- Fordham’s Chad Aldis was quoted on the importance of conducting state tests this school year. However, the context in which his words were situated in this piece—seniors are said to be “in limbo” if they don’t find out right now that tests are required (or not)—seemed pretty well stacked against his points. If I do say so myself. (Spectrum News 1, 12/9/20)
- Likely aiming to evade the same rhetorical quagmire, our Aaron Churchill went the route of an op-ed on same topic, published in the Dispatch the next day. “To begin the hard work of academic recovery,” he concluded, “we must first diagnose where students stand.” No additional context required. (Columbus Dispatch, 12/10/20)
- Sounds like the effort to enact a school funding revamp during this year’s lame duck legislation is officially over….if the Ohio Senate does say so itself. (Dayton Daily News, 12/9/20)
- Another day, another story about a school district in state oversight. (No, the other state oversight.) Coventry Local Schools may in fact soon be emerging from fiscal oversight after five years in emergency status and 14 years (!) in watch status prior to that. If the rona doesn’t mess things up for them, that is. (Akron Leader, 12/10/20)
- Speaking of the rona, Dayton City Schools is still locked up tight and the WiFi is silent with no schooling of any kind going on for however many students it might still have. I mention this today for two reasons. The first is that I still can’t believe an entire school district going dark for weeks on end is not
news at allbigger news, even with all the other SARS-CoV-2-related stuff out there. The second is that, according to this piece documenting the most-recent whipsawing of in-person/hybrid/remote learning models across the state, there is another district somewhere in Ohio that has also gone dark. And there is literally no news about which one it may be at all. Why not?! (Cleveland.com, 12/10/20)
- Relatedly, here is yet another story about how awesome “learning extension” centers (a.k.a. publicly-funded pandemic pods) in Columbus are. Kids and parents are raving about the fun and the education and the community. Providers—all of them untrained non-licensed folks who seem to be either public servants earning minimum wage-ish or religious group members volunteering—seem to love it and to be pretty effective educators. Best of all: there’s so much tax money and copious philanthropic dollars coming at these churches and community centers that they have even more capacity than kids showing up. So spread the word! (Columbus Dispatch, 12/10/20)
- While this piece is generally non-pandemic-related, it does take turn toward the rona in a fairly predictable way by the end. But first can we please take a moment to note with approval that this highly-detailed and localized look at the impacts of adult illiteracy on many aspects of life in southeastern Ohio is sophisticated (“Just being able to read words isn’t enough. You must be able to comprehend and understand what is being read.”) and striking for a fairly small town news outlet? Even if I do say so myself. (Daily Jeffersonian, 12/10/20)
- We end the week with more obligatory love for the career academies of Akron City Schools. We are told of Goodyear’s partnership with the district’s plan here, as if it is a new development. Surely the city’s flagship manufacturer has been on board for a while, right? But who knows with this endeavor? Certainly not me. You will recall that a couple of weeks ago I thought the reference to Nashville schools as a model for these things was new information…only to find out that their plan was the one and only blueprint that the district had supposedly been following for years. At least this current piece goes back to the old status quo of not mentioning anything about Music City. (Akron Beacon Journal, 12/10/20)
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