- Our own Chad Aldis is quoted in this very brief look at the new NAPCS state rankings. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/20/16)
- A new report from the Ohio Department of Higher Education says that fewer college freshmen needed remedial courses in 2014 than need them in 2013. Props are being given to Ohio colleges for efforts to commonly define the core skills students need to have and be able to do in order to be considered “remediation free”. (Is that code? Perhaps for “lowering the bar?”) They are also being given props for their use of “co-requisite remediation”, in which students enroll in college-level courses instead of remedial classes and receive academic support to help them succeed. You can check out coverage in the Dispatch (Columbus Dispatch, 1/20/16) and the Plain Dealer (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/21/16)
- Count on the good folks at the Harvard Graduate School of Economics to kill whatever buzz the above-referenced remediation news may have generated. A new report from them suggests that the college admissions process needs to be “reshaped” in order to stop the escalation of what they call “achievement pressure.” Now THAT is definitely code. Probably for “less emphasis on test scores”, in case you didn’t get the truckload of subtlety. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/20/16)
- And the hits keep on coming. From the “no duh” department, an analysis of the school report card data currently available shows a correlation between poverty and educational achievement. Also code – for “give us more money”. Widely covered across Ohio. Coverage in the PD (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/20/16) and the formerly-big D are typical. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/20/16)
- Keeping up with the theme of equity, here’s a piece on an agreement reached between Toledo Public Schools and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. It stems from a 2009 complaint from parents that the district did not provide the same access to college prep classes to black students as to white students. While the USDOE ended up not agreeing with that assertion, they did find some other things that needed fixing. The result is: more libraries in predominantly-black K-8 district schools, more non-discrimination posters, and equitable distribution of qualified teachers throughout the district. Cue the trumpets. (Toledo Blade, 1/21/16)
- Further arguments were finally heard yesterday in the ongoing courtroom soap opera known as “The Young(stown) and the Restless”. Seems that not only is the definition of “teacher” up for a ruling, but also the question of who has standing to question that definition. The transcript-type update here is worth a thorough read. But the big news is that the judge promised a ruling “by early next week.” (Youngstown Vindicator, 1/22/16)
- In a similar vein, Lima City Schools’ board of education got an update from ODE’s office of Office of Distress Commissions and Education Reform on their progress toward academic improvement (i.e., their efforts to avoid the “Youngstown Plan” becoming the “Lima Plan). Not much substance here, but a curious amount of quotes that sound like “happy talk” to me. To wit: “There’s no magic bullet, but I can truly say you’re heading in the right direction.” And “Despite F grades on recent school report cards, ODE’s rep called Lima schools ‘excellent,’ adding that grade cards do not tell the whole story.” Sure. Why not? (Lima News, 1/21/16)
- Remember those community meetings held across the state last year on the topic of pay-to-play fees for extracurricular activities? Seems that despite a lot of interest, no legislation to ban said fees will be forthcoming in the General Assembly just yet. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/21/16)
- Loyal Gadfly Bites subscribers will remember that the only part of the sports page that your humble compiler likes is the weekly “student athlete” profile in the formerly-big D. There’s lots of reasons why, but mainly it’s because occasionally – just occasionally – we get a profile like this one. Dez gets it. School, life, football, everything. Now, if we can only convince him that we don’t need any more cardiologists for the time being but that his becoming a GP would be a slam dunk. (Columbus Dispatch, 1/22/16)
