- Chad Aldis is often referred to as “the gift that keeps on giving” (mainly by me, but still). Case in point, an interview Chad gave last week – about candidate Kasich’s education record in his alternate life as Governor Kasich – is still generating media attention. This time, they are part of a larger discussion of the remaining presidential candidates. Nice. (Education Week Campaign K-12 blog, 4/12/16)
- Miracle of miracles! Youngstown actually has a new Academic Distress Commission (ADC)! With half an hour to spare before Monday’s court-imposed deadline, the school board prez rescinded her previous nominee and submitted instead a videography teacher from the local vocational school. The union was happy, the court was happy, and ODE was happy. Huzzah! NOTE: Teacher Vincent Shivers was apparently on the short list for this seat back in November, according to Vindy archives. Just sayin’. (Youngstown Vindicator, 4/12/16) The definition of "ADC" is Anxious to Dive in and Correct problems, it seems. The commission will hold its first meeting today, less than 48 hours after Shivers was named. Not only do they get to start working at last, but the final member of the group apparently also comes with convenient meeting space. (Youngstown Vindicator, 4/13/16)
- As if you didn’t already know that suburbs differ from the big bad city, here is another reminder. Remember that survey of Columbus City Schools parents who overwhelmingly preferred “traditional” grade spans for their school buildings? That included “traditional” middle schools spanning grades 6-8. Well, in suburban Bexley grade 6 has “traditionally” been an elementary school grade. The board voted this week, however, to move all district 6th graders to the middle school starting in 2017-18. This over the strenuous objections of some parents and one board member to this step which they directly called “retrograde” and indirectly called several worse things. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/12/16) Meanwhile, folks in Columbus are sounding off about CCS’ recently announced school closure options. The divide in opinions here is fascinating to me. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/13/16) Editors in Columbus today opined in favor of “right-sizing” the district. That means closing more than a few schools, just in case the term “right-sizing” is too vague for you. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/13/16)
- Zero to 44. That’s the change in the number of applications received for the job of permanent state supe from last state board meeting to the most recent state board meeting. Nice. As a side note, I am not ashamed to admit that I had to look up the phrase “button up your chin strap” after reading this piece. I now know what it means but am still scratching my head over its relevance to the situation. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/11/16)
- This is the awesome story of a team of high schoolers from the Dayton area competing – and succeeding at a very high level – in the FIRST Robotics League competition. That is: build, program, maintain, compete, and even market a robot to accomplish missions like building a structure or retrieving objects. What’s so awesome about it? The team is composed of kids from two different district high schools, the DECA charter school, and even a homeschool student. Bonus points for establishing their base at the awesome K-12/TEJAS art gallery. This, people. This. If the work you are doing in education right now is not supportive of this and a thousand more things like it, you need to rethink. Just sayin’. (Dayton Daily News, 4/10/16)
- The e-schools attendance bill that we’ve been talking about for a week or so now was assigned to a Senate committee yesterday. But probably not the one you were expecting. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/13/16)
- State Auditor! Man was on the case again this week – slapping the folks who “noncompliantly” rated charter sponsors last year and definitively crushing any possibility of punishment or further action on same. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/12/16)
