- In case you missed it, Fordham was namechecked in an op-ed on charter law reform wherein editors lament lack of legislative action on same. (Findlay Courier, 7/14/15)
- We promised you an update on Monday’s community meeting on the Youngstown Plan, and here it is, courtesy of the Vindy. There’s too much here for me to comment on in this forum, but this is, I think, a must-read article – and a must-follow debate – for anyone who cares about urban education reform. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/14/15)
- The State Board of Education was talking about the Youngstown Plan this week also. Approximately the same dichotomy of views seen in the Vindy piece above is seen here as well, although perhaps more predictable a split on the board than in the community. (Gongwer Ohio, 7/14/15). The State Board of Ed is also on the same page as editors in Findlay, going so far as to pass a resolution urging the legislature to pass charter law reform as soon as possible. As the old paraphrase goes: victory has many parents, failure is an orphan. (Gongwer Ohio, 7/14/15)
- The State Board of Ed also did some digging into ODE’s recent efforts to rate charter school sponsors. Specifically: whether online schools’ performance should or should not be included in the evaluation criteria for those organizations whose portfolio of schools include them. Hint: they should. And the board said so rather sternly. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/15/15)
- Sticking with the PD, Patrick O’Donnell’s not done talking about PARCC just because the legislature ditched them for the future. For better or worse, students still took the PARCC tests this year and the data still has to be interpreted. Here’s a look at how that might go. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/13/15) But Patrick is not all about looking back wistfully over the “PARCC era”. He has a companion piece about what the new AIR math and English tests may look like in Ohio, especially in terms of testing time. As is typical with the PD, the online comments section for this piece is lively and interesting. Choppa choppa choppa. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/13/15)
- Niles City Schools is coming off the state’s “fiscal watch” list after more than 10 years because their budget is now projected to be in the black for the next five years. How did they do it? “We’ve done some creative things with our spending and watched it very carefully,” said the district supe when announcing the news. Hopefully he’ll share more fully in another venue, but kudos nonetheless. (Youngstown Business Journal, 7/10/15)
- Finally, editors in Columbus opine today in support of the Bright New Leaders for Ohio’s Schools program, which was profiled in the paper on Monday. Nice. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/15/15)
