- Data guru Aaron Churchill is quoted here and some of his Fordham-produced data is cited as well on the topic of enrollment declines in Miami Valley school districts. (By which we all mean enrollment increases in other types of schools, but where’s the fun in that framing?) It is interesting to me that district officials who seem to know down to the parcel how many new houses will be coming online within their borders in the next couple of years and can calculate the number and grade level of all students they will “bring in” (careful now, don’t count your chickens before they’ve chosen a school…) cannot seem to understand why it is those same families might opt for some other type of schooling than a district default. (Dayton Daily News, 3/17/22)
- Complex national story here with a lot of data and charts. TL;DR: High schoolers’ GPAs hit an all-time high in 2019, and students earned more course credits than ever before. But NAEP testing data show they did not translate into demonstrable achievement gains. You know, like great test scores. The big cheese at the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers NAEP, says that the content of those high school courses is not always “as advertised”, and goes on to explain in depth. However, a history teacher in Oberlin City Schools in Lorain County, offers another possible explanation: Pre-pandemic, he said he noticed a shift toward allowing students to make up assignments that were significantly past due. Once Covid blew up the status quo, administrators at his school decided to eliminate zeroes entirely and to give all students an A or a C on any work they submitted. “In the past, it was a 0 in the gradebook,” he says. “Now I see a lot of teachers giving full credit for assignments that are very tardy.” His policy is to knock off a letter grade for each day an assignment is late because “I think we still need to hold our students accountable.” Wise words from a Teacher of the Year finalist, IMO. (The 74, 3/16/22) Honestly though, I’m not sure you even need that much analysis to see what’s up (or, more accurately, what’s down). Check this out. In 2012, the University of Akron pledged more than $13 million to cover the college tuition costs of graduates from Akron City Schools who matriculated to Hometown U. Ten years on, the fund is still full of money and paid out less than $64K last fall. Why? Because Akron City Schools grads can’t score high enough on the ACT to even gain admission. So what do we do? Lower the ACT requirements of course. As the district’s college access guru put it: “We want to remove barriers but we also want to set students up for success.” As blinkered a statement as ever I’ve heard. How about you? (Akron Beacon Journal, 3/17/22)
- All of the foregoing is not to belittle the very real issue of students who are ready and able to go to school not having the funds needed to pay tuition. That final barrier was overcome for the first person to earn a degree using the HOPE Toledo scholarship, which is an evergreen subject here in these clips. As I noted when we first heard about Abena Rowland’s postsecondary completion, this is a great accomplishment for her. But her story was NOT the story being sold by HOPE Toledo in publicizing itself: Not a recent high school grad, but a parent of a grad. Not a four year degree, but a shorter term certification. Not UT or Ohio State or BG, but tiny little Stautzenberger College. Not a state university, but a for-profit institution. This, scholarship people, is the reality for many many folks. Both the pro and the con side of “college for all”, I reckon, consistently fail to think of all those who are in the same boat as Ms. Rowland—who could take an opportunity like this and capitalize on it in their own way and on their own path. It ain’t all Harvard Law, folks, and you shouldn’t sell it like that. This is a great story and I hope that that is the lesson that y’all will take away from it. But that probably won’t happen, will it? (WTOL-TV, Toledo, 3/16/22)
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