- Before we get into budget stuff, there are a couple of other items to talk about. First up, here’s an interesting piece looking at a draft ODE report on whether the cut points on Ohio’s end of course exams are too high. Chad and Aaron are both quoted in response to the preliminary findings. While some folks perhaps want to make a big deal out of this, it seems to me that the solution is simple. I was going to make a great joke about the ease of renaming the categories, but Aaron beat me to it. And he said it with the seriousness it actually demands. Don’t overthink it, y’all. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/16/19) Fordham is namechecked in this preview of a new online dropout recovery school opening soon. Not because we’re involved in it at all, but because we have all the best data. ECOT is also discussed in there. Not because it has anything at all to do with the topic, but simply because an ECOT reference always makes a story better, amiright? (Toledo Blade, 7/16/19)
- The state budget bill emerged from conference committee last night (call it the tenth hour) and folks are scrambling to dig through its trove of final provisions. Fordham is namechecked in this story regarding new graduation requirements, support in the creation of which Fordham provided (c.f. “all the best data”, above). (Columbus Dispatch, 7/16/19) Ditto for this piece from the Dayton Daily News, which includes a pretty good summary of recent
inanityactivity around graduation requirements. (Dayton Daily News, 7/16/19) - The other big news from the budget negotiations so far (there will be more, of course) is a moratorium on establishment of new Academic Distress Commissions for one year. The folks in charge of Dayton City Schools are super thrilled, of course. Students and families attending the long-underperforming district were not canvassed for their opinions. Of course. (Dayton Daily News, 7/16/19) As a brief aside, are we SURE Dayton City Schools doesn’t need some kind of outside oversight? This continuing inability to properly spend down their gigantic multimillion dollar surplus is concerning to me. (Dayton Daily News, 7/16/19) What the budget bill does not appear to do at this point is release any of the three districts currently operating under an Academic Distress Commission. Members of the elected school board in Lorain—and their pally-wallys—present as appropriately consternated here. But they are putting the best possible spin on it that they can. And who could blame them? The folks who actually run Lorain City Schools—and the parents and families at the center of the turnaround effort—are not quoted here at all. Of course. (The Morning Journal, 7/16/19)
- Speaking of elected officials, why does a tiny town of less than 2,200 people even need an elected vice mayor? I know that’s not the point of this story – about an elected member of the state board of education who was also an elected vice mayor, in contravention of state law, for six months – but seriously: why? The matter was cleared up by “vacating” her tenure as vice mayor for the time frame in question. Okay; now I have another question… (Cincinnati Enquirer, 7/16/19)
- Speaking of questions, I came out of this piece with more questions than answers. Check it out and see if you agree. There was an enormous increase in the number of industry credentials earned by students in Akron City Schools in the 2018-19 school year just ended than earned by students the previous school year. Enormous. But how many kids overall? (Not 1,440 despite what the piece may imply.) How many seniors? How difficult were these credentials? How many kids used them as their means to earn a diploma? Are Photoshop and “customer service” credentials, even if difficult to achieve, really equivalent to passing the Algebra II end-of-course exams? If you guys are truly planning to base your “College and Career Academies” on these credentials—which is literally the only part of this piece I don’t question—shouldn’t you have this data to hand before you start claiming goosebump-inducing awesomeness for yourselves? (Akron Beacon Journal, 7/15/19)
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