- We start today with an opinion piece from the PD in which education professionals attempt to dispel misconceptions about standardized testing in Ohio’s schools. Good stuff. Now, why that had to be done in an opinion piece is still an open question. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/31/17) On a related note, Ohio appears to have a bit of a test problem at the moment. No, not that one. This one: In the first year that all high school juniors in Ohio are required to take the ACT, about 1,300 test takers in 21 districts across the state have had their scores invalidated due to a mix up in test forms distributed. The result is that those students’ tests have been rejected with no scores reported. Test takers in Reynoldsburg, their families, and their school officials are pretty upset by the snafu. (Columbus Dispatch, 6/1/17) And so are test takers in the Miami Valley, their families, and their school officials. (Dayton Daily News, 6/1/17) Additionally, the remedy current on offer – a voucher for a free retest at the earliest available opportunity – isn’t sitting too well with those folks either. Story developing, as they say.
- I know it’s not Thursday, but how about a throwback to the good old days of raucous anti-Common Core testimony in the state legislature, full of hyperbole, misstatements, and tears? Simple: one only has to look back to this past Tuesday, when the good old days of raucous anti-Common Core testimony happened again. Again?! (Gongwer Ohio, 5/31/17)
- When is a barrage of unsolicited postcards not a barrage? When the foundation that raises money for a school district sends them to district graduates, apparently. Just ask the president of Toledo City Schools’ board of trustees, who is also a member of the board of said foundation. (What are the odds?!) Someone should have mentioned this to the 92,000 folks on the other end of that recent
barrageinformation-seeking mailer. It could have saved the deluge of calls the district has received fearing some sort of scam. (Apparently a deluge of calls is always a deluge, no matter how you parse it.) Wonder what they’ll call it if the foundation sends out a mailer actually asking for money rather than contact information? (Toledo Blade, 5/31/17)
- Academically-distressed Lorain City Schools has a chronic absenteeism problem, it appears. In the 2015-16 school year, more than 24 percent of students fit this description districtwide, despite the fact that the overall attendance rate for the district was 92.4 percent. In high school, it was more like 46 percent of students chronically absent. (I know, right?!) What did the district do for the 2016-17 school year to try and address this enormous problem? Implement a data tracking system that was, apparently, a failure. What is the district doing for the 2017-18 school year to try and address this enormous and previously-unaddressed problem? Communications (and another, hopefully better tracking system). According to this piece, the district wants to educate parents on what a child will miss, and how much less likely their child will be to graduate from high school and to launch a successful career if she misses too much school. “We want to create a positive relationship with the people we serve,” current district supe Jeff Graham said. “There is an education component for parenting.” I might humbly suggest the parents of Lorain already know what they’re missing. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 5/31/17)
- We end today with a little good news: the return of a community arts program for kids in Youngstown after a four year hiatus to regroup and relocate. There’s no info here on the programs offered and the audience to whom they are targeted, but I’m going to choose to stay in Goodnewsville and assume that the classes are high quality, the scheduling is amenable to a variety of work-life-school dynamics, the costs are low, and its doors are wide open. Feels good. (Youngstown Vindicator, 6/2/17)
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