Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Senator Sawyer Gives Testimony on Public Records Legislation


Columbus – Senator Tom Sawyer (D-Akron) today gave sponsor testimony on Senate Bill 221 in the Senate’s Education Committee. Senate Bill 221 would remove the provision that prevents achievement assessments administered in Ohio schools for grades 3 – 8 from becoming public records. The provision was added to the recently enacted state biennium budget.

“At a time where a lot of focus is being put on teacher performance and performance-based evaluations, it is important to keep these kinds of useful resources in place for teachers to better themselves,” said Senator Sawyer. “This is an opportunity for teacher’s to improve their students’ performance.”

Under prior law, at least 40 percent of the assessment questions that are used to compute student scores were public record. Any questions that could be reused on future assessments were barred from public record. Senator Sawyer’s bill would revert back to those previous standards.

“Achievement assessments are used as a measurement tool to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie in subject areas for Ohio’s children,” said Senator Sawyer. “If these assessments are not made public records, we will not be able be to determine where we need to focus our improvement.”

Teachers have historically used the public questions to help prepare themselves for future assessments and to get an accurate picture on how they have prepared their students. Teachers also used the test results to create short-cycle assessments which are used for preparation as well.

The current law will be in effect for the 2011-2012 and all following school years.

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The Caucus


Minority Leader Eric H. Kearney - Cincinnati - 9th District
Assistant Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni - Canfield - 33rd District
Minority Whip Nina Turner - Cleveland - 25th District
Assistant Minority Whip Edna Brown - Toledo - 11th District
Senator Tom Sawyer - Akron - 28th District
Senator Charleta B. Tavares - Columbus - 15th District
Senator Shirley Smith - Cleveland - 21st District
Senator Michael J. Skindell - Cleveland - 23rd District
Senator Lou Gentile - Steubenville - 30th District
Senator Capri S. Cafaro - Hubbard - 32nd District

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