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- Here’s a really nice update on Ohio’s push to enshrine the Science of Reading into every public school in the state. We are reminded that the beginning of next school year (that is, just a few months from now) is the deadline for schools to complete any needed curriculum transitions although training and implementation could lag some after that. But we learn that nearly all the schools in the Dayton area (including at least one private school; yay!) are ahead of the game, with many already seeing evidence of measurable improvement in student outcomes. Woot! (Dayton Daily News, 5/25/25)
- Speaking of next fall, we learn in this piece that Dayton City Schools is implementing a freshman academy model for the upcoming school year. The idea is to provide extra supports and services for incoming ninth graders aimed at giving them a smooth transition into high school and a jump start toward their postsecondary goals. Superintendent David Lawrence calls it “a derivative of what high-performing school districts do to focus on freshmen.” (Insert your own jokes here.) Some elected school board members suggest this is a pretty big lift to attempt in a short time—implementing this new model in every high school simultaneously—and say they would be happier with a more-limited pilot version in one or two buildings to start. But Lawrence was adamant that “we can do multiple things at the same time.” (Dayton Daily News, 5/23/25) Personally, I’m with the electeds on this one. A long trail of evidence suggests that Dayton cannot, in fact, do multiple things at the same time successfully. For another example: despite a decade of dysfunction, years of talking/pressure/arguments, and millions of dollars in state fines (that they haven’t had to actually pay), Dayton City Schools announced this week that they are unable to make any changes to student busing in time for the start of the next school year. This means no expansion of busing to high school students (as had been mooted a while back) and no changes to the routing of RTA’s student transport buses through the downtown hub that has been a flashpoint of problems this year. In short: Buckle up for more of the same. (Dayton Daily News, 5/27/25)
- Speaking of school transportation (were we, really?), this story is the end of a long and twisty saga of special needs student transportation in Akron City Schools…hopefully. Unfortunately for everyone but a small group of folks, it ended as ridiculously as it has unfolded. For decades, transportation of Akron students with the most acute special needs has been handled by a cadre of individual van drivers—community members each with their own contracts with the district that had been renegotiated every year and whose terms, from my perspective, seemed to favor those drivers over the individual students and the district as a whole. YMMV. In an attempt to rein in costs and get some uniformity in and control over the system, administrators tried to bid out the transportation to a private provider a couple of years ago, only to face a firestorm of pushback from the van drivers and some elected school board members who sided with them. In a notable compromise reached this year, the administration was finally allowed to contract out the services, and the van drivers banded together to bid against the other competition as a private company. Their bid came in fifth. But in a notable reversion to the status quo, some elected school board members waved their magic procedural wands and the van drivers’ company was promoted to the winner. The status quo dies hard in Ohio school districts. (Akron Beacon Journal, 5/28/25)
- Here’s another case in point: We are told in this piece that most Youngstown City Schools stakeholders are on board with the idea of downsizing to just one middle school and one high school in the district due to the ever-shrinking student population and ever-growing budget concerns. Said one district teacher: “We’re finally responding to the only way we’re going to save ourselves from being taken over by the state.” All of which is good. But while one commentator stated bluntly that this should have been done decades ago, sadly most other folks quoted in this piece foresee nothing but problems if the plan goes ahead, including the teacher who says this is “the only way”. Could Akron finally be at a point of no return with right-sizing—where the overwhelming necessities overcome the perpetual hedging? We shall see. (Vindy.com, 5/28/25)
- We end today in the realm of private schools. First up is this fascinating re-statement of Catholic schools’ educational and social missions in the wake of the SCOTUS St. Isidore ruling, using Partnership Schools, the Cristo Rey Network, and the recent Johns Hopkins/EdChoice research findings as the basis for what the future of Catholic education should look like. Interesting stuff. (America Magazine, 5/23/25) The Johns Hopkins Ohio EdChoice research findings are about the only positive data included in this NPR piece on how awful vouchers, ESAs, and other private education supports are for…well…everyone and everything. (NPR, 5/23/25)
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