Today, the Columbus Education Commission delivered its recommendations for our community to Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Council President Andrew J. Ginther. You can read summaries, video commentaries and the full FutureReady Columbus report — starting here.
With a commitment to bold action, the 25 members of the Columbus Education Commission today agreed on recommendations to change the course of education in our community.
“We are onto something,” said co-chairman George S. Barrett.
He emphasized the sense of urgency and community effort reflected in the commission’s recommendations. “It will have to be sustained. It’s not a one-time event.”
The recommendations, which cover six areas and implementation, will be delivered to Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Council President Andrew J. Ginther on Tuesday.
Taken together, the recommendations offer the Columbus plan for improving education.
All parts of the community will be asked to do their part, with community groups helping to expand pre-K education, parent groups mobilizing neighborhoods and businesses providing career pathways. A new innovation fund run by a public-private partnership will help expand the number of great schools in Columbus, and the mayor’s office will devote a cabinet-level official to education.
Today is a big day.
The Columbus Education Commission expects to complete its recommendations today as members consider the final three proposals for our community. The meeting will begin with a brief update from member Mary Jo Hudson on the progress of the ongoing management review.
Then the commission will consider its final recommendations, focusing on these three draft proposals:
For a detailed overview, read our post: ‘All in’ on education
How to tune in
Today’s meeting at the Columbus Metropolitan Library is open to the public and will be live-streamed on this website.
The message was loud and clear: Our entire community needs to be all in on education.
Now, a proposal being reviewed by the Columbus Education Commission makes clear what that would look like:
A new public-private partnership would make sure Columbus has the best schools possible, by replicating successful local schools and attracting proven charter schools to the city.All of these proposals would build additional support for the Columbus Board of Education — reflecting the idea that the entire community needs to take responsibility for educating our children.
As U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told Columbus leaders last week, “Everybody has to step up and play a bigger role.”
“I would urge you to be bold. … You have a moment. Take it, take it — seize it,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told Mayor Michael Coleman and an audience that included members of the Columbus school board and Columbus Education Commission.
“Everybody has to step up and play a bigger role,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan told Mayor Michael Coleman. Photo by Shellee Fisher
During an appearance at Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School, Duncan said the community should face head-on the challenges facing Columbus City Schools.
“For all the distress, for all the angst, for all the challenges, you could do something that could be not just great for the children here, you could do something that’s a model for the country. Think big,” Duncan said.
“There’s a huge sense of urgency. If it doesn’t happen now, I don’t know when it happens for this city and these these kids.”
What can Columbus do to help kids succeed? The nation’s top education official will weigh in tomorrow on the issue facing urban education — and the best way to address them.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will speak about education in Columbus at 6 p.m. Friday.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be in Columbus to add a national perspective to our efforts to reimagine Columbus education. The conversation will include Mayor Michael Coleman, school board President Carol Perkins and KidsOhio.org President Mark Real. The event will start at 6 p.m.
If you haven’t already reserved a seat, don’t worry — we’ll be live-streaming the conversation on this website, CTV will be broadcasting it on the city’s television channel and we’ll be tweeting at #cbusedu.
Duncan’s visit comes as the Columbus Education Commission prepares to finalize recommendations on how to improve the options for all children who live within the Columbus School District.
Thanks to everyone who has been sharing their ideas for improving education in Columbus.
As the Columbus Education Commission moves toward making final recommendations, we wanted to respond to some questions we’ve seen online about the first batch of proposals.
Where’s the bold call to action on the core issues affecting students in Columbus?
We believe there are some bold plans in the first proposals, but we also recognize that there are some big topics coming up for the April 26 meeting, including teachers and principals, neighborhood schools, schools of choice, and implementation/governance. So we’re asking for a little patience as we finish those proposals. We’ll share them publicly when they’ve been sent to the commission for their review. We hope you’ll agree that the final package, taken as a whole, will offer a bold call for action on a variety of issues. One solution won’t solve every need, but together, these changes will improve the lives of our kids. As the first four proposals showed, the commission wants to pursue goals by tapping everyone in the community to help — parents, nonprofits, businesses and educators.
One note about the strategies that the commission addressed yesterday: They were on subjects that matter. It matters for every kid to start kindergarten on track. It matters that Columbus teachers and students have consistent, reliable access to technology that will allow them to customize what they learn. Community programs and a clear path after graduation matter, too.
The Columbus Education Commission today called for a more aggressive timeline for improving options for our kids, a school breakfast program that’s available to all students in our community and a single group that would help coordinate early childhood education.
Those revisions were among the points made by commission members after reviewing draft recommendations in four areas: early childhood; technology; career and college readiness; and serving the whole child through community, health and arts initiatives. The commission will consider two other areas, plus implementation plans, at its April 26 meeting.
There was consensus on the commission that the proposals broadly reflected the lessons from three months of meetings with experts, educators and the public. Commissioners supported the direction of each proposal with revisions or additions. These were three of the changes:
This morning, the Columbus Education will hear from two experts. Then in the afternoon, the commission will discuss the four proposals for recommendations. Here are the highlights of today’s agenda:
Livestream
Free live streaming by Ustream
How to tune in
Today’s meeting at the King Arts Complex is open to the public and will be live-streamed on this website.
Every student should graduate high school with some college credits and industry credentials in hand, providing a pathway that will lead toward a good job.
All students should have access to technology that expands learning opportunities in school, at home and in the community.
High-quality prekindergarten options should be available for every 4-year-old through a blend of Columbus City Schools and community-based programs.
More arts-focused schools should be created, providing twice as many spots for interested students.
These are some of the proposals that the Columbus Education Commission will consider Wednesday, all of which are designed to improve the lives of every child in our community within a generation.
The proposals call for work on each goal to begin immediately, with full implementation by 2025-26 — the school year when the next class of kindergarteners will graduate from high school. The mantra is “measurable progress each year, for each goal, each child and each school.”
Four proposals and a community vision document — which connects the community’s ideas, the research and the draft recommendations — have been sent tonight to the commission. As the commission reviews these drafts, we invite our community to do the same.