- As you may have heard, the OEA and Innovation Ohio have launched a website (KnowYourCharter.com) to ostensibly provide comparison information between charter schools and Ohio’s districts. There’s tons wrong with this picture, of course, but suffice it to say that it’s akin to the Confederation of Wolves launching a website called KnowYourHenHouse.com, to let you know how secure chicken coops are around the state. It definitely isn’t for the purpose of making the coops more secure. But seriously folks, the Dispatch coverage quotes our own Chad Aldis talking about the apples-to-bowling-balls comparison to be had. (Columbus Dispatch). Gongwer’s coverage has other voices raising the same concerns. (Gongwer Ohio) Most other coverage around Ohio is limited to this same piece with only token information and token response. (Willoughby News Herald)
- Back in the real world, CEO Eric Gordon gave his annual State of the Schools speech in Cleveland yesterday. Although playing heavily on the story of Sisyphus, he averred that the Cleveland Plan is starting to show signs of success. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Still hanging in the real world, officials in the inner-ring Columbus suburb of Whitehall say that their schools are ready for PARCC, especially in the area of appropriate technology for the online version of the tests. How’d they get there so easily, despite the well-known challenges? By participating in last year’s test piloting. (ThisWeek News/Whitehall News)
- Sliding back into the realms of fantasy for a moment, check out this commentary from a teacher in an outer suburb of Cincinnati. He opines on the topic of end of course exams in Ohio, new this year. He hates ‘em, seems to hate all other tests as well, and conflates a lot of stuff to get an exaggerated number of “high-stakes tests” kids must take in their high school careers from here on out. You can read for yourself, but do pay special attention to his concern that teachers have to make up many of these “high-stakes” tests on their own, even though there are oodles of testing companies out there that could do this onerous duty for them. Say what? (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- But “news of the weird” seems to be a theme today, as in this story on pushback against Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee which appeared in the Lima News, even though it talks about kids from my neighborhood in Columbus. I guarantee that the numbers of third graders in Clinton Elementary in danger of not passing the reading test last spring were far lower than in any school in all of Allen County, let alone Lima City. I always said that the true test of TGRG would be if schools could make sustained efforts two years in a row. If the denials are already starting, there’s no way it’ll be sustainable without lowering the bar even further. (Lima News) The same story ran in the Canton Repository, but not in the Big D. Weird.
- Strike one for the parent who sued Reynoldsburg schools to try and have the district closed down until the teachers strike was over. But sneaky judge worked in a way to get the parties back to the table a little sooner! (Columbus Dispatch)
- After two years of fiscal caution status, East Knox Schools were yesterday placed in fiscal emergency by the state. A commission will be impaneled to get the district out of what seems a pretty big hole. (Columbus Dispatch)
- We told you over the summer of the tussling in Mansfield over an alternative program shut down after it was found to have been poorly-managed and poorly-serving students. The dust seems to have settled and the News-Journal takes a look at the positive changes made to the program – and to students’ lives - so far this year. (Mansfield News Journal)
- I’m all for school breakfasts. Heck, I’m a huge proponent of breakfast in general. But this headline – “Students respond to creative, healthy school breakfasts” – had me chuckling after I read the story about an uptick in participation in school breakfast programs in a couple of districts in the Elyria area. The responses of students to the “healthy” breakfasts – “umm… no thanks” – were as predictable as their responses to the “creative” breakfasts (think bacon/pancake sandwiches or chicken and waffles) – “yes please”. I don’t know; perhaps the chefs mistook “hearty” for “healthy”. Still, sounds yummy. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal)
