Gadfly Bites 10/14/26—Who’s persuading who?

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1. Our Aaron Churchill is on hand to help the Dispatch talk through report card data on districts’ ACT/SAT scores. Specifically, the percentage of students earning remediation free scores last year. He says the percentage is “more of an honest picture of where students are in terms of their actual likelihood of success of not just going to college, but actually completing a degree”. As in: More honest than grades, GPA, and graduation rates. Which is bad news, IMHO, because the numbers presented here don’t seem super great to me, even in the “good” districts. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/10/26)
   
   

2. The headline of this piece asks if holding high school open house events can persuade Akron City Schools families to continue attending school in the district, the subhead spelling out the plethora of other options available. Even without reading beyond these two lines, a number of rational responses immediately occur to your humble clips compiler: “Depends on how you receive them at the open house”. “Depends on what they find when they get there.” They also raise questions like: “Are you willing to learn things from those families about what they really want?” and “If they do choose a non-district option, will you stop litigating to take it away let them go with empathy and understanding?”. The rest of the piece doesn’t address any of these comments (you’re shocked, I know), but is still pretty interesting in its own right. (Signal Akron, 10/14/26) Meanwhile, speaking of educational options one might choose beyond the one-size-fits-all model (were we…?), here’s a look at St. John’s Jesuit, an all-boys Catholic high school in Toledo. This week, they announced the new Gonzaga Scholars initiative, a supportive program offering students with intellectual and developmental disabilities “access to the full experience of a St. John’s Jesuit education.” Supports include mentorship, independent living experiences, and more. And yes, there’s information in the piece on EdChoice, Jon Peterson, and Ohio Autism Scholarship programs to help with tuition. As long as they continue to exist, that is… (What?! I’m just sayin’ it could happen.) (Toledo Blade, 10/13/26)
   
   

3. Finally today: If you were wondering how Cincinnati City Schools’ Safe Sleep Parking Lot project for families experiencing homelessness was going, this piece is for you. It is detailed and interesting and covers a lot of the questions I had about the operation. There’s even some discussion of education issues toward the end. (Ohio Capital Journal, 10/14/26)

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