Gadfly Bites 2/28/20 – It’s a riddle

1. In case you missed it, Chad was a panelist at a recent Cleveland event discussing Ohio’s voucher program. It went pretty well for a panel organized by voucher grouchers if I do say so myself (and what do you read these clips for if not that?), but was unlikely to have changed anyone’s mind on the topic. (Personally, the response given by audience members to the mom whose son has a voucher was bothersome.) The superintendent of Catholic schools in Cleveland was on the panel in support of EdChoice and you can read the diocese’s take on the event here. (Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, 2/27/20) On the national front, EdChoice (the organization) research director Mike McShane takes a look at the big picture on voucher research. A new paper out this week marks the 27th study of the question of private school choice effects on students who could access a voucher but who remain in public schools. It is the 25th of those studies which have found competitive effects benefits for those remainers. He calls it “a pretty solid consensus.” However, the findings on participant effects—including here in Ohio—are where the real conundrum of the title lies. McShane has some thoughts. (Forbes, 2/27/20)
2. So what’s going on with the voucher grouching here in Ohio? The governor, the House speaker, and the Senate president had their 90-minute come to Jesus meeting earlier in the week. What little we know about how it went can be found here. (Gongwer Ohio, 2/26/20)
3. Tiny Frontier Local Schools (student body 536) is losing too much money due to local families opting out of the district by various means. (One of those means is not, as you might have suspected, via vouchers. They are not mentioned at all here, despite the fact that two of their three school buildings are eligible.) The culprits cited are interdistrict open enrollment, online charter schools, and homeschooling. (That’s right, when you get desperate enough, even homeschooling can somehow be considered stealing from the district’s coffers.) The biggest problem is that while Frontier Local is open for incoming students via open enrollment, they are net losers in that exchange—with more going out than coming in. Even worse, officials can only speculate as to why kids leave…or indeed why they come in. (Convenience? Seriously, guys?) Board members seemed pretty surprised about all of this information, even though none of it can be remotely new. (Marietta Times, 2/28/20)
4. Another day, another district using data to better serve its students. (Cleveland.com, 2/27/20)
5. Incoming clarification from the Big Giant Beard! State supe Paolo DeMaria said this week that his new proposal for minimum test scores to earn a diploma isn’t a lowering of the bar, despite what you’ve heard, because it’s never been required for students to score “proficient” on those tests to graduate. Well, that’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Clarification ends. *Achoo!* (WVXU-FM, Cincinnati, 2/27/20)
6. District school board meetings sound like a lot of sauce to me, even when they are not focused on something controversial. Case in point, this piece covers a recent Akron City Schools meeting in so much painstaking detail that I really don't know what to focus on in clipping it. The clear realization that kids in the district’s STEM high school have it really good compared to their peers in those increasingly-worthless-sounding “career academies”? The donation of a giant rock (thanks for nothing, people)? Or the fact that some district families have figured out—oh by the way—that they can petition to have their homes rezoned to another school district? Whatever your favorite flavor, I predict some great Gadfly Bites clips coming to us from Akron in the near future. (Akron Leader, 2/27/20)
7. How do you know that a charter school story in the mainstream media is a good charter school story? The words “charter school” do not appear it in. Three Toledo (charter) School for the Arts students were among fifteen honored by the University of Toledo for their short story contest winning entries. (Toledo Blade, 2/28/20) Horizon Science Academy (charter school) in Lorain got a nice profile piece as they celebrated African American History Month with food, sharing, and a student-led “wax museum” event. (The Morning Journal, 2/27/20)
8. Speaking of Lorain, the interim CEO is said here to have released “findings” from his district-wide listening sessions, but it sounds more like he reiterated the action steps he is already implementing after getting his marching orders from the newly-resurgent usual suspects. Seriously? Dude listened to staff in all 14 buildings (100% attendance I’d wager!) but held only 3 events open to the public. Here is a photo from the first session:

   

   At the second session, Ring was said to have been telling parents what teachers have told him about the reading curriculum they hate. And the third session was held during a board meeting. I’d bet my life there were more union members than community members at that one. (Elyria Chronicle, 2/28/20) And here’s is what Pleasant Local Schools thinks of its parents, courtesy of an editorial in the actual local newspaper written by the elementary school principal. How utterly embarrassing. (Norwalk Reflector, 2/28/20)

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