Gadfly Bites 8/1/25—The end of a very bumpy road

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1. This is a really long story, but definitely worth your time for various reasons. It is an analysis of math and ELA test score performance comparing voucher-using students at private schools with students at various districts in and around Dayton. (Grades 3 through 8 only.) Kudos to the Dayton Daily News, which once again shows the value of having a dedicated and thorough education reporter (and team) on staff. Comments and cogent analysis from Fordham’s data guru Aaron Churchill are way down in the mix, along with Stéphane Lavertu, our Senior Research Fellow. You should read it all, but I’ll just point out two important things. First is to compare the responses to low test score performance from district and private school leaders as quoted here. Who responds to the data by saying that they are working to improve (with detailed examples), and who makes excuses for why the data do not tell “the whole story”? Even the leader of the lowest-performing private school explains in detail why the Montessori education method she uses does not lend itself to standardized test results, a fact that literally everyone has known for 100 years. Second is that, upon reading every word of this, the headline could easily be rewritten as follows: “Do private schools offer Ohio students a better education? Yeah, pretty much.” Just sayin’. (Dayton Daily News, 7/30/25) And if you want to dig into the numbers yourself, here’s a handy search box, courtesy of the awesome Josh Sweigart and Eileen McClory. (Dayton Daily News, 7/30/25)
   
   

2. Whew! Dayton City Schools officials have at last read the writing on the wall and given up their “fanatical work” over the last couple weeks to try and conjure up a transportation plan for high school students for the coming school year that doesn't fall afoul of new state laws. As I have noted repeatedly throughout this mess: It is not required for them to provide anything to high schoolers (except those with special needs); every scheme that they have tried for at least the last ten years has been an utter disaster; their first post-budget effort a couple weeks ago was predicated on forcing their own students to give up their intradistrict building choice; and it seems highly likely that whatever plans individuals, families, or groups of families come up with on their own will be simpler, safer, and more efficient than anything these “pros” could ever figure out. (Dayton Daily News, 7/31/25) As usual though, the elected school board goes down denigrating private and charter school students swinging. Elected board member Jocelyn Rhynard has an op-ed in the DDN where she once again blames the requirement for districts to transport school-choice-using students (interestingly focusing on private schools only and not mentioning charters at all) for Dayton City Schools’ inability to get their transportation show on the road properly. “DPS should not be mandated to transport students that do not attend Dayton Public Schools,” she says, and calls on “true partners” of the district to permanently end this requirement. To which your humble clips compiler says, as he always does in this situation, “Be careful what you wish for, your honor.” (Dayton Daily News, 7/31/25)

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