Gadfly Bites 8/21/20 – Aim high

1. We’ll start today with one of the more bizarre stories to come down the pike in a while. It seems that Columbus City Schools’ chief academic officer has been moonlighting in a similar full-time job for the Philadelphia school district for several months. Since the news broke, she has been fired from Philly and suspended (with pay) from Columbus while folks smarter than me try to figure out what the heck is going on. Apparently, the situation came to light when journalists noticed her participation in highly-important school reopening discussions in the two cities one day apart. I am certain that remote working allowed it to go unnoticed for so long (and I kinda admire her brass for making it this far). But for me, the question of “why’d she do it?” is far more important than how. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/19/20)
    
2. Next, we move on to something far more common: a journalistic hit job on Ohio’s voucher programs. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/19/20) That piece is super long and yet still requires a separate “technical report” that explains the methodology used. This includes a reference and link to Fordham’s 2016 report on voucher student achievement, but I’m pretty sure that they didn’t really read or understand that report. Otherwise, they would have known they were utilizing the all-too-familiar apples-to-bowling-balls comparison required to make such hit pieces hold together. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/19/20)
    
3. Oakwood City Schools will reopen this fall with a hybrid model. Students opting to attend face-to-face will do so on half-day schedules. To help safeguard the health of students and teachers, brand new air purifiers will be active in every classroom. (Dayton Daily News, 8/19/20) Seems like Oakwood—and other districts trying to reopen long-closed buildings—could use some water purifiers as well. (Dayton Daily News, 8/19/20)
    
4. The digital divide is on the minds of educators and families facing many more weeks of remote teaching and learning this fall. Despite the easy talking point of focusing the discussion on schools and students, as Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon points out: “We need to broaden this conversation… This is not [just] a school problem.” He continues, “When we shut down in Ohio, we told people, ‘go home, stay at home, apply for unemployment online, apply for jobs online, go to school online, go to your doctor online’.” This is all true, and the Wi-Fi access problem predates the ‘rona. So why are there still folks expecting schools to solve it at all; let alone all by themselves and by opening day? (IdeaStream, Cleveland, 8/19/20) Here is a look at EmpowerCLE, a new low-cost internet service created by a consortium of northeast Ohio nonprofits and community organizations (yes, including CMSD) and rolling out around Cleveland right now. Sounds like a great effort. (Cleveland.com, 8/19/20)
    
5. So assuming that the proper WiFi and devices are available, how will remote learning look this fall as compared to last spring? This piece from Northeast Ohio puts something of a rosy spin on spring’s “efforts”, and engages in a bit of deflection as to what the barriers to quality teaching and learning were and from whence they emanated. Given that table setting, the key to improvement is, we are told, “streamlining”. That is, reducing the numbers and focusing the types of online learning platforms being utilized. (Cleveland.com, 8/20/20) For a rather different perspective, here is the information provided by Wright Patterson Air Force Base to their families, many of whom have chosen among educational options including traditional district, online charter, private school, and homeschooling. Sounds like the Air Force and the Ohio Department of Education are aiming high in providing needed support to families in all of these choices. (Fairborn Daily Herald, 8/20/20)
    
6. One thing we haven’t heard much about for the fall—as compared to the spring—is provision of school breakfasts and lunches to families in districts without in-person school. Here we learn that Toledo City Schools will be utilizing its yellow bus fleet to distribute meals to students throughout the city in what sounds like a large and complex operation. Just the way transportation people like it, I’ll bet. (Toledo Blade, 8/19/20) There is no discussion in the foregoing story about yellow buses being used to transport charter or private school students who are attending school in person in the Toledo area. But here is some info about a pending piece of legislation that aims to…“clarify” (shall we say) the responsibilities of districts in that regard. (Statehouse News Bureau, 8/19/20)
    
7. “The dream that we had for our kids even before they were born was to make sure that education was a big part of their life… I told my kids, it’s not about the size of the home, it’s about the ZIP code and the location. As a Black person, as a minority in this town and in this state, it doesn’t get any better than Bexley as far as we’re concerned.” This is an interesting and important discussion for lots of reasons. And the story of the Woodford family, told from the perspective of each of its members, is compelling. It doesn’t sound like it was always smooth for them despite the vital focus that the family patriarch held rock steady over the last 15 years. Take a look. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/20/20)
   

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