Repeated Message

Today's Journal...

Middletown test scores lowest in county

NO CHANGE SINCE THE 80's.

Middletown City Schools had the lowest proficiency rate in Butler County, with fewer than half of sophomores passing all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test.

But Superintendent Grag Rasmussen said the 47.1 percent passing rate, according to preliminary scores, is still good news in that it’s a marked improvement over last year, which had a 44.8 percent passage rate.

MARKED IMPROVEMENT?....SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT IS MORE LIKE IT, RIGHT?

“We were pleased with the increase we see in writing and reading, especially writing,” he said. “We’ve had a real focus on that in the high school.”

"PLEASED"?

SAME RESULTS, SAME REACTION FROM A SUPER. "WE'RE PLEASED THAT WE HAVE IMPROVED FROM A HORRIFIC PERFORMANCE TO A FEW PERCENTAGES ABOVE THAT HORRIFIC PERFORMANCE. IS THIS REALLY SOMETHING TO BE PLEASED ABOUT? SHOULD THE SUPER FEEL THAT GOOD ABOUT WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED? "WE'VE GOTTEN BETTER AT BEING BAD" C'MON.


“We recognize that we have some work to do,” Rasmussen said. “Our teachers recognize this, and so do the kids.”

THIS LINE HAS BEEN USED CONSISTENTLY BY EVERY SUPER SINCE HARRY EASTRIDGE BACK IN THE 80'S. IT IS A PROGRAMMED RESPONSE TO ATTEMPT TO APPEASE THE PUBLIC AND DEADEN THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF THE REAL PERFORMANCE, IMO. IT HAS NO BITE BECAUSE THEY HAVE HAD "SOME WORK TO DO" SINCE THE 80's AND, JUDGING BY THE 40% + PASSING RATE, WE HAVE NOT MADE ANY STRIDES SINCE THEN. WE WERE IN THE 40 PERCENTILE IN THE 80's WHEN THIS ALL FIRST STARTED.

Middletown City Schools also has the lowest graduation rate — 82 percent — among public schools in Butler County in 2009-10, according to preliminary data from the ODE

THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FAR TOO LONG ALSO.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ross Local Schools had the highest passing rate in Butler County, with 86.7 percent of students who took all five sections passing all five sections

THEN JUMP IN THE CAR, MAKE A TRIP TO THE ROSS SCHOOLS AND FIND OUT WHAT THEY ARE DOING THAT YOU ARE NOT. ROSS ISN'T EXACTLY A HIGH END AREA LIKE WEST CHESTER AND MASON ARE. CAN'T USE THAT AS AN EXCUSE, RIGHT?

• Hamilton: 59.6 percent of Hamilton’s students who took all five sections of the test passed all of them, up from 52 percent in 2010. Mathematics showed a slight decline in students passing from 80.1 percent in 2010 to 79.4 percent, as did social studies, from 75.5 to 75.4 percent. There was a nearly 10 point jump in writing scores from 76.1 percent passing last year to 86 percent in 2011.

EVEN HAMILTON'S PERFORMANCE WAS 12.5% POINTS HIGHER THAN MIDDLETOWN'S. HAMILTON HAS SIMILAR DEMOGRAHICS AS MIDDLETOWN, DOESN'T IT? JUST KEEP FANNING THE FLAMES CITY LEADERS AND BRING IN MORE SECTION 8 TO EXACERBATE THE PROBLEM.

IF YOU HAVE BEEN MAKING BABY STEP CHANGES FOR 30+ YEARS AND IT HASN'T SHOWN ANY REAL MEASUREABLE PROGRESS, PLEASE STOP DOING THOSE THINGS. REVAMP THE WHOLE SYSTEM, INTRODUCE NEW TEACHING METHODS,RESTRUCTURE THE LESSON PLANS FOR MORE EFFECTIVE RESULTS, START DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY, CHANGE THE ROLE OF ADMIN IN TEACHER SUPPORT, ADD SOME NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR PARENTS TO GET THEIR KIDS TO SCHOOL EACH DAY AND ON TIME, CALL THE PARENTS AWAY FROM THEIR JOBS EACH TIME THEIR KID ACTS UP IN SCHOOL, HAUL THE PARENTS AND THE PROBLEM KIDS INTO SCHOOL ON WEEKENDS, TAKING THEIR WEEKENDS AWAY FROM THEM, INVOLVE THE LEGAL SYSTEM MORE FOR PARENTS WHO CAN'T SEEM TO GET THE MESSAGE, START ADDRESSING THE PROBLEMS IN A DIFFERENT MANNER AND STOP USING THE SAME OLD FAILED METHODS OF THE PAST AND EXPECT CHANGE. IT AIN'T WORKIN' JUDGING BY THESE RESULTS.

Paraphasing former Notre Dame Coach Gerry Faust: " Even though we finished 0-11 this year, I'm proud of the efforts the kids put on the field, closing the gap to five games we were only 21 points behind in the fourth quarter. Next year our goal is to go 0-11, but only lose by 7 points in 50% of our games.

Today's Journal......another story about the hopes in improving the test scores....



School officials expecting achievement score gains
Final OAA results will be released in late August on the district's annual report card.

MIDDLETOWN — Middletown school officials are encouraged by preliminary Ohio Achievement Assessment data.

“A much larger portion of kids are passing,” said Betsy Carter, senior director of learning for Middletown City Schools.

Last year’s OAA scores, for the most part, were well below the state requirement that 75 percent of students pass. For instance, 68 percent of Middletown third-graders passed their reading assessment, 46 percent of fifth-graders passed their math assessment and 36 percent of eighth-graders passed their science assessment.

Still, last year’s reading scores were up 3 percent from the year before, according to Carter. The expectation is to see at least the same gain this year.

Meanwhile math scores have been flat over the past couple years, Carter said. But based on the preliminary data available, it’s not unreasonable to expect a double-digit gain.

NO IMPROVEMENT IN THE WELL BELOW THE STATE AVERAGE CATEGORY, BUT BETSY IS NOTING THAT THE SCORES ARE UP 3 PERCENT FROM THE "WELL BELOW THE STATE AVERAGE" PERFORMANCE.

LET'S SEE.....AN ANALOGY HERE....

THE HORSE I JUST BET ON CAME IN LAST PLACE IN THIS RACE AND HAS IN EVERY RACE HE HAS BEEN IN, BUT HIS TIME AROUND THE TRACK IMPROVED EACH TIME. BETSY WOULD CALL THIS AN IMPROVEMENT EVEN THOUGH THE END RESULTS WAS A LAST PLACE FINISH WITH EACH ATTEMPT. IMO, MISFOCUSED. MISREPRESENTED, MISINTERPRETED RESPONSE BETSY.

Of course, If the boss is happy with it, why would the employees care.

Ms. Andrew says... "This would bring the district's indicators earned from 5 to 9 -- still not satisfactory, but pretty clear evidence of improvement"....

THIS IS INDEED IMPROVEMENT, MS. ANDREW. IF THIS DATA IS CORRECT, AND THE INDICATOR LEVEL IS NOW 9, RATHER THAN THE 5 WE HAVE BEEN SEEING FOR 10+ YEARS, WE ARE CLOSE TO BEING 33 1/3% OF THE WAY THERE IF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF INDICATORS IS STILL 30. WHILE THIS IS A SMALL BIT OF POSITIVE NEWS, YOU FAILED TO MENTION A CRITICAL NOTE IN YOUR STATEMENT.....IT TOOK MANY YEARS TO ACHIEVE THIS POTENTIAL GOOD NEWS, AN IMPORTANT ITEM WHEN WE ARE TRACKING PROGRESS. TIME TAKEN TO ACCOMPLISH, AS WELL AS DEGREE OF ACHIEVEMENT, ARE FACTORS.

THIS DATA THAT YOU ARE REPORTING IS NOT FINALIZED. IT MAY BE A TAD BIT WORSE THAN IS REPORTED. YOU ARE SPECULATING UNTIL THEN. I HOPE YOU ARE CORRECT.

WHY DO YOU THINK THE JOURNAL, A PAST STAUNCH SUPPORTER OF SCHOOLS AND A NEWSPAPER THAT HASN'T SEEN A LEVY IT DIDN'T LIKE, WANT TO REPORT A "WISHIN' AND A HOPIN'" ARTICLE AS YOU TERM IT? THOUGHT THE NEWSPAPER WAS A FRIEND OF THE SCHOOLS AND WAS SKEWED IN THEIR REPORTING TO REPORT ONLY THE GOOD NEWS FROM THE SCHOOLS RATHER THAN THE TOTAL NEWS, GOOD OR BAD.

THE PROBLEM WITH THIS STORY IS THAT WHILE THE SCHOOLS MAY BE SHOWING IMPROVEMENT, THE PUBLIC, WHEN DECIPHERING THIS DATA WILL SEE THAT MIDD. SCHOOLS ARE STILL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE BY QUITE A FEW PERCENTAGE POINTS. YOU CAN TELL US THE NEWS IS GOOD, BUT THE NEWS IS GOOD WITHIN THE LOWER ECHELON PERFORMING SCHOOLS WHICH TAKES THE POSITIVE IMAGE IMPACT AWAY FROM YOUR STATEMENTS. BASICALLY, MIDD. SCHOOLS ARE PERFORMING BETTER BUT THE PERFORMANCE IS NOT ENOUGH TO REPORT A JUMP IN THE RATINGS TOWARD EXCELLENT.

AGAIN, AN ANALOGY.... I WENT TO THE HORSETRACK, BET ON A HORSE WHO LOST FOR THE 10th TIME IN A ROW, BUT THE HORSE RAN A FASTER TIME AROUND THE TRACK. REALLY DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE HORSES TIME WAS AROUND THE TRACK, NOR THAT THE HORSE'S TIME WAS IMPROVING, THE FACT IS, IT CAME IN LAST....AGAIN. IT IS CONSISTENTLY DOING WELL IN THE BACK OF THE PACK.

Vet, there are a total of 26 indicators for the district to earn on the state report card.

Congratuations on moving in the right direction.

Bobbie,

I don't want my kids taught facts to regurgitate on tests. I want them taught HOW to be a learner. To ask questions and to understand not just the fact that may be the test answer, but also how or why that is the case.

Unfortunately, I know that along with that comes an increased chance that the child will not perform on the test because if you teach them to learn it doesn't force them to learn the facts at hand - it simply gives them the tools and the option to use them or not. And since it appears that the majority factor considered in performance of schools nowdays is how well they score on tests, it is a much safer bet to teach to the tests ("Just the facts, ma'am.")

No blame being assigned here against MCSD or it's admin. They have to react and change to the requirements they are handed by the state and federal government. I am glad that it appears some improvements to indicators are coming our way. The endgame I hope is to get those indicators up all across the board and then we can start rebuilding those thinkers again.

A nation of thinkers is what made America great and what we need to be creating in our schools to regain our momentum and get back to the top of the heap. It's how we put a man on the moon, kickstarted the industrial revolution, cured diseases, figured out how to build skyscrapers, etc.

The opposite (in my opinion), conditions folks to be do-ers. "Instruction goes in, I follow it, good things happen." Great for the service industry running the register at Wal-Mart or asking if you'd like fries with that. But not so much for creating doctors, scientists, authors, etc.

It just appears to me that what we have here is a somewhat ingenious way by our corporate overlords who hold the reigns to government to increase the caste system of have's and have nots. It conditions us to work the crappy service industry jobs and eventually conditions the apathy that allows the upper echelon to keep control. Sure, we'll complain all over message boards and to our buddies how the government is bending us over, but when it comes down to it, we won't do anything about it. I'm sure we can see this all over Middletown, and we aren't the only place where this is the case.

This isn't an MCSD problem, or even a state of Ohio problem. This is a national issue. I hope that here at MCSD we can overcome this, and as a volunteer leader for a youth organization I do what I can to help. But as for my children, I was lucky enough to take the Ohio EdChoice option and jumped on it, because the change won't come soon enough for the kids that are my kids' age.

Parents required!

Almost 50% of the way there, Ms. Andrew. Improvement, nevertheless.

Question: Now that the district has indicator number 11 accomplished, does it have to maintain that in the next test sequence? Can an indicator be subtracted if the 11th grade social studies kids for next year score below a 75%....the magical number as you stated in a post above? Can a district lose an indicator and go backward in progress?

Another question: In a post above, you mentioned that one of the problems is not enough time in the classroom. IE, the school day was too short. Who said the school day had to start at 7 or 7:30AM and end at 2 or 2:30PM? The union? The parents? The school board? What is preventing this district from extending the school day until 4 or 4:30PM? State law?/Fed law? Sure you would get some lip from the union (teachers), perhaps other school personnel, and some parents, but if the intent was to have more time to teach and improve the performance, wouldn't it be worth the effort to change it? The hours added would be sizable over the duration of the school year. The teachers are salaried. I would imagine exempt in status meaning they can be mandatoried to work the amount of hours it would take to do the job for the same pay. If true, they wouldn't have a gripe coming based on their exempt pay status.

That is excellent news Mrs. Andrew!

Thank you for the information Ms. Andrew.

You state..

"The length of the school day is set in the union contracts, which establish the maximum number of hours per day teachers and other staff may be required to be on duty in the building. (Of course, there are also many hours that teachers voluntarily put in grading homework and tests and planning lessons, and many other tasks). To lengthen the school day would require agreement from the unions (even under SB5, I believe that the union still has the right to bargain for "conditions of employment.") This would require greater pay. And the unions might not even agree, even if there was a proportional increase in pay. Because of all those hours they put in after school already".

That is most unfortunate as it takes alot of the leverage away from the employer(the schools) as to extending the work day hours for the purpose of improving instructional hours. A definite negative when we have union negotiations to contend with. In the private working world, the company would extend the working hours for exempt employees and wouldn't necessarily pay more toward the salary. They may, however, grant some comp time in lieu of additional pay. For non-exempt employees, they would pay the time and a half for the first eight hours over forty and double time for the next eight hours worked. (At least that's the way it worked in the eight companies I have worked for) There would be no "negotiations" as to the extention of the work day. If the needs of the business called for it, it would be done. It is a shame your system has no leverage for more instruction hours for the good of the district. It doesn't sound like the teacher's union would give an inch on this.

As to the subject of lengthening the school day requiring the agreement from the unions under "condition of employment".....and if done would require greater pay..........they are salary exempt. They should not be compensated for extra time. They sign a contract to do a job for a certain salary. The salary paid INCLUDES ANY AND ALL ADDITIONAL HOURS needed to get the job done. That is the way an exempt position works. Exempt positions are not paid overtime for additional hours worked. Usually exempt positions are offered by companies at a higher rate than non-exempt as compensation for the extra time with no additional pay. Furthermore, exempt positions usually have built-in perks not offered to non-exempt employees. Company cars, company credit cards, company gatherings with the lower echelon employee populace not invited, unlimited sick time, country club memberships, travel pay, frequent flyer miles (although some of these are being taken away by companies now), perks given in the contracts as to buyouts if downsized to name a few. Hourly, non-exempt people are not offered a contract nor any of these perks listed.(my experiences)

In this instance, it appears the union is preventing the use of a method that may upgrade the districts performance.