- Fordham’s Aaron Churchill is one of the critics referenced in the headline of this piece, reporting on the state board of education’s recent setting of PARCC cut scores for Ohio. Too low, say the critics, including Aaron. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/23/15)
- Meanwhile, Chad Aldis is quoted in this Dispatch piece speculating on whether HB 2 – the currently-stalled charter law reform bill – would already or could with some tweaks address any of the issues raised in last week’s Ohio Supreme Court decision. You remember the one: is it charter governance or contract law? Important discussion here, especially since lawmakers are due to return to Columbus in a week, and a lot has happened in the charter school realm over the summer. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/23/15)
- They are arguing on process, but are using that argument to attempt to on reverse the actual decision. What am I talking about? No, not the creation of the Youngstown Plan but the scrapping of those magnet school campouts in Cincinnati in favor of a lottery. It’s a small but vocal group and they are fighting to the end for the return of the campouts. Guess those tents must be non-returnable. I jest, but this ongoing story is a fascinating look at how a community that’s not seen a lottery before reacts when it comes to town. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/22/15)
- When Toledo City Schools passed a levy recently, the two biggest priorities for the new money were expansion of transportation and increases in teacher salaries. We have reported on the former already, and now it’s time to see how it’s going with the latter. Teachers in Toledo have announced that they will begin “working to rule” because they are not happy with the
amount proposedhow negotiations are going. Process is the problem again. (Toledo Blade, 9/23/15)
- In a land we’ll call “Livingstonia” – somewhere in the environs of Akron – there is something new unfolding. New and joyous…and paid for by the federal government. It’s an afterschool program in a local elementary school that appears to be undoing all of the evils of “education” as it currently exists…in Livingstonia anyway. How? “Unconventional learning” in an extended day program which can include fun choices such as drama class, charm school, mad science experiments, business entrepreneurship, puppetry, Google Docs, Spanish, citizenship, competitive jumprope, and more. Check out the sunshine and bask. (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/23/15)
- Finally, we have a story which I admit I don’t fully understand, but is likely illustrative of daily life at the ends of the neater-looking freeway offramps. You know what I mean. The athletic boosters club in the well-off Toledo suburb of Perrysburg appears to have some life insurance policy whose proceeds are earmarked to help build a new locker room facility for their sports stadium. At issue, I think, is the decision of the school board to borrow construction money ($2 million) with those putative death benefits as part of the collateral. As far as I can make out, it’s a dispute over the potential longevity of the donor of those putative benefits that seems to be generating the trouble. But I could be wrong. (Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune, 9/22/15)
