- Fordham’s recent report on turning around low-performing schools was covered in the Dayton Daily News yesterday. Yay! Aaron and Chad explained things pretty clearly, but the two district supes interviewed on the matter were not impressed. Stop the presses, amiright? (Dayton Daily News, 9/13/22) Speaking of which, the elected school board that currently runs Lorain City Schools got an update this week on its progress to permanently emerge from academic distress status. Reading this version of the presentation from the MJ, you can be forgiven for thinking that everything is good. Like, singing and dancing good. (Morning Journal, 9/13/22) And while this version of the presentation from the Chronicle does include a decent amount of really terrible outcome data (check out the incredibly sobering info on core course credit completion) which indicates that the district will be hard-pressed to meet even its own extremely low benchmarks, these data are not presented until after some lengthy whining about ODE, the history of HB 70, and the long-departed Paolo DeMaria. The singing and dancing are here but relegated to a brief comment at the end. (The Chronicle-Telegram, 9/13/22) Meanwhile, getting back to our report, the editors at the Marietta Times opined in favor of the gist of that report—you know, the throughline about a “moral obligation to help kids in low-performing schools”—although I’m not entirely sure they read it thoroughly beforehand. (Marietta Times, 9/13/22)
- In other news, Fordham’s Aaron Churchill is getting ready for Ohio’s new star rating system for schools and districts as the release of new report cards looms. He knows the nuances and the question marks to look for and explains them all to the DDN. The Ohio School Boards Association’s legislative director? He knows to say that “report cards are just a snapshot”. No matter how they are configured. (Dayton Daily News, 9/13/22)
- Let’s change gears and see what’s going on in our classrooms these days. Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good time travel story (although I am told it is not real science as it is typically put forward in the media). Thus I like the setup of this STEM project at Chamberlin Hill Elementary in Findlay City Schools. But does it feel to anyone else like science, technology, engineering, and math STEM education is being reduced to the complexity of an escape room puzzle here? (Findlay Courier, 9/12/22) Or indeed to a dubiously-constructed “murder mystery”, as described here for a class at Marlington High School in northeast Ohio. That editor’s note was a late add to the story, BTW. Good thinking. (Canton Repository, 9/13/22) As a diehard nerd myself, I will also suggest that if a newspaper headline writer dubs a STEM-adjacent gizmo as “high-tech”, I reckon it is a minimum of five years out of date. (Cleveland.com, 9/14/22) On a somewhat related note, buried in this mundane coverage of this week’s meeting of the elected board of Cambridge City Schools is the note that leaders voted to waive “the requirements to provide Career Technology Education to seventh- and eighth-grade students for this school year” with no explanation (whose requirements were they and why would you waive them?) and discussed seriously the proposal for a senior trip which would be a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. (Daily Jeffersonian, 9/14/22)
- Moving over to the private school world for a moment, this lengthy piece looks at Catholic schools’ long-standing use of phonics instruction and their quick embrace of other aspects of the science of reading more recently, including Core Knowledge being implemented at Partnership Schools in Cleveland. (National Catholic Register, 9/12/22) Meanwhile, the Columbus Dispatch persists in its belief (see what I did there?) that religious schools are somehow brand new to the world and that coverage of expansion in the sector must be couched in language of trepidation and concern. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/13/22)
- Speaking of school choice (were we?), two guest columnists in the D opined that the recent teacher strike against Columbus City Schools provides a clear sign about where parents stand in the traditional education hierarchy. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/13/22)
- Finally today, Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon announced this week he would not seek mayoral reappointment to his position when his term ends at the conclusion of this school year. He has led the district for 11 years. (WKSU-FM, Kent, 9/12/22)
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