- Fordham is namechecked in this story noting the first day of school in Columbus. Specifically, the crack journalists at Columbus’s Fox affiliate discussed the new lowered graduation requirements for this year’s seniors. Fordham is against this, as you all know well; the state supe says we are “out of touch with the times”. Gotta say, that stings just a little bit. (WTTE-TV/WSYX-TV, Columbus, 8/23/17)
- Another thing that we – or at least I – am probably “out of touch” on is the decision by Dayton City Schools to lower the academic eligibility level for participation in sports. You will recall that the district’s entire varsity sports program got into some trouble last school year for, among other things, eligibility violations. No idea if this potentially catastrophic near miss factored into yesterday’s board decision, but apparently the 2.0 GPA level Dayton previously was supposed to hold to is not the rock bottom allowed by the Ohio High School Athletic Association – who sets these things on behalf of the entire state. What is rock bottom, you ask? Currently, a 1.0 GPA – or a D average. (I here refer the gentle reader to our illustrious state supe’s comments in the above piece about the predictive power of the GPA.) The Dayton school board did include some caveats about tutoring and “study tables” and such, so there is at least one more corner for them to cut if need be. (Dayton Daily News, 8/22/17)
- In a probably-not-unconnected story, the state’s largest online school is no more. Effective today, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (a.k.a. ECOT) is officially a dropout recovery school, subject to a different set of accountability rules than those which have previously gotten them into a well-covered kerfuffle with nearly the entirety of state government. Dayton student athletes; meet ECOT. ECOT; Dayton student athletes. You’re welcome, Mr. Superintendent. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/22/17)
- This morning, Dispatch editors opined on the unbridled joy and boundless opportunity promised by a new school year and encouraged kids and parents to “take advantage” of it all. Given the foregoing, I have to ask whether they’ve actually seen what’s going on out there. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/23/17)
- Something stinks, I’m telling you. But just like the folks at Upper Arlington High School, I don’t know what it is so I’m just going to close up shop for the day out of an abundance of caution. Yuck. (WBNS-TV, Columbus, 8/23/17)
- It wouldn’t be the start of a school year without news clips about school bus transportation. In a complete switcheroo, the first two clips on the topic are both positive. First up, Cleveland Metropolitan School District this year joins the growing group of schools sharing real time GPS bus tracking data with parents. Roll out is a little slow so far, but I can only imagine it will be popular once more folks know about it. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/22/17) Meanwhile, a transportation miracle of sorts seems to have occurred in Elyria. The district has over the last few years shrunk the transportation radius from 2 miles to 1.25 miles (making more students eligible) and has extended transportation to high schoolers. All while shrinking the number of actual buses and routes and overall cost of the service. Not exactly sure how this has been able to occur, but I’m either going to credit fantastic transportation planners or the noted reduction in the number of charter school students being transported. Either way, kudos. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 8/21/17)
- Inhospitable scheduling put a sizeable and unfortunate dent in attendance at the first public input session for parents in Lorain City Schools with their new CEO. Unsurprisingly, one of the things that the small group wanted to fix: communication and scheduling. There were some interesting discussion points around technology as well. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 8/22/17)
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