- Cheers to proper investigative journalism. By which I mean journalists digging deep to investigate a question to which they don’t have an answer at the start. Alison Matas and Kelli Young of the Canton Repository did just that to produce a story on the most private of private schools in Ohio. These entities – prosaically dubbed nonpublic, non-tax-supported schools – are not well-known to the general public, and the reporters did a fantastic job of finding, interviewing, and interpreting the comments of the leaders of the ultimate opt-out “schools” operating in Stark County. Their follow-up piece looking at graduates of this type of school was equally well researched and presented.
- Jeers to the charter school founder facing legal action in Ohio who is trying again after four unsuccessful attempts to launch a charter school in his Pennsylvania hometown. Here’s hoping he gets skunked again AND gets some just desserts in Ohio to boot.
- Cheers to everyone girding to fight against America’s “math phobia”. Two veteran math teachers in Northeast Ohio are tired of hearing that “some children just aren't able to really understand math,” an attitude reinforced daily by adults who should know better. Fearing math and not knowing how to do it are two different things. That they are using Common Core math standards to address the issue is really just icing on the cake.
- Jeers to entrenched interests intent on stonewalling new education ideas into oblivion. The idea of a four-district consolidated high school—with an early-college component—is drawing statements of concern from board members in all four Geauga County districts, an area of the state where a number of small districts fight for survival due to population shifts and economic circumstances. It is probably not surprising that these traditionalists are unwilling to look beyond their own borders for help (two of the districts involved have already seen an innovative merger proposal wither to nothing simply out of fear of change), but it’s disappointing that an innovative plan such as this, which is already a success elsewhere in the state, could fizzle before it even gets full consideration.
- Cheers (and Can I have another, please?) to Ohio’s education innovation grants. Two rounds of Straight-A Grant funding have shown success in creating consortia of schools (district, charter, STEM, early-college, and vocational schools) dedicated to pursuing “sustainable, innovative, local ideas [that] will help transform and modernize Ohio's education system.” The Ohio Department of Education last week requested another round of funding for such grants in their budget request for the next two years.
