Late last week, the Coalition for Student Achievement released Smart Options: Investing the Recovery Funds for Student Success. This document, developed following a convening of more than 30 K-12 national education leaders, including state and district superintendents, was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. The document provides states with five "big ideas" for investing one-time federal recovery funds that can lay "the groundwork for real student improvement for decades to come."
Using the Smart Options recommendations as benchmarks, the chart below compares the five recommendations from Smart Options to policies proposed in the pending Ohio budget bill, which was passed late last month by the state House of Representatives and incorporates billions in federal stimulus dollars:
< means Smart Options and Ohio's budget are closely aligned
> means Smart Options and Ohio's budget are partially aligned
= means Smart Options and Ohio's budget are far apart
Smart Options Recommendation
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Ohio's Budget Bill
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Rating
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| Join multistate consortia to develop common world-class standards and assessments. Do not waste resources trying to do this work independently. | Would require Ohio to adopt new academic content standards by June 2010 (and every five years thereafter). Makes no mention of collaborating with other states toward creating common standards, or for benchmarking Ohio's standards to national or international best- in-class standards. | = |
| Provide data and information that educators, policymakers, and parents can use | Ohio is already in a strong position when it comes to its education data systems, and HB 1 would improve this further by bridging the data divide between K-12 and higher education. | < |
| Conduct meaningful teacher evaluations and use these to identify the most and least effective teachers. Provide incentives for the most effective teachers to teach in the schools where students need them the most. | Makes strides by extending teacher tenure decisions from 3 to 5 years and by requiring evidence of student performance to be a factor in teachers' ability to progress along a career ladder. Provides incentives for new teachers to teach in high-need schools but provides no incentives for effective, veteran teachers to do so. Does not promote the use of evaluation systems to identify most and least effective teachers. | > |
| Turn around low performing schools by closing the lowest performing ones and replacing them with new, high-performing models. Eliminate statewide caps and reduce barriers for public charter schools and other successful providers. | Ohio has persistently pursued the easiest restructuring options for its failed district schools and nothing in this bill encourages this to change. Additionally, the legislation would make it far harder for quality charter schools to open and operate in Ohio. | = |
| Help struggling students by expanding learning opportunities for high-need students through a longer school day and year and provide significant incentives to get top teachers into high need elementary and high schools. Use Open Educational (OER) to create alternative pathways for students who are behind academically or have special needs. | Mandates a longer school year for all students, even for those who may not need it. Does not encourage the best teachers to teach in the highest need schools, and discourages alternative education pathways for at-risk schools by curtailing drop-out recovery charter schools and on-line learning charters. | = |
