- The recent report by Ohio State University Professors Kogan and Lavertu—putting some very sobering numbers on pandemic-influenced learning loss in the Buckeye State—received national coverage from AEI’s blog last week. The title: “We are all Ohio”. Yep. Sounds about right. (AEIdeas, 9/10/21)
- The next few clips should probably be grouped under the heading “we seem to be losing the thread on education here in Ohio”. First up, the social studies elective course at Cuyahoga Falls High School titled Intro to Urban Agriculture is, for some reason, being put forward by its teachers as the salvation of civilization, nature, and teenagers. Participating in it even seems to protect kids from SARS-CoV-2, judging by the news that students were out in the garden “every day last year”, despite the fact that the district was on a fully-remote schedule for part of the year and on a hybrid learning model part of the year in which the 2 pm time frame was supposed to be fully-remote for every high schooler every day. The latter miracle notwithstanding, back in my day we’d have called this class “an easy A”. What do you suppose the final is in this class: Paragraph? Putting all the shovels away properly? Eggplant weigh-in? (Spectrum News 1, 9/14/21)
- Not to be outdone, the City of Columbus has created a nonsensical new program that links teens providing litter clean up around the city to earning money for their schools’ extracurricular programs. First, isn’t litter clean up an activity that prisoners sometimes do? Second, aren’t our schools swimming in cash these days? Third, isn’t our city swimming in cash these days? Fourth, isn’t there some SARS-CoV-2 variant other out there that kids shouldn’t be exposed to? (Fox 28 News, Columbus, 9/13/21)
- OK, so maybe not every school is swimming in cash. Springfield Local Schools have been in fiscal caution since October 2020, and with no fix in the last year—in fact with increasing deficits projected—they were placed on fiscal watch this week. That will bring stronger state oversight going forward in hopes of righting the budgetary ship. Hope nobody sues! (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/14/21)
- Some curricular materials being used as part of a college-level writing class taught at Hudson High School are causing quite a conflagration in this otherwise-quiet (?) Summit County town. As you may know, your humble clips compiler has two collegiate offspring currently. As you also may know, your humble clips compiler has a degree in creative writing from Ohio State earned in the last century. And for what it’s worth, none of us have ever taken a writing class providing such idea prompts as those listed here. What, literally, is the point of them? (Cleveland.com, 9/14/21)
- OK. After all that, let’s see if we can pull the nose up a bit. Here’s a nice look at the University of Cincinnati’s early IT program, an effort to reach high school students in the region and give them the basics they need to be ready for a college-level tech track after graduation. It sounds pretty well established and seems to be working well for many kids, although I will say that the fact that the Enquirer felt it had to explain what IT is made me think there may still be some informational barriers for UC to overcome. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/12/21)
- Charter school Utica Shale Academy is only now completing its most recent growth spurt but leaders have even bigger plans to expand not only their physical space but also their career-focused curricular tracks. Nice. (The Review, 9/14/21
- Finally today, one of these two people will likely be the next nominal boss of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Neither of them is named Dennis. Phew. (The Land, 9/14/21)
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