Gadfly Bites 3/31/21 – Have I been using my “downstairs brain” all this time?

1. In case you didn’t know, dedicated Gadfly Bites subscribers, your humble clips compiler is the quintessential “old dog”. As such, acquisition of “new tricks” is something of a challenge. Following the successful use of hip and current lingo “YMMV” earlier this week—much remarked-upon by a shocking wholly reasonable number of you—I am pleased to add another new piece of blazing hot cred to my repertoire today. To wit: the term “upstairs brain” features in this story about the Peaceful Solutions counseling program being used to address student misbehavior in one elementary school in suburban Cincinnati. I don’t know what it means, even in context, but I’d love to know what the opposite of it might be. Because I think it could refer to me. (WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, 3/29/21)
    
2. We get a little glimpse of the Covid learning loss remediation plan going on in Warrensville Heights City Schools in this piece. And by “going on”, I mean that the district is planning to start now, as soon as state testing is over, and to spend the entire fourth quarter (including an additional three weeks added to this school year) as remediation time. No new material: just catch up. And while that is interesting and worthy of further discussion, the district supe has got other things on his mind. Specifically: the scourge of school choice. “We understand how school choice goes,” said the supe, immediately casting doubt on that statement by elaborating, “We understand that they use three years of data to determine who gets school choice.” What on earth is he talking about?! “The 2021 year will be part of the equation,” he went on, “which is a very serious concern of ours, because there was a pandemic. We were not in school because of health reasons, so to use data when it was a pandemic is unfair to districts like ours who fight school choice on a yearly basis.” (WKSU-FM, Kent, 3/29/21) Remediation ideas are said to be “bubbling” in the headline of this piece from Richland County, but other than some short voluntary summer camps, I don’t really see anything substantial from districts and a whole lot of vague DIY suggestions that might not even be available to the majority of students in the county whether they need them or not. The director of education in Ontario Local Schools took time to bash state testing (blah blah blah “snapshot” blah blah kids are more than a test score blah blah) even as those test scores, quoted by the reporter, looked pretty dire. (Richland Source, 3/30/21)
   
   

3. There is absolutely no talk of remediation in bougie Solon City Schools. But there is a lot of discussion about what next year might look like, including a reference to the General Assembly and what they will do to “help” districts out in this regard. What these guys are talking about is that districts’ emergency ability to offer remote instruction during the pandemic currently ends with this school year. Unless the legislature extends it for 2021-2022, they will not be able to offer the same type of remote learning options should families want them in the fall. (Cleveland.com, 3/29/21) The same discussion occurred in Orange City Schools (Bougie or just stereotypically exurban? You decide!) this week, including some important detail. It seems that districts could offer a remote education model that is the equivalent of having some students participate remotely and synchronously in live-taught classes without any change in law. The change in law is required to allow the offer of third-party, asynchronous courses from Florida Virtual Academy and the like. Both Solonites and Oranginas (for surely that is what they are called) seem confident that the General Assembly will come through for them. (Cleveland.com, 3/30/21)
    
4. Beacon Journal editors want to know how the “mind-boggling” amount of third-round federal stimulus funds will be used by Akron City Schools. And they have some suggestions to boot. (Akron Beacon Journal, 3/27/21) Dayton City Schools, who were already struggling to spend a huge cash surplus before anyone ever heard of SARS-CoV-2, is not even thinking about the third round of federal funds. They are, as you might imagine, still trying to spend down earlier rounds. They have decided to put out the Help (Really Really) Wanted sign, with a goal of getting at least two teachers in front of every class of students next year. Of course, that may work out to less teachers than originally accounted for if student enrollment continues to decline. But it’s only money, right? Tons and tons of money. (Dayton Daily News, 3/31/21)

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