The CEA Blog

The blogosphere has been awash recently with posts about the 25th anniversary of “A Nation At Risk” (ANAR). For the uninitiated, ANAR was a report received by President Ronald Reagan that American schools were lacking compared to other nation’s educational systems. Without reform, the report said, American students would be in a race– for the bottom.

The CEA Blog has been fortunate enough to acquire a slightly used Flux Capacitor and retrofit a union-made car for the trip of a lifetime. We asked a number of edu-bloggers the question “What would the American educational landscape be like today if A Nation At Risk were never released?” and loaned them the time machine. Their trips produced interesting posts; they’ll begin popping up next week.

Welcome to the Carnival of Education! This is the 167th carnival, and the second time The CEA Blog has hosted this wonderful collection of rantings, musings, quotations, ideas, thoughts, inspirations, realizations and the like. The 168th edition will be hosted by the Education Wonks; email them at owlshome {at} earthlink {dot} net, or use this handy submission form. Yes, for those of you wondering, the picture is a snapshot of our fair city. Without further ado, click on the jump below and…. let’s Carnival!

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The Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) sent the IRS a letter asking it to investigate whether charter schools managed by White Hat Management, Inc. and its affiliates can properly claim 503(c) tax-exempt status.

White Hat Management and its affiliates operate the “Life Skills” and “Hope Academy” charter schools in Ohio, Florida and Arizona. OFT states that the schools are merely a tax-exempt “pass through” to funnel money to the management company– $84 million tax dollars per year.

The Ohio Department of Education database recorded information for 12 Hope Academy locations throughout the state; when examined, the data paints a disturbing picture of what results Ohioans are receiving for their $84 million dollars in tax money diverted from public school districts.

The CEA Blog took a look at the numbers regarding White Hat’s “Life Skills” Centers in an earlier post; now the ODE data on Hope Academies is under scrutiny.

Click on the jump below to take a closer look at ODE data on Hope Academies in the state of Ohio.

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The CEA Blog wrote a post about the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) who wrote a letter to the IRS, asking for an investigation of Akron-based White Hat Management’s 503 (c) tax-exempt status. The management firm operates numerous “Life Skills Centers” and “Hope Academies” in three states, pulling in an estimated $85 million annually in tax dollar revenue in Ohio alone.

News outlets and bloggers have begun to write as well discuss recent developments. Highlights are below, after the jump.

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The Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) sent the IRS a letter asking it to investigate whether charter schools managed by White Hat Management, Inc. and its affiliates can properly claim 503(c) tax-exempt status.

White Hat Management and its affiliates operate the “Life Skills” and “Hope Academy” charter schools in Ohio, Florida and Arizona. OFT states that the schools, are merely a tax-exempt “pass through” to funnel money to the management company– $84 million tax dollars per year.

The Ohio Department of Education database recorded information for 18 Life Skills centers throughout the state; when examined, the data paints a disturbing picture of what results Ohioans are receiving for their $84 million dollars in tax money diverted from public school districts.

Click on the jump below to take a closer look at Life Skills Centers in the state of Ohio.

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Grammy award winning musical jack-of-all-trades Tom Chapin and songwriting partner John Forster aim their guitar and songwriting skills at satirizing No Child Left Behind and the testing mania that has engulfed the nation. “Not On The Test” is available for free download with the lyrics here.

 Check out the embedded video after the jump.

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Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced last week that up to 10 states can begin to use the progress of students’ test scores rather than their actual scores in meeting federal progress goals for No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Interested states would have to submit their proposal to the Department of Education; states with a strong history of reform such as Maryland, North Dakota, Louisiana and South Dakota would be given preference in the process.

Click on the jump below to read more.

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This letter to the editor appeared in the Columbus Dispatch on Saturday, March 8th.

As a middle-school Pre-Algebra and Algebra I teacher, I strongly agree with the teachers’ concerns expressed in the Feb. 13 Dispatch article “Teachers disgruntled over volume of tests.” However, some of the information was incomplete or inaccurate.

Not only elementary but also middle-school students were subjected to taking the full-length (2.5 hours per subject) practice Ohio Achievement Tests to prepare for the real tests in April. They had already done a week of half-length practice tests in September.

In January, eighth-graders were required to take tests in all four academic areas, immediately after completing a week of quarterly assessments in the same subjects. When I informed my homeroom of this Columbus City School District requirement, one young man pleaded, “Don’t they know we’re tired of taking tests?”

Click on the jump below to read more.

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March 2nd marks what would be the 104th birthday of Theodore Seuss Geisel, known most popularly as Dr. Seuss to children and teachers around the world. Monday, March 3rd marks the National Education Association’s nationwide “Read Across America” day.

Various teachers celebrate this special day differently. NEA-affiliated blogger PREA Prez has his students make “Cat-in-the-hat” hats and read Dr. Seuss’ last book– Diffendoofer Day.

“All schools for miles and miles around
Must take a special test,
To see who’s learning such and such -
To see which school’s the best.
If our small school does not do well,
Then it will be torn down,
And you will have to go to school
In dreary Flobbertown.”