In her speech, Susan Tave-Zelman never mentioned Gov. Ted Strickland -- or how his decisions about the future of education in the state led to her decision to give up her $217,000 a year job.
Instead, she took the Cleveland City Club luncheon crowd back more than 200 years for a history lesson -- to the plotting of townships in the Connecticut Western Reserve.
Tave-Zelman: "Five-hundred acres of these townships were dedicated to the support of our schools."
Tave-Zelman said state schools have come a long way from that commitment, but she hinted that some of the greatest strides have come within her tenure of the last decade.
Tave-Zelman: "You might find it surprising, but 10 years ago, Ohio had no consistent standards for academic achievement of its students. So what students often learned, often depended on their zip codes."
Gov. Bob Taft appointed Tave-Zelman in 1999 to oversee the state's 613 districts, implement mandated accountability standards and proficiency tests, and a $10 billion school construction program.
Notice of her resignation came in mid May, after Gov. Strickland criticized her for not sharing the vision embraced by he and state higher education chancellor Eric Fingerhut.
Strickland also supports making Tave-Zelman's position a cabinet-level job that would report directly to him.
Whatever their differences, Tave-Zelman seems to share Strickland's goals for schools to fix the achievment gap between urban and suburban students and provide a seamless transition to college. She recommended more intensive teacher mentoring, increased funding and communtiy support. And, using the example of a hypothetical grade school teacher, she went even further to suggest the current school year model must be changed.
Tave-Zelman:
"She has a student support system behind her to meet the cognitive, social, emotional and physical needs of her students... And now, we are going to put all of these 21st century strategies into a 150 - year-old box that is nine months long and five days wide."
Ohio graduation rates have improved under Zelman. The state now ranks 16th in the nation in a recent Education Week study. But urban areas still suffer. Cleveland graduates just over 34 percent of students.
Educators are divided on whether a new leader answerable to the governor can fix the problems. The Ohio Federation of Teachers voted unanimously in April to support the Governor. The larger Ohio Education Association has not taken a position.
R.D. Norgren, Cleveland state University Associate Professor of Urban Education, says Tave-Zelman should be congratulated for enacting state and federal initiatives -- even if she didn't invent them.
Norgren: "K- 12 education doesn't change very easily. It's steeped in tradition. Any kind of changes that need to be made, it's a tough sell."
Zelman has said she'll stay on until Dec. 1.
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3
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