This is an outrageous story.
The state of Ohio Plans to take over the East Cleveland school district despite the fact that the state’s data are wildly inaccurate.
CLEVELAND – After digging into the state Department of Education’s report cards for current and planned state takeovers, News 5 found there are some issues within the report cards of at least one district — East Cleveland.
“We found some inaccuracies within the report card,” said Tom Domzalski, East Cleveland School District’s director of research, data and assessments.
Domzalski said “without a doubt,” the district and students are performing better than the state’s report card reflects.
An example of one of the errors in the state report card was that it showed that only 90.9 percent of principals in East Cleveland have a college degree, but state law requires principals to have a bachelor’s and master’s degree. According to East Cleveland officials, all of their principals do.
So where did the state come up with the 90.9 percent? That’s unclear, but it’s not the only problem.
There are errors, inconsistencies and numbers from last year within the document reflecting East Cleveland School District’s 2018 failing grade.
“One times .15 percent is not .075 percent,” Domzalski said, pointing out errors in the math published on the first page. “…the math just isn’t correct.”
According to Domzalski, the inconsistencies don’t stop there.
“In terms of our prepared for success measure, we are showing that students are not taking college credit courses. That’s not true,” he said.
When the state was informed about multiple errors in the East Cleveland report card, the officials said it was too late, nothing could be done.
Is it political meanness or bureaucratic inertia that prevents the state from acknowledging and rectifying its errors?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Is it political meanness or bureaucratic inertia that prevents the state from acknowledging and rectifying its errors?”
Time corrects all falsehoods!
Now, whether that correction is the destruction of the falsehoods or whether those falsehoods become truths is another matter.
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Swacker I have only one word for you in Ohio and that word is Kasich. Any questions?
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“When the state was informed about multiple errors in the East Cleveland report card, the officials said it was too late, nothing could be done.”
Being bought and paid for do that to “officials”.
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Who are those “officials”. Name the disseminating bastards. Without names they can anonymously continue harming students with their from on high (and not the good kind) perch-perch as where vultures sit.
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Duane you see exactly the way I do. Cronies are more important than schools and communities.
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an interesting bumper sticker? NAME THE DISSEMINATING BASTARDS.
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Really, though how difficult would it have been for the journalist to report the names? To me, that would be a normal course of reporting. To not include who actually made the decision is an egregious omission.
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yeah, whatever happened to accountability? If a state official decides to close a school based on inaccurate data, he or she should step up and say their name.
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And we’ll all keep jumping through Battelle’s FIP hoops and the Ohio Improvement Process hoops to be taken over anyways.
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From the article “The Department stands by the report card grade issued to East Cleveland and due to ongoing litigation, we have no further comment at this time.”
Who the hell is this “Department” fellow/gal? Who are the “we” people? (certainly not the Wee people.)
Name names!!!
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The Pirates and Frauds, like Betsy DeVos, that are out to dismantle the public education system in the U.S. do not care of the data and studies they use to close public schools and fire public school teachers is wrong or flawed.
Any evidence that supports their agenda is acceptable even if it is totally fictitious manufactured evidence, because that is the reason they came up with the crap they use to close public schools while ignoring corporate charter schools that are really bad.
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I doubt if many are really interested in the names of the people who are determined to close the East Cleveland Schools, but hear is the list. http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/State-Board/State-Board-Members/Board-Member-Roster.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US
And the authority of the Board of Education is limited by hard-wired legislation not friendly to public schools and attained by payola-a-plenty. If you are interested the relevant document for Board actions, the key document is here is here. http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/State-Board/State-Board-Reports-and-Policies/Policies-Procedures-Manual.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US
See especially the information on page 37. This appears to be relevant to the inaction of the State Board of Education (SBOE)
.
“Quasi-Judicial Functions of the SBOE A review of Ohio authorities indicates that, when the SBOE takes the following actions, it assumes a quasi- judicial role: Revocation of a district or school charter: Pursuant to ORC 3301.16,106 the SBOE shall revoke the charter of any school district or school that fails to meet the elementary or high school standards prescribed by the SBOE. In addition, the SBOE shall revoke the charter of any nonpublic school that does not comply with proficiency test requirements. ORC 3301.16 expressly mandates that the SBOE comply with the notice and hearing requirements of ORC Chapter 119.”
I am not a lawyer or statistician, but I have enough training in research to know that Ohio’s report cards are a total farce, and continue to be supported by a system of payola documented this very day, by a lawyer, in the Cincinnati Enquirer, https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2018/10/08/opinion-gop-war-ohio-public-schools/1486386002/
If I had unlimited resources, I would hire a couple of statisticians to take apart the frauds embedded the State of Ohio’s Report Card, not the least of these the continued use of EVASS, think discredited value-added measures for ranking “growth” in test score See for yourself the coloful fiasco. https://reportcardstorage.education.ohio.gov/search/State_Report_Card.pdf
Paola DeMaria, The Superintendent of Public Instruction, is a creature of Ohio politics. He was pushed into office (2016) with a lot of help from the charter-loving Fordham Institute and friends at the consultancy, Education First.
In the year before he was appointed (2015) DeMaria was employed by Education First and co-authored a report commissioned by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, titled “Getting Out of the Way.”
The report’s recommendations reflect hostility to the idea that teachers are professionals who might have some say in their responsibilities. The report recommendations: – Eliminate seniority as a consideration in layoffs of nonteaching employees; – Expand opportunities for schools to use non-licensed individuals; – Eliminate districts’ ability to collectively bargain away “inherent management rights, including the right to assign staff;” – Eliminate any structural requirements on teacher salary schedules; and – Allow districts to remove teachers, including tenured ones, if they are evaluated ineffective for more than two years. Here is the realtively short report (courtesy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer). http://media.cleveland.com/plain_dealer_metro/other/FORDHAM%20Deregulation%20Report_Web%20with%20June%20date%20on%20cover_0.pdf
DeMaria has no teaching experience. You can see his letter of application (loves Ohio) and work experience here. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2811241/Paolo-Demaria-Superintendent-Applications-Part2.pdf.
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Thank you.
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Thanks, Laura. As usual amazing work!
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