When I went to post a new blog post today, I was shocked to see that I hadn’t posted anything in over seven months! Sure, things have been extremely busy with the biennial budget and the work being done to promote independence for Ohio’s private schools, but it’s still not an excuse. I’ve said it before, and […]
Consider a hypothetical: Imagine, if you will, a group of ice cream manufacturers who have a problem with Ohio. You see, for twenty years, Ohio has required every gallon of ice cream manufactured within the state to be tested to see how long it takes for a scoop to melt. At the time it was […]
House Bill 487 takes effect today. Back in July, I posted a blog item hailing HB 487 and the benefit it will have for independent schools in Ohio. At the time, I could not foresee the lack of logic that would come with the “interpretation” of HB 487 provided by the Ohio Department of Education. […]
Since I started with OAIS in 2011, I have reminded folks (sometimes ad nauseam, I imagine) that Ohio is the most regulated state in America when it comes to independent and other private schools. No other state imposes the cumulative number of curriculum, testing and graduation restrictions on private school students that Ohio does. Despite […]
In the process of doing some research for a project, I was going through some of the old documents on file with OAIS and I ran across an article prepared by my predecessor, Karin O’Neill. She pointed out, with accuracy, that part of the creation of the charter school and voucher movement was to create […]
The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently ran an article on the efforts of OAIS member schools to repeal Ohio’s unnecessary testing requirements for private schools. The article can be found here: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/05/ohios_private_schools_fight_to.html Since our lawsuit in 1995, this issue has been an important one for OAIS schools. At the very heart of testing requirements is the challenge to […]
For the past year, those who have followed the actions of the State Board of Education (SBOE) have noticed a hostility to the attempts of independent schools to receive greater autonomy from burdensome regulations that make Ohio the most heavily regulated state for private schools in America. The latest cheap shot from the board came […]
HB 487, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Brenner (R-Powell), advanced out of the House and will soon receive consideration by the Senate. There are several improvements to existing law and policy that are contained within the legislation, as well as a couple of items that have received some media attention. One of those items is the […]
mind: 1. Using the average OAA scores of all voucher students and all public school students is flat-out misleading. Remember, other than the brand new income-based scholarship, EdChoice students only come from areas served by a failing public school. A better comparison would be between the test scores of the students at the private school […]
When I took over at OAIS in 2011, transitioning from the world of being an elected official and coming into the world of education, one of the things I immediately noticed is the role of a head of school. Independent schools with lower, middle and upper schools often have division heads for each set of […]