering, and informative inaugural diversity conference. The conference will take place at the Central HQ at 947 Goodale Blvd., Columbus.

Our line up of presenters incudes Janet Monseur Durr from Hilliard City Schools and Jimmie Beall from Columbus City Schools, Robert Solomon, Assistant Dean of Admission, Ohio State College of Law will be the lunchtime speaker.

The conference is free and lunch is included. For more information and to register (required) please visit the Central website www.centraloeanea.org.

CENTRAL OEA/NEA

In this issue2 Winter Area Meetings

2 Central Winter Leadership Conference

2 Presidents Plus Dinner

2 Ready to Save Money?

3 KnowYourCharter.com

3 The ABCs of ESP

4 The Downward Spiral: Charters and the Privatization of ESP and Teachers

5 Eskelson-Garacie and HIggins Set Their Sights on Education Reform

6 #5 of 8

7 Diversity Conference

Central OEA / NEA

Downward SpiralKnowYourCharter.com

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDCOLUMBUS, OHPERMIT No. 204

CE NT RA L O EA/NEA, Inc.947 Goodale BoulevardColumbus, OH 43212

COMMUNIQUÉ

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Winter Area Meetings

2 7

Diversity Conference

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Jan. 26 Area 3 at Simon Kenton Inn, Springfield

Jan. 27 Area 1 at Shaw’s Restaurant, Lancaster

Jan 31 Diversity Conference at the Central office

Feb. 10 Area 4 at J.R. Hook’s, Circleville

Feb. 11 Area 5 at OSU Golf Course, Columbus

Feb. 12 Area 2 at Tavern 42, Delaware

Feb 28 Central Winter Leadership Conference at Dublin Crowne Plaza

Feb 28 Presidents Plus Dinner at Dublin Crowne Plaza

Registrations for all events are available on Central’s website at www.centraloeanea.org