- Our own Chad Aldis is quoted in this piece expressing hope that a “long term solution” on graduation requirements will come to pass via legislative action in 2019. What the piece conveniently forgets to mention is that the more rigorous, end-of-course-exam-based graduation requirements that were thwarted via legislation in 2018 were a long term solution. But hey—peace of mind is just as good as an education, right? (Gongwer Ohio, 12/20/18)
- Some fascinating tidbits in this piece reporting on the latest Community Business Partnership meeting in Lorain held earlier in the week. The headline and much of the article discusses the possibility of Lorain schools converting to charter schools—everyone is against it, it would seem. But there are lots of little details about actual important stuff: like the number one stated priority to “improve standards driven education”, the data included on the new “Big Board” (a rating system that includes academics, efforts and behavior for all Lorain schools) which shows that priority number one is not exactly on the rails yet (the highest performer on a scale of 1 to 4 is an elementary school with a 2.63—don’t even ask about the lowest performer), and that the district’s new “informational magazine” is called Promises Kept Quarterly. Might have to be a one-pager for a while. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 12/20/18)
- Finally, the CEO of GetWorkerFIT, a career assessment and planning company, had some stunning words for Highland County Commissioners when she addressed the group this week. No, it wasn’t her blunt sales pitch (“My organization is the first and only one who…”; yeah yeah, heard it before), but it was her assessment of Ohio’s K-12 education as a poor means of preparing young people for the world of work. “We’re so busy being academic that we’re not connecting to what is the real need of our economy, business and industry,” she asserted. “When high technology came into play about 20 years ago with all these different industries, our schools failed to make the connection and now we’re in a situation where the majority can’t afford to go to college, and those that do won’t graduate.” I would humbly suggest that nearly every edition of these clips shows that many of Ohio’s schools aren’t spending enough time being academic to make college or career feasible. Any thoughts on how to fix that, Madame CEO? Perhaps K-12 should just give up the ghost and just turn the kids over to her organization instead? (Hillsboro Times-Gazette, 12/20/18)
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