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- I’m sure these are not new things, but I am equally sure I haven’t seen them covered quite so extensively in news reports before now. What am I talking about? Day-long jaunts where superintendents, teachers, and curriculum leaders from a group of schools go to another school to observe teaching and learning there. In this coverage from Lima City Schools, the event is termed “instructional rounds” and likened to the medical version where trainee doctors trail around after a veteran while examining and diagnosing real patients, then propose courses of treatment while the veteran evaluates their efforts for thoroughness and accuracy. (You remember it from numerous episodes of Scrubs, no doubt.) But ho-ho-hold up there, Newbie! Here’s how Jeff Talbert, Superintendent of Canton City Schools, describes it: “Today, we’re going to get to see how Lima is addressing their issues, how they are using their ‘problem of practice’ and strategies to do that. And as a collective group, I hope that one, we’re able to take away one or two things that we can take back to our districts to help us continue to improve in our practice, but we can leave a few nuggets here for Lima as they continue to go to work and move forward.” If you add that little “who’s really the expert?” mindset with a quick gander at both Lima’s and Canton’s most recent report cards, I think you’ll concur that this feels exactly nothing like medical rounds. Now does it, Barbie? (Lima News, 11/2/23)
- Everyone quoted in this story is thrilled about the $101K early literacy support grant recently won by the Jefferson County ESC in southern Ohio. It is aimed at helping preschoolers learn to read, featuring professional development programming for teachers in language acquisition, vocabulary building, letter recognition, and letter-sound recognition. It is also going to focus heavily on the kids’ parents and providing them what are termed “real-life literacy experiences to do at home” in support of their teachers’ efforts. I’m not sure at all what that might consist of, but it sure sounds good. (Steubenville Herald-Star, 11/3/23)
- Finally today, the editorial board of Cleveland.com has got vouchers on its collective mind. Personally, I get the impression its members are suspecting that near-universal eligibility is here to stay—grouchers and their lawyers notwithstanding—but that is only my impression. What they do talk about is the undeniable popularity of newly-accessible
vouchersprivate schools (fixed that for them) and what they see as the unfairness of voucher expansion to public schools along a number of dimensions. In light of this, the board suggests that public meetings—to be held in each of our 88 counties—are needed to hash out their concerns. To which I say: Be careful what you opine for, because the public may have some very different concerns they might like to opine about if given a chance. (Cleveland.com, 11/5/23)
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