- Tuesday was the first day of the year for schools across Dayton. In a tale as old as time, transportation was “chaotic”, especially for charter school students. Go figure. (Dayton Daily News, 8/17/22)
- Speaking of old news, panelists and attendees at this week’s Community Education Oversight Task Force event called out Youngstown City Schools for its decades-long history of failing its students. They were speaking specifically of quantifiable, test-based academic outcomes and noted that Black students have fared worst over that time. “The people that run this system today, be they white or brown, are maintaining that same system and the same rules,” said perennial local firebrand Jimma McWilson. The only new wrinkle in all of this: the district’s media flack tried to characterize what has happened in the district over the last six years as a single concerted effort at turnaround. The rewrite of ADC history, sans data, appears complete. (Vindy.com, 8/18/22)
- And speaking of rewriting history: Y’all remember when deftly pivoting to virtual learning in the face of a snow day or other calamity was seen as a strength for traditional district schools? Nope, me neither. But today is a new day, it seems, and brand new stories can be told. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/17/22)
- Meanwhile, Buckeye Institute research fellow Greg Lawson published a back-to-school op-ed in the Dispatch earlier this week, concluding, “Students need more than a back-to-school backpack. They need more academic options and financial support to make up the learning lost to the pandemic. This is one test Ohio policymakers cannot afford to fail.” (Columbus Dispatch, 8/17/22)
- Finally this week, apropos of school starting up, here’s a light profile of a first year teacher in tiny Paint Valley Local Schools. Maybe a little too light. (Chillicothe Gazette, 8/17/22)
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