- Before we get to the action from this week’s state board of education meeting, let’s take a look at a pretty important Ohio Supreme Court ruling in the case of Hope Academy Broadway Campus v. White Hat Management which came down yesterday morning. We’ve discussed this one before and you can find a concise summary here, but outside of the legal arena the story goes like this: charter school opponents think of it as a referendum on the fundamental structure of charter school sponsors/operators/boards while charter school supporters – and a majority of supreme court justices, it appears – think of it as fundamentally a case of contract law with a public-funding twist. The court’s decision swung toward the latter, ruling in favor of the management company. Our own Chad Aldis (J.D.) is quoted in two stories in regard to the contractual issues in the case. One from the ABJ (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/15/15) and one from Ohio public radio (WKSU-FM, Kent, 9/15/15). Here’s hoping the term “judicial gymnastics” doesn’t conjure up any weird images for you. And if you’re interested in coverage of the ruling without Chad or that term, you can check out Gongwer. (Gongwer Ohio, 9/15/15)
- Now to the state board meeting. Item 1: the rescinded charter school sponsor evaluations from earlier this year. Lots of questioning of the state supe over this, some folks storming out of meetings about it, some outside entities urging the board to take one action or another, and even some public testimony from Chad in support of the Ohio Department of Education’s ongoing efforts to crack down on bad sponsorship practices. The Enquirer summarizes Chad’s testimony in their piece, which also appeared in a number of other Gannett outlets. (Cincinnati Enquirer, others, 9/15/15). If you’re interested in Chad’s full remarks, they can be found here.
- So, the bottom line after all the sturm und drang this week is that no outside investigation of the rescinded charter sponsor evaluations is forthcoming, although several inquiries and/or audits are still to come in regard to the matter. See the Plain Dealer (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/15/15) and the formerly-Big D, among others, for details of how it all shook out. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/16/15)
- Item 2 under discussion among board members was the so-called “Youngstown Plan” (really, a strengthening of the state’s Academic Distress Commission protocols which are, currently, narrowly focused on Youngstown). That caveat I typically make in reporting on the Youngstown Plan is partly in jest, but the realities of – and the motivations for – the ADC changes were really what ODE staffers wanted to get across in their testimony before the state board. Probably won’t help placate the haters, but you can check out some nicely detailed coverage in Gongwer (Gongwer Ohio, 9/14/15) and some more-succinct coverage from public media. (StateImpact Ohio, 9/15/15) The word “noble” is used. You have been warned.
- Speaking of ADCs, the only other district under an Academic Distress Commission – Lorain City Schools – has a new superintendent who has, apparently, hit the ground running in his first few weeks on the job. He’s sending text messages like a teenager hyped up on Red Bull and spending money on new afterschool programs like…. well, like a superintendent with money to spend. Wow, that joke went south quickly. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 9/15/15)
- They last major item on the agenda of the state board was PARCC testing. Specifically, setting the cut scores for Ohio’s one and only PARCC administration last year. None of this will likely matter much a year from now, but let’s just say that “proficient” ? “college ready”. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/15/15)
- Back in the real world, here’s a fascinating story about an effort in Cincinnati Public Schools to expand access to AP courses. It is not economically feasible, the district says, to offer full AP courses in schools where participation is low. To remedy this, they are offering blended-learning versions of some AP courses to enable a single teacher to reach students in multiple high schools currently without such courses. The program includes laptops and wifi hotspots for students, which is great news in terms of accessibility of the online portions of the classes, and Cincy knows a thing or two about AP success, according to their state report card. But there is no data yet from last year’s single-course pilot program. Increased access is good; increased success is better. That sentiment is not exactly explicit in this story. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/15/15)
