- A seeming hodgepodge of clips today, but the throughline is delish. Check it out. First up is an opinion piece from a long-time columnist at the Dayton Daily News with whom I am not familiar. Perhaps he has never written about education previously? That would make sense since he opines that since career technical education is widespread (using Fordham’s Ohio Education by the Numbers to make that point), it should be expanded further, making lots of assertions as to why. He calls it “school choice” and suggests—in what I’m sure he believes is a “stinger” at the end—that Ohio should take “some (all, if I had my way) of the $2B a year Ohio spends on unregulated charter schools and offer more career tech options at public schools.” Yep. Definitely not a regular commentator on education, I reckon. (Dayton Daily News, 3/5/22)
- Speaking of those dastardly “unregulated charter schools”, here is an actually fantastic look at the “Walkabout” requirement for seniors at The Graham School here in central Ohio. It is a student-driven effort to bring education out of the classroom and into the real world, to help students learn more about their future interests in work and education and about the opportunities available to them. Excellent stuff! (Columbus Dispatch, 3/9/22)
- I get similar vibes from this story looking at burgeoning student diversity in the Aerospace & Natural Science Academy in Toledo. While this is an offering from a traditional district, it is most definitely a “school of choice” and all of the students interviewed not only seem happy to be there but also seem to be learning a lot of great stuff. It does, in fact, seem close to what our opinionist from the first clip is looking for, requiring nothing new to be built and no “defunding” of charter schools either. (Toledo Blade, 3/5/22)
- This story also comes to us from a traditional school district—Columbus City Schools, perhaps the most traditional district there is—but it also includes a side of school choice. Three young sisters have written and begun self-publishing a series of books on Black history and culture aimed at young people like themselves. They have big dreams and already seem to be on their way at the tender ages of 8, 11, and 12. It seems as if the schools they attend—language immersion alternative schools that must be opted into and traveled quite a distance to reach—are serving them very well in their efforts so far. (This school choice veteran suspects from the information in the piece that interdistrict open enrollment may also be part of the story, but that is unconfirmed.) No matter what: kudos, kiddos! Go get ‘em! (Columbus Dispatch, 3/9/22)
- Now here’s a story that sounds a lot more “traditional”. Columbus City Schools’ bilingual family ambassadors are doing a fantastic job, it seems, connecting with students and parents who do not speak English as their primary language. Help with school issues and life issues that was unavailable before is now just a text message away. Sounds great, right? Almost a no-brainer. So how is it that this basic level of customer service is brand new in one of the state’s largest and most diverse school districts and why is it dependent on Covid-relief funding to exist at all? Sure hope these ambassadors are telling folks about other school options they might have open to them! (Columbus Dispatch, 3/8/22)
- Finally today, a statewide effort to boost student achievement that was never fully or faithfully implemented is now being pilloried as a “failure” and “harmful to students” and is being targeted for elimination by legislators under the mantra of “local control” and “parents rights”. No, it’s not Academic Distress Commissions, you silly. Those have already been torched. But I sure am getting déjà vu reading about the supposed urgent need to eradicate the retention provision of the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. (Gongwer Ohio, 3/8/22)
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