Gadfly Bites 12/12/18 – The receipts

1. Never the best at timing, the Ohio Department of Education yesterday released data on just how many members of the Class of 2018 received a diploma and by which pathways those students arrived at a diploma. It is eye opening and important information…which would have been pretty important for legislators to have had prior to voting to extend lowered grad requirements beyond the Class of 2018. (Columbus Dispatch, 12/11/18) Keeping with today’s theme of a day late and a dollar short, the Ohio Department of Education – with the doubtlessly inestimable help of the Joint Education Oversight Committee – this week recommended definitions for some important terms related to online education. Especially to the accountability framework thereof. Terms such as “documentation of online learning,” “idle time,” “educational,” “noneducational,” “participation,” and “classroom”. While ODE was only following the law by trying to hammer out these definitions now, of course, it seems like these terms should have already had official definitions somewhere in the depths of the department. At least before the non-official “definitions” were used as a blunt policy instrument. But what can you do? (Gongwer Ohio, 12/11/18)

2. I have complained previously within the Bites (sorry, gang, you know what I’m like) about this “poverty simulation game” that seems to be popular among some school districts for educating their teachers about the rigors of daily life for children and families living in poverty. It is supposed to “increase empathy”, according to folks who like it, but my main reaction is to wonder: a) How can you not have that empathy from the start? And b) What more can you get out of this game that you can’t get by talking with kids and families? Or reading the newspaper? Or just, you know, going outside? (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 12/11/18) Or even watching the TV news for important stories like this? (News5, Cleveland, 12/11/18)

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