School Safety

COLUMBUS — January 2, 2013 — “The Ohio Education Association welcomes Attorney General Mike DeWine’s work to make sure safety plans are up to date and on file for all Ohio schools, and we agree school safety must be a paramount issue. Each school district should develop its plan, train relevant personnel and make careful decisions on school safety and security measures.”

COLUMBUS — December 10, 2013 — Delegates at the Ohio Education Association Fall Representative Assembly voted overwhelmingly this past weekend to adopt a new legislative policy stating that teachers and other school employees should not be asked to serve a dual role as educators and school safety personnel armed with weapons. This position is consistent with the views of the law enforcement community that putting guns in the hands of school employees who have other responsibilities is not the solution to improving school safety.

“As state lawmakers and local school boards consider ways in which schools can be made safer,” said Ohio Education Association President Becky Higgins, “we urge them to make sure there is adequate funding for school districts that may want to have resource officers or local law enforcement in their schools.  That’s a much better way to go than arming school employees.”

The school safety policy adopted by the OEA also urges that appropriate assistance be provided for mental health services for students as part of a comprehensive program to prevent school violence.

In an informal survey, some 70% of the delegates at the OEA Representative Assembly reported that they were not being consulted by their local school districts in the development of school safety plans.

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS — December 7, 2013 — Delegates at the Ohio Education Association Fall Representative Assembly reflected the widespread concern among educators that the state is relying too much on standardized testing in evaluating student and teacher performances when they overwhelmingly voted to urge Ohio’s education stakeholders to pursue other options. The delegates called upon advocates for children and families to join the OEA in developing research-informed practices that address the appropriate use of assessments, and de-emphasize massive standardized testing.

“OEA’s members care deeply about students and Ohio’s future and that means we expect students to stretch their learning potential,” OEA President Becky Higgins said. “This is why we support the high expectations of Ohio’s new learning standards, including the Common Core Standards, and why we believe that research-based assessments of student learning is a fundamental condition for effective education.”

President Higgins noted, however, that the Association’s commitments have run up against state and national mandates with short timelines that are congesting and confounding educators’ work with students and their families.

“Testing has proliferated beyond reason, displacing needed instructional time and channeling funds to testing companies and testing technologies,” she said. “Ohio seems to be seeking to standardize learning through more standardized testing, rather than seeking appropriate and effective ways to foster the academic growth of our students.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

OLUMBUS — December 7, 2013 — Delegates at the Ohio Education Association Fall Representative Assembly reflected the widespread concern among educators that the state is relying too much on standardized testing in evaluating student and teacher performances when they overwhelmingly voted to urge Ohio’s education stakeholders to pursue other options. The delegates called upon advocates for children and families to join the OEA in developing research-informed practices that address the appropriate use of assessments, and de-emphasize massive standardized testing.

“OEA’s members care deeply about students and Ohio’s future and that means we expect students to stretch their learning potential,” OEA President Becky Higgins said. “This is why we support the high expectations of Ohio’s new learning standards, including the Common Core Standards, and why we believe that research-based assessments of student learning is a fundamental condition for effective education.”

President Higgins noted, however, that the Association’s commitments have run up against state and national mandates with short timelines that are congesting and confounding educators’ work with students and their families.

“Testing has proliferated beyond reason, displacing needed instructional time and channeling funds to testing companies and testing technologies,” she said. “Ohio seems to be seeking to standardize learning through more standardized testing, rather than seeking appropriate and effective ways to foster the academic growth of our students.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS — November 4, 2013 — The Ohio Education Association (OEA) Fund for Children and Public Education (FCPE) State Council announced its unanimous endorsement of Ed FitzGerald for Governor.  The vote was taken at an FCPE convention on Saturday in Columbus.

“Ed FitzGerald has demonstrated a thorough and impressive command of the issues and challenges that face Ohio’s public schools and their students, “  said OEA President Becky Higgins. “If elected, we believe he has the vision and the leadership needed to make our public schools, our system of higher education and our programs for the developmentally disabled in Ohio that much better.”

The OEA FCPE State Council, comprised of elected OEA members from throughout the state, carefully screens candidates based on their voting records, their stated support of public education and the OEA’s priority issues.

“Educators, students, parents and the communities in which they live will be well-served by the election of Ed FitzGerald, “said Higgins. “As Governor, he would take the state in a new and more promising direction – away from the current trend to privatize public education – and toward more equitable and sustained state support of local public education.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

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The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS — June 17, 2013 — Responding to a series of newspaper, web and radio stories on value-added scores of individual Ohio teachers, Patricia Frost-Brooks, President of the Ohio Education Association criticized the fairness of the stories and the wisdom of using value-added scores as such a prominent index of teacher success:

“The Ohio Education Association was not contacted for comment on the Plain Dealer/StateImpact Ohio stories, despite our expertise, which would have provided desperately needed context and perspective. Reporters and editors admitted this value-added data was ‘flawed,’ but they chose surprise and impact over fairness, balance and accuracy,” Frost-Brooks said.

“We are all accountable for student success – teachers, support professionals, parents, students and elected officials. And the Ohio Education Association is committed to fair teacher evaluation systems that include student performance, among other multiple measures. But listing teachers as effective or ineffective based on narrow tests not designed to be used for this purpose is a disservice to everyone.

“Value-added ratings can never paint a complete or objective picture of an individual teacher’s work or performance. Trained educators can use a student’s value-added data, along with other student data, to improve student instruction. But the stories promote a simplistic and inaccurate view of value-added as a valid basis for high-stakes decisions on schools, teachers and students.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS — May 13, 2013 —  Each year the Ohio Education Association honors the hard work and commitment teachers have for the success of their students.   With the announcement of its 2013 prize winners, the Ohio Education Association once again celebrated the hard work, commitment, and success of public education employees and students.

At the 2013 OEA Awards Banquet held Friday, Amanda Wallace of the Steubenville Education Association received the $4,000 John F. Kennedy Scholarship.  The John F. Kennedy Scholarship is awarded annually for graduate university course work to an OEA member who is an active career teacher and has demonstrated a need for financial assistance.

OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks said, “I’m sure I speak on behalf of the 121,000 members of the OEA when I say congratulations and job well done on this well-deserved recognition to Amanda. We educators know that while achievement presents great challenges in public education there are many instances where these challenges are being met head on and being overcome!  We know our teachers are deeply committed to the success of every child.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

COLUMBUS — May 13, 2013 — The Ohio Education Association (OEA), representing 121,000 teachers, education support professionals and higher education faculty, held its Spring Representative Assembly at Veterans Memorial in Columbus. The theme of the Assembly, May 10-11, was Our Guiding Values. The OEA is the eighth largest state affiliate of the 3 million-member National Education Association (NEA).

Highlights of the Representative Assembly included a visit by political commentator Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC-TV’s “The Ed Show.” Delegates honored Schultz as the recipient of the Ohio Education Association Friend of Education Award. Schultz was recognized for being a staunch ally of educators, public education and organized labor. He stood with Ohioans on Issue 2 to defend collective bargaining rights. He is a friend to everyone who works for a living, everyone who belongs to the middle class, and everyone who longs for an America that treats all its citizens with respect and fairness. While addressing the assembly Schultz said, “There is an unparalleled, unprecedented, relentless attack on public education and public school educators. You can’t cut 6,000 teachers out of a state budget and expect to have the same results.””

Delegates also welcomed special guest NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. Van Roekel praised the leadership of outgoing OEA President, Patricia Frost-Brooks saying, “She has led OEA members through some difficult times but she hasn’t been content to survive. She has constantly demanded that we set our sights higher, strengthen our professions, and transform public education. The strength of OEA lies in its’ members, when they come together to collectively advocate for public education and students.”

COLUMBUS — May 13, 2013 — The Ohio Education Association (OEA), representing 121,000 teachers, education support professionals and higher education faculty, held its Spring Representative Assembly at Veterans Memorial in Columbus. The theme of the Assembly, May 10-11, was Our Guiding Values. The OEA is the eighth largest state affiliate of the 3 million-member National Education Association (NEA).

Highlights of the Representative Assembly included a visit by political commentator Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC-TV’s “The Ed Show.” Delegates honored Schultz as the recipient of the Ohio Education Association Friend of Education Award. Schultz was recognized for being a staunch ally of educators, public education and organized labor. He stood with Ohioans on Issue 2 to defend collective bargaining rights. He is a friend to everyone who works for a living, everyone who belongs to the middle class, and everyone who longs for an America that treats all its citizens with respect and fairness. While addressing the assembly Schultz said, “There is an unparalleled, unprecedented, relentless attack on public education and public school educators. You can’t cut 6,000 teachers out of a state budget and expect to have the same results.””

Delegates also welcomed special guest NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. Van Roekel praised the leadership of outgoing OEA President, Patricia Frost-Brooks saying, “She has led OEA members through some difficult times but she hasn’t been content to survive. She has constantly demanded that we set our sights higher, strengthen our professions, and transform public education. The strength of OEA lies in its’ members, when they come together to collectively advocate for public education and students.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org

OEA Demands More Funding And Expanded Support For Common Core Implementation

COLUMBUS — May 10, 2013 —  At its Spring Representative Assembly in Columbus, members of the Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest education employee union, voted to support careful implementation of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts and mathematics – but warned that outdated tests and lack of support for the standards could create major obstacles for success.

To address those issues, OEA members called for immediate suspension of outdated testing that does not align with the new Common Core State Standards and demanded comprehensive state and local support for the Common Core to bolster chances for successful implementation and challenging learning opportunities for students.

The moratorium on outdated high-stakes testing must begin now, said OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks.  “It defies common sense for students, teachers, and schools to be held accountable for test scores based on standards that have been rejected by educators – and the State Board of Education. There is no benefit from teaching and testing young people on outdated standards.”

OEA warned that failure to provide professional development, technology for computer-based testing and time for collaborative planning “threaten successful implementation of the Common Core initiative.”

“The failure of policy makers to fund and support local implementation with the technology and ongoing communication with parents and communities will create unnecessary challenges for school districts and their employees,” said Frost-Brooks.

Common Core has great potential, and the issues OEA has identified are problems with implementation and support, not problems with the standards themselves, Frost-Brooks said.

“Teachers, parents and community leaders all helped create the Common Core, using research, best practices, and their hopes for the next generation,” said Frost-Brooks. “If properly implemented, Common Core learning strategies offer a dynamic foundation for lifelong learning, empowering teachers to use a wider range of strategies and their professional judgment and giving students more time to master essential knowledge and skills.”

Join the conversation @OhioEA and Like Us at OhioEducationAssociation

###

The Ohio Education Association (ohea.org) represents 121,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals in Ohio’s public schools, colleges and universities.

CONTACT: Michele Prater
614-227-3071; cell 614-378-0469, praterm@ohea.org