Gadfly Bites 10/30/26—National bites

News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. You have been warned.

1. With a lack of local news to end the week, let’s opt instead for two national stories with Ohio ties. First up is a very long EdWeek piece extolling the virtues of Lakota Local Schools’ Cyber Academy. This is, at its core, a three-course sequence on cybersecurity. We get a lot of talk about the value of and copious abundance of work in the field, but because the piece is SO detailed, we get some unfortunate other stuff as well. A) Lakota chose to develop their own courses and structure rather than go the established career-technical education route with it. This is supposed to be a positive because they were able to start up quickly and keep it “focused”, but… B) They are doing this without spending too much additional money (because no CTE funds), specifically by “repurposing” existing math teachers given some limited PD. We learn that it’s actually hard to get a “completely qualified” person to teach it because such people are “most likely…going to be in the field doing cybersecurity where they can earn more money.” Thus, Lakota folks believe that “all you really need is a teacher who is a good teacher, is passionate about kids, is willing to learn—and then you give them really good professional development, and they’ll be fine.” And finally C) We learn that some of that limited class time is spent on “soft skills, like networking and interviewing”. Because, as everyone knows from watching Mr. Robot, Elliot Alderson was a successful whitehat hacker due specifically to his firm handshake, people-pleasing demeanor, and ability to look folks in the eyes when speaking to them. (Education Week, 10/30/26)
    
2. To end the week, we have something of an “inside story”. It is a personal take on the widely-commented story of Nikole Hannah-Jones and the education journey of her daughter Najya through several low-performing district schools in New York City. (The narrative that started the current discussion can be found here.) My colleagues in Fordham’s national office published this response from Linda Quarles, president of the Citywide Council On High Schools in NYC, today. Her family moved to the city at the same time—and in the same district schools—as Najya was experiencing the subpar education that everyone now regrets she had to endure. The twist is that Quarles was moving to the Big Apple from an exurb of Toledo where her daughters attended “a small, private Christian school with dedicated and exceptional teachers.” (Was EdChoice involved? Unknown…) Quarles calls it “a rigorous and nurturing environment,” in which the girls flourished. She came expecting the same level of academic excellence along with a broader palette of people, experiences, and future opportunities. Instead, she found the same depredated conditions as Hannah-Jones did. The details are worth your attention, but my TL;DR take is that the experience of Ohio-style school choice played a big part in leading Quarles to expect more—and ultimately to get more—for her own children. And that’s a Buckeye win, no matter who’s telling the story and from where. (Fordham Institute, 10/30/26)

Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.