Gadfly Bites 3/10/21 – With just weeks left…

1. According the good folks at Cleveland.com, a deal was reached and CMSD teachers are supposed to be back in their classrooms today, finally starting the slow return of students. What was the hold up? The union boss said it was something about communication: “There were limited people involved in the communication loop and it wasn’t really a true loop. Information was flowing one way and it wasn’t coming back the other direction and didn’t really have any follow up. (The work was) expanding that loop and making it extremely transparent and ensuring it’s moving two ways -- I have never seen things move so quickly as it has in the past few days.” Sounds a little loopy to me. (Cleveland.com, 3/8/21)
    
2. The good folks in South-Western City Schools here in suburban Columbus seem to be doing pretty well this year, and are stunned by that fact. In fact, they seem somewhat surprised that their third graders not only didn’t fall on the state test this year but actually gained a few points from last year’s group. That is, they express surprised until they start describing to the reporter the enormous amount of time and effort they’ve put in to actually teach—and test for comprehension—while kids have been learning from home. Sounds just right. (Spectrum News 1, 3/8/21)
   
   

3. Meanwhile, what’s happening in districts where kids have perhaps not gotten such a high-quality remote learning experience? Protests. Some parents in Delaware City Schools seem keenly aware of what they’re missing with just a hybrid learning model. They are also keenly aware that there are mere “weeks left in [the] school year” with which to get any of it back. (MyFox28, Columbus, 3/9/21) While it is true that the traditional end of the school year is just weeks away, it doesn’t have to go like that. Recall that Governor DeWine politely requested schools submit remediation plans to him. Here are some preliminary thoughts, including both South-Western (where officials are proposing an “extended learning plan” which includes formal instruction in June, July and August) and Delaware (where one local mom says “I’m not going to send my kids to summer school,” whether the district proposes it or not. “They’ve been through enough. I’m not going to take their summer away from them.”) and Hilliard City Schools here in central Ohio. The worst part, however, is that we still have over two weeks until DeWine’s deadline for receiving those plans, at which time we’ll be even closer to the traditional end of the school year. (ABC6, Columbus, 3/9/21)
    
4. As we have seen with other aspects of education during the pandemic, it seems that non-school entities (non-profits, churches, community groups, families, etc.) are the teaching heroes in many parts of Ohio. To that list of heroes you can definitely add Erin and Aidan Finn of Cincinnati, founders of Tutor Teens—free, online tutoring help which has been serving local students continuously since the end of March 2020. They now have 80 volunteer tutors working with them and it looks like they’ll be continuing their vital work for the foreseeable future. At least, I bet there are a ton of parents out there who hope they’ll continue! (Cincinnati Enquirer, 3/9/21)
   
   

5. Switching gears entirely, let’s talk about legislation. The chair of the Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee thinks his panel will make quick work of HB 67, the bill which is ostensibly about state testing this year. He told Gongwer that he expects amendments and a vote by next week. It sounds like at least one of those amendments would apply to a graduation requirement change in the bill which he characterized as a “drafting issue” to be corrected. (Gongwer Ohio, 3/8/21) In the first committee hearing yesterday, however, it sounded very much like the easing of graduation requirements is now the primary intention of a number of legislators and other bill supporters. To wit: “Even the most ardent supporters of testing have stated that test results this year should not be used punitively or to make high stakes decisions. For our high school students, their path to graduation has incredibly high stakes.” (Gongwer Ohio, 3/9/21) All of the Marion County school district superintendents interviewed for this piece are supportive of minimal testing (some of them hold out hope for full cancellation of testing even now!) and of the easiest possible graduation requirements they can get. (Marion Star, 3/9/21)
    
6. Meanwhile, the latest legislative effort to overhaul school funding in Ohio drew some renewed attention from the Dayton Daily News. Amid a cacophony of supportive testimony for HB 1, local charter school leader Dave Taylor is quoted as warning legislators that the bill as it stands now would seriously shortchange charter school students. Among its other downsides, that is. (Dayton Daily News, 3/9/21)
   
   

7. And we’ll end the day speaking of putative legislation. First up, a new bill is promised to drop this week offering changes to the state’s school report cards. (Fox 19 News, Cincinnati, 3/9/21) And four legislators visiting Lorain City Schools earlier this week renewed hopes among certain Lorainiacs (you know who I mean) for legislation to put out of its misery an end to the CEO-style Academic Distress Commission under the aegis of which the district has been operating since 2017. (Morning Journal, 3/8/21)

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