Gadfly Bites 11/23/20 – Downshifting

NOTE: Bites is back from a short vacation. Today’s clips cover 11/19 – 11/23/20. 

1. So, what’d we miss in the clips on Friday? Oh yes: A bill that “fixes” something that was not actually broken EdChoice voucher eligibility to the satisfaction of some folks was passed out of the Ohio House on Thursday and is now in the governor’s hands. (Toledo Blade, 11/19/20) This bill was part of a slew of legislation finished up during the first part of the lame duck legislative session. That’s why this piece from the News-Sun, covering the EdChoice bill and quoting a positive response to it from Fordham’s Chad Aldis, does not mention anything even remotely voucher-related in the headline. (Springfield News-Sun, 11/19/20) The status quo education alphabet-blob groups released a scoldy press statement on the topic (“It’s a sad week for public education in Ohio…”) which was published in its entirety as an editorial in a number of outlets. (Logan Daily News, 11/21/20)
    
2. In somewhat-related news, the elected board members running Berea City Schools last week passed a resolution in support of the proposed school funding plan currently under consideration in the legislature. Mainly, it seems, because they would get a lot more money if it is enacted as-is. The elected board members and their treasurer are super happy about this because their current five-year budget projections without it show red ink on the horizon (“If this gets passed,” said one elected board member, “we can be cautiously optimistic that future (state) budgets will benefit the district.”). With this proposed formula, which the treasurer noted is “more equitable to the districts” because “[m]ost districts are going to be winners in the long run”, they probably won’t have to be “concerned about watching [their] yearly expenses” for a good long while. Which does indeed sound like a real downer to have to bother with. (Cleveland.com, 11/20/20)
   
   
3. On to pandemic news: Some parents and guardians in Dayton City Schools are concerned about the potential negative effects on student learning of the full shutdown of school for the next six weeks. This short piece from a local news station is focused on state testing, which has actually been happening—with some accommodation—for most public schools this fall. The bigger issue will be spring testing scheduled for March and April. (WDTN-TV, Dayton, 11/18/20) It is interesting to note in the previous piece that parents seem worried about their kids not learning enough to pass the spring tests; meanwhile education officials at the district and state level seem mainly worried about conducting the tests. This piece, which covers Youngstown City Schools CEO Justin Jennings’ thoughts on testing during a pandemic, seems happily focused on helping kids to pass. Refreshing. It is also nice to see the local TV station note clearly that Youngstown City School is one of the lowest-performing districts in the state. (That means test scores, y’all.) Even more surprising: the CEO says that fully-remote learning has been a boon to many district students because they can work at their own pace and because they can see how they’re doing in real time and adjust. (Khan Academy and Quizlet are great in that way.) In fact, CEO Jennings is full of praise for hard-working students and their diligent parents. And how are the teachers rising to this difficult occasion in Youngstown? Your guess is as good as mine. (WKBN-TV, Youngstown, 11/18/20) Meanwhile, Akron City Schools announced late last week that it is “downshifting” in its plans to return some students with special needs to schools for in-person teaching. Due to rising Covid cases in the state, the county, and within its own staff ranks, ACS will not begin this on November 30 as originally announced and a new date has not been proffered. Sports, which had been going on pretty much as normal since the start of the school year, are also paused. In fact the only in-person work happening in Akron, said Superintendent David James, is state testing. (Akron Beacon Journal, 11/21/20)
    
4. Meanwhile, Parma City Schools brought its CTE students back to in-person schooling last week on a hybrid schedule while the rest of the district remained in fully-remote mode. Wonder if they’re still doing that today? (Cleveland.com, 11/19/20) At the exact same time, Columbus City Schools suspended all in-person sports and extracurricular activities until at least mid-December. (Columbus Dispatch, 11/19/20) Dayton Early College Academy announced late last week that it was moving to a fully-remote learning model from now through the end of break. The charter school’s superintendent, Dave Taylor, wrote, “These are incredibly taxing times for all of us, but especially for our students as they are forced to constantly adjust to a new schedule.” (Dayton Daily News, 11/22/20)
    
5. According to these reports, the folks at Bay Village City Schools (administrators, teachers, and even parents) are “becoming experts” in executing the whipsaw between in-person and fully-remote schooling modes… (Cleveland.com, 11/23/20) …and that remote learning is “nothing new” for Breakthrough charter school students. The students interviewed here seem pretty happy with the remote routine they have established. (News5 Cleveland, 11/22/20)
    
6. Meanwhile, Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools laid off 200 non-teaching staff members last week because of reduced need for their services in an all-remote learning environment… (News5 Cleveland, 11/21/20) …and Toledo City Schools was ordered by the Ohio Department of Education to incorporate compensatory instructional time for district students with special needs “to address the 44 school days” during the spring Covid shutdown in which, they believe, those students’ educational needs were not properly met. (Toledo Blade, 11/21/20)

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