Gadfly Bites 5/22/19 – By any other name

1. Edunerd Alert! State ed board member Sarah Fowler this week schooled a bunch of Rotarians on the difference between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests, among other topics. Why yes, there WAS a discussion about Common Core. Why do you ask? (The News-Herald, 5/20/19)

2. Canton City Schools are apparently facing a sudden and substantial budget shortfall. Board and staff are reacting quickly, I think, but the effort is making them say and do some weird stuff. First up, staff reductions to combat the impending deficit include laying off “13 classified employees, most of whom worked as a No Child Left Behind Assistant.” Notwithstanding that I can’t imagine what such a job would have entailed back in the day, but if we’re talking about the federal NCLB law, aren’t we way way beyond that here in 2019? The district business manager estimates “it has been more than a decade since the district last laid off employees because of financial reasons”. No kidding, dude. We can tell. (Canton Repository, 5/20/19) Reducing busing in the district is another go-to way to save some money. Seems that Canton has been very generous with this service for the last six years, transporting any interested student who lives within a quarter mile of their school. And even after the upcoming cut, the district will remain more generous than they have to, expanding the transportation radius to one mile, as opposed to the state’s two-mile minimum. Why so liberal with the transportation infrastructure? Back in 2013, the quarter-mile rule was put in place to “improve student attendance and stabilize enrollment”. Unfortunately it has not worked out that way at all, the district’s business manager (and Speaker of Weird Truths, I reckon) tells the Rep: “There is no correlation. Enrollment continues to decline and attendance has pretty much stayed even.” (Canton Rep, 5/20/19) Hmmm. Perhaps I was wrong. The weird stuff seems to have been done prior to the current budget problem and all of it is now coming home to roost.

3. General Johnnie Wilson (U.S. Army, ret.) visited the Lorain middle school named after him this week, as he usually does at the end of the year. In addition to his duties at the bridging ceremony for students moving up to high school, Gen. Wilson this year also visited students during the school day, reiterating lessons learned in his hometown that led him from private to four-star general. Among the standard discussion of the Golden Rule, character, and respect, the general also took time to mention some rather exciting academic boosts that took place this school year: writing proficiency has improved by a whopping 29 percent. Pretty fantastic, right? Sir, yes sir! (The Morning Journal, 5/20/19) Graduation day in Lorain sounds like it was pretty awesome too. Glad to see that the “engulfing chaos” supposedly rampant in Lorain didn’t disrupt everything. (Elyria Chronicle, 5/22/19)

4. Speaking of turnaround efforts, the brand new Columbus City Schools supe is starting what sounds like a big and all-encompassing reorganization effort which includes demotions, reassignments, and what will probably be some costly new hires at the top. Hope nobody sues! (Columbus Dispatch, 5/21/19)

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