Gadfly Bites 9/6/19 – Bud Simpson sees the light

1. In case you missed it, Fordham-Ohio’s latest report was released yesterday. Authored by our own Aaron Churchill and titled “The Mountain Ahead”, it is a deep dive into postsecondary readiness data that goes beyond those pesky test score and graduation rate stats that folks find so problematic around here. Guess what? The picture is not super rosy. You can check out early coverage from Gongwer… (Gongwer Ohio, 9/5/19) …and the Dispatch. Although the Dispatch piece is a little muddled because it tries to combine our report and the latest national Quality Counts report. Ohio didn’t do so hot there either, but it’s a whole different criteria. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/5/19) Modern journalistic practice is on display here – wherein Gatehouse Media’s Daily Jeffersonian takes the piece from its sibling the Dispatch, and adds some local commentary, to make the whole thing mean very little. (The Daily Jeffersonian, 9/6/19)
2. What to do about all of this bad academic achievement news in Ohio? I say you probably oughtn’t to put any money on the state’s district turnaround efforts going forward. The Ohio Senate appears poised to move very quickly on a revision to the state’s academic distress paradigm, even before the summer recess is officially over. I don’t know what’s in it, but the fact that everyone seems happy about the progress made since budget season and the fact that the media has been very quiet about the whole ADC situation probably means I’m going to hate it. (Gongwer Ohio, 9/5/19)

3. Maybe a major revamp of school funding would help? The latest analysis of the current legislative funding proposal doesn’t make it sound too promising either. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/5/19)
4. The various strands of thought for today – school quality, school funding, and accountability – are all encapsulated in this single commentary piece from a news outlet in the tiny town of Logan in the far southeast corner of central Ohio. Sure that the local schools were awesome, author Bud Simpson checked out the report cards for himself. He was stunned with what he found. When he saw how much the local school was spending per pupil, he went to a whole nother level of realization. (Logan Daily News, 9/5/19)

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