This is the same Reynoldsburg district that:

• Was ranked Excellent by the state on its last  report card

• Showed a 97% graduation rate in 2009-10

• Is currently receiving praise for its innovative schools and programs, from STEM to Shakespeare to  early college enrollment

 Now, parents throughout central Ohio have another option to investigate, and many of those parents will be thrilled by what is now available to them.

Greater availability of public school choice is a huge step forward, and we can only hope that Reynoldsburg is the first of many other districts to open their schools, their programs and their opportunities to many more students who are looking for the very best education they can find that meets their learning needs.

Now, you can watch their speeches too! Our friends at the American Federation for Children posted videos of the full keynote speeches and introductions. Click the links below to see what each keynote speaker had to say about school choice.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Commentator Juan Williams

Ohio

Kasich upset education plan altered
The Columbus Dispatch
 5/9/2012
Governor  John Kasich faced opposition from his own party in the Ohio Senate over his plans to reform education in the state.

Class strikes chord for autism awareness
The Findlay Courier
5/7/2012
Students and teachers in Findlay’s Central Middle School presented a special musical, informative performance to help foster greater awareness and understanding of students on the Autism spectrum. It was the culmination of a month of projects and activities to celebrate Autism Awareness month.

Schools still looking for new owner for Central
The Findlay Courier
5/8/2012
Meanwhile, Findlay Central Middle School itself is set to be closed at the end of the school year and the district Superintendent has reached out directly to a charter school operator and a school for students with autism in an attempt to find a buyer for the building.

Mother wants son to have chance to walk with class at Licking Valley graduation
Newark Advocate
5/10/2012
Cory Ryan has come a very long way since he was diagnosed with agenesis of the corpus callosum, cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder, making strides that many thought he would never achieve. He doesn’t quite have all the credits needed to graduate with the rest of his class, but his mother is trying to see that he gets to celebrate with his classmates at their upcoming ceremony.

National

Walnut Hills rated top Ohio high school
Cincinnati Enquirer
5/9/2012
U.S. News & World Report released their 2012 national Best High Schools rankings. Ohio’s top high school was in suburban Cincinnati. Walnut Hills High School ranked 90th best in the nation.

Countdown: Central Ohio high schools at top of the class
Business First Columbus
5/10/12
The next day, Central Ohio high schools found in the same rankings were listed – starting at 120^th best in the nation.

Major groups beg Congress to rewrite NCLB
Washington Post
5/6/2012
A coalition of 10 major organizations of state and local government officials – including the the National Governors Association, The Council of State Governments, The National League of Cities and the National School Boards Association – sent a letter to Congress asking them to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. This opinion piece discusses the pros and cons of such a move and of the legislation itself.

The Ohio Senate approved SB316 by a vote of 30-2. The floor vote today follows the Senate Education Committee’s unanimous vote yesterday to move the bill forward.

SB316 includes a number of significant education reform provisions, including the institution of a third grade reading initiative, which will work to ensure that all students are capable of reading at the third grade level before being allowed to move forward to the fourth grade. The bill also includes changes to the evaluation system for school buildings and districts that will make it easier for the public to know how well schools are educating children.

School Choice Ohio supports both of these initiatives and applauds the Ohio Senate for advancing these provisions through the legislature.

Also included by the Senate were three more significant changes that will have a positive impact in advancing school choice for students and families. One provision will require schools to notify parents and guardians of children with special needs of the availability of both the Autism and Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarships to increase awareness of these programs among those who qualify for participation.

A second change made by the Senate allows students who are attending start-up chartered nonpublic schools to be allowed to receive EdChoice scholarships as soon as that school receives its charter from the Ohio Department of Education. This is an important step forward because it will allow many students who otherwise would be eligible for these scholarships the opportunity to attend the school of their choice.

Lastly, the Senate approved a second summer application window for the EdChoice Scholarship Program to allow families that may have missed the original application window, which closed April 13 this year, the opportunity to seek a scholarship to attend the school of their choice.

With the passage of SB316 by the Ohio Senate, the bill now goes to the Ohio House for consideration. Be sure to check back later for updates on the progress of SB316.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recently posed for a photo with his placard that read, “Every child deserves the chance to get a great education.” Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s read, “Choice is Freedom!”

You can participate too!

1. Download and print a copy of the placard from National School Choice Week’s website.
2. Fill in the blank with why you support school choice.
3. Pose for a photo with you holding the sign.
4. Post to Twitter using #SchoolChoice and on the National School Choice Week Facebook page at facebook.com/schoolchoiceweek.

Don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account? No worries. Just email us the photos at kfrazier@scohio.org, and we would be happy to tweet and post them on your behalf!

So go on, print out your placard, and tell the world why you support school choice. We can’t wait to see all the photos!

We heard from panels of forward-thinking public school leaders from Tennessee, Indiana and Pennsylvania who believe that school choice is the most important way to spur improvement in the public schools. Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said that giving parents the chance to vote with their feet is the only way to “make it more painful for schools to stay the same than to change.”

One of our favorite ideas came from the research panel: What if we gave families the flexibility to mix and match the best of all educational options? Wisconsin allows students to mix time and funding between public and private schools, online and in-person settings, and homeschool and school options. Now, THAT makes sense.

It was wonderful to see a great crew of fellow Ohioans there as well: Rabbi A.D. Motzen from Agudath Israel, Tracie Craft and Ericka Murphy from Ohio BAEO, Ron Adler from the Ohio Coalition for Quality Options, Susan Stagner from Connections Academy, and Ohio Representatives John Barnes, Anne Gonzales, and Matt Huffman.

Rep. Barnes joined legislators – mostly Democrats – from Georgia, Florida, and Wisconsin on a panel to discuss the huge gains Ohio has made in providing school choice for its families and the many thousands of positive stories that have resulted.

We also heard from the author of the first parent trigger law: former California Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero who spoke passionately about needing to bring parents to the table. As a high school student, she was told that she was not college material. Now, PhD in hand, she shakes her head and insists that access to college starts with a strong K-12 education that supports high goals for every student. She put it in stark terms: “If we do not educate, we will incarcerate.”

AFC had an all-star line-up of keynote speakers: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Fox commentator Juan Williams, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. All shared about their own personal experiences of educational choice and what it has meant for the families they serve. You can watch all their speeches at: www.AFCPolicySummit.com.

Thank you to AFC and all our national and Ohio friends for making our trip to New Jersey a fantastic time. With the research and inspiration, we hope to hear about many more students accessing the school of their choice next year.

Ohio

Some charter school supporters urge opposition to Cleveland schools reform legislation
The Plain Dealer
April 29, 2012
Some charter school supporters believe that the Cleveland Plan, which would transform the city’s school system, would limit school choice options. The Plain Dealer reports that supporters of the plan believe it would remove schools that are performing poorly. SCO Executive Director Matt Cox tells The Plain Dealer, “We are supportive of the bill for sure because it creates better schools—better public schools and better charter schools.”

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson pitches school reform plan to lawmakers; concerns over charter school provisions linger
The Plain Dealer
May 1, 2012
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson met with state lawmakers to formally pitch his plan that would overhaul Cleveland’s education system. Mayor Jackson explained to the Senate Education Committee that the Transformation Alliance panel is not anti-charter, but it is meant to hold schools accountable. Some charter schools advocates have concerns that the plan could block future charter schools from opening unless they meet academic criteria that would be developed by the panel.

State may alter plan for grading schools
The Columbus Dispatch
April 27, 2012
Columbus School Superintendent Gene Harris and others shared their concerns with legislators about the plan for a new school grading system. Superintendent Harris believes that there is not enough credit given for students’ progress. She explained that the majority of the grade will be focused on standardized tests when they should also factor in student improvement. The Dispatch reports that several school officials asked for more time to prepare for the changes. The proposed grading system would help give parents a better understanding of how their child’s school is performing.

Ohio wins $21M more in turnaround aid
The Cincinnati Enquirer
May 2, 2012
The state of Ohio will receive $21 million from the U.S. Department of Education to aid underachieving schools. The School Improvement Grants will continue funding turnaround efforts at Ohio public schools and charter schools.

Catholic school enrollment increases locally
Middletown Journal
May 1, 2012
In Butler and Warren counties, Catholic schools are experiencing an increase in enrollment. Local school leaders believe the increase is due to the reputation of the schools and an increase in marketing.  The superintendent of the schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati tells the Middletown Journal that their goal is to “make sure our schools thrive into the future by being affordable and available to any family.”

National

Momentum for school choice
Chicago Tribune
April 28, 2012
A bill that would have offered Chicago students tuition support for private schools nearly passed a couple of years ago, and state Sen. Matt Murphy tells the Tribune that he hopes to have the chance to raise the issue again. This article also includes a quote from Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard that supports the idea that public dollars should follow students to the school of their choice.

The plan seeks to move the district, as our friends at 50CAN would say, from islands of excellence to systems of excellence, adopting elements of the district’s shining stars and creating a system that will enable excellence at all levels.

Key elements of the plan include the types of common sense changes that reform advocates have been pointing to for years: changes in union contracts, limits on teacher tenure, “hazard pay” for teachers who work in difficult schools, more flexibility in district finances, performance-based pay for teachers, and the potential of year-round schooling to avoid the summer “brain drain.” See more here and here.

This approach mirrors the Portfolio District approach already in use in Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston. These district offices see their role as ensuring each child has a quality education, NOT necessarily needing those quality educational opportunities to be district schools. These districts manage a portfolio of schools including partnerships with charter and private schools.

Cleveland’s plan comes with an extra bonus for charter schools. If the Cleveland Transformation Plan passed, Cleveland could become the first district in the whole country to share local levy dollars with the high-quality charter schools that they choose to partner with.

There are a couple of elements that we think are important to address, maybe down the road, to make the school choice process in Cleveland as friendly and accessible as possible for parents:

• Common application: Many portfolio districts and universities across the country use common application systems that allow families to apply to multiple schools with a single application. Including lottery, charter, and district options in one application makes the process easy for families.

• Transportation: We can’t promise families a castle without providing the carriage. Transportation is expensive but it’s key in enabling true choice.

We are encouraged by the bipartisan support, the use of national best practice, and the way that the plan embraces all Cleveland kids as “our kids,” regardless of the type of public school they attend.

National groups are watching the Cleveland process closely. Mayor Jackson, Superintendent Gordon, and the key legislators will have a lot to be proud of (and a lot of work ahead of them) if their plan is adopted. We hope these changes will give Cleveland leaders the tools they need to turn their islands of excellence into a system of excellence.

While the scale of public school choice is not tracked on a national scale, district-by-district studies in Ohio show that a substantial portion of families choose a school other than their assigned neighborhood school.

As families have more options, more students are finding schools that are a good fit for them. More students are earning college credit for free during high school. And more students are entering post-secondary education with a better developed sense of their life path.

More and more public school leaders recognize school choice as an important driver of change, introducing an external “customer service” factor into school systems by allowing families to vote with their feet. (Of course, weighted-student funding systems would ramp up families’ influence since the dollars would actually follow students to the school they choose, which is not always the case, but that is a topic for another day.)

In any case, giving parents a choice not only recognizes a basic human right but also introduces an important mechanism to improve quality. Competition drives quality, monopolies stagnate.

For more than a decade, the US Department of Education has been encouraging public school choice with the (recently de-funded) Voluntary Public School Choice grants to districts that pursue broad choice within their district. And national organizations like the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) work with a growing network of public districts across the country that are committed to embracing, rather than shunning, school choice. These districts, called “portfolio districts” are seeing huge successes:

• In New York, changing the adults is changing the system. They brought in new teachers from nontraditional pipelines using recruiting blitzes seeking new talent. They reworked teacher and union contracts. The results? Dramatic improvement in value-added gains and teacher quality and much improved graduation rates.

• In Denver, they have focused on making the school choice process user-friendly for parents. They have a single application system for parents to use. They are cracking the code on successful school turnarounds. They have charter schools that house high-needs special education programs. They have opened communication channels and sustained thoughtful exchange with charter schools – to the benefit of ALL Denver students.

These districts are just a couple of examples of a growing number of districts that are embracing school choice. Could Cleveland be next up?

My daughter Tommi Lee is 16 years old. She was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome when she was five years old. Like most parents, my initial reaction to the diagnosis was denial and confusion. After several days of processing and researching the term Asperger Syndrome, I finally accepted it. Instead of being reactive, I became proactive by seeking an Early Intervention Program. Tommi Lee and I participated in 18 months of learning behavioral modification skills. It was one of the most humbling experiences that I have endured. This gave me an opportunity to see other families and learn from how they handle their problems. Overall, this was a great journey for us.

Our experience in the public and charter schools was not the best. They had a tendency to treat and teach every child as if they had the same needs. As a result, it stifled Tommi Lee’s progression. Tommi Lee needed to be challenged.

I discovered the Autism Scholarship when Tommi Lee was 13. I could not believe how easy it was to complete the application as well as the quick turn around. She has come a long way from being very extremely shy to very sociable. Tommi Lee basically serves as the teacher’s assistant. At her new school, the focus is on the child’s strengths vs. their deficits. Tommi Lee excels in writing, computer, and helping the other students.

I’m very proud to say that I am inspired by Tommi Lee, and I believe that she will continue to develop more skills and live a happy fulfilling life.

UPDATE
Recently, we asked Toni to share an update on how Tommi Lee is doing and how the Ohio Autism Scholarship continues to impact their family. She was happy to report that Tommi Lee is making great progress socially. She is in a school that is not over-stimulating, and her teachers are experts in working with students who have Autism. Toni says that she strongly encourages parents of children with Autism to consider applying for the Ohio Autism Scholarship so that they can have access to more choices for their child’s education.

We are thrilled to hear that Tommi Lee is continuing to make progress. Thank you for the update, Toni!