OEA calls for end of mandatory retention under Third Grade Reading Guarantee
[October 10, 2022] The Ohio Education Association (OEA) joined together Monday with state leaders, educators, and education policy experts to advocate for action in the General Assembly to end mandatory retention tied to third-grade standardized testing.
A full recording of Monday’s virtual event can be viewed and downloaded here.
“Mandatory retention under the so-called ‘Third Grade Reading Guarantee’ takes decisions about students’ futures out of the hands of parents, administrators, and teachers who know them best, allowing politicians in Columbus to determine their fates based on arbitrary cut-scores on high-stakes English language arts tests,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro, who moderated Monday’s event. “OEA commends the State Board of Education for its attention to this issue as it considers a resolution to call on the General Assembly to change this misguided law.”
“Grade retention distorts test data, disproportionately impacts and punishes vulnerable populations of students, and creates a distraction from reading reform’s ultimate goal of increased student reading proficiency,” noted Furman University Professor Dr. Paul Thomas in his recent white paper, “A Critical Examination of Grade Retention as Reading Policy.”
“It’s rare that policymakers stop and measure mandated education initiatives for their effectiveness, but that’s exactly what we have done for third grade retention. Through data provided by the Ohio Department of Education, we now know retention has failed as an initiative and has, in fact, hurt children more than helped,” said Dr. Christina Collins, Ohio State Board of Education member for District 7, who put forth the resolution that the State Board of Education is considering this week.
“In my experiences as a third-grade teacher, I have observed students put tremendous stress on themselves, become discouraged, think of themselves as losers, and develop behavioral problems because of this punitive, socially inappropriate, and educationally ineffective practice,” agreed Karen Carney, a teacher at Campbell Elementary & Middle School in Campbell, Ohio. “What a huge burden for a young child to carry—this truly broke my heart. As an educator, my primary job is to teach my students to be life-long learners, not test takers.”
“Ending mandatory retention has broad bipartisan support because it’s the right thing to do for kids,” said State Rep. Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville), who sponsored House Bill 497, a measure to end mandatory retention under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. “These decisions should be made by parents and educators, not dictated by a score on a test.”
House Bill 497 passed in the Ohio House in June. The Ohio Senate must take up the bill and pass it when lawmakers return to session later this fall.
OEA members offer solutions to state’s growing teacher recruitment and retention crisis
[September 29, 2022] As Ohio continues to contend with an alarming decrease in staffing in its K-12 public schools, educators from around Ohio have come together to take on the problem and offer potential solutions. The Ohio Education Association (OEA) convened the cadre of diverse educators, as part of the National Education Association’s Educator Voice Academy (EVA) program, beginning in January, 2022. The EVA team’s full report, which includes numerous suggestions for Ohio’s elected leaders and OEA, is available here.
“Ohio’s growing teacher recruitment and retention crisis is one of the largest issues of our time,” OEA President Scott DiMauro pointed out. “When excellent educators are feeling that they have no choice but to leave the profession or young people are left feeling that teaching is not a sustainable career option – for a variety of reasons noted in the EVA’s report – Ohio students lose out on crucial opportunities and supports. Ohio’s students can no longer wait for meaningful solutions to this problem.”
Recommendations in the EVA report include:
- Immediately increase Ohio state minimum teacher’s salary to $40,000, and pending approval of a change in OEA Legislative Policy by the OEA Representative Assembly, increase the state minimum salary to $50,000.
- Fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan in the 2023-2025 state biennial budget and provide state support to local school districts with the resources to help fund necessary salary increases.
- Extend Public Service Loan Forgiveness deadlines and expand student loan forgiveness, grants, and scholarship programs to provide meaningful financial relief for those who commit to serving students in our public schools.
- Strengthen educators’ retirement security by supporting a fully funded State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and repealing the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP).
- Remove financial barriers for completion of pre-service requirements for teacher licensure.
- Require the state to complete a comprehensive assessment of the alignment of Ohio’s teacher preparation programs with the realities of PK-12 schools.
- Seek feedback from educators on their working conditions and create systems for school leaders to act on that feedback to make necessary changes to policies, practices, and culture in schools.
- Create and maintain an accessible statewide database of education job openings to facilitate the matching of educators seeking employment with available positions and to provide a reliable source of information for the public to monitor trends in education employment in Ohio.
“It is important to note that the recommendations from the Educator Voice Academy are focused exclusively on issues related to the recruitment and retention of teachers; issues related to the recruitment and retention of education support professionals, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and paraprofessionals, among others, is an equally important topic deserving serious consideration as soon as possible,” DiMauro said. “Ohio’s policymakers and school leaders need to take immediate, significant action to ensure our students have all their needs met so they can learn, grow, and thrive in our classrooms. The time to act is now.”
OEA celebrates advocacy wins in new state report card system
[September 15, 2022] As families and education stakeholders around the state continue to examine the newly released state report card data, the Ohio Education Association (OEA) is celebrating the hard work of Ohio’s dedicated educators to support the state’s students as they continue to overcome the challenges of pandemic-era learning. Further, OEA expresses its sincere gratitude to the lawmakers who answered OEA’s calls for report card reform, resulting in the fairer assessments that were made public today.
“OEA has long fought against the overreliance on high stakes standardized tests in determining the value and success of Ohio’s public schools and students. The adoption of House Bill 82 in 2021 and other recently enacted laws that resulted in the significant changes in this year’s state report cards represent an incredibly important win in that regard,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Gone are the misleading A-F grades, which gave an incomplete picture of a district’s performance at best. Gone are the draconian punishments for districts that failed to measure up to the cookie cutter standards of out-of-touch bureaucrats who clung to the report card letter grades to trigger state takeovers and wrest control from local parents and voters. Here to stay is a commitment to a more accurate and transparent assessment system for Ohio’s public schools.”
Among the trends highlighted by this accountability system, it is clear that Ohio’s traditional public schools continue to best serve the students in their communities. This year’s data demonstrates that the average achievement component score for the state’s traditional public school districts is 3.5 stars compared to the 1.7 star rating achieved, on average, by charter schools in the state on that same metric.
While more work is needed to further improve the state’s report card system, including major changes to improve accountability standards for Ohio’s charter schools and the private schools that take taxpayer-funded vouchers, OEA celebrates the move to a more informative star-rating system in this year’s report cards, complete with explanations about what the stars mean to provide the public with critical context. Further, OEA welcomes the inclusion of Student Opportunity Profiles in the 2022-2023 data that will be released next September. Those profiles will provide detailed information regarding what students have been offered to enhance their success. Academic and non-academic supports are essential for our students, especially as pandemic recovery continues.
Silent Tears
#OvertestedOH #RedForEd
OEA Guest Blog | By Tina Allen, ColumbusEA/OEA
I am a fourth-grade teacher in Columbus City Schools.
One of the most devastating and heartbreaking days of my teaching occurred when one day, unexpectedly, one of my students silently put her head down on her desk. Upset with her score on a state-mandated middle-of-the-year test, she began to cry.
She had begun the new school year on the heels of attending summer school because she was unsuccessful in passing the high-stakes Third-Grade Reading Guarantee the year before.
Traumatized By Testing
She had been traumatized by testing. I had seen that expression before. I’ve discussed it with other educators as well as have seen it in other students equally traumatized by the testing process.
As the tears ran down her face, I was speechless and felt disgusted inside.
“I joined this profession to change lives, to educate, motivate and inspire. High-stakes testing almost took that away from me”
Had Testing Traumatized Me Too?
“What had I done?” I asked of myself.
Recognizing she had at least two more standardized tests on the horizon as well as I-Ready assessments, reading assessments, and progress monitoring, I then asked myself, “How can I help her through this? “
It made me realize that unknowingly, I, too, had been traumatized. I was becoming to concerned about “what they needed to know to pass the test” versus “what are they are learning.” Yes, I am advocating for a reduction in high-stakes testing and the creation of alternative pathways for promoting students onward to the next grade.
I joined this profession to change lives, to educate, motivate and inspire. High-stakes testing almost took that away from me.
The tears of a fourth grader reminded me what’s important.
Tina Allen is a member of the ColumbusEA/OEA and a fourth-grade educator at Columbus Cassady Elementary School
Click here for more #OverTestedOH & #RedForEd Voices and How to Make a Stand
Oh Yes, We’re Social — Join the Conversation!
The School Report Card Sham
By Kevin Griffin of the @DublinEA/OEA
The state report cards have been around for several years. Their erroneous grades and convoluted metrics have been so well documented, that educationally, they are about as relevant as Kardashian reruns. It’s unfortunate that districts now need to deal with the annual damage control when they are released.
The real victims are our students.
It’s important for us to remember why these report cards were conceived. It was, quite simply, to make us look bad. The corporate reformers, with help from ALEC, created standardized testing, value-added, and then the report cards, as a way to convince the public their schools were failing. The public didn’t buy it.
But don’t count on the vultures to fly away when there’s money to be made. Despite the fact the legislature knows the report cards are full of problems and half-truths, they are still being used to shut districts down, a thought inconceivable not too long ago.
“But don’t count on the vultures to fly away when there’s money to be made.”
HB 70 uses the report card data to dismantle the school board and replace administrators with a CEO who can basically do whatever he wants. Youngstown and Lorain Schools have already been taken over, East Cleveland is in the process, and Dayton Schools is next in line. The slow, but steady process to turn every school in these areas into a charter school has begun.
The real victims are our students. The one thing the report card does show is an undeniable link between test scores and poverty. In fact, Ohio’s lowest performing districts, those with a performance score under 70, have eight times the number of low-income students as districts with a performance score of 100.
So now these students, the ones who need more support, stability, and love than all the others, will be transported to for-profit charter schools. And we all know how well that works out.
Kevin Griffin is a member of the @DublinEA and the Central OEA Vice President
This post originally appeared in the in Winter 2019 issue of the Communique, a publication of the Central OEA/NEA
Click here for more #OverTestedOH & #RedForEd Voices and How to Make a Stand
Oh Yes, We’re Social — Join the Conversation!
Is Revised RESA a Reason to Rejoice?
Part II of II: Teacher Perspectives on the Resident Educator Summative Assessment
Read Part I: My Marathon Swim Through RESA
by Dan Greenberg, Sylvania Education Association
I’m getting to a place where I can look back nostalgically on twenty years in the classroom — back to the days when I was 22, teaching in Adelanto, California, and couldn’t get used to people calling me “Mr. Greenberg,” — a time when I rushed through my lunch in the teacher’s lounge, so I could go play pick-up basketball with the kids.
I don’t gloss over those early years of my career. There were plenty of challenges that made me wonder if I would be able to make it as a teacher.
However, I think the challenges facing today’s early career educators make mine seem laughable. And of all of today’s challenges that I am grateful I avoided, RESA (Resident Educator Summative Assessment) is at the top of the list.
When I graduated from Kent State in 1997, I took two Praxis tests to get my teaching license. That was it. I was official! As for additional requirements from the state, there was nothing more for me to do. As long as my principal was happy with my performance, I could continue teaching.
Compare that to today: a four year Resident Educator program with rules, and meetings, and videotaping, and student work samples, and on and on, all while young teachers are trying to get a handle on day-to-day lesson delivery. Wouldn’t it be better for kids if their teachers didn’t have to worry about the redundant RESA process?
I say redundant because these early career educators had plenty of tasks like RESA to complete during their student teaching experience. If they completed them satisfactorily then, why are they having to prove themselves to a testing company and the state once again?
Now I know that RESA went through an overhaul over the summer. For a while, some first and second year teachers were checking with me every day, hoping the whole program would be eliminated. But somehow — through a process that might best be communicated by a “School House Rock” cartoon — we ended up with a revised form of RESA that, among other changes, significantly cuts down on the tasks a third year RESA teacher must submit to the state.
Are my young colleagues and I jumping for joy? No. Not really.
Sure, we are glad to see a reduction in required tasks. Sure, we are glad that more of the RESA program is controlled at the local district level. We know it is a step in the right direction. However, it’s still a program that we see as mostly redundant and unnecessary.
For me, I see RESA changes like standardized testing changes. I’m glad the state has reduced the number of tests students must take, but do I think the state has fixed the problem of over-testing students? Absolutely not.
RESA is still a burden on local school districts. The cost to my district, just to facilitate year 3 of the Resident Educator Program, will be $15,000 this year. That may not be a huge percentage of our budget, but it is one more thing to pay for instead of other programs.
RESA will continue to frustrate educators, whether for its lack of timely, detailed feedback on assessments, or its illogical requirements for teachers shifting between old and new RESA requirements.
For example: Last year a teacher failed one section of her third year RESA tasks. She failed the section because the student work she submitted was deemed illegible by the evaluator. By Ohio law, she could not resubmit a clearer copy. This year, according to the revised RESA process, instead of having to redo the task, she’ll get mentoring at the local level to help her in that area. However, the only reason she didn’t pass had nothing to do with her competency as a teacher. What kind of mentoring can she possibly receive to address this issue?
On the subject of mentoring, I realize that keeping the RESA requirement for local school districts to provide mentors is a positive thing. I can’t imagine what I would have done without a veteran teacher working with me almost every day, helping me with curriculum and lesson delivery.
My hope for new teachers is that the Resident Educator program continues to evolve into something that truly helps them grow as professionals, instead of something cumbersome and frustrating. I want them to be able to look back in 20 years, with a sense of nostalgia for the beginning of their career, not with a shudder and shiver down their spine, as they recall the hoops they jumped through to complete the Resident Educator program.
Learn more about changes to Ohio’s Resident Educator Program
My Marathon Swim through RESA
Part I of II: Teacher Perspectives on the Resident Educator Summative Assessment
Read Part II: Is Revised RESA a Reason to Rejoice?
by Kate Gladieux, Spanish teacher of 5 years, Sylvania Education Association
The why… Teaching sailing
I got into the teaching profession because I grew up as a sailing instructor. I spent many days helping children overcome their fear of water and wind. I liked seeing the students conquer their fears. I decided to be a Spanish teacher for that same reason. Speaking in another language can often be very scary and seeing students break out of their shell and view the world in a whole new light was appealing to me. I’m very passionate about seeing my students succeed. As we all know, teaching is a marathon and not a sprint. This is my experience with required assessment for new teachers to move on to their professional license. It was like a marathon swim.
The before… The lifeboat is nearby!
It started out pretty grand. My first year as a Junior High Spanish teacher began just like any other — I’M JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE! Thankfully, I was assigned a mentor through the RESA (Resident Educator Summative Assessment) program. Yes, “resident” is meant to sound like pre-med students going through med school.
It was great! My mentor and I met regularly to discuss school issues. She helped me get through tough times, brainstorm about interesting situations with students, parents, and administration, and checked to make sure I knew my way around staff meetings. She was even there for me when my personal life got hard. We observed each other and learned things from each other. I felt I was growing AND helping someone else to grow. The first two years were about survival, but I had support and felt at least somewhat successful. The kids had learned something from me. And at least I had her as a lifeboat nearby.
The during… Plan. Re-plan. Teach. Grade. Reflect. Re-reflect. Eat? Sleep? Cry? Repeat!
Things quickly took a turn as I was no longer allowed to consult with my mentor during year 3 of RESA. I felt prepared and extremely confident, but I was treading water on my own. No life boat nearby this time. The support was gone and I must navigate myself to dry land by swimming what felt like a long, long distance. I could barely see land! The final assessment (marathon) had arrived. The days with lack of sleep, food, and exercise were taken over by the preparation of lessons, assessments, professional development, parent contact, among others that result in four long tasks to complete. I feel as though I could write a book on the time I spent attempting to present my best self to the Ohio Department of Education and some strange company called Educopia.
The long story short version includes these thoughts:
- I work hard on my lessons out of my passion to see my students succeed and often create my own. Now it seemed there was not a lot of room for error. We were to record two video clips of lesson cycles (one in the fall and the other before Feb. 15).
- The assessors (who were supposedly teachers from the Ohio Department of Education) use TWELVE rubrics to grade EACH lesson cycle. With each lesson we were asked an overwhelming amount of prompts to explain our reasoning for everything we did. We were not told what a passing grade was, but we were provided the 12 rubrics to base our responses.
- For each question, our responses had to be fewer than 200 words. I found it extremely difficult to get in everything they required on the rubrics with so few words. It started to feel like I needed to be a veteran, perfect performing teacher in order to pass. I am always up for a challenge and I like to better myself in my career, however the additional workload of RESA made day-to-day life a lot more stressful than the ordinary stress I was used to experiencing.
- There were four tasks in total. The other two include “Communication and Professional Development”, “Formative and Summative Assessment” and just as many rubrics. The time to 1) plan, 2) replan, 3) incorporate, 4) reflect, and 5) respond to the prompts took away countless days, weeks, and months from my actual unit planning — and of course that “life” I was trying to have. Trying to type responses with about 30 rubrics in mind during each of the steps for each task was like trying to swim the butterfly in four foot waves while being chased by piranhas. I came up with a great performance! But it was stressful, exhausting, and I never want to do it again. My “free time” thoughts throughout the evenings and weekends were consumed with “how can I make all of these rubrics fit together,” a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces.
- I also spent countless hours double checking my documents and videotapes that I uploaded as evidence. There are many ways to be disqualified with these types of evidence co-decided upon by Educopia and the Ohio Department of Education. I studied every crevice of every piece of evidence, photo scanned and re-photo scanned, and whited out all Personal Identifiable Information from every parent, teacher, and student from every piece until oops I missed dinner again.
- As I approached the final submission date, I wondered if I would feel a sense of relief after hitting that “turn in” button on my computer. I swam really hard to reach the shore for the first six months of school. When I finally hit “submit” I did not feel relief. I did not make it safely to shore. In fact I was trapped just outside the surf with another four months to wait for my results. I would tread water until June 1st.
The after… The piranhas are still there.
School was ending and as you know it’s a busy time of year. I spent the first weekend finishing up my exam grades. I tried to relax and see the friends that I had neglected throughout the year because of RESA once school was finally over. I was even distracted enough that I almost forget about my RESA score, until I realized at 1:00 am on the day they would be posted, that they might already be online. In a panic I grabbed my phone to check the results. There they were! It wasn’t the result I was hoping for. The waves quickly drowned me, as I felt like the biggest failure on the planet. I called my old mentor along with some new ones to try to figure out what had happened and what I could do.
I did not fail the task because of my ability, but because the upload of a document appeared a little fuzzy to the assessor. I had been disqualified because one out of my 40 some pages of evidence had some light student handwriting that the assessor deemed “illegible” and therefore ungradable. The hours, days, and weeks I had spent on that particular task did not even get a second look because of a few lines. This became confusing to me because I had uploaded a TON of other evidence along with my responses to the many prompts and rubrics to showcase that I could accomplish that task. Couldn’t this be rectified with a resubmit? This did not ease my sense of failure as I thought to myself, “this is the biggest humiliation”. I now seem like an incompetent teacher because of a disqualification due to a software issue. This would mean I would need to retake this entire task the following year — and everyone would know! There were still a few piranhas chasing me and I could not relax.
Months later… Did I ever make it to shore?
It’s about 4 months after I first looked at my results. The first two months I could not shake the feeling of devastation. I kept having flashbacks of my evenings and weekends of stress and uncertainty. I relived the dread I had felt toward my profession, not the joy I felt with my mentor. In the last month, the RESA program was changed due to a large push of educators asking for the RESA program to be revoked. Unfortunately, many other new teachers experienced the same results that I had and they pushed for a change to be made.
Did this assessment truly prepare new teachers? Or did it discourage most from entering the already struggling occupation to begin with? The shame that I still feel must be clear from what I have shared here. I am still wading in the water, as the changes that were made put me in a sort of limbo for this school year. I have yet to be informed of what I must complete to obtain my next license. I am proud of the changes that have been made for upcoming teachers. Our voices were heard. I can only hope that this program gives new teachers the confidence and tiny bit of recognition that we so crave (am I doing a good job?).
The four tasks I was asked to complete have been spread out over four years and only one task will be the final assessment, while the others are able to be worked on together with a mentor. At least that’s the last I’ve heard. Even though I’m still wading through the water I am trying to be even more present with my students, friends, family, coworkers, bosses, and myself. After all, it will be me at the finish line everyone remembers, not my scanned PDFs, lessons, and 15 minute video clip.
Learn more about changes to Ohio’s Resident Educator Program
Bargaining Salary
Members Only
This content is for OEA members only. If you are a member, please click the button below to log in.
If you are a member but haven't registered before, please click here to register.
Bargaining ESSA
Members Only
This content is for OEA members only. If you are a member, please click the button below to log in.
If you are a member but haven't registered before, please click here to register.
Fact Finder for the Ohio Teacher
The Teacher Contract
Ohio teachers work under one of two basic types of contracts–limited or continuing. Limited contracts must be renewed periodically. State statute or your collective bargaining agreement determine the procedure the employer must use to non-renew a limited contract. A continuing contract remains in effect until a teacher dies, resigns, voluntarily retires, is suspended or terminated for cause.
Supplemental: Supplemental contracts are limited contracts issued for extra duties assigned beyond the regular teaching assignment. Contracts must set forth in writing the additional duties to be performed and must specify compensation to be paid for that assignment. Supplemental contracts should cover all educational responsibilities outside the regular teaching assignment other than voluntary duties. There is no notice requirement for termination of supplemental contracts, unless otherwise negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement.
Types of Licenses
Resident Educator (Four-Year)–Upon completion of an approved teacher education program, graduates are given a four-year Resident Educator license, which may be used for full-time or substitute teaching. The Resident Educator license is non-renewable, but may be extended on a case-by-case basis. Advancement to a five-year Professional Educator License requires the successful completion of a four-year Resident Educator Program.
Reading Requirement for Teachers Holding the Following Resident Educator Licenses: Early Childhood Education, Middle Childhood Education, and Intervention Specialist. Newly-licensed teachers who hold the resident educator license in early childhood, middle childhood, or intervention specialist should be mindful of how many semester hours of reading they completed during their pre-service teacher education program. Some teacher education institutions require that graduates in these fields complete six semester hours of reading, including instruction in phonics, in order to qualify for graduation and the two-year provisional license. Other teacher education institutions require students to complete 12 semester credit hours. Because the five-year professional license for early childhood, middle childhood, or intervention specialist requires a minimum of twelve (12) semester credit hours, or the equivalent, in reading including phonics, newly-licensed teachers should determine whether they need to take additional hours in reading to meet the twelve-hour requirement. Assuming that the teacher has completed course work in the teaching of phonics, additional reading courses might address a range of instructional strategies for teaching reading, the assessment of reading skills, and the diagnosis and remediation of reading difficulties. If a resident educator license holder has not completed the necessary course work before the expiration of the license, her/his application for a professional license will be denied.
Professional (Five-Year)—Conversion from the Resident Educator (four-year) license to the Professional Educator (five-year) license requires completion of a four-year Resident Educator Program in an assignment under the four-year Resident Educator license, including a state-required summative prescribed performance assessment.. No additional professional development credits are required, except as explained below.
Senior Professional Educator (Five-Year)—Advancement to a Senior Professional Educator license (five-year) from a Professional Educator license (five-year) requires that an educator meet the following requirements: 1) Have a Master’s degree or higher from an institution of higher education accredited by a regional accrediting organization; 2) have nine years experience teaching under a standard teaching license with 120 days of service as defined by ORC, of which at least five years are under a professional/permanent license/certificate; and 3) have successfully completed the Master Teacher Portfolio.
Lead Professional Educator (Five-Year)— Advancement to a Lead Professional Educator license (five-year) from a Professional Educator license (five-year) requires that an educator meet the following requirements: 1) Have a Master’s degree or higher from an institution of higher education accredited by a regional accrediting organization; 2) have nine years experience teaching under a standard teaching license with 120 days of service as defined by ORC, of which at least five years are under a professional/permanent license/certificate; and 3) have successfully completed the Master Teacher Portfolio AND earned the Teacher Leader Endorsement OR hold active National Board Certification.
Professional Development for Licensure Renewal
An educator’s Individual Professional Development Plan [IPDP] must be filed with and approved by the Local Professional Development Committee[LPDC] prior to earning credits for course work or continuing education to renew a license or to transition from a certificate to a license.
Transitioning to or Renewing a Professional (Five-Year) License—Transition from an eight-year professional certificate to a professional license requires the completion of a combination of course work, CEUs or other equivalent educational activities, equal to six semester hours, according to an LPDC-approved Individual Professional Development Plan and in accordance with LPDC criteria for professional development. There is no provision for reducing the course work or professional development requirements on the basis of work experience.
Professional License (Five-Year) renewals—The educator must successfully earn six (6) semester hours or 18 CEUs or other LPDC-approved educational activities, according to an LPDC-approved Individual Professional Development Plan and in accordance with LPDC criteria for professional development.
For more information about the Ohio’s licensure standards, including fees for application, contact the Office of Educator Licensure at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), 25 S. Front St., Columbus, OH 43215- 4183, (614) 466-2006 or visit the center’s website at www.ode.state.oh.us.
The necessary application for a new certificate or license or a renewal may be obtained at the ODE. An LPDC must review an individual’s professional development and verify that it meets the requirements for renewal before ODE will act on an application for renewal. For current licensure fees, visit ODE’s website search term “Educator License Applications.”
Teacher Sick Leave
The law requires that teachers be permitted to accumulate at least 120 days of sick leave at the rate of 15 days per year credited at the rate of one and one-fourth days per month. Any accumulation beyond 120 days is covered by the collective bargaining agreement and/or board policy.
The law permits the use of sick leave for personal illness, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, injury, exposure to a contagious disease, and absence due to illness, injury, or death in the employee’s immediate family.
Under the law, teachers who are disabled and who have exhausted their sick leave are entitled to unpaid leave for the duration of their disability, not to exceed two years, and may receive leave renewals after the two-year period has expired.
Any public employee may carry accumulated sick leave from one public employer to another, provided the break in service between jobs does not exceed ten years.
Parental Leave
Members wishing to take a leave of absence for reasons of maternity, adoption or child rearing may be granted such leave based upon negotiated contracts. They may be entitled to such leave under equal employment opportunity laws and under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
Important Teacher Dates
May 1: Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) and Ohio School Counselor Evaluation System (OSCES) educators must have completed their evaluation, if applicable. The final evaluation report must be received not later than May 10.
June 1: Any limited contract teacher must be notified not later than June 1 of the board’s intent to non-renew their contract. Failure of a board to provide such notice, or failure of the board to perform three observations, automatically results in re-employment for one year under a limited contract.
Unless teachers notify the board of education in writing to the contrary by June 1, they are presumed to have accepted re-employment under the provisions of the contract offered by the board.
July 1: Teachers must be notified in writing by July 1 of their salary for the coming school year. The salary may be increased due to schedule improvements through negotiations.
July 10: A teacher must resign not later than July 10 for the next school year. After July 10, the teacher must have the board’s consent or face a possible suspension of their teaching license for up to one year
Teacher Severance Pay
Teachers can receive severance pay based upon accumulated unused sick leave at the time of retirement. Payment may be for all or part of accumulated unused sick leave based upon the policy in force in the district or the negotiated contract. If the district has no policy, or there is no local contract language on this point, the law provides for severance pay in an amount equal to one-fourth of the accrued unused sick leave, up to a maximum accrual of 30 days.
Discrimination
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and various Ohio state laws offer protection against discrimination in the areas of supplemental salaries, pregnancy leave, promotion, termination, transfer and other areas. If a member believes he or she is being discriminated against for legally proscribed reasons, the member should contact their OEA Labor Relations Consultant.
Removing Disruptive Pupils from Class
Ohio law gives teachers the legal right to remove disruptive pupils from the classroom. OEA-backed legislation gives teachers the right to “remove a pupil from curricular or extra curricular activities” with the condition that the teacher submit written reasons for the removal to the principal as soon as possible. This right applies when, in the judgment of the teacher, the “pupil’s presence poses a continuing danger to persons or property or an ongoing threat of disrupting the academic process.” In addition to regular suspension and expulsion, the law also permits a school district to permanently expel a pupil under certain circumstances.
Children with identified learning disabilities are subject to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law which may guide how to deal with disruptive students with such disabilities.
Teachers and Corporal Punishment
Corporal punishment is prohibited in Ohio schools unless a school board has established a policy that permits it. If your school board has a policy permitting corporal punishment, get a copy of that policy and adhere strictly to it when considering the use of corporal punishment. If you are unsure whether your district has a policy permitting it, refrain from using corporal punishment until you are certain of your school district’s policy.
Ohio law allows the use of such amount of force and restraint as is “reasonable and necessary” to quell a disturbance which threatens physical injury to others, to obtain possession of weapons or other dangerous objects within the pupil’s control, for the purpose of self-defense or for the protection of persons or property.