Fractions & Student Success — Oct.15th
One of the more noticeable shifts in college- and career-ready standards was emphasizing how fractions fit into the larger number system.
This virtual learning course is designed to build upon fraction content knowledge of teachers, instructional coaches, math specialists, and leaders of professional learning. The focus of the course will be on fraction concepts for elementary grades 1 through 5.
The only materials needed is a computer with internet access. The virtual learning experience runs through October 15 – November 26, 2019. It includes four units of learning that are each approximately 3-hours in length and can be completed over the six-week period.
Building Educator Content Knowledge Virtual Math Course Schedule
Participants will complete 4 units of learning across six weeks. Each unit will take about 3 hours of time to complete.
The course is self-paced, however participants will need to finish the first 2 units by the end of the third week of the course. There will be a pre-assessment due before participants begin the first unit and a post-assessment due after completion of the fourth unit.
Click here to download an informational flier about the program and here to register. For additional questions, please email: minicourses@studentsachieve.net.
OEA President’s Message: Time For New State Report Cards
September 17, 2019 | VBlog By OEA President Scott DiMauro
Dear Colleagues,
September 17, 2019 | This week’s message includes urgent information on the state takeover law (click here to take action today!), some thoughts on the state report cards that came out last week, appreciation to our members and staff who attended last weekend’s NEA Educator Voice Academy in Atlanta, important membership and delegate election reminders, and an expression of solidarity for our striking UAW brothers and sisters.
I welcome your feedback. Please contact me if you have questions, would like an officer to visit your local, or have anything to share.
Have a good week!
Scott DiMauro
President
Ohio Education Association
Weekly Message from OEA Pres. Scott DiMauro
September 10, 2019 | VBlog By OEA President Scott DiMauro
Dear Colleagues,
This week’s message includes an update on what we’re hearing at UniServ Leadership Council meetings around the state, a reminder on New Educator Cards, some reflections on Ohio’s latest “Quality Counts” ranking and ongoing efforts to fix school funding, the latest news on legislation to repeal the state takeover law, important information on the need for all locals to conduct delegate elections, and a shout-out to a very special member at the Ohio School for the Blind.
I welcome your feedback.
Please contact me if you have questions, would like an officer to visit your local, or have anything to share.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Scott DiMauro
President
Ohio Education Association
President’s Weekly Video Messages
For videos prior to January 2022, please visit the OEA President’s Message playlist on OEA’s YouTube account.
Click here to return the OEA President’s homepage.
A Seat at the Table or a Broken Promise?
OEA Blogger Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
Campaigning politicians often promise teachers a “seat at the table.” However, once the election is over, Ohio’s lawmakers have done too little to engage teachers in conversations about education policy.
Take, for example, the new graduation requirements passed into law via the state budget.
Many educators have been asking for a dialogue about graduation requirements for years now. Instead, legislators kept putting band-aids on the unrealistic requirements, rather than having a serious conversation with teachers about meaningful revisions.
This summer, the legislature ripped off the band-aid and passed into law what they call a permanent solution. Ohio Excels, a group primarily consisting of business leaders, created a new concoction of graduation requirements and the Ohio legislature gobbled it up.
The only education voices associated with the group seem to have been the Ohio 8 Coalition, an alliance of Ohio’s eight urban school districts. The large urban districts have unique needs and it makes sense for them to have joined together to address the challenges they face.
However, Ohio’s 612 public school districts are quite diverse, and the Ohio 8 represents only a small fraction of them, fewer than 1.3%.
The legislators who voted to accept the Ohio Excels plan have touted these new requirements, saying they reduce testing since only two Ohio state tests are required to graduate.
Don’t be fooled. There is no reduction in testing.
Kids who don’t pass the required tests the first time must retake them, and the other non-required state tests must still be offered since they are a way to prove “readiness” to graduate.
Real teaching and learning will be interrupted by test-taking and re-taking, just as it is now, and our curriculum must still focus on how to pass the state tests.
Under the new plan, high school seniors must show “competency” by earning certain scores, yet to be set, on the Algebra I and ELA II state tests. If they cannot earn the competency scores, which are being determined not by teachers, but by the Ohio Department of Higher Education and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, seniors have three additional options to show competency:
- they can earn proficient scores on the WorkKeys exam or earn other industry credentials — an option only truly available to kids who attend a vocational or career tech school;
- they can complete college coursework through the College Credit Plus program – an option most likely not realistic for kids who cannot earn passing scores on the state tests; or,
- they can enlist in the military.
Seniors show “readiness” by earning two additional “seals”, one of which is defined by the state and one of which can be locally designed and defined.
The locally defined seals will not be an obstacle for most students since they can be earned by participating in clubs, volunteering in the community, or demonstrating skill in the performing or fine arts.
The state-defined seals are much more daunting and most revolve around earning certain scores on tests — the ACT or SAT, AP or IB, the other state tests in American History, Government, or Biology; or, a very rigorous test in World Languages. There is only one other option to show readiness — join the military. Enlisting in the military is honorable and admirable, and it has been an excellent choice for many of my former students. However, it should be just that – a choice.
The timing of the state tests only exacerbates the problem.
In our district and many others, students must apply to the local career tech school by January of their sophomore year, so that the tech school has time to read applications and make program placements. However, students take the required ELA II state test for the first time in April of their sophomore year. Results are not available until late June.
I teach several juniors this year who are not going to the career tech school, and who found out this summer that they have not met the score requirements on the tests. They are now in the very dire situation of having no other choice but to join the military if they cannot raise those scores when they retake the test this year.
Not only did legislators overlook the fallout of their plan on Ohio’s students and their families, they failed to think about the mess schools are left to deal with by having THREE graduation plans in place. This year’s seniors can graduate under the band-aid plan passed last year, sophomores and juniors must meet the pre band-aid requirements, and the freshmen fall under the new plan. If older students can’t meet their requirements, they can try to meet the new ones.
Can you imagine explaining this convoluted mess to families, especially those with more than one child in high school?
The Ohio Excels motto, “Every Student, Every Day, Everybody’s Business,” is similar to my own school district’s motto, “Every Student, Every Minute, Every Day.”
In our motto, we don’t mention business because education is not a business and kids are not products moving along an assembly line. I suppose the Ohio legislature could justify accepting this business group’s plan by arguing that because graduates will enter the workforce in the near future, businesses should have some say in what kids should be able to do in order to earn a diploma. However, I would argue that educators who are working with kids in the immediate present should have an even louder voice in those decisions.
Perhaps the Ohio Excels motto means “everybody’s business” in the sense that a quality education of Ohio’s children is in the best interest of all citizens. If that’s true, the expertise of those working in the field of education should certainly count for something.
When legislators discuss educational policy at the table, shouldn’t our opinions be sought if for no other reason than to help point out the logistical problems with the proposed plan or to explain how the plan will affect real kids and their families?
Our input would allow them to see “teachers” and “students” not as mere words in an educational plan on paper, but as real people in real classrooms every day. Still, legislators fail to include teachers and principals in their decisions which affect education.
There is no college degree which qualifies legislators to know everything about the areas in which they make decisions, areas such as business, infrastructure, crime, the economy, healthcare, and public education.
Because we can’t expect legislators to know everything about the issues they legislate, we MUST expect them to listen to people with experience in those areas so that they can create realistic and beneficial policies. For example, seeking input from public school teachers could have saved the state from dealing with a plethora of messes, including the failure of the state school takeover law (HB 70), the debacle of the charter school industry, and the damage overtesting has done to our kids.
I’m tired of dealing with the fallout of poorly planned educational policies made with little to no input from those of us in the classroom.
When legislators don’t include teachers in decisions that impact our students, they are not only breaking promises to give us a seat at the table, they aren’t even inviting us to the meal. It’s time to crash the dinner party. And if we aren’t met with welcome, it’s time to quit begging for a seat at the table and instead take a stand at the polls.
— Julie Holderbaum is an English Instructor and an Academic Challenge Advisor at Minerva High School, Minerva, Ohio.
Dear So-called Average Teacher
By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
Now that summer is here and you have time to breathe and reflect on the school year that just ended, maybe you’re feeling that your year was just, well, average.
If each year of your career is a song on an album, there are a number of reasons why this past school year isn’t going to make it to your greatest hits compilation.
Maybe you had a challenging schedule, a new prep or a new grade level. Perhaps you had a group of kids who didn’t work well together, or who were less academically capable than previous groups.
Maybe you had to learn how to work with a new colleague very closely, which even in the best of circumstances is a stressor. Maybe you lost your best teaching buddy to another school or district, the one whose room you could walk into, shut the door, and say, “You won’t believe the day I had” and vent your frustrations with no worry of judgement.
Maybe there was an administration change in your building that didn’t go smoothly.
Maybe your students confided in you more than usual and you know who has probation officers, pregnant girlfriends, and neglectful or abusive home situations. You know who is having sex and who is drinking on the weekends and who is bouncing from one friend’s couch to the next since there is nowhere else to live. Frankly, what you know about your kids’ personal lives is a heavy burden that weighs on you at school and does not dissipate just because you walk through your own front door at the end of the day. In fact, it gets heavier when you look around at your healthy family and your safe, comfortable home and your belongings that would be luxuries to so many of your students.
“Stress is stress and it doesn’t always stop and start as we move between home and school.”
Perhaps you had a particularly stressful personal year. You went through a breakup, or your child started driving or dating, or everything that could break in your house, broke. Maybe a loved one passed away unexpectedly, or maybe you watched someone you love die a slow death, and even though you had time to say goodbye, it still hurts deeply. Either way, grief can wash over you like a tidal wave, soaking every part of your life, even when you’re at school. Personal stress affects who we are in and out of the classroom, and professional stress impacts our personal lives as well. Stress is stress and it doesn’t always stop and start as we move between home and school.
Maybe you feel like you didn’t do enough to support your profession this year.
You didn’t rally at the statehouse, you didn’t email or call one single legislator, and you didn’t go to union meetings.
Social media alone bombards you with reasons to do all of those things, especially in Ohio, and it can be completely overwhelming to try to keep up with all the reasons we have to be activists, let alone make time to take action.
And then maybe you looked around and saw teachers who can do it all.
Nothing average about them, not this year or any year.
They advocate fiercely and ceaselessly for public education, create new ways to teach old material that inspires students and garners positive attention from administrators, and they balance work and school stress with aplomb. They have boundless energy, unlimited ideas for positively impacting kids and schools, and good days far more often than bad. They reap the rewards of their efforts with outstanding test scores and any number of teacher awards or honors. They are resilient and resourceful and recognized, and THEY ARE CHANGING THE WORLD while you are just trying to get through the day and the faculty meeting at the end of it.
Listen. Those teachers don’t exist. Some people fake it better than others, but we all have work stress that weighs on us, problems that can’t be solved with a new lesson plan. We all have personal lives that involve some broken hearts and broken appliances. We all recognize the value of the work of the OEA to help teachers advocate for our students and our working conditions, but we can’t be Norma Rae standing on a table holding high a sign that says UNION every day. After all, it’s hard to teach while holding a sign and standing on a table.
True, it’s important to strive toward professional success and to have compassion for our students, even if their stories weigh on us. It’s important to have rich personal lives, even if they are, at times, painful. It’s important to fight for public education, even though the battles can be exhausting.
But it’s equally important to recognize that no one can excel at every part of life for any extended period of time. For various reasons, we have years that are simply average, probably more often than not. You know why there are movies about Erin Gruwell (Freedom Writers) and LouAnne Johnson (Dangerous Minds). Because teachers like that, as wonderful as they are, are anomalies. Most of us never reach those heights and no one expects us to.
Dave Stuart Jr., in his excellent book These Six Things, articulates this concept so well: “We are never finished becoming the teachers we hoped we’d be when we first set out.”[1]
The key is in the phrase “never finished”. Maybe you had an average year, for whatever reason. But think back to your first years of teaching. Are you better now than you were then? Most likely you are. There is no guarantee that we will one day be adorned with accolades and gold medals for teaching greatness. However, if we continue to strive to have a positive impact on the kids who walk into our classrooms every year, I think we are doing the job right.
We don’t always see, in immediate hindsight, the seeds that we have planted and the impact that we have had. During your “average” year, you may have unknowingly made one comment that turned around a student’s perspective on your subject area or even on his life.
I am admittedly biased, but I think a teacher who does an “average” job is still doing superhuman work that most people outside of education could not handle for a week, and even our average work can have a significant positive outcome on someone’s life.
When I became an educator, my high school government teacher told me that one of the blessings of teaching is that there are so many starts and stops. In no other profession are there so many built-in chances to begin again, whether it’s after a long weekend or at the dawn of a new school year.
So enjoy this momentary stop. Take a well-deserved rest. Appreciate the time to reset and rejuvenate. Reflect on the year that ended but look forward with hope to the year that is coming and the opportunity to continue working to be the teacher you set out to be when you first started. And then, in a few months, begin again.
[1] “These 6 Things – Dave Stuart Jr..” https://davestuartjr.com/these-6-things-how-to-focus-your-teaching-on-what-matters-most/. Accessed 13 Jun. 2019.
— Julie Holderbaum is an English Instructor and an Academic Challenge Advisor at Minerva High School, Minerva, Ohio.
Scott DiMauro: HB 239 — OEA Proponent Testimony
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
House Primary and Secondary Education Committee — Chair Blessing, Vice Chair Jones, Ranking Member Robinson and members of the Committee:
My name is Scott DiMauro. I am a high school social studies teacher from Worthington with 16 years of classroom experience, and I currently serve as Vice President of the Ohio Education Association (OEA).
On behalf of the 122,000 members of OEA, thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of House Bill 239, the Testing Reduction Act.
I would like to begin by thanking the joint sponsors, Representatives Gayle Manning and Erica Crawley, as well as the bi-partisan cosponsors of HB 239.
Over-testing is a real issue and it is keenly felt by Ohio’s parents, teachers and students. Students are experiencing testing anxiety and losing educational opportunities because of time spent on testing. I’m sure you’ve heard stories like these, and will no doubt hear more as you consider this bill.
Reducing testing is a worthy goal. To be clear, there will still be state-required and district-required testing if HB 239 is enacted. However, we are seeking greater balance which this bill helps to achieve. OEA enthusiastically supports the provisions of HB 239. I’ll review each of them briefly.
“Simply put, less time devoted to standardized testing means more time for teaching and learning in the classroom.”
Reducing State-Required Testing to Federal Minimums
Federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires a total of 17 tests for accountability purposes. These include annual testing in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Math in grades 3-8 as well as once in high school. Further, the law requires testing in science once in elementary school, middle school and high school.
Ohio has 21 state-required achievement or end-of-course tests.
In grades 3-8 the state-required tests align with federal minimums. However, Ohio has a total of seven end-of-course exams in high school; exceeding the federal minimums by four tests. HB 239 would eliminate end-of-course exams in Geography, ELA I, American History and American Government.
Eliminating a state-required test on these subjects does not mean that they will not be taught.
Our state standards and courses that students need to take and pass in order to graduate remain unchanged. OEA does not believe that we need a state-required test for a subject to be important. In seeking to reduce testing, the most immediate step lawmakers can take is to reduce state-required testing to the 17 tests required under federal law.
Work Groups on District-Required Testing
The amount of testing that students endure is not limited to the state-required tests. Testing required by the school district also plays a major role. The bill requires each school district to form a work group to examine the amount of time students spend on district-required testing and make recommendations to the district board of education about how to reduce the testing load on students.
This work group would consist of parents, teachers and school administrators. In making their recommendations, the work group would consider: the time students spend on district-required testing, the district testing calendar, whether groups of students are tested at a greater rate than others, the purpose and use of tests and testing data, the financial cost to the district, and whether any tests are duplicative. The work group would also consider any previous testing audit or examination of testing that the district may have already performed.
“OEA believes there is great value in having this discussion at the district level.”
It can lead to recommendations that reduce testing time, save money and return instructional time to the classroom. It can also lead to a greater understanding among stakeholders as to the purpose and value of testing that is currently in place. OEA feels it is vitally important that teachers and parents are a central part of this conversation and strongly supports this provision of the bill.
Annual Board Resolution for Districts that Exceed Testing Caps
Current law establishes a cap on testing time.
Senate Bill 3, passed in the 131st General Assembly, states that school districts should ensure that no student is required to spend a cumulative amount of time in excess of 2% of the school year taking state-required or district-required assessments or 1% of the school year taking practice or diagnostic tests to prepare for testing. However, the local board of education may exceed those limits by passing a resolution after holding a public meeting.
At present it is unclear how many school boards have passed such a resolution. The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) does not track this information. Districts that are exceeding the testing caps may have passed a resolution as a one-time action or possibly not taken the action at all.
HB 239 would require an annual passage of such a resolution if the district is exceeding testing caps and would require the local school board to consider recommendations of the local work group consisting of parents, teachers and administrators. Such resolutions would be reported to the Department and ODE would issue an annual report on student testing time. This report will help to quantify how much time students are spending on testing and will help inform policymakers at the state and local level.
Voluntary Participation in the ACT/SAT
Current law prescribes that the ACT or SAT be administered to all 11th grade students each spring.
It is a great benefit to students that the state offers a paid administration of a college entrance exam.
However, if a student’s post-secondary plans do not include college (for instance a student enrolled in a career-technical program) then taking the ACT or SAT goes from a benefit to just another test they’re required to take.
HB 239 would require that the ACT/SAT is offered to 11th graders but that participation of students would be voluntary. OEA supports this change and believes that participation should be subject to a parental opt-out.
Closing Remarks
Chair Blessing, once again thank you for the opportunity to testify. There is a great deal of support and enthusiasm for reducing testing among OEA’s membership that is shared by students and parents around Ohio. OEA urges favorable consideration of HB 239.
I would be happy to answer questions at this time.
Current law prescribes that the ACT or SAT be administered to all 11th grade students each spring.
It is a great benefit to students that the state offers a paid administration of a college entrance exam.
However, if a student’s post-secondary plans do not include college (for instance a student enrolled in a career-technical program) then taking the ACT or SAT goes from a benefit to just another test they’re required to take.
HB 239 would require that the ACT/SAT is offered to 11th graders but that participation of students would be voluntary. OEA supports this change and believes that participation should be subject to a parental opt-out.
Closing Remarks
Chair Blessing, once again thank you for the opportunity to testify. There is a great deal of support and enthusiasm for reducing testing among OEA’s membership that is shared by students and parents around Ohio. OEA urges favorable consideration of HB 239.
I would be happy to answer questions at this time.
Additional Testimony Provided by the Following OEA Members
- Noel Blevins – Newark Teachers Association*
- Dan Heintz — Chardon Education Association
- Courtney Johnson — Columbus Education Association
- Kallee Bernish-Good — Student, Ft. Hayes Metropolitan High School, Columbus
- Colleen O’Connell — Reynoldsburg Education Association
- Rob Schofield — Avon Lake Education Association
- Erin Stevens — Pickerington Education Association*
- Gretchen Tash — Princeton Association of Classroom Educators
- Mandy Wagner — Canton Professional Educators’ Association
* Written Testimony Only
Daria’s Registration Page
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, inermis graecis sit no. Solet nominavi rationibus cu cum, cu sea semper option. Eam no animal mediocritatem, te duo clita nullam, eu libris necessitatibus his. Salutandi complectitur quo no, ea ullum dicant sapientem usu, id mea populo gloriatur sadipscing.
April-May Ohio Schools Magazine
April-May 2019 Ohio Schools Magazine
Cover Story: Strengthening Students — Central Ohio educators lead students in the practice of mindfulness and yoga
• U.S. Senate Approves Bill Recognizing ESP and Classified School Employees
• Targeting Takeovers
• OEA Encouraged by Recent Efforts to Address School Funding in Ohio
When Anxiety Over Takes a Test
Guest Blog by a member of the OEA/Eastern Local CTA | The actual name has been withheld to protect the identity of the student.
I recently read the article in the February edition of “Ohio Schools” and it brought to mind not one of my students but that of my own son’s testing anxiety when he was in the 6th grade.
“…what his teacher who was proctoring the test told me left me heartbroken for him.”
It was the first year the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) was given.
My son is an excellent student who is high achiever, so I can’t put all the blame on the test or even his teachers. I do know that he verbally and physically showed signs of severe stress in the weeks up to taking the tests that spring, which is a good sign that he valued the importance of it, but what his teacher who was proctoring the test told me left me heartbroken for him. She said that at the end of one test session he was so overcome with anxiety that he started stabbing himself in the forearm with his own pencil.
Upon hearing this, I had a long talk with him about the importance of standardized testing for students at his grade level. I told him that the only one’s held accountable for the scores were his teachers and his district.
He’s now a freshman in high school who has already taken the ACT, has straight A’s, and will be dual-enrolled in classes at a local university next year through College Credit Plus. He still has anxiety about testing, but at least knows that he will be held accountable for his performance to not only graduate but eventually earn a degree. | #OverTestedOH #RedForEd
The author is an English Language Arts educator and a member of Eastern Local CTA
Click here for more #OverTestedOH & #RedForEd Voices and How to Make a Stand
