Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > July > 21
Friday, July 21, 2006
A sharper No. 2 will solve the world’s problems
So the College Board spent $5 million to have a company evaluate its SAT scoring methods in the wake of thousands of mis-scored tests last school year. What does the company recommend? Some more training, better software, adding some new marks on the score sheets to help line them up better with scanners.
Oh, one big sweeping change was recommended — providing pencils and erasers at test sites!
Critics respond that the recommendations do not address the problems that led to the scoring mistakes. What do you think? Did the College Board get its money’s worth?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Testing
Dixie Allen, vouchers and politics
Over at Eduwonk, Andy has noticed that Dayton Democratic legislator Dixie Allen is switching parties. And he’s wondering why I’m not telling him how much her decision has to do with her support, and Ohio Democrats’ disdain, for vouchers.
Well, Andy, there’s not that much to tell. Dixie Allen has been a Republican for a long time when it comes to voting and her embrace of vouchers is a recent phenomenon. I think it played little, or probably no, part in her decision to switch parties so she could run for Montgomery County Commission.
I have to say, however, that I was really surprised to see Allen seek office again, no matter what flag she is flying. I distinctly remember Allen pledging never to run again for any office, and how that decision played a role in her move to push for vouchers.
Back in February, Allen was the featured guest of a local group called Parents Advancing Choice in Education, which backs vouchers. In a room full of fired up parents, mostly with kids already in private schools, Allen told the story of how she came to be the sponsor of the bill that ultimately led to the expansion of the voucher program statewide.
She said she had been thinking about vouchers for some time and decided they were a good idea. From my notes during that meeting:
“I went to (Ohio House Speaker) Jon Husted and said, ‘I want to sponsor a voucher bill,’” Allen said. “He said, ‘you know that is political suicide for you.’ I said, ‘I ran for office the last time and I am not going for public office ever again, so what can somebody do to me?’”
I suppose we’ll see if her voucher support comes into play.
One other interesting thing about Allen’s switch and her impending resignation from the Ohio House. It appears likely then that the Democrats will get to name a replacement and that it will be Dayton school board member Clayton Luckie, who is seeking the seat. (BTW, Luckie is strongly opposed to vouchers.)
If that comes to pass, Luckie, the longest serving school board member, will resign the Dayton school board in the middle of his third term. This means the board will name another new board member this year. They already added Joe Lacey, who defeated Doniece Gatliff last November, in January and Stacy Thompson, who replaced Tracy Rusch at the beginning of the summer.
When this change occurs, the board suddenly will have a majority of members who have served a year or less — Lacey, Thompson, Lee Massoud (who replaced Tony Hill last summer) and Luckie’s replacement.
The remaining board members include President Gail Littlejohn and one ally from her original reform team — Yvonne Isaacs — plus Mario Gallin, the last holdover from the pre-Littlejohn era.
In effect, big changes are unlikely. Littlejohn did a masterful job of uniting the board under her reform plan after she was elected in 2001 and new board members since then have largely been selected by the board in appointments and shared Littlejohn’s vision. (The notable exception being Lacey, who at times is outspoken and will oppose Littlejohn publicly.)
Still, having one iron-clad ally is much different than having three on a seven-member board. It will be interesting to see if the politics get more complicated when disagreements arise.
This also shows one of the few areas that the board has fallen short on — building a farm team for itself for the future. Littlejohn and company probably should be recruiting good community people for key volunteer posts who could step up to the board when future openings occur. As it has been, Massoud and Thompson were largely unknown to the board before they applied for appointment to open seats and Lacey ran an outsider campaign in last November’s board race.
Still, the quality of candidates interested in serving on the board, even when it comes to open seats for which anyone can apply, has clearly improved during the Littlejohn era, which is a good sign for the board.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Dayton Public Schools, Schools and Politics
