We’re back after a little break Wednesday. Hope you didn’t miss that sweet sweet snark too much!
- In case you missed it, Interim State Superintendent Stephanie Siddens announced her intention to leave the post sometime before she starts her new job—at Upper Arlington City Schools—on July 1. (Cleveland.com, 4/10/23) The official media position appears to be that Siddens’ departure “adds to the drama” around both a putative search for a permanent state supe and the legislative proposal to change the nature of education governance in the state. (You know what I mean.) Fordham’s Aaron Churchill, about as anti-drama a person as you’ll ever find, I reckon, suggests that the state board of education could have solved both of these little “dramas” at several points in the recent past. The fact that they didn’t is why we find ourselves in a state of “drama” today. (News 5 Cleveland, 4/11/23) Meanwhile, in the windowless subterranean basement of ODE, the state board demonstrated their increasing inability to get out of their own way in the same meeting where they (sorta) decided to complain about the possibility of permanently losing their relevance. I mean, these guys even protest tepidly; will anyone even notice when they’re not “in charge” anymore? One assumes they will still meet the same amount of times and for the same length of time. My personal hope is that, like the proverbial tree in the forest, the limp media coverage of their vacuous hot air expulsions will finally and mercifully go silent. (Gongwer Ohio, 4/10/23) Meanwhile meanwhile, here is what I might choose to term a “preview” of the legal case that will likely be used against the state when they vote to make that change to education governance. “It all goes back to 1837. I remember it well….” (Cleveland.com, 4/12/23)
- Going back to the notion of anti-drama for a moment, Aaron also has an op-ed posted on Cleveland.com today which is a direct response to their editorial board’s stated lack of enthusiasm for Governor DeWine’s push to eliminate bad reading curricula in the state. I say “direct response”, but it’s really just his usual calm, rational, and thorough dismantling of their arguments with data and analysis. (Cleveland.com, 4/14/23) If you would like a primer on the mindsets of folks who differ on how to teach reading successfully to little kids, look no further than this excellent piece from the Beacon Journal. Despite the overwhelming evidence that certain approaches—such as balanced literacy and three-cueing—don’t work for a lot of kids and indeed have contributed to the horrible proficiency scores experienced by millions of students across the country, a number of Summit County school districts are clearly willing to fight to keep those curricula in place. Check it out to see which districts we’re talking about and the justifications their officials provide for why they’re so adamant about holding the line. (Akron Beacon Journal, 4/13/23)
- Going back to the topic of lawsuits, it seems to me that the voucher grouchers don’t know when to stand pat. Instead of awaiting action from the judge in the case (Unicorns forever!), these guys are pressing her to let them obtain via subpoena a crap ton of documents from a bunch of voucher-accepting private schools to, one supposes, somehow help them make their case stronger. School families are pushing back. We’ll see how it goes. (Gongwer Ohio, 4/12/23)
- Thumbs up to the editorial board of the Toledo Blade for opining (sort of) in favor of retaining third graders who cannot read proficiently, but thumbs down to them for supporting the district’s characterization of summer school as yucky broccoli that must be eaten for kids’ own good. That is wrong and counterproductive, as is their characterization of the multiple attempts available for third graders to pass the state test as “lucky”. It’s all part of the plan, folks, as long as the adults actually do their jobs. (Toledo Blade, 4/12/23)
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