Gadfly Bites 3/11/22—Everybody needs a Yugo sometime, I guess

1. Don’t look now, but it seems that a number of Ohio school districts are tentatively starting to declare victory against the Covid slide in student progress and achievement. In fact, the implication in this piece is that upcoming state testing will prove just how good a job they have done with this and that these districts are actually looking forward to the verification. This tracks, of course, since most districts previously insisted that Covid disruption-induced learning loss didn’t exist until state testing data showed that it did. (Springfield News Sun, 3/9/22). Hamilton City Schools outside Cincinnati doesn’t even need to wait that long. They’ve got their own data and are pretty well crowing about it in this piece. “Our room has seen wonderful results,” said one kindergarten teacher. “The kids are very happy; we are very happy, and we're showing a lot of learning and growing in our room.” The assistant superintendent adds, “We have classrooms where 98 percent of students are meeting growth, where they are growing not just one year, but a year and a half, two years, already and we’re only mid-way through the year.” Yep, all sorted! (Local 12 News, Cincinnati, 3/8/22)
    
2. While not fully sorted, apparently, a number of school districts in and around Ashland County are reporting that their Covid-era chronic absenteeism problems are evaporating as well. “What I’ve witnessed in schools,” said Wooster City Schools’ associate supe without hint of irony, “is that our specialty is in-person learning.” (The Daily Record, 3/10/22)
   
   
3. Meanwhile, DIY programming may be the next area of “specialty” school districts attempt to embrace. To wit, Middletown City Schools and Hamilton City Schools (those guys again?) have partnered with Miami University of Ohio to create their own, self-contained, Early College Academy program. It is unclear from this piece why the state’s College Credit Plus program, beloved of families and students everywhere, is not right for these two, but I’m sure there’s a reason. Sadly, the DIY version sounds to me smaller, more reductive, and bedecked with even more hoops than CCP. But anyway…kudos I guess. (The Journal-News, 3/8/22) In Parma City Schools, the supe is very excited about their still-gestating Parma Academy of Gifted Enrichment (or PAGE), which is scheduled to open in the 2023-24 school year. What is it? “We talked a lot about being a one-stop-shop and created different programs for different types of students who maybe don’t fit that traditional mold of what a traditional classroom or program can offer,” he told attendees at his annual State of the Schools presentation. “PAGE would be aimed at those students we want to make sure we keep in our district and provide really a pipeline to the Ivy League or a military academy appointment. It’s that type of vision we’re trying to grow there.” Seems very…specific…in a number of ways which raise questions for me. And I’m sure, just like the various other “pipelines” we’ve been hearing about lately, no guarantees of Harvard or West Point enrollment are promised or implied (and will have to be spelled out sometime between now and 2023). (Cleveland.com, 3/9/22)
    
4. Sometimes clips just write themselves. It seems that dozens of superintendents from across the country visited Lakota Local Schools (and Middletown too) as part of something called the “Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools”, which I’ve never ever heard of, which aims to “strive[s] to give students a quality education through innovative ideas.” Well, as long as they’re striving for something… “No two students learn the same way,” says Lakota schools’ info flack with a trace of irony, “so how can we personalize that learning to meet their needs?” A list of the districts’ “personalized innovations” on display per this piece include: cricket machines (by which I think they mean the automated pattern cutter made by Cricut and beloved of crafters since at least 2010), a green screen (saw that in “Doctor Who” in 1971), a podcast studio (the future indeed), a calligraphy lab (ah yes, the writing style preferred by “merchants writing business accounts, by schoolchildren learning the Latin alphabet, and even by emperors issuing commands”…in ancient Rome), dance revolution and other old skool video games, and a stained glass window painting station (how very Augsburg, 1065). Whew! A veritable Crystal Palace full of modern ingenuity (look it up, kiddos). I sure hope the visitors to this “agora of innovation” (if you will) picked up all the intel they needed to figure out how to bring these divertissements anciens to their own children of the future. If not, I’m sure Lakota officials would be able to fax them the details. (Local 12 News, Cincinnati, 3/10/22)
   
   
5. Finally this week, back in the actual present day and looking toward the real future, MacKenzie Scott has made another huge contribution to support education in Ohio. Specifically, an incredible $10 million gifted to Fugees Academy, a private school in Columbus which serves children of immigrants. The school has always been tuition-free for families thanks to charitable donations and the EdChoice Scholarships for which most students are eligible. And while there’s no specific use designated for the new funds just yet, the need is obviously large and the services important now and going forward. (Columbus Dispatch, 3/9/22)

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