Still not much happening in Columbus.

So, I've been frustrated by a lack of progress on meaningful legislation, so I contacted my Senator and Rep for an update. Of course, the Ohio Senate has created a committee, studied the issue, and made recommendations. Below is the response I got from my Rep's Legislative Assistant, and my follow up.

Good Afternoon,

I wanted to write and let you know that I have passed your message along to Representative Manning.  On behalf of him, I would also like to thank you for continuing to keep us updated with your thoughts on education issues.  As I am sure you've figured out, education is one of the top issues the leadership wanted to tackle during this general assembly so I am confident that we will have a lot to consider.

As far as what has been happening in regards to testing, I would urge you to check out House Bill 7, House Bill 74, and Substitute Senate Bill 3.  All of these can be found on our website at legislature.ohio.gov.

Again thank you for the message and I am glad that you are able to run into Rep. Manning in the district.  I also see that you will be attending our education roundtable on May 14th.  I am sure that you will be able to get a lot of your questions answered there as well.  In the meantime,  please don't hesitate to call with any additional concerns or questions.

Best,

Jordan Triance | Legislative Aide
Office of State Representative Nathan H. Manning | District 55
Ohio House of Representatives

Mr. Triance,

I appreciate your ongoing correspondence, and passing along my messages to Representative Manning.

I wonder if you have received them all, however, because I have written to comment on HB74 and SB3. Representative Brenner's bill doesn't really address any issues by limiting tests to 3 hours and not addressing multiple testing windows. Furthermore, setting percentages of time for testing and test prep is completely ridiculous in that it is utterly unenforceable. I have contacted the entire House Education Committee, and find it frustrating that the input of educators seems to be ignored.

SB3 has more to do with dangerous deregulation of schools than it does the impact of testing on education. I addressed the multitude of issues with this bill months ago to the Senate Education Committee, as well as on my education blog...testingwindow.blogspot.com.

HB7 is admirable in its "safe harbor" expansion. My recommendation would be to extend "safe harbor" until the system can be completely overhauled. Three years would be a fine start on the assumption that it could be expanded as long as problems persist.

As long as standardized tests are linked to high stakes decisions there will be problems. As long as testing is linked to teacher evaluation there will be problems. As long as you are spending three months administering state assessments there will be problems. And as long as these problems persist, we are doing a disservice to Ohio's school children.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to meeting with Representative Manning next week.

Matt Jablonski
American History teacher
Elyria High School