- Dayton City Schools still has 35 teaching vacancies to fill four months into the year. Officials are blaming large scale retirement of veteran teachers, despite having 81 new applicants show up at a recent job fair. There is some brief discussion of the $1,000 incentive for new teachers to live and work in Dayton. (Dayton Daily News, 11/17/15)
- Staying in Dayton for a moment, here’s a nice piece on the “Welcome Dayton” program – facilitated by Sinclair Community College – which pairs new high schoolers in the district’s ESL program with native-English-speaking peers. The goal is “to create cultural competencies organically, not from a forced curriculum.” (Dayton Daily News, 11/18/15)
- Speaking of school climates, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District agreed to spend around $1 million to assess 25 of its school buildings in areas that “testing can’t measure”. Part of the funding – to a consulting firm – is to train district staff to continue the reviews on their own going forward once the firm has completed its contract. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 11/16/15)
- Finally, we have two stories from the “sure-fire ways to antagonize your opponents” file. The president of the Youngstown Board of Education is defending her appointment to the new Academic Distress Commission: a retired administrator, a substitute teacher, and her own cousin. (Youngstown Vindicator, 11/17/15) The state Board of Education is reportedly considering a former state supe as a replacement for the retiring Dr. Ross – either on an interim or permanent basis. Quality issues aside, it seems like they might want to consider someone without a history in Ohio. But what do I know? (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 11/18/15)
