It took a week, but today’s edition finally brings us up to date following our long vacation break, covering 10/14 – 10/20/23.
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- Seriously? Now they’re suing over cueing?! I sure hope those guys wrote their complaint in small words. (Dayton Daily News, 10/17/23)
- Relatedly, Toledo City Schools is said to be big on plans to improve this year’s terrible early literacy grade in time for next year’s report card. Color me skeptical given the details in this piece, but at least we know they can’t get zero stars. (13ABC News, Toledo, 10/16/23)
- Staying on topic for one more clip: Cassie Carter is a “super teacher” (It’s a bird, it’s a plane, etc.) at Batavia City Schools, “transform[ing] struggling students into grade-level stars”. Wonder what method she uses for that? (Asking for a friend.) It is also interesting to me to learn that she’s taken her successful efforts outside the school to run a separate tutoring business in town. (Local 12 News, Cincinnati, 10/17/23)
- This story about the complaints of independent student transportation drivers in Akron City Schools is twisty and even interesting at points. But you will quickly see that it has way more to do with the almighty dollar than with families’ needs and the mechanics of actually getting kids to and from school. It also likely provides some evidence as to why student transportation writ large is such a disaster in many districts across the state. (Akron Beacon Journal, 10/19/23)
- Here’s another twisty story with lots of wonky details that, ultimately, provide a surefire recipe for district dysfunction, paralysis, and a roster of half-empty buildings. The topic: Pros and cons of “grade banded” schools vs. “neighborhood” schools. Let’s see if your humble clips compiler can offer some simpler advice to the discursive academics that might help clarify the unnecessarily opaque version of the situation they insist upon presenting. A) How many kids do you have and in what grades? B) Are those numbers trending down or up? C) Start filling up your buildings, newest to oldest. D) When one is at capacity, move to the next until you run out of kids. E) Close and sell off remaining facilities. Easy peasy. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/18/23)
- Switching gears, last Saturday was the deadline by which students had to be enrolled in a private school to be eligible to apply for an EdChoice expansion voucher for the 2023-24 school year. We don’t have those final enrollment numbers yet, but as of Saturday, just short of 87,000 voucher applications had already been filed for this year, with 41,120 already approved. Wowza! Both applications and awards blow previous records out of the water. Wonder why so many people are so keen on private schools these days? Truly a stumper. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/16/23)
- Now that we are fully caught up, we come to the latest D (for DEW)-Day. That is, today is the day that the temporary restraining order preventing the full start up of Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is to end…if the judge allows it to expire, that is. As of this writing, there’s no decision on this from the court either way. All we have to talk about for now then is the state’s request to dismiss the suit, based on lack of standing by the plaintiffs, against the state. This request was submitted on Tuesday. It, also, is still awaiting a decision as I write these words. (Gongwer Ohio, 10/17/23)
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