- CREDO’s latest report looking at charter school quality (or lack thereof) in Ohio got a bit more play yesterday. Public radio in Northeast Ohio ran a piece on the report itself, including parts of an interview conducted at our Tuesday press conference in Columbus. (IdeaStream Public Media) Meanwhile, the PD covered yesterday’s City Club of Cleveland event in which CREDO’s Macke Raymond discussed her findings in depth, and they noted Fordham’s connection to the report. (Cleveland Plain Dealer) You can check out the full video of the event here.
- The 130th General Assembly is drawing to a close here in Ohio, with lots of backslapping and fond farewells…and a raft of lame duck legislation. The current legislative assault on Common Core in Ohio may have at last run out of time after a last-ditch effort to amend it to another bill was ruled “out of order” at the 11th hour yesterday. Stick a fork in repeal, it’s done...for now. (Newark Advocate)
- Back in the real world, here’s a great guest commentary piece from two longtime math teachers in Northeast Ohio opining on the topic of how Common Core could help solve what they call America’s “math phobia”. Nice. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- We’ve noted recently that Columbus City Schools’ board has done away with the “policy governance” model it has used for almost a decade and reinstated a more hands-on, committee-based model. A consultant’s recommendation for Youngstown City Schools’ board is the opposite: to abolish committees and to adopt policy governance following a finding earlier this year that the board was attempting to micromanage district administration. (Youngstown Vindicator)
- Youngstown Schools are operating under the aegis of an Academic Distress Commission, whose members come from school board appointment (2 members) and from appointment by the state (3 members, including the chair). The school board was for some reason very publicly discussing and interviewing replacements for its two appointees earlier this year. Now it seems that was all for naught as the board has decided to stick with their current two appointees. Must be their intestinal fortitude. (Youngstown Vindicator)
- There’s a lot of nuance to this story and you should really read the full piece to get a sense of all that’s going on, but the short of it is: a number of parents in a Columbus middle school are going all out to support a teacher who resigned due to a disciplinary issue. They want him back despite knowing that he stepped over a line when disciplining a student. (Columbus Dispatch)