[Ohiogift] Fwd: Gongwer- Ross: Gifted Standards A Matter Of Local Control; State Should Address Failure Of Districts As Well As Charters

[anngift at aol.com]

Ross: Gifted Standards A Matter Of Local Control; State Should Address Failure Of Districts As Well As Charters
 
Superintendent of Public Instruction Dick Ross said he will advocate for local control as the State Board of Education considers revisions to the gifted operating standards.
 
The head of the Department of Education also opined during an interview with Gongwer News Service on the success and struggles of community schools and described the agency’s operations resulting from a host of new legislative mandates.
 
Mr. Ross, who assumed the superintendent’s post in March after serving as the director of the governor’s Office of 21st Century Education, also described why he wanted the post.
 
“I helped write some of the legislation and I helped advocate them and get them passed through the legislature, and when the state superintendency became open, it struck me that I had just done the easiest parts of this, which is conceive and encourage them through the legislature,” he said referring to his role with crafting the mid-biennial review and other major education overhauls.
 
“The hardest part is what we do right now; it’s the implementation, so I felt compelled to apply for the position because of that. If I really believe in the third-grade reading guarantee, I could sit across the street and pontificate about it or I could come over here and make sure it went and worked well.”
 
Mr. Ross said he does not plan to request any new legislation this fall because the agency is so focused on implementing what has already been enacted.
 
“I think the field would just like to go through an implementation and not have major changes,” he said. “We’ve got some good reforms here…we just have to make sure we do it well.”
 
Gifted: The state board is set to vote on a revision of standards for how gifted students are served in October, but advocates and some board members say the proposal guts accountability. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, September 9, 2013)
 
The ODE draft has been described as outcome-based rather than income dependent, and Superintendent Ross says he thinks it boils down to trusting local districts to know what works best in their community.
 
“I think historically in this state and this country we’ve always assumed that the state capitol, Columbus, or Washington knows better about how to allocate resources than the local community, and we see it over and over again,” he said. “I believe that the state should be setting expectations and outcomes and measurements much by the report card and evaluations like that.”
 
Mr. Ross said he strongly believes in allowing superintendents, boards of education, teachers unions, teachers and communities to decide how they want to allocate their resources to achieve goals.
 
“And when I see dictates that require districts to spend money in particular ways, when I know hearing from school leaders and school boards that they may or may not want to do that, why would we require them to do it out of the box?” he said.
 
“With gifted I think it’s pretty evident on our report card that a lot of school districts aren’t doing a good job with meeting the needs of gifted kids. But that’s the point…. We also know that some of them aren’t even serving (gifted students).”
 
Mr. Ross said he thinks advocates don’t trust superintendents, boards of education, teachers and parents to provide the services if the state doesn’t lay out what must be done. “I think I would lay my trust there rather than the government.”
 
“As I listen to the controversy I certainly don’t want anybody to misunderstand my support for educating gifted kids at the highest level because I’m there,” he said. “My concern is when the government dictates to a local community that you must spend money here regardless of the effect. We’ve been doing that and it really doesn’t seem to have been all that effective or we wouldn’t be getting the grades that we’re getting.”
 
The new report card system, which provides value-added growth data on gifted students specifically, will be a means to drive schools to aspire to higher performance, the superintendent said.
 
“If it wasn’t on the report card – and we’re probably going to be looking at indicators for gifted down the road too – if that wasn’t there I might take a different position,” he said. “I might take a different position on third-grade reading and literacy if it wasn’t coming out in the report card, but I know what the reaction is when those Ds show up.
 
“I do believe in once it’s reported and transparent, which this great new report card does, I think it’s going to drive new focus.”
 
Charter Schools: The report cards have also again shed light on the discrepancy among the performance of charter schools. On an ODE ranking of school districts and charters based on Performance Index, the bottom 80-plus schools are community schools. So too are the top two schools. (SeeGongwer Ohio Report, September 18, 2013)
 
Mr. Ross said he visits a lot of high-quality charter schools. “When I hear people criticizing community schools, I say well, yeah, but you know I’ve been to some and seen some not so good traditional schools,” he said.
 
When asked if Ohio’s closure laws for charters are adequate, he said, “I think we probably need to do more with dealing with traditional brick and mortar schools and community schools.”
 
“Right now poor-performing school districts, I’m able to start academic distress committees with them. I probably, to be honest, have more control over closing community schools than I do traditional schools. I think we need to be more assertive across the board of schools that aren’t meeting student needs.”
 
Mr. Ross has been a supporter of quality school choice for some time. When he was superintendent of Reynoldsburg City Schools, he started a virtual community school followed by a physical one.
 
“I never believed that one size fit all,” he said. “I believe that education needs to be thinking about…the mass customization. The idea that we customize educational opportunities that are different with high expectations so the delivery system’s different for different kids.
 
“If you have different learning modalities why wouldn’t we be teaching to that modality? Do we really think a teacher standing in front of a room with 25 kids is the way we’ll be teaching in the future?... Is the teacher standing in front of the classroom important for some? Absolutely.”
 
The superintendent said his message is that all children need to have quality choices.
 
“They need to have a quality school available for them whether that’s a community school/charter school or whether that’s a traditional brick and mortar school…so I don’t differentiate between the charters and the traditional,” he said.
 
ODE Operations: The Department of Education has been inundated with new responsibilities as the result of legislation such as the education mid-biennial review (SB316, 129th General Assembly), the report card overhaul (HB555, 129th General Assembly) and the new state budget (HB 59).
 
When asked how the agency is coping with the work, Mr. Ross said “We’re going to be alright.”
 
He said a new Straight A Fund office has been created and staffed with the hiring of former state superintendent Susan Zelman.
 
Accountability has also been increased with legislative changes and the third-grade reading guarantee has meant new duties.
 
“With the third-grade reading, we’re reaching out and have been talking, personally I’ve been talking to superintendents that maybe need to be having a little bit more success with their third graders in reading,” he said, adding a staff member is assigned to TGRG outreach.
 
“We’re trying to say, OK, we know it’s hard, but what are you doing, what were you doing, what do you plan to do, how is it going to improve, and the things we can do to help you.”
 
ODE has a waiver pending with the U.S. Department of Education that would allow it to apply unspent title funds toward reading efforts.
 
Superintendent Ross also said ODE is now striving to be more customer focused. The building on Front Street is plastered with signs that read “What have you done for the boys and girls of Ohio today?” – an addition made on Mr. Ross’ first day on the job.
 
“We have such a higher calling here,” he said. “I wanted all employees to understand that this isn’t just a job, it’s about more than that. It’s about what we can do to help these schools and these teachers and these principals and moms and dads educate their youngsters.”
 

 



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