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- Nationally-renowned and self-described curriculum evangelist Karen Vaites took a look at the results of Ohio’s first-ever reading curriculum audit, which hit the news a couple of weeks ago. She uses Aaron Churchill’s initial analysis of the findings as the basis for her discussion. Vaites seems pessimistic about the state of play and raises question about the use of EdReports ratings in Ohio and elsewhere. “It’s time for states to show a lot more savvy in this realm,” she concludes, “and for literacy advocates to come off ‘curriculum-agnostic’ perches to proclaim it clearly: some curricula are vastly better than others, and our teachers deserve the best.” More to come, I reckon. (eduvaites, 3/25/24)
- Mt. Healthy City Schools is facing a big deficit and its elected and appointed leaders are trying to get a handle on it. Nothing unusual there, but their efforts are somewhat hampered by a seemingly ever-changing deficit amount (from $700K in July, to $0 in August, to $5 million in November, to $7.5 million earlier this week). I’m sure it will all work out eventually with a mix of cuts, austerity, and additional revenue. (I mean, this isn’t a charter or private school that would just have to shut down if facing such overwhelming financial problems, amiright?) Providing an additional amount of bemusement for me is the elected school board begging to go under the harshest state fiscal oversight possible to try and get as much help as they can to right their ship. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 3/24/24)
- It certainly has been a while since we heard anything positive about school bus transportation, so I am happy to bring you this story, which sounds like something out of the far off days of 2018. Parma City Schools is rolling out a bus tracking app for parents which uses real-time GPS data to make sure folks know when their kids’ buses will be arriving at their stops. Genius indeed. What won’t they think of next? (Cleveland.com, 3/25/24)
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