Gadfly Bites 11/15/19 – If that’s what you get for boosting a report card…

1. Ohio’s Report Card Study Committee met this week to talk turkey about all of the various parts making up school and district report cards. Our own Chad Aldis was invited to provide testimony, which is fairly liberally quoted in Gongwer’s coverage. Nice. (Gongwer Ohio, 11/13/19) You can read Chad’s full written remarks here….if you’re into that sort of thing.
2. Chad was also on the opinion page of the Dispatch today, opining on the topic of Academic Distress Commissions. (Columbus Dispatch, 11/15/19)

3. Speaking of Academic Distress Commissions, the one in charge of Lorain City Schools voted unanimously this week to end the tenure of district CEO David Hardy, effective January 3. Seriously, guys? Unanimous? (WKYC-TV, Cleveland, 11/13/19) And speaking of voting folks out of a job, there is some discussion of that possibility in this piece, in which a “divided” state board of education ended up voting to give state supe Paolo DeMaria a raise and a bonus instead. (Gongwer Ohio, 11/14/19) I don’t know what to make of the fact that the Dispatch’s version of the state board story is the less salacious of the two. Frankly, I’m a little shook. (Columbus Dispatch, 11/14/19)
4. Can you imagine a city government entity trying to cap a traditional district school’s enrollment size for any reason? Nope. Neither can I. The howls of outrage would be deafening. So why must private schools endure such egregious meddling on the regular here in Ohio? Beats the heck out of me. (ThisWeek News, 11/14/19)

5. Let’s end the week on some happier news. Here is a profile of an awesome-sounding education provider for students in the Canton area who are on the autism spectrum. Why yes, they do take students on the Ohio Autism Scholarship. How kind of you to ask. And the piece discusses that at some length too. (Canton Repository, 11/15/19)

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