- The 2018 Quality Counts ratings are out and very little has changed for Ohio from the previous year. Doesn’t stop folks from trying to spin those results into a vision of speculative doom. Our own Chad Aldis is quoted in this piece as the voice of anti-spin. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/17/18)
- On Wednesday morning, Chad was in the posh studios of WOSU-FM, taking part in an hour long radio talk show titled “The Future of ECOT”. Other guests included several ECOT alums and current parents. (All Sides with Ann Fisher, WOSU-FM, 1/17/18) So, how was “the future of ECOT” looking by the end of the day Thursday? Nonexistent. Chad is quoted in the PD piece on the vote which terminated the school’s operation as of today. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/18/18)
- If a state’s ESSA plan is approved in a bureaucracy and no one is there to care, does it make a sound? Probably not, according to Patrick O’Donnell. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/17/18)
- This piece is a bit out of the mainstream for Gadfly Bites (and I’m indebted to my colleague Jessica Poiner for drawing it to my attention), but stay with me as I explain. Oberlin College in northeast Ohio is profiled as a typical top-of-the-line, private, high-dollar liberal arts school with a big problem. It appears to be locked into an upward spiral of costs and tuition hikes while maxing out on the number of full-fee-pay students it is able to attract. Costs can’t be cut because of the high amount of fixed, input-related costs (think fancy dorms, expansive grounds, great food service, and lots of tenured faculty). Any cuts in these areas will have repercussions on the school’s reputation because its position as “one of the best in the country” is almost entirely due the value of those inputs, which officials fear will lead to even more difficulty in recruiting students. Whereas, judging by academic and employment outcomes for students puts this $70K-per-year institution somewhere around 300th place on a list of the same types of schools. So why is this relevant to my loyal Gadfly Bites subscribers? Because I have a feeling you could replace "private liberal arts college" with "independent private K-12 school" and have about the same article. The value is in the inputs and the brand. Just don't ask about the outcomes. But I could be wrong about that. (Christensen Institute blog, 1/17/18) Speaking of K-12 private school tuition, folks in Ohio are apparently just waking up to the knowledge that the recently-passed federal tax bill could allow them to use their 529 college savings plans to pay for some of the aforementioned private school tuition if they so choose. It is interesting to see who in the private school community is shouting, “This would be awesome!” and who in the private school community is hemming, “We’ll need to investigate the import of this further”. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/19/18) Sticking with the topic of private schools for one more clip, Cincinnati Waldorf School wants to move forward with its plans for a high school – what I think would be the first Waldorf high school in the entire state. They want to start next year with a single ninth grade class in a temporary location in the posh suburb of Mariemont, providing the city elders will allow it, with plans for additional grades and a permanent building in the future. Tuition at the K-8 school currently around $12K per year, so let’s hope that 529 plan works out. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/19/18)
- Finally today—and back in the real world with something of a bang—here is a partial list of the amazing features that Akron City Schools’ new website will offer once it goes live later this month: Teachers now can immediately upload news and information to a specific section of the site as it happens, quick links to special sections to view grades and receive messages from the superintendent (along with management of the placement of those links based on usage patterns), using color to help support navigation (i.e.-displaying each school's colors when users are in that school's section), automatic adjustment to whatever device the site is displayed on, a translation function on the homepage for several different languages, a newsletter function that allows user to subscribe to get news and information and receive get an email when new information is available, password-protected pages teachers can create for students and parents for special assignments, and a calendar function that integrates with Google, so each school can have its own calendar. Whew! I didn’t look to see what features are on the current version of the district’s website, but all I can say is “Welcome to the late 20th Century, Akron!” (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/18/18)
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