- Late last week, the Ohio Department of Education announced the first ever recipients of state grants for charter school facilities. Given the stringent quality criteria, we are proud that two schools sponsored by Fordham are among the winners. We look forward to even more greatness from Columbus Collegiate Academy West and DECA Prep. (Gongwer Ohio, 8/19/16) Other coverage of the grants which focuses on local winners but does not mention Fordham or quote Chad can be found in the Dispatch (Columbus Dispatch, 8/20/16) and in the Plain Dealer. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/19/16)
- Editors in Cincinnati were keen to mention Fordham while opining on how to improve schools in Ohio. No, we are not part of the solution. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/22/16) North Coast curmudgeon Marilou Johanek must have been on the same conference call as the Enquirer editors, opining very similarly this weekend. (Toledo Blade, 8/20/16) The target of Ms. Johanek’s ire is concentrated: Ohio’s largest online school. So how did the ongoing legal kerfuffle over paperwork end up on Friday? With a courtroom victory for the school. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/19/16)
- How’d that door-to-door visit to Youngstown homes go on Friday evening? Just as awesomely as I figured it would. Check out coverage from the Vindy… (Youngstown Vindicator, 8/20/16) …and from a local TV station. (WYTV-TV, Youngstown, 8/19/16) No sign of any school board members among the photos and videos, but that probably doesn’t mean they weren’t there. No sign of any board members at Saturday’s March4Hope event either, but that probably doesn’t mean they weren’t there. Sounds like a good event. (WKBN-TV, Youngstown, 8/21/16) And today is officially the first day of school in Youngstown. Judging by this first look at opening day at East High School, it’s truly a new school year. “If you fail, we failed you.” Indeed. (Youngstown Vindicator, 8/22/16)
- The positivity being generated at the start of a possibly-momentous new school year in Youngstown is not being felt in the only other Ohio district currently under the auspices of an Academic Distress Commission. Folks in Lorain are lamenting their precipitous status, lack of academic progress, and a perceived “indifference” from the state. These guys do know they were complicit in causing the test changes they blame, right? (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 8/20/16)
- No such lamentations in Mansfield. The district’s testing coordinator has decided to tout from the rooftops the fact that some super state test scores emerged from the ranks of the district’s Spanish immersion students. The atypical nature of the education model (¡larga vida a las matemáticas!) is given credit for the results. Nice. (Mansfield News Journal, 8/19/16) In Columbus City Schools, both the Spanish and the French immersion schools have swanky new digs this year with AC and WiFi and big windows. Discussion of academics is almost entirely absent from this piece. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/21/16) Perhaps this wealth of Spanish immersion education has had a knock on effect elsewhere in Ohio. Monroeville Schools in far northern Ohio has been unable to secure a single Spanish language teacher for the school year, and so all Spanish classes will be done via online learning for the year. (Norwalk Reflector, 8/21/16)
- Meanwhile, students in Newark City Schools are clamoring for more STEM and robotics courses. Even though the director of curriculum development for the district is a former English teacher, she promises to make that happen for her kids. See you guys in the robotics competitions soon! (Newark Advocate, 8/20/16)
- Finally, last week’s entire edition of Newsmakers in Cincinnati was dedicated to the topic of Teach for America. Ben Lindy, director of TFA of Southwest Ohio is a guest, as are one former and one current corps member. Fantastic stuff, especially because the host of the show is a former high school teacher himself. (WKRC-TV, Cincinnati, 8/14/16)
