Testimony of Gail Kist-Kline, PhD

Senate Education Committee

Senate Bill 3

February 25, 2015

Good afternoon Chair Lehner, Vice Chair Hite and Ranking Member Sawyer. I am Dr. Gail Kist-Kline, Superintendent of Mason City Schools, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to share my ideas about Senate Bill 3.

First, I want to express my gratitude for your dedication to the people of Ohio. Knowing that there are many diverse interests that often compete, I want to thank you for your commitment to investing in and improving public education for Ohio’s children.

Senate Bill 3 provides some exemptions from state mandates for high performing districts. We appreciate that this approach attempts to incentivize success by relaxing rules and regulations for districts that demonstrate effectiveness in serving students. This concept is a good one, and begins to bring back balance to the overwhelming number of mandates that are hindering innovation and high-impact learning, while zapping district resources.

Defining High Performing Districts and High Quality Education

SB 3 defines high performing as a district that receives at least 85% of the total possible points for the performance index, receives a grade of an "A" for performance indicators, and has a four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of at least 93% and a five year adjusted cohort graduation rate of at least 95%. This definition is much preferred over the proposed budget bill which has a highly restrictive definition, allowing for instance, only districts with a grade of “A” for value-added to be considered high performing.

By the measures noted in SB 3, the Mason City School District is a consistently high-performing district. This school year, the Mason City School District received all A’s and one B on the State Report Card – we have actually met all of the state’s educational standards each year for the last 15 years. Our performance index ranks us as 9th in the state for academic achievement – we have been among the 20% of public districts with the highest academic performance index scores for the last decade. All of our students across the different subgroups made progress and we have narrowed achievement gaps over the last 10 years. Additionally, we spend below the state average and well-below that of our high-performing peers. We’re proud of the value we’ve been able to deliver to our district’s taxpayers.

However, we also believe performing at high levels on national measures like the ACT, SAT and Advanced Placement exams are other important indicators of success. For example, the Mason City School District is one of 547 districts nationally being honored by the College Board for simultaneously increasing access to Advanced Placement course work while increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP Exams. From 2012 to 2014, Mason increased the number of students participating in AP from 709 to 925. In 2014, 88% of Mason AP students earned a score of 3 or higher - potentially saving students and their families thousands of dollars in college tuition. Prioritizing national (and international) success measures will help Ohio continue to be a leader in ensuring that our children graduate prepared to thrive in the global economy.

Communities also dictate that a successful school district place a high degree of importance on ensuring that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential inside and outside of the classroom - beyond the state report card. Our community values and expects high quality programs and activities that provide exceptional educational experiences for our students to extend and apply learning beyond the classroom.

Providing Flexibility for High Performing Districts

We appreciate that SB 3 brings back some local control for those districts whose students are performing at high levels. This flexibility is sorely needed if Ohio hopes to incentivize success and allow schools and districts to act as laboratories of innovation.

We appreciate that SB 3 gives high-performing districts like Mason the latitude to mentor new teachers using district educators who best exemplify the values and skills that we prioritize, but who may not hold a lead professional educator license.

More Steps Needed

We respect that the Legislature is signally its intent to offer some state testing relief. However, we are concerned that the unintended consequences of limiting time spent on the administration of state assessments to 2% of the school year will create additional school burdens. We are worried that a great deal of time will be spent monitoring, tracking, and reporting minutes of test time to comply with this mandate. Those are precious minutes that should be spent serving students more effectively.

Rather than reducing the amount of time required for testing, we believe reducing the sheer number of tests is a better way to hold schools accountable without imposing additional requirements to monitor time and bog down our teachers and principals. We would like this bill to go further in providing flexibility for our diagnostic assessments by eliminating restrictions on tests we use to inform instruction, like Measures of Academic Progress (MAP). We believe diagnostic tests should never be restricted and that crossover assessments should be utilized to satisfy the need for accountability. An example of such crossover assessments includes AP, ACT and SAT exams as well as district assessments such as MAP, STAR and other nationally normed tests.

Limiting the hours associated with giving the state tests does not begin to address the time, disruption and distraction associated with preparing for administering these tests. I want you to understand what is truly involved in state assessment preparation so that students can participate effectively in these tests - instructionally and technologically. The amount of time invested by principals, teachers, technology specialists, and central office administrative staff in preparation on just the technology side of this issue has been immense. In just the two weeks leading up to administering the state tests, our principals, administrative assistants, technology staff and other district leaders spent over 2,000 hours to assure that our schools were prepared to administer the tests. These are the real costs to a district and a community that go unmeasured in such mandates and initiatives. Our community expects us to deliver high level learning – not simply meet the demands of state tests.

Our families are growing increasingly frustrated with state testing, and are expressing their grave concerns by refusing to allow their children to participate in PARCC and AIR. In spite of our efforts to communicate about the implications and consequences of refusing to have their child tested, parents are continuing to opt out. Families, communities, educators and legislators must work together to develop a system that balances the need for accountability with the need to alleviate the pressure on Ohio’s educational system.

The Mason City School District continues to look for ways to become even more innovative and efficient, while building on our level of academic opportunities and excellence. We are hopeful that SB 3 is the beginning of a movement to remove some of the layers that impede local school districts’ abilities to offer the highest quality education to their students.

About Mason City Schools

The Mason City School District is one of Ohio's highest-performing public school districts. Students in every grade level consistently score above the state and national average in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies, and on the SAT, ACT and AP tests. Mason City Schools spend $10,185 per student - $261 less per student than the state average.