- Folks across the state are interested in the topic of how best to issue grades for K-12 students participating in remote learning in the final quarter of the school year. While the pass/incomplete model seems to be the most popular option, how those final grades will count – is it an A? A C? A confirmation of some composite grade from quarters 1, 2, and 3? – is still up in the air. Interestingly, things seem to be evolving a bit in some districts where plans had previously been announced. Our own Chad Aldis is among those learned folks weighing in on the topic here. (Columbus Dispatch, 5/11/20) But more to the point for me is what counts as a “pass” in the first place. It seems there is far more variety there than you might expect, and it also seems to have moved up a notch or two since our earliest brushes with this question. (You remember, don’t you? Districts counting any self-reported student attempts at 40 percent or more of a set of given work—incomplete, incorrect, rendered in Klingon—as a “pass”.) Perry Local Schools in Stark County appears to be continuing to toe that early line of “effort” all the way to the end, but Fairless Local Schools (those guys?!) seems to favor some teacher assessment of actual work content. And under the understated heading of “taking a different approach”, Dalton Local Schools has actually implemented a new content mastery grading approach that sounds pretty OK. Color me surprised. Wonder if mastery could ever catch on? (Canton Repository, 5/11/20)
- St. Francis DeSales Catholic High School in Columbus has made no changes to their grading policies. The principal says it’s because his school was prepared for virtual learning. All students had been issued with iPads and much in-class work was already being completed and submitted via the devices. (ThisWeek News, 5/11/20) Middletown City Schools, not so much. (Washingon Post, 5/8/20) Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns Foundation has transitioned its school attendance initiative (you remember that, right?) into an effort to expand WiFi access to students in CMSD. A recent $100,000 grant from the Arby’s Foundation will provide free internet for a year to 520 students as part of that effort. Nice. (Cleveland.com, 5/8/20)
- The topic of state budget cuts to schools came up in the Middletown supe’s congressional testimony, above. Continuing on that topic, it may not surprise you to know that some of the state’s bougiest school districts say they are better equipped to handle those cuts. Dublin City Schools says that’s because they knew the cuts were coming, in contrast to those districts we heard from last week who were “blindsided”, etc. (ThisWeek News, 5/10/20) For Grandview Heights City Schools, it seems like their bougie-ness alone was enough to shield them from the devastating consequences of a $320K cut. (ThisWeek News, 5/11/20)
- You may think that the title of today’s clips refers to one or other of the preceding items. But it doesn’t. It refers to this one. Hurricane Jeff is swirling back to Lorain and he’s got his sights set on a familiar target. And you thought the ‘rona was bad news! (Morning Journal, 5/10/20)
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