- The Big D promised us a look at ECOT – Ohio’s largest and oldest virtual school – and here it is. Aaron is quoted in this story, which notes some pluses of the statewide virtual model along with all of the usual minuses. But honestly, why does no one involved seem to want to know WHY so many students are choosing online education, despite some obvious quality issues? Until that question is asked and the myriad answers fully understood by folks on both sides, no improvement can possibly be made. (Columbus Dispatch)
- Lest we think the Dispatch is only about charter school hit pieces, here’s an editorial from the weekend where “the Columbus Plan” is reinvoked very positively. Many have already forgotten the Columbus Education Commission and its 55 recommendations – and with Mayor Coleman heading for the sunset, some serious mojo behind those recommendations will be lost – but the Big D has not. They note that some progress has been made on more than half of them, but that many of the biggest recommendations languish, mainly due to lack of funding. (Columbus Dispatch)
- Speaking of editorials, the Blade returns to discussion of the “5 of 8” rule from a couple of months ago, but uses it as a springboard to opine on the need for more/better/different funding mechanisms for schools in Ohio. (Toledo Blade)
- There’s no editorial on this topic yet, but expect one along shortly as the Beacon Journal digs into the numbers on “racially lopsided” schools. That is, schools which enrolled more than 95 percent students who were either white or black. In 2006, 31 percent of Ohio’s schoolchildren attended such public schools; today, that number is 16 percent. This is amazing progress; however, in the first piece in the series from last Saturday, the ABJ notes that teacher diversity has lagged seriously behind student diversity in Ohio’s public schools. Both district and charter. Sunday’s piece takes it down to the classroom level, talking to a young new Akron teacher who is multiracial about her experience both as a student and as a teacher. Hardly any talk about charter schools in this piece, interestingly, although the one bit of data provided made me sit up and take notice: 40 percent of Ohio’s school districts employed no full-time minority teachers last school year. For charter schools, that number was 25 percent. Great series shaping up here. (Akron Beacon Journal)
- We noted last week the rules process around Ohio’s expanded dual enrollment program. Boring to some, but really pretty important stuff in how legislation – and indeed education policy – becomes actual practice. Here’s more on that same subject, with some Northeast Ohio school district staffers weighing in on how the program has worked practically – or not – thus far, and how the proposed changes will be integrated in 2015. (Willoughby News-Herald)
Ever pined for some data to back up the Ohio Gadfly's signature snark? Me too. And we're all in luck. Gadfly Bites is proud to introduce Research Bites - a new daily feature written by Ohio Research Director Aaron Churchill. Each day we hope to highlight an interesting tidbit of data and analysis that gives insight into the state of K-12 education in Ohio and into the workings of Fordham's policy work in the Buckeye State.
RESEARCH BITES 1/5/15:
In Ohio, roughly 20 percent of the total population is school-aged children. But are there more school-age children in certain cities than others? According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are slight differences in the percentages across the eight major cities in Ohio. The chart shows that Cincinnati and Columbus have relatively few school-age children (18.8 and 18.9 percent, respectively), while Cleveland has a somewhat high percentage of school-age children (20.8 percent). When it comes to schooling, then, it appears that there are slightly more mouths to feed in Cleveland compared to Cincinnati and Columbus.
[[{"fid":"113928","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","attributes":{"height":357,"width":588,"class":"media-element file-default"}}]]
Source: United States Census Bureau (2010), Demographic Profile. Note: The chart displays the cumulative percentage of population in age ranges 5 to 9; 10 to 14; and 15 to 19.
If there's any data you're interested in taking a look at, ask Aaron via [email protected]. And thanks for reading!
