School Choice Ohio Blog

Family experiences are at the heart of school choice. Our blog will periodically spotlight stories from Ohio families who experience school choice programs firsthand.

Kathryn Shaw is a mom in Akron who uses the Autism Scholarship to send her son Nathaniel to the school of her choice.

Kathryn’s story:

Kathryn Shaw is mom to Nathaniel, a child with Aspergers Syndrome. Like many similar parents, she has had the “privilege and the pain of experiencing the many challenges and victories that accompany his diagnosis.”

Nathaniel started out in his local public school, but he “struggled academically as well as socially. Not all of his teachers were tolerant or accepting of him. He was often left out and excluded because he was ‘different.’”

Nathaniel struggled through his 5^th grade year, and Kathryn began to be “at a loss for what to do when faced with the idea of having him attend a large, public, junior high school. Having him at a place where he would not have the support of those around him and with those who were not familiar with his needs terrified me. I wondered, ‘How would he survive?’”

Kathryn called a local private school and asked the principal about accommodations for Aspergers Syndrome. The principal immediately told her about the Autism Scholarship Program and explained that all of his speech and development therapy would be covered by the scholarship. Kathryn was very excited. “Instantly, my hope for his future was reignited!”

Nathaniel began attending this school in the fall of 2004. Although he was the only Aspergers student in the classroom, Nathaniel’s teacher “was so understanding and cooperative in helping to meet his needs…The support and understanding of all faculty and staff was clearly apparent.”

“By the time Nathaniel started high school, he began to blossom academically as well as socially. His grades that once were D’s and C’s began to climb. With a current grade point average of 3.9, it is obvious that Nathaniel is right where he is supposed to be. Nathaniel is the only high school student in the chess club, has been in three school plays,  is in the orchestra where he plays violin, is in the art club, and is on the track team.”

Kathryn believes the Autism Scholarship Program provided Nathaniel this important “educational choice in order to be placed in an outstanding school environment where he can thrive and exceed the expectations of others.” She feels that “if it was not for the Autism scholarship, he would certainly not have had the opportunity to become the outstanding man that he is today.”

In April of this year, the U.S. Department of Education published a report on School Choice. This report, entitled Trends in the Use of School Choice: 2003-2007, used information taken from surveys of parents all over the nation.

The data show that school choice is prominent and growing among students nationwide:

• 70% attend their assigned public school,
• 15% have chosen a different public school,
• 12% attend a private school, and
• 3% are homeschooled.

The national data roughly corresponds to the landscape here in Ohio where:

• 85% attend an assigned or magnet/lottery public school,
• 9% attend private school,
• 4% attend a charter school, and
• 1% are homeschooled.

Researchers found that parents generally love school choice. After reviewing the data from 2003 to 2007, the trend was obvious: “Students enrolled in chosen public schools and private schools had parents who were more satisfied with their children’s schools than did students enrolled in assigned public schools.”

This makes sense. Every parent wants the best for their child. They are happier when they can choose the school which is truly the best fit, whether that is their assigned public school or elsewhere.

Unfortunately, many parents are not even aware of their options. The report indicates that only 50% of parents in 2007 knew that “public school choice was available.” Only 32% “considered other schools” for their child.

Lots of Ohio families have already made found the best fit for their child, but we are working toward the day when 100% of parents are satisfied with their child’s education. Sadly, though, if knowledge is power, there are still a lot of parents – at least 50% – who are not empowered. Check out the ways you can make a difference for them.

- Sarita Zaffini

Family experiences are at the heart of school choice. Our blog will periodically spotlight stories from Ohio families who experience school choice programs firsthand.

Paul Proctor is a 5^th-grade recipient of the EdChoice Scholarship in Youngstown.

Paul’s story:

Paul Proctor attended a Youngstown charter school for some time, but his mother, Monica Proctor, knew that he was unhappy.  “Paul has always been an extremely well behaved, high honor roll student…I always felt that he was the one being ‘left behind,’ because he was so ahead of the other students in his class.”

Monica has always felt that “the decision on where to send children should be left to the parents, as all children are different as well as their learning needs,” but financial obstacles often block these choices. “Before I learned of the EdChoice program, there was no way, financially, that I could afford to send my very, very bright son to a private school. Even though I knew it would be the best choice for him, there just wasn’t a way.”

After Monica applied for a scholarship, she took Paul to test at the chosen school. “As soon as we walked in the doors, Paul said he just felt he belonged there and nowhere else.” When Monica told her son that he had been accepted for the EdChoice scholarship, Paul was extremely excited.  “He immediately called everyone he knew to tell them that he would be going to the school of ‘his’ choice. I think it was the happiest day of his life.”

Paul is now thriving. He is still on the honor roll, but he doesn’t feel “left behind” now. Monica is overwhelmingly grateful for this opportunity for her son. “It makes my heart feel at peace when I see him coming out of school happy and full of new things to talk about….He tries harder, expects more from himself and his teachers, and feels that he gets back the respect that he gives.”

“Thank you EdChoice for allowing my son a better education, for being my voice and backing up ‘my choice’ for my child.”

We know Ohio is the heart of it all, and in many ways Ohio is the heart of school choice. With three voucher programs that represent the widest variety of programs in any state, Ohio is truly a launching pad for school choice nationally.

So it’s no surprise to see Ohio featured on the cover page of a national school choice publication, The School Choice Advocate, released by the Foundation for Educational Choice. The cover story spotlights the EdChoice Scholarship cap and features parents who know firsthand why it needs to be raised. Latisha, Colitha, Lisa, Monica, and Tanisha all shared their insights, along with St. Mary’s principal Dave Csank, Senator Jon Husted, and Senator Gary Cates.

Not only that, but we just released a beautiful publication highlighting the stories of families using the Autism Scholarship. Many thanks to the Lutz, Pendley, Wells, and Carr families who were excited to share the successes of the scholarship for them. Your voices are important!

And last but not least, our latest newsletter was just released – and it’s a good one. Click to read about:

• Families maxing out the 14,000 available EdChoice scholarships
• School choice drama hitting the big screen
• How you can talk to local leaders about school choice

- Sarah Pechan

We’re just a day away from the release of a new report, “Needles in a Haystack,” due out tomorrow from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The report will highlight the achievements of eight schools in Ohio that work with high-needs students’ and are achieving great results.

Not long after reading about the inspiring “Needles in a Haystack” project, I came across Charles Murray’s article, “Why Charter Schools Fail the Test”, published in the New York Times on May 4.

I agreed with one of Murray’s underlying messages: school choice should not be reserved for affluent parents, but should be available to all families in order to ensure each child receives the education he or she deserves. However, I found one statement in the article unsettling:

“Cognitive ability, personality and motivation come mostly from home. What happens in the classroom can have some effect, but smart and motivated children will tend to learn to read and do math even with poor instruction, while not-so-smart or unmotivated children will often have trouble with those subjects despite excellent instruction.”

The very idea Murray proposes – that economically-disadvantaged children will have trouble despite excellent instruction – quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that can itself contribute to underachievement.  Murray’s view has been discredited by schools all over the country – schools like the ones featured in “Needles in a Haystack.”  Across Ohio, schools in high-needs areas are proving that the same children who were labeled “not-so-smart or unmotivated” in the past can earn test scores that match or surpass the state’s highest performers.

The “Needles in a Haystack” report is just a glimpse of the academic success that can be achieved in high-needs areas when the correct steps are taken.  These schools are proof that no matter their background students can and will succeed when given the chance, regardless of what expectations Charles Murray has for them. 

These 2009 statistics, taken from Fordham’s “Needles in a Haystack” videos, speak for themselves:

Cleveland:

Citizens’ Academy (80% economically-disadvantaged students)

      Cleveland School District Students who passed the state reading test = 49%

      Citizens’ Academy students who passed the state reading test = 91%

Cincinnati:

College Hill Fundamental Academy (78% economically-disadvantaged students)

      Cincinnati district students who passed the state math test = 53%

      College Hill students who passed the state math test = 76%

Canton:

McGregor Elementary (90% economically disadvantaged students)

     Canton school district students who passed the state reading test = 59%  

     McGregor students who passed the state reading test = 76%

Columbus:

Valleyview Elementary (86% economically disadvantaged students)

     Columbus district students who passed the state math test = 58%

     Valleyview students who passed the state math test = 72%

Be on the lookout for the Fordham study, available here tomorrow. We’re grateful for these schools that continue to prove the experts wrong.

- Marisa Simon

School Choice Ohio, along with KidsOhio.org and the Columbus Urban League, are proud to launch a new school choice information tool for Ohio families.

The “Jumpstart on College & Your Career” brochure features information on four college access programs that allow students to receive college credit during high school for free. These programs let high schoolers to save money on college tuition and get their feet wet with professional, technical, and academic college-level work.

The brochure includes information on these four Ohio programs:

• College Tech Prep
• Early College High Schools
• Advanced Placement Courses
• Post-secondary Enrollment

During the next couple of weeks, we will spotlight each of these options individually on our blog. While all of them are free, they each offer different focus areas and styles to help students enter and succeed in college and career programs.

Data show that these tremendous programs are often underutilized by low-income students so we’re pursuing an aggressive distribution campaign to try to get these brochures in the right hands.

Want some brochures of your own? Contact spechan@scohio.org to order your free copies.

As the heart of it all, Ohio continues to be a nexus for cutting-edge dialogue, especially in regards to education reform.

This Friday, the conversations will continue with the premiere of a new film called The Cartel. The Cartel is a documentary that examines the educational establishment in New Jersey. The movie has enjoyed widespread distribution in the Garden State and has appeared in select cities around the country where education reform is a hot topic.

This Friday is the film’s Ohio opening night and the film’s director will host an open Q&A with Ohioans interested in school reform after the screening. This is an opportunity to take in a new movie, mingle with other education reformers, and to engage in dialogue with the film’s director.

Friday, May 21 @ 7pm

Location: Gateway Film Center

1550 N High Street, Columbus

Tickets: $8.50 ($5 for students)

Parking $1

Details are available at http://www.gatewayfilmcenter.com/coming-soon.

Discount tickets are available for groups of 20 or more. Email Melissa Starker at mstarker@gatewayfilmcenter.com for more information.

With websites being created, redesigned, and expanded all the time, it can be hard to keep track of all the changes. At lunch today, I was fortunate enough to attend the unveiling of a redesigned website that has the potential to be a powerful tool for policymakers and the general public in Ohio.

The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions has placed an incredible amount of information at the fingertips of anyone who cares to seek it out. The data available includes information on government operations, public employee salaries, lobbyists, and education. The education related data, of special interest to me, includes information on school performance and teacher salaries.

Information prepared by the Buckeye Institute indicated that there are over 25 million pieces of data included on the website. I’m not going to count the pieces of data, but I am going to access it when I need facts and data related to governmental operations. I encourage you to do the same. The website can be found at www.buckeyeinstitute.org.

- Chad Aldis

Well, we’ve reached the end of April – Autism Awareness Month. This month’s blog series has been a new way for us to connect with tremendous stories of the growth, transformation, and impact that the Autism Scholarship makes possible for kids in Ohio.

Parents talked about their hopes to “mainstream” their kids back into typical classrooms and the joy of hearing previously nonverbal kids speak their first words. Teens shared how they’re learning to express themselves. Legislators shared about the importance of autism awareness and pending laws and programs that could help people with autism and other special needs.

Thank you for following along and learning with us this month! Supporters can stay in the loop at www.scohio.org/getinvolved.

- Sarah Pechan

The Autism Scholarship is experiencing tremendous growth and, as we have read this month, it is making a real difference in kids’ lives.

Part of what we can do to help more kids with autism is making sure everyone has access to quality providers in their area. There are still many kids who can’t benefit from the scholarship because they don’t live near a service provider, school, or therapist who offers the help they need.

There are 222 private providers spread across 37 of Ohio’s 88 counties. This reaches many students, but not all. Important frontiers in developing the Autism Scholarship include:

• Expanding the types of services available,
• Making sure providers are quality,
• Copying successful schools and service models so they can serve more kids, and
• Broadening the geography of families able to access services (especially in rural areas because service providers tend to be clustered in urban areas).

The flexibility and choice in the Autism Scholarship Program has allowed several model autism programs to develop that have become national stars. These programs, based on different beliefs about how to approach autism, use approaches that families can match to their individual child.

An increase in the funding amount of the Autism Scholarship ($20,000) closer to par with public school funding ($30,000+) would be an important investment in sustained and expanded innovation. Successful programs often cost $50,000-$100,000 per student annually. Progress on the frontiers will also require significant philanthropic investment, but promise impressive outcomes. Philanthropists who are interested in autism would do well to invest in replicating proven school models.

What are some of the needs you see to expand autism services? Some of the opportunities?

- Sarah Pechan