- I am certain that someone with a bit more knowledge will dig into these data a little more soon—you know, someone who at least knows that charter schools are public schools—but preliminary enrollment numbers comparing fall 2019 to fall 2020 indicate that many traditional districts lost students and that homeschooling and online charter schools gained. (ABC6 News, Columbus, 2/4/21)
- Speaking of comparisons, here’s a twofer. You can compare a quick, TV news look at a test score data comparison… (WHIO-TV, Dayton, 2/3/21) …to a more in-depth “print” news version of the same data comparison. Specifically, two Ohio State University researchers compare Kindergarten readiness and Third Grade Reading test scores across the state from fall 2019 and fall 2020. There are some important caveats, as you may imagine, but learning losses seem stark, clear, and most prominent among students who were among the most academically vulnerable even before anyone ever heard of SARS-CoV-2. (Cleveland.com, 2/3/21)
- The CEO of Cleveland Metropolitan School District has been consistent from the beginning of the pandemic: “If it’s not safe to be in the classroom, it’s not safe to be on the playing field.” He has also been clear that he intended to avoid the whipsaw in order to maintain consistency for families. Thus, still no in-person classes and no sports or extracurriculars of any kind after 11 months. With, it seems, minimal pushback despite some of the bummer (lack of) sports stories included in this piece. However, with vaccines being administered and return-to-classroom promises having been inked, the prospect of high school sports returning to the CLE seems to be edging nearer. (Cleveland.com, 2/4/21)
- While Governor DeWine’s executive budget included a number of important education provisions, it did not include changes to the state’s school funding formula writ large, with the governor opting to defer to legislators on the issue. Thus, House Bill 1 (oooh important!) was introduced yesterday, mirroring the previous Cupp-Patterson funding plan from last session. Let the fun begin (again)! (Columbus Dispatch, 2/5/21)
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