Gadfly Bites 4/6/26—Same old, same old

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1. The headline of this piece says it is about what impact science of reading is having so far in K-12 classrooms and college teacher prep programs. We get little of evidence of either in the text, IMO, but rather a rehashing of what aspects haven’t yet been made to or proven to work. (Ohio Capital Journal, 4/6/26)
   
   

2. Lots more evidence to back up the headline of this piece—proposing to show us how one Ohio elementary school has been working to boost student attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism over the last five years. But I feel like we’re actually learning more than that header promises. We do get a little bit of hard data. To wit: “According to school statistics, about 93 percent of its students attended in March and [school leaders] indicated a drop in chronic absenteeism from 26.5 percent to 19.4 percent over the past two years.” But we also get some anecdotes that illuminate the numbers more substantially. To wit: School staffers are trying hard to give primary credit for their “success” in absenteeism reduction to a touchy-feely social emotional learning program they’re fully invested in (not just in terms of teacher buy-in, but, I reckon, in terms of dollars spent on it also). But we also learn here that old-school carrots like certificates, prizes, and pizza parties for regular attendance and even older-school sticks like truant officers and court intervention are also in heavy rotation. (Weirton (WV) Daily Times, 4/6/26)
   
   

3. Meanwhile, Dayton City Schools has renewed its legal fight against the state, which it contends is still trying to limit them (and only them) from using public transit to transport students. Having already successfully gotten an injunction on that effort when it was part of the state budget bill last year, the new/old beef concerns HB 184 (signed into law back in December but effective as of March 20, 2026), which Dayton’s lawyers say uses substantively the same language that’s already been enjoined. More legal tu$$ling to follow. (Gongwer Ohio/State Affairs, 4/3/26)

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