- In case you missed it yesterday, Fordham Ohio released a new report—School Closures and Student Achievement—looking at how students displaced students fare following the closure of their schools. We were gratified by the breadth of coverage the report received. You can take a look at in-state coverage from the Dispatch (Columbus Dispatch, 4/28/15) and the Enquirer (Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/28/15), and some national coverage from the Wall Street Journal (who ran an op-ed by Mike Petrilli and Aaron Churchill on 4/28/15) and the Washington Post (Washington Post, 4/28/15).
- In other news, the Ohio Senate’s advisory committee on testing continues to meet and work on determining what, if any, changes to the state’s standardized testing methods will be made. Don’t tell the teacher: the PD took a peek over the shoulder of Solon City Schools’ representative on the committee and tells us what one of the state’s higher-flying suburban districts is suggesting in regard to testing changes. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/28/15)
- School buildings typically occupy prime land within communities. When schools are closed and the buildings demolished, that prime land is often seen as a public asset of great value…and sometimes of great contention. Especially when a neighborhood is on the rise and the next use could set the stage for decades of new development. Dayton City Schools has two such properties with potential buyers at the moment, and both are generating some of that aforementioned contention. (Dayton Daily News, 4/28/15)
- Some contention is burbling around Cleveland these days also. It’s probably why Patrick O’Donnell hasn’t had a chance to write about our new report yet. Boo. Anyway, what’s up is proposed changes to the Corrective Action Plans of district schools, which were originally part of the Cleveland Plan voted back in 2012. The district wants to add new requirements and metrics to the plans, which were intended to raise the performance of the lowest-achieving schools. The changes fall into two main buckets: culture and academics. Teachers are troubled by specifics in each of those categories. Not sure what the process for implementing these changes is, but we’ll keep an eye on it. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/28/15)
