- The California “similar students” measure of achievement – as proposed for charter schools in the currently-stalled House Bill 2 – gets another bashing in the media. Our own Aaron Churchill is quoted here, in favor of sticking with value added measures. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/25/15)
- Like it or not, Ohio is living in a “post-5-of-8 world”. The state board of education earlier this year removed a decades-old support staffing requirement for districts. Instead of mandating specific numbers of librarians, art and music teachers, and counselors based on student population, districts can now decide their staffing needs on their own. It’s probably a bit too soon to tell for sure, but the media says that either the sky is already falling (librarians are going the way of the printed book, says the Columbus Dispatch, 7/27/15)….or it’s not (art and music teachers seem safe…for now, says the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, 7/26/15).
- As you all may know, Ohio’s Straight A Fund survived the state budget process, but at a level much reduced from the last biennium. The governing board of the fund – designed to reward educational innovation – was last week mulling how best to proceed and get the most bang for Ohio’s buck in the next round of applications. (Gongwer Ohio, 7/24/15)
- Editors in Cleveland opined this weekend in opposition to the process by which the so-called Youngstown Plan was enacted. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/25/15)
- As you know, the so-called Youngstown Plan is really a sharpening of the academic distress commission protocols in all of Ohio. Although currently narrowly focused on Youngstown, Lorain City Schools would likely be next in line for the new structure, given that they currently are under the old-style distress commission. The board, administration, and commission members got an update from the Ohio Department of Education last week that indicated Lorain has about two years to right its academic ship or become the “new Youngstown”. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 7/24/15)
- What are the chances of Lorain righting its ship in time to avoid becoming the “new Youngstown”? Further discussion at that same ADC meeting noted above indicates either a woeful lack of progress thus far in enacting a required improvement plan or it indicates that pieces of the plan are in progress but are too “scattered” to be implemented or measured properly. Where you are on the question probably depends on how optimistic an individual you are. Quaglia. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 7/26/15)
