Gadfly Bites 9/2/22—“Fantastic for all parties involved.”

1. You gotta love it. Another day, another lovely piece touting Ohio’s Afterschool Child Enrichment ESA program. Go get yours, folks! (Fox 19 News, Cincy, 8/30/22)
   
   

2. I’m sure you heard the news about the alarmingly bad NAEP test results released yesterday. While the Dayton Daily News says that the downward trajectory in achievement “mirror[s] Ohio trends”… (Dayton Daily News, 9/1/22) …if you live in the suburbs or the exurbs, you might be forgiven for thinking that things are better than all that. The Cincinnati suburb of Oak Hills is very fortunate to have “a world-class university less than a mile away,” says an elementary school principal there who gets 17 students in that university’s education program to come in and help his teachers with math instruction twice a week. (Local 12 News, Cincinnati, 9/1/22) The superintendents of Grand Valley Local Schools and Geneva Area City Schools say that all they’ve been doing the last two years is “catching kids up with their learning and educational skills” using afterschool and summer camps, among other strategies. Their data say it’s working; nearby Ashtabula City Schools? Not so much. (Star Beacon, 9/1/22) In bougie Westerville (a.k.a. a 2019 Global Top 7 Intelligent Communities awardee), it feels like no pandemic disruption ever occurred in education. The district supe instead touts all of the many ways his students can stay in reach the middle class besides earning a four-year college degree. (But also including a four-year college degree earned multiple different ways.) (Columbus Dispatch, 9/1/22) And in Stepford Worthington, upgrading the district’s various school mascots appears to have been the chief priority of the last several months. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/1/22) Even teacher contract troubles are resolved easier in the ‘burbs. (WKBN-TV, Youngstown, 9/1/22)
    
3. Speaking of contract troubles, let’s return to the big city for a minute to contemplate student attendance numbers during and after the Columbus City Schools teacher strike. (We will accept for the sake of argument that the district’s reported enrollment number of approximately 47,000 kids is accurate, but I have questions there too.) Just under half of students logged in for virtual learning on Day One of the school year, despite the picket lines. The picket lines disappeared the next day as a “conceptual agreement” was reached between the parties, and virtual attendance jumped up by 2,000 more kids. The third day, when teachers were chillin’ at home and waiting for the weekend to get together and approve the agreement, an additional 1,200 students logged in. I ask you: What would those numbers have been if a) so many of my fellow Clintonville neighbors hadn’t refused to “cross the virtual picket line”, as the Dispatch told us, and b) literally anyone on the district payroll had any actual interest in getting kids online and teaching them properly those days or any other days? Additionally, there appears to be about 6,500 kids “missing” from school on each of the first two in-person days. Wonder where they are? (Columbus Dispatch, 9/1/22)
    
4. Finally today—lest you all think I am arguing that everyone should move to the ‘burbs, which I most assuredly am not—we get a message from Sylvania that not every leafy enclave is a haven of uncomplicated bliss. The legal wrangling there over busing for private school students not only continues, but sounds like it’s settling in for a protracted fight. Charming. (Toledo Blade, 8/31/22)

Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.