- It’s been a long time since we last did a roundup of education news in Ohio, and we seem to have left things at a critical juncture. In case you missed it, the state legislature – with the governor’s help – last week made it illegal for Ohio to spend money buying tests from the PARCC consortium, ending many years of prep and one year of actual testing in the Buckeye State. Very quickly, state supe Dick Ross announced that AIR would take up the reins of math and ELA testing next year. Here is coverage of that announcement. Columbus Dispatch (7/1/15), Dayton Daily News (7/1/15), Toledo Blade (7/3/15), and Cleveland Plain Dealer (7/1/15)
- The PD ended its first AIR piece with the phrase, “We'll have more to add here soon,” and journalist Patrick O’Donnell was true to his word. Here are two further stories. First up is a look at AIR’s track record with math and ELA tests in other states, as well as discussion of how they did with Ohio’s science and social studies tests this year. I think the term is “mixed bag”. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/2/15). Second is a look at AIR’s original 2013 contract to provide science and social studies testing in Ohio, in which a price schedule for math/ELA tests was also included (“Plan B” in case PARCC tests weren’t ready on time, so they say). Patrick estimates AIR will get an additional $23.6 million next year for this somewhat different version of “Plan B”. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/4/15)
- Anyone who thinks that ditching PARCC was the end of the line for anti-testing folks should keep their “mission accomplished” banner folded up for the present. Here are two reasons why: First up, the Tri-Valley Local Schools supe opines, “We said a couple months ago (that concern over PARCC) was a bunch of Internet hysteria… Here, we sacked the whole program.” That, he says, makes the case for local control stronger than ever. He favors the HB 212 route, which would ditch Common Core and state assessments, leaving everything up to him and his board. (Zanesville Times Recorder, 7/4/15). Secondly, the very-helpful Dr. Courtney Koestler, director of the SouthEast Ohio Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science at Ohio University in Athens, has announced that she is “available for comment” on the PARCC/AIR switch. I don’t know to whom she’s advertising her expertise, but here’s a little preview: “I believe there needs to be much broader conversations about the value and need to assess children in these ways every year.” Form a line, folks. Let’s not crowd the good doctor. (Jackson County Times-Journal, 7/2/15)
- Speaking of piling on, here are a few pieces related to charter law reform, currently on hold in the state legislature. Fordham and Chad are namechecked in this quick dig into the reasons why House Bill 2 was not voted on before legislators took off for summer break. (Dayton Daily News, 7/2/15). Gongwer Ohio opts for a list of those chastising the legislature for not completing the work before break. No Chad or Fordham here. (Gongwer Ohio, 7/2/15). Editors in Columbus skip the journalism and simply opine in frustration. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/6/15)
- In other news, there was some vocal outcry in Youngstown following the legislature’s adoption of the so-called “Youngstown Plan” – that is, a sharpening of the state’s Academic Distress Committee protocols. It centers mainly around the definition of “local control” but quickly spirals into a discussion of who lives inside or outside the city limits and whether or not those folks should get a voice in the process. There is a public protest of the Youngstown Plan – well, really it’s likely to be about the aforementioned process which resulted in the plan, but I digress – scheduled for tomorrow. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/3/15)
- We conclude with acronym alphabet soup. The Dispatch reported this weekend that far fewer individuals were taking and passing the GED in Ohio in the last two years, although that piece focuses more on the “passing” than the “taking” question. Why yes, the words “Common Core” and “controversial” are used in that story. Why do you ask? (Columbus Dispatch 7/4/15) Interestingly, the (still) Big D’s companion piece looking at folks actually in the process of getting GEDs, is far less heavy on the gloom, doom, and haterade. I’ll let Bobby Womick, age 53, tell you about it: “It’s hard after not being in school for like 35-plus years, but it’s coming back to me. A lot of these kids in here — 21, 22 years old — man, I’m knocking them off the box. .?.?. And it’s all new to me. It’s harder, but it’s fair. Anything that comes easy you don’t appreciate." Says Womick of the post common-core GED: “Do I think the old test was too easy? Yeah. Do I think the new test is too hard? Yeah.” (Columbus Dispatch 7/4/15). And of course, don’t forget the ACT and the SAT, perfect scores on which are on the rise in central Ohio. The story is interesting, but (speaking of haterade) the online comments are more so. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/4/15)
