- Another day, another charter school story that’s so good they didn’t have room to fit the words “charter school” in the printed story. (Fox8, Cleveland, 2/27/20) In case you’re wondering why many of these good news charter school stories focus on African American History Month, it’s probably because things like this happen in district schools in February…especially when those districts’ student bodies are 90+ percent white. (Akron Beacon Journal, 2/27/20)
- Another day, another “charter merger”. That is, a charter school ceasing to exist so that it can “merge” with the school district. It probably makes a bit more sense to happen in Cleveland, given the portfolio nature of the district and the fact that the district sponsors the charter. But how did charter “mergers” become a thing in the first place? And how, especially in Cleveland, can multiple district buildings operating at only 1/3-capacity stay open while popular charter schools can get
eliminated“merged” so easily? (CMSD press release, 2/27/20) - In “happy news”, yoga in schools is here said to be sweeping the
high-dollar real-estate hippie utopia of Yellow Springs, a district full of well-off professors’ kids which is fighting vouchersnation as an alternative to so-called “classic” detentions. There’s a lot of risible journalism in here, if I do say so myself, but I will say that while I don’t know much about yoga, I do at least know that David Lynch didn’t direct Fight Club. And I think that means I win. (The Good News Network, 2/29/20)
- Remember last week when we were listening to some school district folks bellyaching about
vouchersgraduation requirements and how complicated they had become? Here is further discussion about one specific part of those requirements: competency “seals” in various areas of importance. Sounds to me like these guys are confusing themselves (and the reporter), but if you focus on the quotes from district officials, things become a bit clearer. Aurora City Schools (last overall report card grade = A; component grades = As and Bs) seems to be planning to let kids earn seals by passing tests. Hmmm… While Kent City Schools (overall grade = B, but with a Prepared for Success grade of D) seems to be hammering the community service seal as the main one they want kids to pursue, going so far as to spot their kids 25 percent of the “required” hours without actually doing anything. Meanwhile, Southeast Local (whose only decent component grade from last year was a B in graduation rate) is holding off approving their seal requirement so they can “align” to other neighboring districts...just in case kids move out of Southeast to another district before completing. I can’t imagine why they’d want to do that, can you? (The Record-Courier, 3/1/20)
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