Report: Ohio School Funding Equity

A new report from The Education Trust suggests that in Ohio, federal and state funds specifically intended to boost the achievement levels of students from low income familes often do not end up in the schools these students attend. The author suggests that, among other things, long standing budgetary and teacher compensation practices are undermining policies intended to ensure funding equity between schools within the same district. The table below shows the gaps in average teacher salaries between the highest poverty and lowest poverty elementary schools in Ohio's 14 largest districts.

Read the full report from The Education Trust.

Teacher Preparedness

In America’s secondary schools, low-income students and students of color are about twice as likely as other students to be enrolled in core academic classes taught by out-of-field teachers, according to a new report by The Education Trust.

Out-of-field teachers are those who possess neither certification in the subject they have been assigned to teach nor an academic major in that subject.

To comply with No Child Left Behind and other federal regulations states must inform the U.S. Department of Education annually about the qualifications of their teachers. The document they submit, called the "Consolidated State Performance Report (CSPR)," must include the percentage of core academic classes taught by highly qualified teachers in all schools.

To determine whether discrepancies exist between state-reported and teacher-reported data about teacher qualifications, The Education Trust compared the CSPR data with the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) - a teacher survey that the U.S. Department of Education completes every few years. In some instances, big differences were found between state-reported percentages of classes taught by highly qualified teachers and teacher survey data on the percentages of teachers with in-field certification.

For example, Ohio reported that 93 percent of core academic classes were taught by highly qualified teachers, yet the Schools and Staffing Survey suggests that only 62.5 percent of classes were taught by teachers with certification in the subject assigned. The discrepancy in the numbers suggests that out-of-field teaching may be more prevalent than the state
reports.

The following chart shows the percentage of core secondary classes taught by teachers with neither an academic major nor certification in the subject.

Teacher preparation and quality is a critical component to strengthening schools. From a recent column in the New Yorker, Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, estimates that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth of material. That difference amounts to a year’s worth of learning in a single year.

It is important that we be able to collect better data on teachers to be able to address teacher preparation and the impact of teachers on student learning.

Source: The Education Trust, Core Problems: Out-of-Field Teaching Persists in Key Academic Courses and High-Poverty Schools.
Download Full Report

Message to the City of Cincinnati: Maintain Support For School Nurses

Strive has prepared the following brief in order to stimulate discussion regarding the continuation of funding for school nurses. Currently, the city supports 25 of 46 nurses serving 34,796 students in Cincinnati Public Schools at a cost of $1.8 million dollars. The City of Cincinnati should maintain its support of public health nurses located in schools in the budget for 2010. The work of the School Health Nurses Program is a critical component of a larger strategy of Strive and Growing Well Cincinnati to optimize student learning through optimal health. To date, school nurses have had a direct and significant impact on a wide spectrum of the health issues our students and families face. This is most evidenced in improved immunization rates and expanded health screenings of students.

School Nurses Increase Immunization Rates
The school heath nurses have significantly impacted the immunization rates for CPS students. Additionally, school nurses provide access to care for over 5,000 students who suffer from chronic disease in CPS.

The chart below shows an immunization compliance rate of over 95% when school heath nurses are present as opposed to only 83% without school health nurses.

The result is:

• increased attendance,
• elimination of duplicated services
• healthier students who are able to achieve academically.

The chart also illustrates the low rates at which students are immunized at schools without school nurses. Though the rates are increasing through the capacity building efforts of the School Health Nurses program, approximately 17% of students (5,915) do not have the benefit of a school nurse and are at increased risk of:

• exclusion from school,
• exposure to preventable disease, and
• lack of access to care.

School Nurses Add Value Through Screenings
School nurses have made it possible to comply with mandated screenings required by the Ohio Department of Health.

• Dental disease is a prevalent problem among school aged children and is estimated to exist in up to 30% of children living in poverty.
• School health nurses have combined dental screening with the required hearing screening at no added cost. Based on expanded screenings, 2,569 referrals were made with an 89% treatment rate.
• Of the 5 (medical, dental, vision, hearing and scoliosis) screenings conducted, school health nurses made 7,093 referrals and secured a 93% treatment rate overall.

Higher Education: Modest Improvements, Eroding Global Competitiveness

States are making little or no progress in providing affordable college opportunities or improving college completion rates for their residents, says a report released Wednesday by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The findings come as states face massive budget shortfalls that threaten higher education funding, and the United States continues to lag behind other advanced nations on measures of higher education performance.

Drawing on nearly two decades of data, the report, Measuring Up 2008, finds that while states have made modest gains in preparing students for college, more students are failing to graduate from high school. While college enrollment rates for young adults are improving, enrollment rates are declining for older adults. The report also notes that the burden of paying for college is now higher for students in every state, and low college completion rates have barely improved. Additionally, disparities persist in college access and success by income, race and ethnicity, and state.

Number of Certificates and Degrees Awarded per 100 students enrolled, Kentucky and Ohio:

Complete Ohio Report Card

Complete Kentucky Report Card

Child Health System 3.0

I had the opportunity to see a presentation this morning at Cincinnati Children's Hospital by Dr. Neal Halfon, Director of the Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities of Los Angeles, California. His topic, "Transforming the U.S. Child Health System: Moving from 2.0 to 3.0," dealt with the evolution of this system, the influence of environmental and other risk factors on child development, and what a more effective system might look like.



















Source: Neal Halfon, UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities

Some of the things he called for were:

-An integrated and comprehensive approach - new strategic partnerships and broadbanding of services
-Greater flexibility of services and improved coordination at the local level
-Increased community and consumer participation
-More focus on prevention, health promotion, and early intervention
-Focus on Outcomes

In addition to these, there were other themes common to Strive that he also touched on– creating efficiencies with what already exists, promoting better information and communications systems to track child outcomes, and thinking of child health care outside the walls of the pediatrician’s office–and better networking of these supporting services.

In particular, the promotion of better information and communication systems can be a catalyst for systems transformation. This is something that Strive is focused on locally in pushing for better education data systems, and it would seem all the better to look for ways to integrate education with health.