- Here’s some of the most exciting news to hit Ohio in a while: the Cincinnati Accelerator project. That is, a public-private partnership meant to boost the number of high-quality schools open to Cincinnati's poorest students. Partners include the Cincinnati Business and Cincinnati Regional Business committees, and the Farmer Family, Haile U.S. Bank and KnowledgeWorks foundations. It also involves leaders from Cincinnati Public Schools, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and local charter schools. Whew! In five years, the goal is to double the number of seats available at high-performing schools in Cincinnati, from about 5,000 to 10,000. And in ten years, 20,000 high-quality seats. We wish them the very best in this endeavor, on behalf of children and families in Cincinnati. It is to be hoped that no further campouts will be required to access these seats. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 5/6/15)
- Anyone else interested in an update on the status of the so-called “education deregulation” bill currently being heard in the House Education Committee? Me too! And here it is. (Gongwer Ohio, 5/5/15)
- Since when does a local newspaper care about the minutiae involved in a charter school changing management companies? When the school is in Youngstown and the outgoing management company is named White Hat. Kind of a fascinating story, really, that reads to me like a sponsor making every attempt to turn around a poor-performing school. Unless I’ve missed something. (Youngstown Vindicator, 5/5/15)
- It is rare to see inter-district open enrollment the target of a political action committee, but I guess that stranger things have happened. Here is a heavily detailed piece (by which I mean, everything but the members’ addresses are in here) about those folks opposing open enrollment in tiny Coventry schools. Their problem: too many outside students results in lower-than-expected funding from the state. And then district officials are forced to ask for a local levy to make up the difference. I don’t think that’s how any of this works, but that hasn’t stopped the PAC from pushing for voters to reject a levy in Coventry. BTW, this story is from last Friday, and that levy passed yesterday, despite the spirited opposition. (Akron Beacon-Journal, 5/1/15)
- Virtual schools’ methods of accounting for student attendance are addressed in the charter law reform efforts currently going on in the Ohio House and Senate. Didn’t stop some folks inside the Ohio Virtual Academy from drawing some attention to the issue in their school. A liberated spreadsheet was enough to get the attention of the State Auditor (I know! I never get tired of hearing about that guy either!), who will undertake a special audit to check things out at OHVA. (Gongwer Ohio, 5/5/15)
- Speaking of journalistic crusading, the PD has been granted some pretty sweet access into a PARCC test scoring center in central Ohio. (Sorry if you’ve had to stay down here in the ‘burbs this week, Patrick. Columbus is not Cleveland, that’s for sure.) We learned from the Washington Post a while back the requirements for who can be a Pearson test scorer (hint: not a ton). But the PD took an up-close look at how a test scorer’s speed can affect her compensation (Plain Dealer, 5/4/15) and a rundown of just who’s in the cubicle doing the actual scoring here in central Ohio. (Cleveleand Plain Dealer, 5/5/15)
- Finally, we told you a couple of months ago about the steaming pile of fail that is Columbus City Schools’ hotline to address transportation issues. Fear not, disgruntled parents. The school board has authorized some money to address the problem earlier than originally proposed. This summer, a hardware upgrade will be piloted to see if that helps alleviate the problems of call tracking, forwarding to the right department, and the dreaded 20-minute automatic call-drop, among other issues. If this band-aid doesn’t work, a whole new system could be online as early as two years from now. (Columbus Dispatch, 5/6/15)
