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PRESS RELEASES
- December 21, 2024 – OEA celebrates passage of Social Security Fairness Act
- November 14, 2024 – OEA applauds leadership of STRS Board over the last decade that enabled move to reduce retirement eligibility age for a three-year period
- September 20, 2024 – OEA thanks Ohio Congress members from both parties for their work to move bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act forward
- September 13, 2024 – OEA Encouraged by Improved Student Outcomes for 2023-2024, but Notes More Work is Needed to Make State Report Cards a Useful Tool for Parents
- August 29, 2024 – OEA congratulates the 2025 OTOY
- July 1, 2024 – OEA congratulates CNP on ballot signature success
- June 20, 2024 – As teacher license fee hike looms, OEA calls for Controlling Board action
- Press Release archive
LEGISLATIVE WATCH RELEASES
- December 13, 2024 – Final Lame Duck Edition: The 135th General Assembly Adjourns; GPO-WEP Repeal Clears Key Hurdle towards Final Passage; “Forced Outing” Bill which Includes Release Time for Religious Instruction Policy Requirement Passes; “Proper” Interactions with Peace Officer Curriculum Repealed; Bill Dealing with Student Discipline Clears the Ohio General Assembly
- December 13, 2024 – Lame Duck Edition #4: SB 295: Senate May Pass Mandate to Close School Buildings Based on Test Scores; HB 432: Career-Technical Educator Licenses; SB 293 & HB 8: Religious Release Time Mandate Amended Into ‘Forced Outing’ Bill
- December 9, 2024 – Lame Duck Edition #3: Amendments Making Changes to Student Privacy Bill (Senate Bill 29) Clear Both Chambers; Ohio Senate Committee to Take Up School Closure Bill; Holds Hearing Controversial “Parents’ Bill of Rights” Legislation; Bill Dealing with Student Discipline Clears the Ohio House; Voucher Accountability Legislation Gutted in Committee; Senate Passes Bill Allowing Reemployed Retirees to Run for STRS Board
- November 22, 2024 – Lame Duck Edition #2: Legislative Caucuses Select Leadership Teams for the 136th General Assembly; Keep Up the Work to Pass the Social Security Fairness Act this Congress; OEA Supported Bills Receive Sponsor Testimony; View Committee Hearings in Ohio Channel Archive
- November 15, 2024 – Lame Duck Edition #1: Important Victory! U.S. House Passes GPO-WEP Repeal; Honesty Partners Host Webinar on Intellectual Freedom and Ohio Libraries; Bill to Increases Teacher Minimum Salary to $50,000 Receives First Hearing; Trans-Bathroom Bill Restrictions Go to Governor for Signature; School Bus Safety Bill Receives Amendments in House Transportation Committee; Career-Technical Licensure Bill Receives Hearings in Senate Committee; Religious Release Time Bills Get Committee Hearings
- November 8, 2024 – U.S. House to Vote on Repeal of GPO-WEP; Lame Duck Session for the 135th General Assembly begins Next Week; Release Time for Religious Instruction Bill Set for House Education Committee Hearing next week
- September 12, 2024 – This is our chance to end GPO-WEP
- August 23, 2024 – OEA Applauds State Controlling Board Decision to Approve Full Funding for the State Board of Education
- August 9, 2024 – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown Calls for Vote on Repeal of GPO/WEP
- Legislative Watch archive
- Legislative Scorecard – An interactive Legislative scorecard for each member of the Ohio General Assembly
EVENTS – or visit the Master Calendar
- December 23 – Columbus Blue Jackets vs Montreal Canadiens
- December 31 – Columbus Blue Jackets vs Carolina Hurricanes
- January 21 – OEA New President Power Hour: Helpful tips for successful negotiations
- January 22 – Wellness Wednesday: Slow Cooker Simple Creations
- January 25 – Cleveland CAVs vs Houston Rockets
- January 25-26 – AE ONE Annual Conference
- February 2 – Cleveland CAVs vs Dallas Mavericks
- February 18 – OEA New President Power Hour: Best practices in communicating with your members and the community
- February 21 – Cleveland CAVs vs New York Knicks
- February 20-22 – 2025 Advocacy and Organizing Institute (AOI)
- February 22 – Wellness Wednesday: Virtual Paint and Sip
- March 2 – Cleveland CAVs vs Portland Trail Blazers
- March 7-9 – NEA Leadership Summit
- March 18 – OEA New President Power Hour: Your voice in the OEA Democratic Structure and resources available to you and your members
- April 15 – OEA New President Power Hour: “What If” Sharing problem-solving strategies
- May 28 – Wellness Wednesday: End of Year Let It Go Party!!
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Updated December 21, 2024
American Education Week — Keeping Students Safe & Secure
During American Education Week (Nov. 12-16, 2018), the Ohio Education Association is taking the opportunity to raise awareness of, and to help eliminate, the stigma of managing a disability or a mental illness.
[Video: Keeping Students Safe — Andrea Beeman, Special Education Paraprofessional, OEA/Maple Org. Support Team]
Each morning, millions of school children face the challenge of living with an impairment, mental illness or disability.
Conditions range from Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, drug dependency, and depression to varied spectrum disorders.
Despite their prevalence, unwarranted assumptions and avoidance by other are also, unfortunately, widespread.
Accordingly, the OEA has called upon state lawmakers to implement a comprehensive school safety strategy that includes meeting mental health needs in schools by providing appropriate supports for our students.
These strategies must not only include essential physical security issues, but also addressing mental health in our curriculum, and appropriate staffing and student support in the form of adequate numbers of counselors, nurses, social workers, and mental health specialists to ensure that all students’ needs are met.
Similarly, the OEA has recently:
- Opposed a plan to use federal funds to buy guns for teachers;
- Sponsored the 2018 National Dropout Prevention Network Conference; and,
- Advocate for programs that establish and support safe learning environments that are free of crime, drug use, and other disruptions.
To learn more about where OEA members collectively stand on the issues, click here! | #WeLoveOurESP | #AEW2018
About Last Tuesday Night….
Let me get right to the point – the election results were deeply disappointing.
We had a very good candidate for Governor in Rich Cordray who was with us on the issues and who pledged to give us a seat at the decision-making table.
We lost an opportunity to have a close partnership with the governor of Ohio.
While we are still diving into the data to understand what happened this year, we know that this was not a normal non-presidential election. The turnout exceeded expectations. It was the highest it’s been since 1994.
“We made important progress in the last General Assembly on such issues as reforms to the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES).”
As we analyze the election to inform future strategies, we’ll also be re-doubling our efforts to address the issues that our members care about. We made important progress in the last General Assembly on such issues as reforms to the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES).
Because of the relationships that we’ve built with key Republicans, and who we supported in their re-elections, we’re confident we can make further progress in the next General Assembly.
Here are some things you should know:
- Behind the scenes, outside the heat of the election, a bipartisan group of legislators, school district treasurers, and superintendents have been working on a sustainable school funding model that would adequately fund the cost of educating our students.
- There’s still a lot of important work to be done and hurdles to overcome, but we are excited about the potential for this proposal to create a constitutional school funding system in Ohio.
- We have a bipartisan consensus among legislators that the A to F report card system does not currently serve the needs of our students and must change.
- We have an urgent and immediate problem with graduation requirements and we need a fix this year to avoid having thousands of students denied a high school diploma.
- Now that OTES reforms have passed the legislature, we need to make sure that they get implemented right by the State Board of Education and at local levels.
- We will continue to work with the legislature to fix or eliminate the law (HB 70) that allows for the state to takeover local school districts.
Both candidates for governor talked about the importance of having school funding plans that include providing mental health services and dialing back on testing.
We are committed to making every effort to work with Governor-elect DeWine and the legislature to ensure that they implement policies to support our students on those issues.
Thank you for all that you do. By standing strong, together we will advocate for our students, our members and for public education.
Sincerely,
Becky Higgins,
President
Ohio Education Association
The Sound of Silence … Worth the Consequences?
One of the first lessons a child learns in school is to listen and be quiet. Silence is often desired in schools, unless we ask for participation. But lately, I’m beginning to wonder if we are doing our students a disservice when we emphasize the value of silence … because there is also a danger in certain kinds of silence.
As part of a study of Art Spiegelman’s Maus books and the Holocaust, my sophomores recently viewed a visual testimony of Kurt Messerschmidt. A young man during the Holocaust, he witnessed German soldiers forcing an older Jewish man to pick up some broken glass from the windows of a destroyed Jewish business on Kristallnacht. He noted that while he and a friend helped the old man pick up the glass, many other people stood by and said nothing. He believes that there were certainly other people who disapproved of the Nazis’ actions, but “Their disapproval was only silence, and silence was what did the harm.”[1] Sonia Klein, another Holocaust survivor who was interviewed after the riots in Charlottesville, warned that “Silence is the first thing after hate that is dangerous, because if you are silent, it’s an approval of what’s going on.”[2]
At the end of the Holocaust unit, I asked my students to read an article about Martin Niemoller[3] and his now famous words about remaining silent when other groups were persecuted and finding no one left to speak out for him when he was targeted. I asked my students how Niemoller’s words might apply today. One girl answered quite simply and succinctly: “We can apply these words to today by not allowing something that we wouldn’t want to happen to us to happen to somebody else.” She makes an excellent point. Maybe it’s not as simple as teaching the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have done unto you). Maybe it’s time to teach kids to advocate for those being slighted or hurt in our world, even if they aren’t directly involved with the victims or the perpetrators.
In another class this week, my juniors read Walt Whitman’s poem “I Sit and Look Out”[4], a poem in which the speaker gazes out at “all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame”. He lists several of those sorrows he observes in the world, including “treacherous seducer(s) of young women,” and “slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like.” The poem ends with the line “All these — All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon,/See, hear, and am silent.” We discussed why the speaker in this poem (and people in general), upon seeing someone in need, choose silence over speaking out, and choose passive observation over direct action. My students mentioned greed, selfishness, and fear. They also decided that sometimes people may not even be aware of a need, or if they are, they might feel that one person’s actions or words would not make a difference.
My juniors were also familiar with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s belief that “for nonconformity, the world whips you with displeasure,” so I suggested that perhaps another reason people choose silence over action is that they have seen what has happened to others who spoke out. Colin Kaepernick peacefully protested an issue which plagues our society today (and which Whitman wrote about in his poem over a hundred years ago). And for that, Kaepernick lost his job. When other players knelt in solidarity with him, the President chimed in with profanity directed toward those players, critics berated the players who protested, and the news media, for weeks, was centered on this issue, this scandal, started by one man’s peaceful act of nonconformity and civil disobedience intended to speak out against an injustice. Heather Heyer, an anti-racism activist who went to Charlottesville to protest the hatred spewed by white supremacists, paid with her life for her efforts to stand up against an injustice.
So is speaking up worth it? It’s not as safe as remaining silent, that’s for sure, nor is it as easy. There are certainly repercussions that come from speaking our beliefs in “words as hard as cannon balls,” as Emerson implores us to do in “Self-Reliance”, and many of those consequences are not pleasant. But can our society afford to continue sitting by in silence as injustice and oppression happen around us?
Whitman’s poem “I Sit and Look Out” was written in the late 1800s. My students and I realized that of all the sorrows he lists, 13 in total, we still have every single one in our society today, with the exception of famine at sea. What does it say about humanity that over 150 years later, we have not figured out a way to eliminate these man (and woman)-made sorrows from our world? Where has silence gotten us?
As teachers, we can appreciate a quiet classroom, heads bent over desks, the only sound pencils scribbling as our students diligently work on an assignment. But I am going to make certain that in 2018, I make it a priority to teach my students the beauty of using their voices to break inappropriate silence and advocate for others. Maybe we can manage to address at least some of the sorrows that Whitman wrote about all those years ago if we help the next generation be equipped to do more than sit silently by and wait for someone else to take action.
[1] “Studying the Holocaust – Echoes & Reflections.” http://echoesandreflections.org/unit-1-studying-the-holocaust/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2017.
[2] “Holocaust survivor: Silence is ‘approval’ of racism – CNN.com.” 14 Aug. 2017, http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/08/18/holocaust-survivor-warns-against-silence-charlottesville-nazis-sg-orig.cnn. Accessed 16 Nov. 2017.
[3] “Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the Socialists…”.” https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392. Accessed 16 Nov. 2017.
[4] “83. I Sit and Look Out. Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass.” http://www.bartleby.com/142/83.html. Accessed 20 Dec. 2017.
Is Revised RESA a Reason to Rejoice?
Part II of II: Teacher Perspectives on the Resident Educator Summative Assessment
Read Part I: My Marathon Swim Through RESA
by Dan Greenberg, Sylvania Education Association
I’m getting to a place where I can look back nostalgically on twenty years in the classroom — back to the days when I was 22, teaching in Adelanto, California, and couldn’t get used to people calling me “Mr. Greenberg,” — a time when I rushed through my lunch in the teacher’s lounge, so I could go play pick-up basketball with the kids.
I don’t gloss over those early years of my career. There were plenty of challenges that made me wonder if I would be able to make it as a teacher.
However, I think the challenges facing today’s early career educators make mine seem laughable. And of all of today’s challenges that I am grateful I avoided, RESA (Resident Educator Summative Assessment) is at the top of the list.
When I graduated from Kent State in 1997, I took two Praxis tests to get my teaching license. That was it. I was official! As for additional requirements from the state, there was nothing more for me to do. As long as my principal was happy with my performance, I could continue teaching.
Compare that to today: a four year Resident Educator program with rules, and meetings, and videotaping, and student work samples, and on and on, all while young teachers are trying to get a handle on day-to-day lesson delivery. Wouldn’t it be better for kids if their teachers didn’t have to worry about the redundant RESA process?
I say redundant because these early career educators had plenty of tasks like RESA to complete during their student teaching experience. If they completed them satisfactorily then, why are they having to prove themselves to a testing company and the state once again?
Now I know that RESA went through an overhaul over the summer. For a while, some first and second year teachers were checking with me every day, hoping the whole program would be eliminated. But somehow — through a process that might best be communicated by a “School House Rock” cartoon — we ended up with a revised form of RESA that, among other changes, significantly cuts down on the tasks a third year RESA teacher must submit to the state.
Are my young colleagues and I jumping for joy? No. Not really.
Sure, we are glad to see a reduction in required tasks. Sure, we are glad that more of the RESA program is controlled at the local district level. We know it is a step in the right direction. However, it’s still a program that we see as mostly redundant and unnecessary.
For me, I see RESA changes like standardized testing changes. I’m glad the state has reduced the number of tests students must take, but do I think the state has fixed the problem of over-testing students? Absolutely not.
RESA is still a burden on local school districts. The cost to my district, just to facilitate year 3 of the Resident Educator Program, will be $15,000 this year. That may not be a huge percentage of our budget, but it is one more thing to pay for instead of other programs.
RESA will continue to frustrate educators, whether for its lack of timely, detailed feedback on assessments, or its illogical requirements for teachers shifting between old and new RESA requirements.
For example: Last year a teacher failed one section of her third year RESA tasks. She failed the section because the student work she submitted was deemed illegible by the evaluator. By Ohio law, she could not resubmit a clearer copy. This year, according to the revised RESA process, instead of having to redo the task, she’ll get mentoring at the local level to help her in that area. However, the only reason she didn’t pass had nothing to do with her competency as a teacher. What kind of mentoring can she possibly receive to address this issue?
On the subject of mentoring, I realize that keeping the RESA requirement for local school districts to provide mentors is a positive thing. I can’t imagine what I would have done without a veteran teacher working with me almost every day, helping me with curriculum and lesson delivery.
My hope for new teachers is that the Resident Educator program continues to evolve into something that truly helps them grow as professionals, instead of something cumbersome and frustrating. I want them to be able to look back in 20 years, with a sense of nostalgia for the beginning of their career, not with a shudder and shiver down their spine, as they recall the hoops they jumped through to complete the Resident Educator program.
Learn more about changes to Ohio’s Resident Educator Program
Part II: Teaching, post-Charlottesville
By Dan Greenburg, Sylvania Education Association
As I plan my lessons for the start of a new school year, I hear student voices in the back of my head, asking “Why do we have to learn this?”
I use that question to guide what I teach and how I teach it.
I find the best way to address that question, without students even having to ask it out loud, is to link literature and writing lessons to things that are relevant to my students, to things that are happening in our world.
When we read Catcher in the Rye, we talk about how Holden Caulfield might have been impacted by social media. Would he have found a community of teenagers just as disillusioned with life as he was? When we read The Great Gatsby, we compare the American dream of the 1920s to today. We talk about college affordability and how that impacts the dreams and goals of students.
Relevancy is the key to my lessons.
Over the past year or so, however, I have found it increasingly challenging to remain relevant. As we become more polarized politically and culturally, I am finding it harder and harder to discuss controversial issues in class. I am actually afraid of the repercussions.
Last February, I taught my 10th grade English class a six-week lesson about persuasion and argumentation. As part of the unit, we talked about using facts to support claims, and the importance of using reliable sources. At the same time, we were studying this, a website called “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children” published a blog titled: “Is an Ohio High School Teaching Kids to Hate the President.” That blog was about my school. It was clearly biased, and completely inaccurate in its portrayal of our school. It was shared close to 4000 times.
I thought: This is a teachable moment. What better way to demonstrate the problem with unreliable sources than this article, which completely misrepresents our school? Discussing how many times this article has been shared, I can explain how false information is easily circulated on the internet.
With those thoughts in mind, I copied the article and made it the focus of our lesson. I prefaced the lesson by saying we are not focusing on anyone’s feelings about the President or anyone’s political beliefs. This is about the reliability of sources.
I thought I had things covered. I did not.
The discussion seemed to be going very well in class, but within 25 minutes, I got a call from the guidance office to send a student down. I later found out this student sent a text to a parent, saying he was uncomfortable with the lesson. By the end of the period, my principal was in my classroom. At the end of the day, my co-teacher and I had to submit our lesson plans to the Assistant Superintendent.
I do not fault the district at all. They needed to proceed with due diligence. On an intellectual level, I completely understood this. It didn’t stop me, however, from being terrified about the process.
In the end, the district supported me. There was no reprimand. There was a good discussion with the Assistant Superintendent about the process.
There was a lasting consequence, however.
I am weighing the risk/reward of raising “touchy” subjects in my lessons. I even added a section to my course syllabus, stating that is never my intent to push political beliefs or ideologies from the front of the classroom. I will address the issue this coming week at open house, as well.
My American Literature class will start the year reading One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It presents so many opportunities to connect to our world today, particularly in the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville and the issues related to the taking down of Confederate statues and monuments. It’s not a matter of pushing a viewpoint; it’s a matter of engaging students on a relevant topic and fostering critical thinking skills.
It’s my hope that, by communicating my expectations and intent to parents and students at the beginning of the year, by letting parents and students know I am willing to talk about and address their concerns, that we’ll be able to have thoughtful dialogue in class throughout the year.
I’m sure there will be the occasional “why do we have to learn this?” However, I’m optimistic that connecting lessons to issues that matter to students will greatly reduce the number of times the question get asked.
Read Part I: Teaching, post-Charlottesville
Part I: Teaching, post-Charlottesville
By Julie Rine, Minerva Education Association
If we haven’t already, many of us will soon be giving a lecture about the importance of being respectful to others, following the rules, and being nice. We are going to discuss how name-calling is not appropriate, and how we should all stand up for anyone who is being bullied or intimidated or hurt. During that first day of school lecture, I often tell my high school students that we can’t control what happens in the world outside of our school, but we can control the atmosphere in Room 201. I emphasize that it will be a place where we can all expect to be accepted and valued, a place where we can feel safe and free from violence or harsh words.
This year when I give that talk, it will mean more than ever. For just at the time when school is beginning for most kids and teachers, our country has seen powerful scenes of breaking those rules in full technicolor, complete with torches and clubs and shields, chants and profanity and ethnic slurs, and in the end, murder.
Sitting in our classrooms listening to our rules and expectations are going to be students of various ages, backgrounds and beliefs. It’s not our place to raise those kids or instill our values in them. That job belongs to their families, but teachers can have a powerful impact as well. What exactly is our role when it comes to teaching values? Certainly the concepts of respect, tolerance, and fairness are not strictly liberal or conservative values. Teaching our children that it is not acceptable to label, judge, or mistreat someone based on their skin color, religion or nationality should not be an area of disagreement between Republicans and Democrats.
A former teacher of James Fields, the driver of the car that plowed into the protesters in Charlottesville, said that he felt he had failed as a teacher.* I do not think he failed; he did everything in his power to expose his students to the atrocities of the Nazis in Europe and to relate his lessons to current events. However, his comment did make me reconsider my own decisions as a teacher.
When teaching To Kill a Mockingbird or Maus (a book about a Holocaust survivor’s experience), I try to fit in current articles about the issues of race and prejudice that arise in the books. But when I first started teaching those texts, I did more than squeeze in those connections. My students used to engage in a plethora of activities to help them further analyze how the ugliness of the past can still influence the events of today.
So what changed? High-stakes standardized testing came along. Each year I have left out more and more of the meaningful extension activities in order to allow extra time for test prep. What if my actions have had more dire consequences than I thought? Maybe it’s time that test prep falls into the “squeezing in” category. Maybe it’s time to stop worrying about growth measures and keep or even expand the material and activities that help grow decent human beings.
To be clear, the overemphasis on testing has not lead to a bumper crop of racists and white supremacists, and the teachers who drop time-consuming but worthwhile material to make room for test prep are not to blame for any future abhorrent actions of their students. But could we be doing more to teach tolerance and acceptance?
The ACLU, who went to bat for the organizers of the recent Charlottesville event after their permit was revoked, argues that freedom of speech should be defended for everyone, even those whose views are repugnant to most people. Ideally, everyone gets a voice, and then everyone can form his or her own decision, after “reasonable discourse and debate.”**
Isn’t it part of our job to teach how to engage in reasonable discourse and debate? We can do this while analyzing topics other than politics, of course, but maybe it’s time to stop backing away from political topics when they arise within the context of our lessons. When students start discussing their political views in our classrooms, maybe we should guide those conversations instead of shutting them down to avoid a heated discussion. After all, it is possible to disagree with someone without espousing hatred for others or inciting violence, and we should be modeling that. Furthermore, there is a difference between those who advocate for the right to dominate or subjugate others and those who stand up for the rights of all people to live peacefully without fear of unjust oppression. We need to make that distinction clear to our students, now more than ever.
A few weeks ago, teachers across the country recognized the faces of white supremacists carrying torches on a hot Friday night in Virginia, and they remembered them not as men, but as kids, sitting in their classrooms on the first day of school listening to the Rules and Expectations lecture about respecting others. I can’t imagine seeing one of my students, past or present, at one of those rallies as a participant. But if I do, I don’t want to feel that I could have done anything differently to elicit a better outcome in the forming of his beliefs.
When there is a back-to-school lecture on rules and expectations, let us mean it and let us enforce it, even if it means having some uncomfortable conversations. When there is a way to incorporate current issues while studying the difficult lessons of the past, let us connect the two. When there is hate speech, let us not be weak-willed and call it a mere difference of opinion. Let us be clear that it is a despicable opinion that is not acceptable in our schools or in our streets. When there are teachable moments relating to political issues, let us embrace them. Let us model civil discourse, but when there is racism or prejudice, blatant or subtle, let us confront it without ambiguity.
Debates about freedom of speech, whether or not statues should stay or go, and what to do with the Confederate flag in public places will keep cable news shows busy for a long time to come. But there is a clear right and wrong when it comes to hate speech, a definite line that should not be crossed, and that line must not be erased in our classrooms.
Read Part II: Teaching, post-Charlottesville
*”Teacher says suspected Charlottesville driver James Alex Fields Jr ….” 13 Aug. 2017, http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2017/08/13/James-Alex-Fields-Charlottesville-killing-driver-car-crowd-white-nationalist-rally/stories/201708130175. Accessed 21 Aug. 2017.
**”Why the ACLU defends white nationalists’ right to protest – Vox.” 12 Aug. 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/12/16138326/aclu-charlottesville-protests-racism. Accessed 17 Aug. 2017.
Teachers as Parents: A Unique Perspective
By Tricia Ebner, Lake Local Education Association
Some in our society dispute the adage that “It takes a village to raise a child.” As a public educator, I had some sense of what the saying means, but once I became a parent myself, my appreciation of the village increased exponentially. Many of those “villagers” work in public schools, and there are dozens of unsung heroes in education. One that stands out to me is Mrs. Jennifer Ruggles, my son’s speech pathologist.
Our son is one of the youngest students in his class, and I wrestled with the question of when best to send him to kindergarten. Ultimately, we decided to send him when he was first eligible because every other indicator showed that he was ready. As he moved through his kindergarten year, I kept looking for indications we had made the right (or wrong) decision. I never expected what happened: his kindergarten teacher asked us to give permission for a referral for speech. Academics and school behavior were just fine, but Rich’s speech wasn’t easily understood, and she wondered if we might be okay with having Mrs. Ruggles work with him a bit.
In the next few weeks, I found myself sitting in the parent seat as we moved through the special education process, setting up an Independent Education Program (IEP) for speech for our son. Of course as a teacher, I’m familiar with the process, but it is so different when the child under discussion is your own. Mrs. Ruggles made sure we understood the services Rich would be receiving. Once the IEP was in place, he began his work with her.
Mrs. Ruggles always kept us informed about his progress. She sent regular progress reports, shared resources and strategies we could use at home to reinforce the skills they were practicing during their time together. She also made it fun. Rich loved going to see Mrs. Ruggles. When he reached a goal, they celebrated. The little rewards she gave him became treasures; any time we cleaned out the toy box, those items went right back into the toy box. He fell in love with a particular brand of gummy bear because that’s what she had as a treat one day. When his first beta fish died, he told her about it and how sad he was. Her efforts weren’t focused solely on his speech. She listened, supported, and encouraged him as a person. Mrs. Ruggles cared about him, and he knew that and responded to it.
Toward the end of his second grade year, he had met the goals established on his IEP, and it was time to exit him from speech. After the team discussed his progress and success, Rich came in to join us. Rather than smiling proudly at hearing he had met his goals and made great progress, he burst into tears. He was very, very upset and sad to be leaving his work with Mrs. Ruggles.
Even though our IEP conference was held after the school day and she had her own family to tend to, she took time that evening to email me and check on how he was doing. She thought through a plan to make his exit a celebration, and she also invited him to keep in touch with her. Although he missed working with Mrs. Ruggles, he soon learned he could see her from time to time and say hi. Exiting his IEP and speech program didn’t mean losing his connection with Mrs. Ruggles. Throughout the rest of his years in his K-4 school building, he always found ways and time to thank Mrs. Ruggles and keep in touch.
Most of our society isn’t really aware of speech and language specialists and the work they do with students. Yet for those children who need their support, and their families, they are critically important. Mrs. Ruggles not only helped our son with his speech. She showed him the importance of listening and caring, and that loving, kind relationships can and do continue, even after the “official” work has been completed. Mrs. Ruggles is truly one of education’s unsung heroes.
We’d like to recognize the unsung heroes of our community by acknowledging their hard work and commitment to making their local communities a better place.
Tell us your story about how your hero has affected your life in a positive way, and why they deserve to win. We invite you to nominate your “Ohio Public School Hero” — teacher, bus driver, cafeteria worker, coach, janitor, anyone working in your Ohio Public School who has made a difference in your life, the lives of your children, or in your community.
Nominate your public school unsung hero at www.onnradio.com/unsungheroes
Spring Break 2017: Where the Legislators Are
If I’m being completely honest, I was only half-joking when I asked friends to have bail money ready for Spring Break, and it wasn’t because I was going to relive my college spring breaks in Daytona Beach. I was attending my first OEA Lobby Day, and I anticipated the meetings getting a bit intense. I was worried about my ability to censor myself and keep my temper in check.
Instead, I had a very positive experience, and my conversations felt productive. No bail money needed.
When my colleague and I got to OEA, we were briefed about various issues we might want to discuss with our legislators (we had scheduled meetings ahead of time). Those issues included the Governor’s proposed budget, which includes problems with charter schools getting more money per student than traditional public schools (and a student’s home school district having to make up the difference) and the infamous externship proposal. We were also given talking points about a bill being introduced that would expand Ohio’s voucher program. Other topics for discussion were the preponderance of tests, the rigor of the new graduation requirements, and the possible revisions to the teacher evaluation system.
Along with some colleagues, I met with State Senator Frank LaRose, Representative Tim Ginter, and an aide for State Senator Joe Schiavoni.
Although I went in prepared for battle, the two legislators and the aide with whom I talked seemed genuinely interested in what I and my colleagues had to say. Two of the three took notes. Representative Ginter, in particular, seemed legitimately interested in how I would propose solving the problems I brought to his attention.
I made two recommendations to him. First, ask the teachers. The Governor seems to think that teachers don’t understand what job skills our students will need in the work force, which is why he proposed the externship plan. However, the committee who came up with that proposal included not one teacher. Any teacher could have told him that the idea might work very well for some teachers and content areas, but would not be the most effective use of time for many others.
When Representative Ginter pointed out that only a very small percentage of Youngstown’s students graduated high school ready for college, I told him that this was almost certainly not due to the teachers’ lack of ability or desire for their students to do well. I can’t speak to the challenges facing Youngstown City Schools, but I am sure the Youngstown teachers could. Likewise, I have ideas that might address some concerns in my own district, but those proposals would not necessarily work in Youngstown. Each district has its own set of challenges, and no one solution will effectively address those concerns across the board. How do we deal with so many diverse situations? Ask the teachers. They will know better than any outsider what ideas might work well in their district.
My second recommendation to Representative Ginter was to get as many legislators as possible in the schools. Each legislator could see what is working well and what is an area of concern in the school he/she visits. Not only would they see the vast differences in the schools across the state, but they would be able to talk with teachers and witness for themselves both the challenges and the successes of a typical day in the life of a teacher. I am sure that this would be illuminating for them as they work on policies and legislation affecting public schools.
Participating in Lobby Day reminded me of some important aspects of the world of politics. First of all, legislators, even those from the opposite political party as mine, are not the enemy. It’s not “us vs. them,” although it felt that way to me prior to meeting with a few of my representatives in person. I am hopeful that every time they meet with teachers, having that brief personal connection and hearing our stories allows them to eliminate any adversarial mentality they may have as well.
Secondly, I realized how daunting it must be to be tasked with representing people from all walks of life. While education is always first and foremost in my mind, legislators must deal with issues that impact teachers, factory workers, doctors, business people, parents, children, college students, retirees, the wealthy, the poor, the sick, the well. This is why meeting and speaking with our elected officials is so important.
Teachers care about all of their students, but the ones we remember most are not the ones who sit quietly in the back of the room not drawing attention to themselves. We remember the kids who engage with us, who let us get to know them. We remember the loud mouths, the rabble-rousers, the ones who make us laugh, and the ones who make us cry. We must be these people to our elected officials. We must become more than a few pages of a 3000-page budget. We must become faces and stories. We must draw attention to our needs by using our expertise to help our representatives make decisions. Phone calls and emails are wonderful and far more practical than a road trip to Columbus for most of us. However, I am convinced that a face-to-face meeting in which we can share our stories and discuss our concerns is the best way to impact those whose decisions affect our jobs and our students.
Speaking of students, I can’t wait to tell my classes about my experience in Columbus. Teachers aren’t the only ones who can make appointments with politicians and take road trips to the State Capitol. And the more we can teach our students to speak up for themselves and issues about which they are passionate, education-related or not, the better the future will be for all of us. Maybe next Spring Break, some of my students will road trip to Columbus as well.
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Please Take This Brief Survey On High School Graduation Requirements
The current high school class of 2018 (this year’s juniors) are subject to new graduation requirements. Left unchanged, these new requirements could very well lead to a dramatic decrease in the high school graduation rate, especially in high poverty areas of the state. That’s because, in addition to successfully completing required coursework, students are now required to meet one of the following three graduation “pathways”: 1) accumulate at least 18 points on seven end-of-course exams; 2) achieve a “remediation free” score on the ACT or SAT; or 3) earn an industry-recognized credential and pass the WorkKeys workforce readiness exam.
To provide Ohio students with additional alternatives to meeting graduation requirements, the State Board of Education directed the State Superintendent to convene a working group of stakeholders to make recommendations about how to address this crisis. The group has convened and is expected to make recommendations by early April.
The workgroup is committed to solving the problem and is working towards a recommendation. However, it is important that our members have an opportunity to voice their opinions in this process. To that end, please share your views about this critical issue by completing this brief survey:
http://surveys.ohea.org/
In order to provide information to the workgroup by its next meeting, this survey will close on Monday, March 13, 2017. Please participate today.