- The state legislature is largely adjourned for the summer, but that’s not stopping folks who are interested in the issue of charter schools from reporting and opining about legislation left on the table. You can read about the opining below, but here are two pieces of journalism to start with. First up is a look at what is called the California "Similar Students" measure of school performance, essentially a replacement for value-added measures, which is proposed in the currently-stalled House Bill 2. The piece links to Ohio Gadfly Daily posts by our own Aaron Churchill and guest blogger Vladimir Kogan of Ohio State University, both denouncing the proposed switch. Kogan calls the California Model “the poor-man’s value-added.” Yowch. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/22/15) But the PD’s Patrick O’Donnell is a true journalist and wants to hear every side of the story. A companion piece to the above digs deep into the who and the why of the California “Similar Students” model push in Ohio. The model, supporters say, adjusts school evaluations based on percentages of students with disabilities, economic disadvantages, limited English proficiency, and students in their current school for less than one year. It is, they say, a “new solution,” which “takes into account student demographics." To be continued, I daresay. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/22/15)
- Before we get to those op-eds on charter schools, just a brief detour to note that Fordham’s recent report on the effects of school closure on student achievement is still getting noticed. To wit: a reference to the study’s findings of benefit for many students upon closure of low-performing schools appears in Walt Gardner’s blog today. Even better, he links to the surprisingly-positive review of the research written by the National Education Policy Center. (Education Week blog, 7/24/15)
- Back to the opining now: three separate editorials decrying the state of play in charter schools in Ohio. First up, Brent Larkin of the PD digs deep into the political history of charters. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/24/15) Editors in Toledo don’t go quite as far back in history; in their opinion recent events are bad enough. (Toledo Blade, 7/23/15) Editors in Youngstown look outward as they opine, wary of the negative national attention coming Ohio’s way. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/23/15)
- In WAY other charter school news, what started out sounding like a good thing – charter and STEM school students being allowed to participate in extracurricular activities in their home districts when their own schools don’t offer such things – seems to have turned into a bad thing. At least from the perspective of Columbus-area high school coaches. What’s happening? All those charter school students are now being counted as part of the student body of district schools for the purposes of “sizing” schools, leading all but one area high school to be “upsized” into new – and, one assumes, harder – divisions. The assignment process seems truly to be the issue (honestly, isn’t having access to a new pool of talent a good thing for coaches, especially when their schools get to separate sports and academics entirely?), but being a sports thing I’m probably the wrong guy to figure it out. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/23/15). This is such a big issue that a sports reporter was allowed to opine upon it today. (I don’t read the sports page very thoroughly, so maybe the opining happens all the time?). Aside from the author’s fundamental misunderstanding of what charter schools are and how they operate, and aside from his bias against them based on said misunderstanding, his opining misses out on the pluses inherent in this situation that I expect will start to come to light once coaches start chatting amongst themselves (see the “pool of talent” comment, above). But I don’t know anything about sports, so don’t listen to me. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/24/15)
- In Cleveland this week, district CEO Eric Gordon and an all-star cast of civic leaders joined together to roll out a new initiative to encourage more kids to make it to school, on time, so that teachers can help them learn. CMSD’s attendance is the lowest of any Ohio district (about 89 percent, according to their last state report card). "We can only teach kids who come to school," Gordon said. "We need to end failure by absence." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/23/15)
- As much as test-haters and opter-outers would like to think otherwise, Ohio students did actually take PARCC tests this year. And those tests will be scored. And those scores will be analyzed. And we will learn things from them…depending on how widely available the information ends up being. And we also learned a great deal about our schools’ capacity for administering online assessments, the wave of the future by almost anyone’s reckoning. It seems that Ohio’s rural schools led the way in online testing this year, showing that perhaps they are better poised for said future than urban and suburban districts. Just sayin’. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/23/15)
- Leaving aside the vaguely-Orwellian category of “mandatory electives”, Canton City Schools has high hopes for what it is pitching as “success classes”, required for all high school students starting in the 2015-16 school year. What are we talking about? “Soft skills” such as effective communication; problem-solving; working with colleagues as a team; how to prepare for college entrance exams, an internship and a job interview; and becoming an active community member. I applaud the high school principal when he says, “You can have a kid who takes tests well and excels academically, but that soft skills piece is just as crucial because it’s hand-in-hand… We want to help them become a complete student, one that excels ... not just in academics.” But I think there is a huge “what if…?” that may be missing in his comment. (Canton Repository, 7/24/15)
