Gadfly Bites 10/16/23—One…

Back after two long weeks! Looks like y’all had plenty of ice and fire of your own while I was gone, so we’ll break this down a bit. Part one covers 9/29 – 10/6/23. 

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1. We start with some good news related to the upcoming solar eclipse. Finally! I know they’re probably not right in the path, but at least leaders at Boardman City Schools aren’t treating the April 2024 event like the end of their world. “We are finding every opportunity to make this a year of great learning about our solar system,” said middle school science teacher Megan Turillo. She says she wants to make the event “something our students, staff and community will remember forever.” I believe her, but I also feel like that is the same mindset the doomsayers have—calling off school and planning to hide out in bunkers due to fears of high traffic and spotty Wi-Fi. Just as memorable an event, I reckon, but it’s just that those folks’ “forever” seems to be somewhat shorter. (WFMJ-TV, Youngstown, 9/29/23)
   
   

2. Let’s turn to Fordham’s contributions to the news cycle. First up, Aaron Churchill is quoted extensively in this surprisingly-detailed discussion of teacher pay in Mahoning County school districts. The opening premise is that, even with the raises won following the recent teacher strike, Youngstown City Schools ranks low in comparison to its neighbors. However, I suspect the reporter found some deeper layers as he investigated that deceptively-simple question, leading to a more thorough analysis. Nice. (Vindy.com, 10/1/23)
   
   

3. An August blog post by Aaron—in support of the proposition that local school board candidates should have their party affiliations shown on ballots—is linked and referenced in this piece on the topic. A bill has been recently introduced in the state legislature that would do just that. Naysayers are also quoted here, but I feel like their arguments are a little less solid than Aaron’s. YMMV. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/2/23)
   
   

4. I have some questions about this Cleveland Metropolitan School District online student forum generally, and about this College Credit Plus piece specifically, but it links and references a 2022 blog post by Jessica Poiner about CCP, so I’ll allow it. (CMSD Student Forum 10/3/23)
   
   

5. Here’s some brief but adorable coverage of a group of young students at a charter school in Sciotoville, Ohio, helping to break ground for their new school building. My colleagues at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which sponsors the schools there, were no doubt even prouder than I was in seeing this day finally come to fruition after many years. (WSAZ-TV, Huntington, WV, 10/3/23)
   
   

6. Moving on: A high-dosage tutoring program conducted by college students at one Fairview Park City Schools elementary building (after school and over the summer) is said to have been highly successful at achieving its goals of remediating pandemic-era learning loss in math and ELA. Take a look at the data provided on student growth and see if you concur. I feel like something is missing in their math—specifically, how many students are involved in total. But no matter, the program also provided social-emotional supports for students, no data or outcomes required, so it can count as a win no matter what. And that’s what’s important since it’s going to keep on going anyway. (Cleveland.com, 10/4/23) Same vibes in this piece about a third-party after school program in one elementary building in New London Local Schools. Those growth numbers quoted are OK, but we have no idea how many students are participating or where any of them rank in overall achievement or grade level ability. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s not. We can’t tell. And even besides all that: Why are outside groups still the ones doing all the work the schools should be doing themselves during the actual school day? (Norwalk Reflector, 10/5/23)
   
   

7. I’m sorry to have missed the release of Policy Matters Ohio’s new State of Ohio Schools 2023 report while on vacation. Luckily, this piece from the OCJ gave me all the important takeaways I needed to know. (Stop laughing you guys! It did too!) The OCJ piece focuses on what is termed “divestment” from public schools at the state level, which must mean vouchers because the Policy Matters report includes charter schools in its analysis of public schools, as it should; although neither of those nuances are spelled out clearly in the piece. The piece adds that such divestments “hurt public school students everywhere – especially those in rural counties.” Additionally, “Ohio’s legacy of inadequate, inequitable funding” has functionally “weakened the role school plays as a foundational public institution.” Okey doke, then. (Ohio Capital Journal, 10/6/23) Meanwhile, out in one of Ohio’s rural public school districts: Four stars on a report card is good, but a self-diagnosing HVAC system is apparently better. At least judging by the amount of time elected school board members spent discussing one over the other at their recent meeting. (Morrow County Sentinel, 10/4/23)
   
   

8. And now we get to the important stuff that I know you’ve been waiting for. When last we left it, the changeover of education governance in Ohio from the state board/Ohio Department of Education to the executive branch/Department of Education and Workforce as approved in the budget bill, was on hold pending review from a Franklin County judge. The preliminary injunction hearing was held on October 2, the day before the changeover was required to take place by law. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/2/23) But the judge decided to extend her original restraining order beyond that time, citing a need for more testimony from the parties, creating what sounds like a tense and chaotic situation where oversight of K-12 education was either in two places at once or, perhaps, nowhere at all. (NBC4i.com, Columbus, 10/2/23) Citing concerns that education governance would exist nowhere at all as of midnight on October 3, and that things such as school funding and voucher application approvals would halt, Governor DeWine announced that certain portions of the new governance model would indeed go into effect at midnight—to wit: ODE would go out of business, and DEW would come into existence—even while other portions remained on hold. “These are essential functions of government,” DeWine said. As such, they needed to be maintained. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/2/23) The whole stupid thing made national news after that. (ABC News, 10/3/23) Finally, on October 4, the judge extended the due date for new filings to October 16, and extended her temporary restraining order once again, blocking the law from being fully enacted until at least October 20. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/4/23) Surely nothing too crazy will happen despite that very lengthy interlude, right? But that’s for our next installment…

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