Gadfly Bites 8/26/26—Putting in the effort

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1. As the new school year gets fully underway across Ohio, NBC 4 News is here to remind us that this is the first full year that all Ohio schools are subject to a bell-to-bell cellphone ban for students. (NBC 4 News, Columbus, 8/26/26) The first day for most Norton City Schools students was last Thursday. Which means that today is the first No-Tech Wednesday of the school year, a new rule requiring students (and teachers too) to put their devices aside for screen-free learning one day per week. District leaders are using the catchphrase “Teach Like It’s 1999” to boost the effort, which superintendent Bryan Farson explains: “This is not about turning back the clock. It is about recommitting ourselves to the instructional practices that have always been the foundation of great teaching.” Given the report card standing in Norton, it’s likely that whatever they’re doing is going to turn out just fine. (Akron Beacon Journal, 8/26/26)
   
   

2. Meanwhile, here’s an interview with three students attending Franklinton High School, a dropout recovery charter school in Columbus. The reportorial focus is the amount of missed days they all racked up at previous schools and the reasons for it, but their candid answers reveal a lot more than that. They were all so disconnected from school for various reasons that even when they showed up, it doesn’t sound like they were learning too much…or caring about it one way or another. (ABC 6 News, Columbus, 8/24/26) Ditto for this companion piece which digs into the ways in which Franklinton High School has reduced its chronic absenteeism rate—by 30 percent—over the past three years. Their efforts include buying multiple small transit vans to pick up kids who might need a ride from time to time. But again—there’s more to it than that. “We have to build trust with them so that they trust us and know that we’re going to take care of them and help them,” principal Jennifer Griffith explained. “That hasn’t always been their experience.” Reading about the students’ new focus on education and their future plans in the previous piece, I believe her. (ABC 6 News, Columbus, 8/24/26)

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