- Editors in Columbus opined once again this week in favor of SB 298, the e-school accountability bill, and lamented its assignment to the Senate Finance Committee’s education subcommittee. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/19/16) Meanwhile, Mansfield City Schools announced it is going to be contracting with an outside company (go ahead, look them up by name) to provide online schooling to district students and others from outside the district (wait, does that math even add up?) in an attempt to “win back” kids from those dastardly online charter schools. The ironies in this story are not limited to online schooling either. Read on about the extra test-prep period that freshmen will be getting every day next year and how the district is petitioning to get out from under state fiscal oversight after proposing thousands of dollars of new personnel expenditures. (Mansfield News Journal, 4/19/16)
- Remember those Top 5 state supe candidates we told you about last week? Before poor Patrick O’Donnell could even do his first profile, the list was cut to 4 as one of them withdrew to take another job and that “profile” turned into a “see ya later” piece. Was it something we said? (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/18/16) Far as I know, the candidate profiled yesterday is actually still in the running. She’s an interesting one, with some plusses and minuses as far as Clevelanders are concerned. Actually, I found myself reminiscing in regard to Franklin Covey while reading this. Anyone besides me remember when there were actual FC retail stores in malls? (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/19/16)
- Deer Park Career Academy in Cincinnati is briefly discussed in larger piece on CTE. I’m all for good CTE programs, but am concerned about basing entire educational tracks on what Kindergartners say they want to be when they grow up. Just sayin’. (The Atlantic, 4/19/16)
- Finally, long-ago words of wisdom from our own Checker Finn (by way of George F. Will) are still haunting us in the present day in this guest commentary opining on the need for national standards, testing, and accountability. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/20/16)
