Parent Trigger On Hold
In the latest round of the budget process, the Ohio House seemed to back away from Governor Kasich’s proposed parent trigger.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that the idea hasn’t gone away completely, it will be piloted by Columbus City Schools.
Gov. John Kasich’s two-year budget proposal included the measure, which would give parents the power to force changes on long-struggling schools. On Tuesday, a committee of lawmakers limited its scope to one pilot site – Columbus City Schools. Under that revision by the House Finance Committee, the Ohio Department of Education would later recommend how to expand it statewide.
The provision still would need the approval of the House and Senate.
Some groups have said limiting the law to a trial district weakens it too much. Others have lauded Harris for offering Columbus as the trial site.
“It’s commendable that she’s engaging – she’s not just standing back and condemning,” said Mark Real, president and CEO of KidsOhio, a Columbus nonprofit group that has studied the district.
The “parent trigger” would apply to schools that rank in the state’s bottom 5 percent in academics for three consecutive school years. If a majority of a school’s parents sign a petition demanding change, the school would be forced to accept the reform the parents propose, be it converting into a charter school, replacing at least 70percent of the staff or turning over operations to an outside group.
The lowest-performing 5percent of schools would be identified using performance-index scores, which measure how well students do on state tests. Applied to the past three years of school data, fewer than 50 schools in the state fall into that category. Columbus would have been the only district in Franklin County with trigger-eligible schools.
Harris said she’s not clear on what, exactly, it would mean to be the parent-trigger pilot site. Does it mean the district would agree not to fight parents’ wishes? Or would it mean the district would choose a school and encourage parents there to take the reins?
“I can’t say because I haven’t had any direct conversation with the legislative body about this portion. It’s open to interpretation,” Harris said yesterday.
Okay, so Superintendent Harris hasn’t spoken directly to the legislature, but you can bet the district’s lobbyist has had multiple conversations with legislators and staff.
Well, that’s probably the beginning and end of the parent trigger in Ohio. Designating something a pilot is a sure way to bury the idea until it’s forgotten.
Note:
There are different kinds of “pilots.”
There’s the pilot that is an idea that people want to implement, but there’s push-back so they pretend it’s just a pilot to allay people’s objections. It’s never really evaluated (self-evaluation) and it never stops.
Another type of pilot is when you sort of like the idea, but even pretending it’s a pilot won’t overcome objections. The idea is not a high priority, but you hate to be seen as abandoning it completely, so a pilot is created. Creating a pilot is a graceful way of burying the idea.
A third type of pilot is when you hate an idea so you suggest that it become a pilot so you can control and basically subvert the process and bury the idea.
There are real pilot projects, where an idea is attempted in a careful and controlled manner and where the results are studied carefully before full implementation. Unfortunately, genuine pilots rarely exist outside a laboratory.
Similar Posts:
- Harris earns top superintendent title
- Is Online Instruction the Answer for Calamity Days?
- Lawsuit Dropped
- Inside School Reform
- Should We Rate High Schools Using College Remediation Rates?
