- Nice coverage of Governor DeWine’s all-in push to make the science of reading the law of the land here in Ohio. It not only includes $129 million dollars to retrain teachers and replace textbooks in schools across the state, it also includes an outright ban on the other janky curricula that are still pretty prevalent here and elsewhere. (The 74, 2/21/23)
- Related, I reckon, is this story from Alliance City Schools. Officials there updated the elected school board on the concrete progress being made by hundreds of second and third grade students who were two or more grade levels behind in reading and/or math. Since just the start of the school year, nearly ten percent of the students have caught up and rejoined their on-grade-level peers. Others are moving ahead steadily. What efforts wrought this miracle? A Response to Intervention model that provides 200 minutes a week of tutoring in math and reading, in addition to their regular classes. Progress is monitored weekly and students are tested every six weeks. Future lessons are then adjusted based on whatever improvement is shown by those test results. Principal Cory Muller summed it up thusly: “We took them where they were and gave them what they needed.” Miraculous. Yea, verily. (Canton Repository, 2/22/23)
- I always love an opinion piece with a super elaborate metaphor or throughline. I imagine the author gleefully banging out reference after reference thinking with each additional commitment to the bit: “THAT’LL show ‘em!” What’s this small town principal complaining about via his quaint comic strip riff in our big city newspaper? How Governor DeWine somehow ruined the promise of the new school funding plan by proposing an expansion of EdChoice eligibility. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/22/23)
- Speaking of small towns, the elected school board of tiny Crestview Local Schools got an earful this week because they dared to consider a calendar for next school year that did not, in many many folks’ opinions, give students enough time off for the Van Wert County Fair. I graduated from a district that gave kids excused absences during the first week of deer hunting season every year, so what do I know? But I will suggest that the parent who said, “I learned more during Fair Week when I was a kid than what I learned in school or doing homework” is not making the case that he thinks he is. Accordingly, the elected board members are going to go back home and think about what they did before making a final decision at their next meeting. I am sure they’ll end up doing the right thing. Aren’t you? (Times Bulletin, Van Wert, 2/22/23)
- Meanwhile, in the somewhat larger city(ish) of Newark, here’s a great piece on Par Excellence Academy, a charter school primarily focused on students with developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder. They are considering adding a robot or two to their curriculum and had a visit from the manufacturers this week demonstrating their wares. The idea is that not only will the programming of these little guys deepen the STEM offerings for students but also provide them with some experience in reading and responding to facial cues and body language (these things are very human-like IMO) from a non-judgmental partner. Fascinating. (Newark Advocate, 2/21/23)
- And speaking of state-of-the-art, the Dayton Daily News finally (finally!!!), has some update on the Greater Dayton School. That’s the private school for low-income students funded by space-y billionaire Larry Connor. While we don’t get any inkling of how the first year of the school in its rented digs is going—about which I would love to know—we do get a nice hard hat tour of the huge and beautiful new building being constructed to house Greater Dayton come the fall. Looks and sounds awesome! (Dayton Daily News, 2/21/23)
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