- In case you missed it, Stanford University’s CREDO Center released a new report looking at charter school quality (or lack thereof) in Ohio. We got some good initial coverage in major dailies around the state, despite a packed day of education-related stories, with more to come. Journalist Patrick O’Donnell joined us live in Columbus for the press conference, but he noted some outstanding performance by charter schools in Cleveland, and noted Fordham’s support of the research. (Cleveland Plain Dealer) Chad is quoted in the Big D’s story, which focuses on the larger issues of charter quality statewide and what can be done to improve. (Columbus Dispatch) The Beacon Journal focuses on the bad news in the report and buries the good – as might have been expected – but the numbers say what they say. Aaron is quoted as well. (Akron Beacon Journal)
- As noted yesterday, the biggest source of competition for our report release was the State Board of Education’s discussion of and voting on the so-called “5 of 8 rule”. There was hours of testimony and discussion, some proposed amendments, and some heat, but in the end the board voted as we might have expected: 14-5 to remove the rule mandating staffing level of “specialist” instructions. There are still several bureaucratic hoops to jump through before all this is final, so expect some more fireworks in arcane rule-making bodies of the state of Ohio coming up. You can check out coverage in the Columbus Dispatch, the Dayton Daily News, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer for a taste of yesterday’s doings.
- Back in the real world, we return to the issue of substitute teachers in Dayton City Schools. You may recall that last summer a move was made to change how subs were sourced in Dayton – with a contract set up with a Wisconsin-based company to provide them starting in the 2014-15 school year. Why? Because, according to the district, the substitute teachers’ union which had traditionally provided subs had not been meeting their needs for some time. Back then, a reprieve was issued and the union given another chance, with some targets of coverage and minimum staffing levels set. After one semester, those targets were not met to the district’s satisfaction and the outsourcing will begin for real on January 1. There’s a lot to parse in this story, not least of which is the nature of substituting today, but for the district it boils down to one thing: “…we just weren’t getting enough people to fill the absences.” (Dayton Daily News)
