Gadfly Bites 9/11/19 – “We have to own where we are.”

1. As promised, the Senate Education Committee yesterday took a look at a bill promising some big changes to the state’s academic distress paradigm. Our own Chad Aldis was on hand to provide testimony. Gongwer’s coverage of the hearing is lengthy—it’s kind of quiet around Capitol Square, you know; plus this is important stuff—and detailed. (Gongwer Ohio, 9/10/19) Lots of detail on some of the testimony in the PD (not Chad’s, though). It’s clearly a complicated plan that’s tough to condense into a short-ish news report, but Patrick mostly covers it. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/10/19) Closer to the heart of the matter, however, the same cannot be said of the Elyria Chronicle’s coverage. A number of descriptions of aspects of the proposed new process here are muddled and confused. But perhaps it’s because there’s only one thing that really matters locally: whether Lorain City Schools gets released from “state takeover” via the final bill. And it is very clear that that is not the case as it stands now. (The Chronicle-Telegram, 9/11/19)
2. In separate but oh-so-related news, school and district report cards are to be released tomorrow. Some closely-watched districts have been getting out ahead of the news by publicly previewing their final overall grades early. Akron City Schools is super happy with their projected grade of D, even though it means that they stay the same as last year. (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/9/19) Ditto for Canton City Schools, also ecstatic over their projected D. This will be a boost from last year’s overall F for them. It was achieved, officials think, due in large part to a boost in graduation rate. You know what I mean. Even better: if that turns out to be the actual final grade, the clock will start over in regard the “turnaround” process, no matter which version we end up with. (Canton Repository, 9/9/19) The catchall report from this week’s meeting of the elected board of Canton City Schools noted the projected overall district grade (called, evocatively, a “fragile D”), but focused more on families cranked off about the district’s new Scrooge-ish busing policy. Still. (News5, Cleveland, 9/10/19) Speaking of report cards, the Dayton Daily News found not one single school district official anywhere who likes those things. Not a one. Can you imagine? (Dayton Daily News, 9/11/19)

3. Finally today, the elected board of Mansfield City Schools spent a couple of hours with a life coach cheerleader “national thought leader, keynote speaker & strategist” earlier this week and came out of it pretty darn jazzed and a couple of ideas around “public image” strategies. To wit: they would, in the future, like to “celebrate our diversity” (what were you doing before, one might ask) and to get the word out that “we hire our grads” (someone else who’s owning where they are, if you know what I mean). Oh those lucky families and students. (Richland Source, 9/10/19)

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