Gadfly Bites 12/2/20 – (sic)

1. In case you missed it, Chad testified before the House Finance Committee yesterday as an interested party on the Cupp-Patterson school funding overhaul bill. He was interested in lots of parts of it, as you can tell by Gongwer’s coverage. (Gongwer Ohio, 12/1/20) The Dispatch coverage was wide-ranging and well-balanced. Parts of Chad’s testimony on proposed changes to charter school funding were included. (Columbus Dispatch, 12/2/20)
    
2. Speaking of wide-ranging, the Senate Education Committee yesterday amended and then passed a bill full of Covid response measures relating to education. These include spring testing (sic), report cards (sic), and graduation requirements (sic). (Columbus Dispatch, 12/2/20)
   
   

3. And speaking of misnomers, the recent EdChoice voucher bill signed by the governor over the weekend is said to be “not setting well” (sic) with the superintendent of Galion City Schools. “While the EdChoice program appears to provide families the simple choice to utilize funds provided to districts and funnel them to private education institutions for their child,” she tells the Inquirer, as if that’s the good part, “the system creates an unfair system for public schools.” And she tries to explain. (Galion Inquirer, 12/1/20) We learn from Supe’s explanation that Galion City Schools “loses” $40K every year due to kids using vouchers, which likely means six students in total, and also probably means just one eligible building in the entire district (although that obviously could change with the new bill). But what about districts that have performed poorly for years and which have lots of their buildings on the eligible list? (You know who I mean.) Turns out that both the ire and the misnomers are the same! Who’da thunk? What is even more interesting: a local supe whose district is awesome (sic?) and has no eligible buildings also tells the Chronicle that he hates EdChoice…although for some reason he thinks they fund charter schools. (sic) Which he also hates, just in case you also weren’t clear on that. (Elyria Chronicle, 11/26/20)
    
4. The headline of this piece—“School quality measured despite COVID impact on learning”—is just one giant misnomer. (WKRC-TV, Cincinnati, 12/1/20) But since the head of the state teachers union insists that “There’s growing consensus around us that tests are not used for accountability purposes while we continue to struggle through this pandemic” (big giant sic), perhaps the FFA’s degree criteria could be a suitable substitute for tests. (Peak of Ohio, 12/1/20)
   
   

5. Staying with rona news for a moment: One of the Ohio’s wealthiest school districts (no matter how you slice it, economics nerds) will have the capacity to livestream classes to students at home…by January. (ThisWeek News, 11/27/20) Teachers in Cleveland Heights-University Heights City Schools went on strike this morning, although it sounds like traditional picketing has been complicated by the rona…and by this week’s snowstorm. #CLE2020. (WKYC-TV, Cleveland, 12/1/20)
    
6. As promised Monday, here is more on Akron City Schools’ efforts to cement the awesome (sic) college and career academies pathway in their district, following the lead of Nashville Public Schools. Part 2 of the ABJ series looks at a middle school built on the campus of the Nashville Zoo. It has been there since 2003. No examples of students who followed a path into zoology were noted even after 17 years (or indeed any success stories arising from this awesome (sic) set up), but I think it’s clear that last year’s kiddos will never forget the fact that sloths don’t fart. (Akron Beacon Journal, 11/29/20) No success stories in Part 3 either, which looks more closely at the very vague-sounding changes coming for Akron middle schoolers—stated several times to be even more comprehensive than those existing in Nashville even after nearly two decades of this plan—should the revamp plan be approved. Why am I being so hard on this series about how awesome (sic) Nashville schools are and why Akron should emulate (sic) them? First is the utter lack of any observable benefit for kids, which I’ve noted. Second is that I’ve been following the Akron high school transformation for the entire five years and have never noted any gushing about the Nashville model before. In fact, a web search shows 2 passing references to similarities between the Akron and Nashville plans in 2018, and one more substantive reference in 2019. If anyone in the district administration intended for the Nashville example to be a beacon or exemplar of the changes underway, they were very late and extremely subtle in informing the media of that fact. Wonder why? And third: the one thing we have been told in the local media over and over is that despite the all-consuming career focus of the Akron schools, no student is guaranteed any sort of job or credential or training for work. As with many traditional education institutions, the only thing that matters is “opportunity”. Pricey, showy opportunities. (Akron Beacon Journal, 11/30/20) Speaking of all that, this companion story from Cleveland.com is mainly about some sizeable grants Akron City Schools has received to help with this amazing (sic) middle school opportunity generator (sic). Personally, I am more struck by the dismal third grade reading score data the district provided. (Cleveland.com, 12/1/20) While the potential cliffhanger of whether the elected board members of Akron City Schools would vote to approve the middle school career academy transformation plan might have had a bit more rhetorical piquancy if the ABJ had run the foregoing stories back in March as intended, the rona taketh away once again. So after all the words and the unbridled, unchecked, unquestioned positivity published in the last week or so, it is likely a surprise to no one that the elected board members voted to approve the changes last night. Unanimously, I assume. “Ultimately we're doing this as a central part of the workforce development in this community,” said the district’s assistant superintendent. “I think it's going to literally transform our young people's lives,” added the selected school board’s elected vice president. Just like it happened in Nashville, right? (Akron Beacon Journal, 12/1/20)

Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.