NOTE: This is the last edition of Gadfly Bites to be published in 2020. We’re back on January 4, 2021 with a wrap up of 2020 stories. Regular service for 2021 will resume on January 6. Thank you so much for reading and subscribing!
- House Bill 409, the latest Covid/education bill, passed the Senate this week as work wrapped up for this edition of Ohio’s General
HospitalAssembly (well, it kind of felt like a soap opera at times, didn’t it?). Here’s some deets on the pandemic-influenced changes it will make for this school year—and the next—if signed by the governor. (Cleveland.com, 12/22/20)
- Speaking of Governor DeWine and the 133rd General Assembly, here is notice of the release of a report tracking the Student Wellness and Success Funding authorized in their last biennial budget. The Ohio Department of Education seems pretty happy with the efforts documented, so I guess that’s good. I’m sorry to clip a press release, but this is the only media coverage I could find thus far. (EIN Presswire, 12/22/20) If I were a cynic (pipe down back there!), I might suggest the lack of whoop here I due to the rough early rollout of those wellness funds. Loyal Gadfly Bites subscribers will no doubt recall several school officials saying out loud and on the record that they “didn’t need” that money at the time or how others explained in all seriousness that they would be building empty, unstaffed, unprogrammed rooms to “maybe” provide counseling or other outreach “someday”…should more money be forthcoming from the state. Oh how the tables have tabled in 2020, right? Anywho, you can check out the full report here if you’re the kind of person who likes that sort of thing.
- And speaking of grievances, here’s a story full of them from a teacher in Shaker Heights City Schools describing “the stress and anxiety of in-person learning during the pandemic”…for her. I don’t want to add too much commentary here, not being a parent with school-age kids these days, but if you are one this piece will probably be pretty informative. Not that you don’t already know what teachers think of you and your kids. It’s just sometimes…helpful to have it on the record. (Cleveland.com, 12/23/20)
- Speaking of pandemic-era education tradeoffs, here’s a nice story about two central Ohio school districts who have been sharing bus drivers as their schools moved back and forth between hybrid and fully-remote models. “It’s a great partnership,” they say, “and a way to keep more drivers working.” They hope to continue the partnership in January as long as schedules allow. Here’s hoping this partnership has also been a boon to families exercising school choice. (ThisWeek News, 12/17/20)
- While it feels like 100 years ago now, Ohio put a requirement on school districts to create readiness seals for students as part of their graduation requirements. Here’s an inside look at how three such seals were eventually created in United Local Schools in rural eastern Ohio. While asking students to complete some “additional work” (I use that term loosely because it definitely seems like they were trying to fit in stuff that kids already were doing) in the areas of community service, fine and performing arts, and “student engagement” (another loose term) sounds good, I’m not sure that “mak[ing] the seals easily accessible to all students, regardless of their participation in any given activity,” as it is termed here, is really capturing the intent of the effort. (Salem News, 12/20/20)
- Finally, I don’t know what this media outlet is, but kudos to them on their detailed look at the development and current status of the I Promise School (and many of its adjuncts) in Akron. While the plans are up-to-date and moving forward quickly, I might humbly suggest that the test score/student growth data touted here is somewhat past its prime and in need of some additional updating. But that’s probably just me. (Uproxx, 12/18/20)
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