By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association

I can’t remember a time when teaching hasn’t been part of my story, when I didn’t answer, “Be a teacher” to the ubiquitous question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Although I loved to read, it wasn’t until 7th grade, when I had Joyce Schiff for English, that I decided what I wanted to teach. Many other teachers also influenced me along the way. I considered becoming a music teacher after singing in Linda Boyd’s choir and I toyed with teaching history after taking Paul Tefft’s government class, but my true desire was to teach literature, the classic stories of the past and present.

It didn’t take me long to realize that my little fantasy about discussing great literature with kids all day was far from reality. Teaching English in today’s world is less about reading and discussing good stories than it is about preparing for different types of test questions and learning how to pace oneself when reading a nonfiction passage on a usually terribly outdated and irrelevant topic in a certain amount of time. A colleague recently bemoaned the fact that she feels torn between preparing her students for real life and preparing them for the standardized tests. Any good teacher knows that struggle.

In addition to teaching content and preparing kids for mandated tests, educators now have to crunch data, keep up with changing legislation, and generally be prepared on any given day to prove to politicians that we are not doing irreparable damage to the youth of America.

Many high-profile teachers have had enough. They have decided to serve kids in other ways. Their resignations have made national news and their eloquent explanations for their decision to leave the profession have gone viral. So why do those of us who stay in the classroom do it?

I do it because I want my students to know that they are more than a test score, more than a box on a spreadsheet. I teach because some of my students have home lives that are so foreign to my own experience that it still seems a miracle to me when they show up to school and put any effort into my class at all. I want them to know, there is an adult who cares about them, who believes in them, who celebrates their victories, and who hurts over their failures. I want them to know that while I can’t change the situation they go home to, I can help them forge a path out of their past and into a future where they will have more control over the kind of life they live.

I teach because I love a good challenge. I teach because overcoming the constant changes in education is empowering. I teach because there is no other high in this world like seeing a student who didn’t believe in himself, achieve a success beyond my highest expectations. I teach because I work with some of the hardest-working, most passionate people in the world. I teach for the sense of camaraderie that happens when good teachers problem-solve together.

I teach because this job is never boring. How many people, other than teachers, show up to work on a cold winter’s day and are greeted by a 6-foot tall, anatomically correct snow penis in front of their place of work?

I once read a poem written by a shy, quiet girl who wrote about dreaming of a boy’s “sweet genital kisses”. (She meant “gentle”). And then there’s the essay many years ago about what we should put in a time capsule in the year 2000 so people in the future will know what we did for fun. The answer? “Compacted dicks”. Fifteen years later, compact disks are becoming obsolete, but I will never forget that answer! I teach because when you spend your days with kids, there is always humor.

Teaching gives me something to laugh about, cry about, write about, and pray about. I teach because I can’t imagine working this hard for a job that isn’t going to have an impact on society.

The thanks I get from my students, in letters and emails and Facebook posts, is worth more than a fat paycheck for a job where I don’t make a difference. I teach because Joyce Schiff, Linda Boyd, and Paul Tefft each in their own way made me believe that I could do anything I wanted, and what I wanted was to be like them, to have both passion for content and compassion for kids.

I stay in education because it’s who I am, it’s an integral part of my story. I teach because when I walk into my classroom each day and see the empty desks, I know that those desks will soon be filled with kids whose stories are still unfolding. I teach because the stories of my students are worth knowing.

I can only speak for myself. We each have our own story, the narrative of who we are, what we believe, what we do, and why we do it.

What’s your story? Send us an image that expresses why you do it.

Registration Open for Focus Groups

The Ohio Department of Education is seeking your feedback on a draft of the revised Ohio Technology Learning Standards. Feedback will be used to refine the draft document for review and adoption by the State Board of Education. K–12 teachers, curriculum directors and administrators representing all content areas are invited.

Focus Group Regions and Meeting Dates:

• Gallia-Vinton ESC: 10/19/15, 12:00-4:00
• Southern Ohio ESC: 11/5/15, 12:00-4:00
• Wood County ESC: 11/9/15, 12:00-4:00
• Mahoning County ESC: 11/12/15, 12:00-4:00
• Ohio Dept. of Agriculture (Central Ohio): 11/16/15, 8:30-12:30

Click on the link below for more information and to register in STARS (keyword: technology) – https://safe.ode.state.oh.us/portal

By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association

The education news in Ohio recently is so utterly unbelievable it reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live Weekend Update segment “Really?” with Seth Myers and Amy Poehler. Governor Kasich wants to abolish teachers’ “lounges”. Really? David Hansen intentionally excluded online charter school failure rates in order to make them look more successful. Really? Superintendent Ross circumnavigated the State Board of Education to override the Youngstown improvement plan to create a new one. The state legislature pushed through the legislation allowing that move in one day, giving no time for debate. Really?

We are facing an educational perfect storm, a storm that could damage if not destroy public education in Ohio.

Let’s start with the actions of State Superintendent Richard Ross, who did not tell the State School Board members that he was working to create a new plan for Youngstown schools, a plan that in part puts a CEO in charge, promotes more charter schools, takes power away from the locally elected school board, and could “possibly override parts of union contracts”.^[1] His decision shows a lack of respect for the process in place, for the teachers and community of Youngstown, and for the Board itself, since several of its members traveled to Youngstown to discuss what was working and what needed improved upon in the (then) current plan, oblivious to the fact that their boss had another plan in the works. This matters to all of us, even if we don’t teach in Youngstown, because the people who backed the CEO plan in Youngstown are the same people who can change the way schools are rated, and any one of our public schools could be deemed a failing school very easily.

Governor Kasich supports this new plan. The governor even went so far as to say of the Youngstown school board, “What do they want to do? They want kids to continue to fail? People ought to be outraged when kids are trapped in failing schools. It’s a disgrace.”^[2] Really? If he cares so much about kids attending failing schools, why has he been silent on the disgraceful state of charter schools in Ohio? Why has Kasich made no public comment about the Focus on Collective Integrity charter school in Columbus that closed at the end of August with little to no notice to parents, forcing them to scramble to enroll their children in Columbus Public Schools after the school year there had already begun? Have those students’ records been made available to their parents and new schools yet? Has the $383,000 Columbus Public Schools were forced to hand over to FCI been returned to that district?^[3] If a traditional public school had posted a sign on the door saying it was simply not opening, made it difficult to access student records, and taken money from the state only weeks before closing, I am certain our governor would have lambasted its irresponsible and damaging actions. But somehow, charter schools escape his criticism. Really?

Kasich has shown steadfast support for Superintendent Ross, despite the fact that some members of the state board of education have called for an independent investigation to look into Ross’ participation in or knowledge of the charter school evaluations debacle and the secretive Youngstown Plan,^[4] and several lawmakers have called for the Board to dismiss Ross as state superintendent^[5]. I find it very hard to believe that Ross was not involved or at least in the know about David Hansen’s actions regarding charter school rankings. Recently released records of emails and texts show that at least a half dozen ODE employees knew about Hansen’s efforts to scrub the low rankings,^[6] so Ross was either completely oblivious (and therefore not paying enough attention to what his employees were doing) or he was complicit in the coverup and has allowed David Hansen to take the fall. Since Kasich appointed the majority of the state school board, and the board appointed the state superintendent, one has to wonder not only if Ross knew about Hansen’s scheme, but if Kasich knew about it as well. And let’s not forget in the “truth is stranger than fiction” category, Hansen’s wife is Governor Kasich’s presidential campaign manager. Really?

So our cast of characters includes a governor who supports failing charter schools and a plan to put a CEO in charge of a struggling school district, a state superintendent who left the state school board in the dark about his participation in creating the takeover plan, a high-ranking Department of Education employee who intentionally scrubbed low rankings of charter schools, and a presidential campaign manager with close ties to all three. Unfortunately, this isn’t fiction; for teachers, students, and parents in Ohio, these aren’t characters, but real-life people who have a lot of power. If this were a “based on a true story” movie, the happy ending would include the corrupt leaders of our state’s education system getting ousted and a new era beginning with pro-public education leaders in place. The music would swell and the audience would leave feeling uplifted because the “good guys” had saved the day and the state of education in Ohio.

We have to be the good guys.

We have to wage the war; we have to stand up for what’s right and call out those in charge who are inept at best and corrupt at worst. We can’t sit idly by as if we are mindlessly eating popcorn while watching a movie, because this is our reality; our profession and our kids are under attack. And both are worth fighting for. Really.

^[1] “State Supt. Ross kept Youngstown plan under cover – even …” 2015. 7 Sep. 2015 <http://cleveland.suntimes.com/cle-politics-government/7/91/254430/state-supt-ross-kept-youngstown-plan-under-cover-even-as-state-board-took-trip-there>

^[2] “Kasich addresses controversy over the Youngstown City Schools CEO plan.” 2015. 7 Sep. 2015 <http://www.wfmj.com/story/29964853/kasich-addresses-controversy-over-the-youngstown-city-schools-ceo-plan>

^[3] “Columbus Charter School Shutters Doors … – Cincinnati.” 2015. 8 Sep. 2015 <http://cincinnati.suntimes.com/cin-politics-government/7/102/274789/columbus-charter-school-shutters-doors-where-are-student-records-where-is-395000-in-funding>

^[4] “Ohio school board members call for charter probe.” 2015. 8 Sep. 2015 <http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/08/04/ohio-school-board-members-call-charter-probe/31123513/>

^[5] “Top Democratic Lawmakers Call On State Board Of …” 2015. 8 Sep. 2015 <http://www.ohiohouse.gov/democrats/press/top-democratic-lawmakers-call-on-state-board-of-education-to-remove-superintendent>

^[6] “Ohio charter-school snafu: Workers – not John Kasich …” 2015. 8 Sep. 2015 <http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/09/03/john-kasich-charter-school-records-presidential-significance/71641600/>

By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association

This year was the 20th time I have joined my local association. Honestly, the first time I did it, I was young and naive and so used to signing papers that I think I just filled out the form that was given to me and didn’t think much about it. I don’t remember anyone asking me to join or explaining the benefits of joining; it just seemed like something other teachers were doing, and so I followed the crowd and signed on the dotted line.

It is, of course, an option. One doesn’t have to join the union. Those who don’t usually have two reasons: the money and the politics. It may seem that you are saving money by not joining, but if you use the many benefits the union provides, you get a lot of that money back in savings. It may seem that you are supporting one political party over another when you join, and it’s true that the OEA and NEA does endorse political candidates (although no dues dollars are used for political campaigns), but that doesn’t mean you have to vote for those candidates. An endorsement simply means that the union believes that one candidate’s views on public education are more in line with our beliefs than the other candidate’s; if a member has other issues that weigh greater in her decision-making than education, no one is forcing her to vote for the OEA-endorsed candidate.

Over the years, as I have grown as a teacher, I have learned much more about what belonging to the union means. It’s more than just a form to sign on Convocation Day or one more deduction from my paycheck. As a member of my local association and the OEA, Being part of the screening process of local candidates, getting to talk to candidates face-to-face and discuss with other union members whether or not we should endorse them, has really changed the way I view elections. I have been a delegate to the representative assemblies and have seen first-hand how important decisions for the entire OEA are made based on the input and debate of individual members. I have written letters to my legislators — because the union has kept me updated on issues in the legislature that affect public education. Locally, I have been a part of a negotiations committee that analyzed the funding cuts from the state and how those cuts would impact our staff’s insurance contributions and salaries, who tried to find a balance between being responsible to the community while being supportive of our teachers, and who advocated for fair benefits for our staff and improved conditions for our classrooms and students. I have signed petitions against SB 5 and gone door-to-door in my town asking for more signatures. I have attended legal update meetings and learned about court cases in the state of Ohio that affect teachers. I have used my membership to get discounts on cars, movie tickets, magazine subscriptions, and cell phone plans. And perhaps most personally, I have used the benefit of the Attorney Referral Program to get two free legal sessions with an attorney who helped me create a will after my husband died.

Teaching can be an isolating job; we spend most of our time at work in a classroom alone with our students. Being a part of the association gives us that sense of belonging to a greater entity, the feeling that we are not alone. And that is even more important now than it was 20 years ago when I first joined the union, because now more than ever teachers are being disrespected, blamed, and threatened by those in power (I’m talking to you, Mr. Christie). We must stick together, and the best way to do that is not only to join the union, but to get involved in the union. So this year when I went back to school, I didn’t just blindly sign the form like I did 20 years ago. I signed it knowing very well what it means to me and how being an active member impacts my professional and personal life. I’ll also take a minute to fill in the new, young teachers about the benefits of joining the union. Because public education has some big fights ahead; and frankly, we’re going to need their energy.

The Ohio Department of Education is seeking input regarding the Draft of the Financial Literacy Model Curriculum. Individuals or groups of educators can review the Draft Financial Literacy Model Curriculum and then fill out and submit their comments. The review period for the Financial Literacy Model Curriculum has been extended and will close on September 25, 2015. Click here to submit your comments.

By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association

1. Parents are not the enemy, but it can feel like it when your first contact with them is concerning a problem. Be proactive. Communicate early and often.

• Call within the first month of school just to say you are enjoying getting to know the student, or to comment on an assignment done particularly well. Parents are shocked by this and they do not forget it.
• Maintain a website with daily assignments, etc. Teacherweb.com is a good site to use and it costs only about $35 per year (tax deductible). My site is teacherweb.com/oh/minervahighschool/julierine if you want to see some of the features. They also have free trial periods.
• Send monthly e-mail updates. Ask for parents’ e-mail addresses the first week of school. I have my students’ parents sign a form indicating that they have read my rules and policies, and I include a spot for them to write in their e-mail address. I also ask them to e-mail me something awesome about their child that I should know. (I give blanks in case they don’t have e-mail, but this way I get a lot of addresses just from their responses to that question.)

2. It is NOT about the test scores. Although you will hear about standards and test scores and data over and over again, it is about the students. If you teach with the test in mind, you will lose touch with the students and they will learn nothing. If you teach with the students in mind, you will stay connected to them, they will learn, and the test results will take care of themselves.

3. It is your job to care more than the kids do. There will be days when you will get frustrated because it seems that YOU care about your students’ learning more than they do. One teacher told me once that she refused to care more than her students did. But remember, it is your JOB to care more than they do! You are older, and you understand the value of what you are teaching them and how important it is for their futures that they learn it. You get paid to care more than they do. It is your JOB.

4. Teaching is your job, but it is NOT your life. Try very hard not to bring school work home with you. This is a hard habit to break once you start.

5. Every good teacher needs a Feel Good File. This is where you keep notes from students, parents, principals, etc. telling you how awesome you are. When you are having a truly hard day and feeling as if you are not doing a good job, pull out your Feel Good File and remember that you are not a complete failure at this gig.

6. Get a good massage therapist. Splurge once a month or so. It relieves stress (and you WILL be stressed!) and gets rid of toxins (and you WILL be exposed to various forms of cooties!). And, you will deserve it because teaching is the toughest job there is. And while we’re talking about treating yourself, the sooner you realize that high-quality, comfortable shoes are more of a necessity than a luxury, the better. Trust me on this.

7. You will not get rich teaching. But unlike any other profession, with teaching, there is always a start and a stop. You can survive until Thanksgiving break. And then you can survive until Christmas, etc. No other profession offers the chance to rejuvenate and refresh as often as teaching. No, you do not get paid for those breaks, but I think they are more valuable than a few extra bucks.

8. Remember that everyone behaves reasonably from his or her perspective. This includes parents, students, colleagues, and even administrators. You will have disagreements, and you will sometimes find unbelievable the decisions that other people make. But if you remember this little rule, it might make dealing with those differences of opinion a little less volatile. I once had a principal who preached this concept to us; ironically, I found myself most often having to remember this when trying to accept his actions. However, it is easier to remain professional when you remember that the other person is behaving reasonably from his perspective. You still have a right to disagree, but you might feel less frustrated and heated about the issue if you can keep this in mind.

9. Get used to change. Principals change, policies change, standards change, state and federal laws change, and usually this change happens just when you’ve gotten really good at dealing with the way it was. If you remember that it is all about the kids, and preparing them for their futures, the change is more palatable. No matter what changes, kids largely remain the same. They crave love, attention, routine, discipline, smiles, and free days. They want to feel important to you. They might not recognize how valuable the education was that you gave them until years later, and even then, only a few will come back and say thank you. But those moments when they do are priceless, and worth the ever-changing hoops you jumped through to get that paltry paycheck.

10. There is always someone willing to listen. Other teachers “get it” like no one else can. Resist the temptation to deal with your stress by yourself. When you are overwhelmed or in need of advice, talk to a veteran teacher, or call your favorite high school teacher. Read a teaching blog. Get involved in your local association or another teacher’s group. Surrounding yourself with people who share your struggles and appreciate your victories will make the highs and lows of this job much easier to endure.

How about you? What tips would you share with new teachers as we start this school year?

By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association

Last week, ODE official David Hansen resigned after admitting that he left out failing grades for some charter schools in the evaluations of the groups who sponsor them. His defense was that the F grades of those schools, when factored in with the other grades, would “mask successes elsewhere”¹.

A simple Google search of “Ohio charter schools” will give you two things: a list of general charter school information sites as well as specific charter schools available, and many, many articles about the horrifying state of charter schools in Ohio. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal, and the Columbus Dispatch have all written critical articles or editorials about the lack of accountability and transparency with Ohio’s charter schools. The Washington Post even ran an article that called Ohio’s charter schools a “joke”, with sufficient evidence to support that claim. To anyone who cares about education, however, there is no humor in the situation.

To be certain, charter schools can seem so tempting. To parents whose child is not behaving or performing well in public school, a chorus of angels seems to sing out that the answer is to utilize their choice to leave their public school for the charter school with all the answers. To parents whose child excels in the arts or who has a knack for science and math, schools who focus on those areas seem like a way to cultivate their child’s dreams. To be sure, some charter schools do a very good job of living up to their advertisements, and I have no doubt whatsoever that teachers at charter schools do just as much as their counterparts in traditional public schools to motivate, inspire, and challenge their students.

But the sheer number of articles detailing the problems with Ohio’s charter schools indicate there are clearly issues that need addressed. The bottom line is that in many cases, they just aren’t getting the job done, unless the job is misspending an obscene amount of taxpayer money while producing lackluster academic results. There is no requirement for those who run charter schools to disclose how they spend either donations or taxpayer dollars, while standardized tests scores from charter school students are some of the lowest in the country.² To make matters worse, Ohio’s school funding system, which has been ruled unconstitutional but has never been fixed, basically forces local communities to make up the losses suffered by public schools when the money from the state follows students to an under-performing charter school. An investigation by the Akron Beacon Journal found that “70 cents of every Ohio tax dollar identified as misspent, often illegally, can be traced back to a charter school or the people who run them”³. That is beyond unacceptable, it is reprehensible, especially when State Auditor Dave Yost visited a charter school in Youngstown unannounced and found “not a single student”⁴.

And now, the man who arguably (by job title) was the biggest advocate for school choice, has tried to hide the failure of some charter schools to make the successes of some look greater. ODE has required in recent years that part of a teacher’s evaluation is “student growth”, measured by standardized tests and pre and post assessments created by the teacher. What if I decided to leave out the low scores on my data because it would “mask” the successes of higher-achieving students? I’m sure the ODE would not find this acceptable. Certainly the right decision was made by the State Board of Education to call out Mr. Hansen on his actions.

But more must be done.

Senator Sherrod Brown recently introduced the “Charter School Accountability Act of 2015”. If passed, there would be “stipulations requiring added transparency and accountability” for states who accept federal dollars to help open new or expand current charter schools.⁵ Critics argue that Brown is trying to increase federal involvement in charter schools because of Ohio’s deplorable track record, and that oversight is better left to state officials. Clearly though, as evidenced by past history and the recent revelations about David Hansen’s actions, we cannot trust our state officials to make the necessary improvements in charter school reform.

Once again, it falls to us to advocate for Ohio’s children and take up the fight. We need to educate those who care about our kids. We need to write letters to the editor and posts on social media. We need to make sure every Ohio taxpayer knows about www.knowyourcharter.com, which compares in very succinct manner the local public school vs. the local charter schools. When I compared my school to the local charter schools, I found that my public school’s performance index (grade) was higher than every one of them, yet our state funding per student was at least $1000 (and as much at $10,000) lower than every one of them. A whopping $316,718 has been transferred from my tiny district to nearby charter schools.

The charter school movement in Ohio, as it currently stands, is failing kids and taxpayers. I went into education to be a teacher, not to be a political advocate, but the fact is, the job now requires it. No one is more qualified to advocate for Ohio’s kids than Ohio’s teachers, and we must not let them down.

¹ “Official resigns after some charter schools’ Fs excluded” 2015. 19 Jul. 2015

² “Troubled Ohio charter schools have become a joke — literally.” 2015. 19 Jul. 2015

³ “Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown introduces national charter school reforms” 2015. 19 Jul. 2015

⁴ ibid

⁵ “Brown Introduces Bill to Strengthen Charter Schools by Improving Accountability and Transparency” 2015. 19 Jul. 2015

Dear Governor Kasich and Ohio Legislators,

When I heard the news last week, my first instinct was to raise my fist in the air and yell “YESSSS!” You listened to the very public outcry from teachers and parents, and you got rid of the PARCC.

Then I began to think about the weeks of my life I spent training to prepare my students for the test. The summer days I missed being with my own daughter because I was in a workshop learning how the PARCC was structured. The days I missed teaching my students because I was taking the practice test myself with my colleagues, so we would know what we were preparing our kids to do. The time on my own that I spent revising my lesson plans and my assessments to mimic the PARCC style so that my students would be familiar with the format.

And then there’s the time PARCC wasted in my classroom. The days I spent giving my kids revised assignments so they could get used to the two-part questions and comparison/contrast style essays. The days we spent going to the computer labs to practice logging in (this ended up being five days before we were all successfully able to do it, due to computer issues and other communication fails on PARCC’s part). The days of learning we missed while we were actually taking the test, and the days we couldn’t move too far ahead because half of the class was testing in another subject during English class. The time involved in this little experiment, as you can see, was extensive.

I’m not a psychologist, so I won’t even try to calculate the damage done emotionally to kids who were frustrated at best and traumatized at worst by the PARCC. But I did witness it. My honors students, who want to do their best on any task given to them, gave it their all, which exhausted them and made many of them feel “stupid” for the first time in their lives. This could be because analyses of the practice tests showed that the reading selections were at least two grade levels higher than the grade of the students being assessed¹ or because many of the test questions were so poorly written that my colleagues and I had a hard time figuring out what was actually being asked when we took the practice test.

I’m not sure even our best math teacher could figure out the financial cost of the PARCC debacle. The news says 26 million dollars² was spent just for PARCC to provide the tests to Ohio. This does not factor in the money school districts spent on training their teachers and subs for those teachers who were trained during the school day. I can’t even begin to imagine the true financial cost.

So yes, while I am relieved in many ways that the PARCC is now history, I’m also angry. I’m angry that my kids were used as guinea pigs on a very large scale for your little adventure in testing. Let me be clear; I have no problem with the Common Core Standards. I think they are tougher than the old standards, but they are realistic for the most part and worth striving toward.  Raising the bar is good for Ohio’s kids and I think teachers are up to the task of doing that. But the PARCC test was rushed out and a lot of money was made by a lot of people who were invested not in our kids’ education, but in PARCC and Pearson.

If I hadn’t taught for 20 years, if I still had that naivety that young teachers have, I would dare to hope that you would follow up the “no more PARCC” announcement with one that says, “Listen. We trust that Ohio’s professional, degreed teachers know how to teach to the standards they are given. And we trust that if a student passes their classes, then the professional, degreed teachers have determined that he has mastered at least the minimum skills necessary in that area to move forward. So there will be no more state-wide standardized tests to determine which students, teachers, and schools are failing. We will put our faith in you, the educators. We trust that you will not pass kids through without basic skills, that you will challenge every kid to go well beyond the minimum, and that you will will make fair accommodations for the kids with learning disabilities. After all, YOU are the ones who have studied teaching methods and your content area for years, earning one or many times two degrees, and continuing to refine your practice with professional development after your degrees were earned. And YOU are the ones who have actual classroom experience. So we know you’ve got this. We’re going to stick to dealing with the economy of the state, and maybe by doing so we can figure out what to do about the funding of public schools and your students who live in poverty, both of which would help you do your jobs. Teach on.”

Sadly, I know that is completely unrealistic. There will be another test, more money made, more frustration, more time spent, more money wasted. You want accountability, and standardized tests seem to be the only way you can think of to get it. I can’t change that, but I ask you to use your position of leadership to legislate common sense. I urge you to trust teachers’ judgment, to include us in your decisions about tests and testing, and to take your time in replacing the PARCC. Please listen to our opinions before the tests are given, rather than dealing with our outrage after the damage is done. Remember that you are not dealing with products on an assembly line, variables in a science experiment, or numbers in a spreadsheet. You are dealing with children and their experience with learning and with school. I hope we can all agree that our goal for Ohio’s kids is not to teach them how to master taking a standardized test by the time they graduate, but to inspire in them a love of learning and a passion for bettering themselves through knowledge and discipline. If Ohio’s students graduate with those attributes, I believe our teachers will have done a good job and our state will be in good hands. Even if we don’t have the test data to back it up.

Sincerely,
A Frustrated Teacher
Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association

¹ “PARCC Tests and Readability: A Close Look Russ on …” 2015. 1 Jul. 2015
² “Ohio dumps the PARCC Common Core tests after woeful first year.” 2015. 1 Jul. 2015

By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association

It was the second day of the Spring RA in Columbus. As my colleague and I walked to the Convention Center, a young teacher in front of us talked on her cell phone. When she ended the call, she said to us, “You’re teachers, right? With OEA? Get this, my friend said she heard there are picketers outside the convention center!” The three of us discussed who else was meeting that day that would warrant protests. We knew there was a dance competition and some volleyball tournaments and MARCON, whose members might be a little eccentric, but surely weren’t the cause of protests.

Imagine our surprise when we neared the convention center and saw that WE were the cause of the protests. The signs read OEA Kills Babies and OEA Advocates Homosexuality. There were only a few protesters, and it was a short walk from where we were to the main doors, but it only took a few people and a few steps to fire me up. As we got closer, I yelled that I had no agenda other than accepting all of my kids.

“Oh yes, you do! You all do!” a woman yelled back with pure hatred in her voice.

My blood boiling, I started walking over to her, but my colleague pulled me away. “Let it go,” he said.

But as I sat through the meeting that day, I could not let it go. I still can’t. It infuriates me.

Yes, I love and accept my LGTBQ students. I treat them the same way I treat my straight students, my poor students, my rich students, my blonde students, and my short students. I try very hard to treat all of my kids with respect regardless of their backgrounds or baggage, their identities or their ideas, even when I don’t particularly like their attitudes or approve of the choices they make.

OEA is an organization focused on one issue: public education. As members, we are making a statement that we care about and support public education. There are OEA members who support pro-life groups, and there are OEA members who believe, for religious or other reasons, that being gay is a choice, an immoral choice. But being members of the OEA doesn’t mean we have to agree with each other or with a candidate whom OEA supports on those or any other issues; it means we share a position on public education.

One of my colleagues once gave me the advice that we cannot focus on the fantasy of how things should be, but instead we must deal with the reality of how things are. The reality is that we have kids in our classrooms every day who are in great pain, who feel that the way they feel or the choices they have made are unacceptable and wrong. They are bullied and beaten down by words or fists. They are mocked and made to feel like freaks. They have lost friends and family because of who they are or what they have done. That’s why it is unfathomable to me that anyone would not want our classrooms to be a place of safety and acceptance, a place where a teenager can feel respected and be treated with common decency. One of my favorite writers, Jon Pavlovitz, has been called a LGBTQ ally. His response to this? “I’m an ally for all people; I just consider LGBTQ people, people.” As professionals, this is how educators must view our students. We must be an ally and an advocate for all of them.

Those who protest with signs at our meetings don’t seem to understand what OEA is all about. OEA does not dictate how we must feel about gay rights or abortion or any other of the countless current topics that merit discussion and dialogue.

OEA cares about how we feel about educational issues, and that is why we have RA assemblies where we are given a voice. There were some hot topics at the Spring RA, several debates and spirited discussions, and it’s okay for us to have different opinions, even on topics that impact public education. But there is one belief that must unite us no matter our personal feelings about anything else: being an OEA member means that we believe that every kid, regardless of sexual orientation, race, gender, family situation, ability, religion, or socio-economic status, deserves to have a fighting chance at success and a quality education. Some may protest what they think we stand for, and that is their right. What matters most is that WE understand what we stand for, and that we are united in advocating for all of Ohio’s kids.

Moving Towards Better Education Policy,
One Step at a Time

by Dan Greenberg, Sylvania Education Association

Picture this:

• Adequately funded public schools across the state
• Low-performing charter schools shut down
• Authentic assessments replacing the mountain of standardized tests
• An end to the practice of tying teacher pay and ratings to standardized test scores.

I can’t even put into words how much better our education system would be; how student and teacher morale would improve, how many programs and courses could be restored, how much more authentic learning could happen in classrooms across the state…

Knowing that these reforms are what schools need, teachers, parents and children have worked for these changes, in a variety of ways, throughout this school year. They have hosted forums, engaged in conversations with community members, started support groups on Facebook and contacted elected officials.

Despite all of the advocacy, however, none of these issues has been resolved.

Knowing that these issues still linger, it’s easy to get depressed and frustrated. However, if we ever want to win this struggle for public education, we can’t afford to get discouraged. We have to focus on the things we have gained this year.

Before this school year started, how many people knew what the State Board of Education did, let alone that we even had a State Board of Education? Yet, because the State Board of Education sought to remove “5 of 8” language for staffing education specialists, like art teachers and counselors, people across the state were moved to action. Over 70,000 emails and letters were sent to Board members, and although the “5 of 8” language was ultimately still removed, the awareness and engagement that came from this issue has prompted state legislators to take up the cause thanks to advocacy efforts from parents and teachers.

There have been gains on charter school accountability as well. The narrative that we need more “school choice” is changing, as people realize that school choice, with little or no oversight, leads to big profits for charter school tycoons like William Lager and David Brennan, not better schools for Ohio’s children. Countless newspapers have run stories about charter school abuses, and there are efforts in the legislature to create laws that force charter schools to be more transparent.

The area of testing is where we’ve made the most gains. Although many didn’t realize, as the year began, just how terrible the standardized testing situation was going to be, a great awakening happened this winter, as classrooms turned into testing zones. People began to realize that the tests were about labeling teachers, not helping kids. They saw the money and time that was wasted on the tests, and the toll the tests were taking on children. They knew that something needed to be done, and so parents, teachers, students, school board members and administrators advocated together. School boards made resolutions against the tests. Superintendents across the state spoke out, explaining the testing flaws. Parents and students shared their stories, explaining the undue anxiety and suffering children were experiencing.

From the outcry came action. Senator Peggy Lehner formed the Senate Advisory Committee on Testing. Finally, there was a committee that included a broad-base of education stakeholders.   Among them were teachers from around the state. This shouldn’t have been a big deal, but considering how many state education decisions have come without teacher consultation, this was huge. The Committee’s recommendations included a reduction in the number of tests and the amount of time spent on testing, as well as more accommodations for students on IEPs and a “safe harbor” for the impact of test scores on teachers and school districts. While the recommendations don’t pull the plug on standardized testing, they do offer significant improvements to the system. If adopted, the changes will have a positive impact on schools next year.

So, while we haven’t achieved the education system we know is best, we have made gains. We have raised awareness of the issues, we have engaged more people and we have forged alliances with parents, administrators and many others, knowing that we are far more effective advocating for change together than on our own. While I know the struggle for great schools and sensible education policies is a process that will take years, the progress we’ve made this year gives me hope that we will eventually achieve our goals.