We’re back after a short break. Looks like we missed a couple of humdingers. Let’s get to it!
- Like the academic data contained on them, analysis of Ohio’s school report cards was limited this year. Thus, Aaron’s detailed blog published several weeks ago is linked and quoted as part of this piece on them. The remainder of the piece focuses on the Ohio Department of Education’s presentation of “sobering” report card data to the state board of education, which occurred at their meeting last week. (Gongwer Ohio, 11/19/21) Additionally, Aaron published an op-ed at Vindy.com over the weekend in which he opined for higher expectations for Youngstown City Schools’ students…and the adults who are responsible for serving and teaching those students. (Vindy.com, 11/21/21)
- It is so rare that I get to announce a new independent STEM school option is coming (this time in Xenia), and it makes me so happy to do so, that I won’t even bother to whine about the “STEAM” designation in its name. I know the STEM model upon which this new school will be built; I know that families in this region will be clamoring to get in (y’all might THINK families won’t come from Dayton or Cincinnati for this, but I assure you you’re ultimately going to be proven wrong about that); and I know that if it is fully, faithfully, and properly executed, thousands of students will find their proper fit and their academic futures will open wider than ever. So call it whatever you want and put as much arts curricula in there as you feel necessary. If you run a proper STEM school, it’s all good. Woohoo! (Xenia Daily Gazette, 11/18/21)
- Speaking of school choice, here are details on a new charter school coming to the Cleveland suburbs even sooner: January of 2022. New Story School is designed to serve students with autism, emotional needs, and various behavior issues from ages 5 to 21. Awesome news! (Cleveland.com, 11/21/21)
- Staying on the topic of school choice for one more clip, and adding a twist of Mountain State irony for good measure: West Virginia’s Professional Charter Board ultimately approved five of the six applications that came before it last week—two virtual charters and three brick-and-mortar ones. It is worth noting, because I have followed this story for a while and because I am something of a brat, that if the Monongalia County School Board had approved the one application before them last year, there would be one brick-and-mortar school in the entire state and the school choice folks probably would have been OK with that. However, because they rejected that one for no rational reason, there will now be five times as many charters, two of which are statewide, with more likely to come just because they can. Life comes at you fast, it seems. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting, 11/17/21)
- But all is not rosy in school choice land. You have no doubt heard that a number of school districts across Ohio and across the country are adding random days to their Thanksgiving breaks under banners such as staff mental health needs and staff appreciation. Here’s one such story from Stark County last week in which it is specifically noted that private schools in the area (and charters, too, probably, if anyone in the media cared to check) were also being forced to close—whether they wanted to or not—because bus service would not be provided by the district whose job it is to do so. I don’t know about any of y’all, but if I had found out on Friday that my kids’ school was going to have to be closed the following Monday without clear reason (or without wanting to) and with minimal notice, I would feel the opposite of appreciated. (Canton Repository, 11/17/21) Speaking of the opposite of appreciation, Worthington City Schools’ efforts to cease busing service mid-year for 43 resident students to a handful of private schools outside the district is drawing fire. Their reasoning is stated clearly enough: they want to prioritize “their own students” in light of staffing struggles and boosts in fuel prices. Unfortunately, they have decided to do this—and to express their reasoning for it a bit too plainly—in the wake of some changes in state law (and a sternly-worded reminder of same from ODE) that make it clear that such prioritization against school choice families is not kosher in Ohio. It could be that plentiful money available to districts these days will smooth things over in the end, but not before some more public crankiness I reckon. (Columbus Dispatch, 11/20/21)
- And in Cincinnati, the bad blood between the school district and the local public transit authority—initiated in the weeks just before school started, as I’m sure my longtime Gadfly Bites subscribers will recall—has continued unabated since August. However, it seems from this piece that an end is in sight, by which I mean that Metro will cease providing any student transportation on the district’s dime when the current contract between the two entities expires in July. In the meantime, I’m sure you can expect the same amount of recriminatory rhetoric, demands for refunds without receipts, and students being used as pawns to remain constant. Or get worse. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/18/21)
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