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- On the eve of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my colleague Aaron Churchill. Not only because his op-ed in Cleveland.com gives today’s clips some needed heft, but also because he (as ever) says what must be said no matter that it will inevitably be met with opposition. To wit: Ohio’s families were better off when grade retention was mandatory for third graders who were not reading proficiently at the end of the year and that the current arrangement—no retention unless parents insist, regardless of reading level—is a return to the bad old days of “social promotion”. The longer that persists, the bigger the problems for students down the road. (Cleveland.com, 11/27/24)
- I am also thankful that the misbehavior of Columbus City Schools in providing inadequate transportation to charter, private, and STEM school students is still being treated as the important legal concern that it is. After going a bit cold for a few weeks, the issue came back to the front burner earlier this week when the Ohio Supreme Court declined district motions to end two suits filed against them. No idea what the next steps will be, but “skating” will not be included among them. (Gongwer Ohio, 11/25/24)
- Well, you knew the Thanksgiving conceit couldn’t last, didn’t you? (At least I can be thankful that all 7 of my dedicated Gadfly Bites subscribers know me well enough to predict how today’s jape was going to work!) Little to be thankful for here, I think, and lots to be wary of: Cash-strapped Cleveland Metropolitan School District is considering moving all of its schools to the same academic calendar as a means to save money. There are quite a lot of calendars, to be fair, but one assumes there was a good reason to have enacted them all over the years. To show the plan in its most negative light, this means that all of the schools utilizing full-year, extended-year, and extended-day schedules will be required to provide less school time, regardless of how that affects the educational model (STEM, early college, career academies, tech programs, etc.) or bothers the families who chose those schools as is and currently organize their lives around the non-traditional schedules they opted for. On the upside, the decision hasn’t been made yet and the proposal appears to be encouraging district leaders to actually try and ascertain whether students might suffer academic harm from the change. In the end, it will probably come down to some other deciding factor (teacher concerns, money, political pressure), but at least some folks are thinking of the children for however brief a moment. (Signal Cleveland, 11/25/24)
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