Gadfly Bites 9/18/19 – Correlating the causes of contradiction

1. Our own Aaron Churchill gives a nice analysis of where Ohio’s recent report card results fit into a national context. The news entity—with no connection to Paul Lynde, Joan Rivers, or Whoopi Goldberg (I checked)—is new-ish around here. Here’s hoping for more education stories to come. (The Center Square, 9/16/19) I dream of the day when the headline and the subhead of a story like this could be switched around. And/or the day when the awesomeness of the local independent STEM school might merit its own standalone story. But for now I will be content with the sentence “For the fourth year in a row, Dayton-area charter schools’ median performance index (49.4) was higher than the median index for Trotwood, Dayton and Jefferson Twp. district schools.” and the reality behind it. Go DECA! (Dayton Daily News, 9/17/19)
2. Editors at the Blade lauded Toledo City Schools for boosting their overall report card grade from an F to a D this year, thus restarting the clock on a state declaration of academic distress. The headline of the editorial is “slipping the failure trap” and it seems to reference that restarted clock. While the eds have a raft of demands going forward (at least two of which are “more money”), their logic seems off to me. But rather than critique that logic, how about I suggest they recast the title of the piece to refer to students rather than the adult-centric system and see if that changes their demands any. (Toledo Blade, 9/18/19) One of the editors’ non-monetary demands was an end to “state takeover” response to long term, pervasive academic suckitude. This seems to be a common message from various corners of the state. But it is simultaneously a common message that a number of districts worked their heinies off—successfully—simply to avoid that dreaded F. Anyone else note the contradiction there? At any rate, here’s a look at the Ohio Senate’s current efforts to make changes to the current academic distress paradigm from the perspective of a district to whom it matters not a whit. (Toledo Blade, 9/17/19)

3. Yesterday’s Senate Education Committee hearing on the proposed ADC changes sounds like a lot of fun, even based on Gongwer’s trademark dispassionate take. But the ending seems a little…inconclusive if I do say so myself. (Gongwer Ohio, 9/17/19) From the perspective of Youngstown, in the third year of ADC control, if the turnaround paradigm doesn’t change, then other things there are set to change big time very soon. (Vindy.com, 9/18/19) From the perspective of Jefferson Township Local Schools, having received an F this year, if the turnaround paradigm does change, then perhaps nothing else will change either. (Dayton Daily News, 9/18/19) See what I mean? A contradiction.
4. One more report card story for today. Cleveland.com’s Rich Exner did a comparison of all the school districts’ overall and component grades with census-reported median income in those districts. You’ll have to click the link to see all the charts in their pale yellow glory, but the impression given is that if you live in a poor school district, you should expect your district to get Ds and Fs: “the trends followed census data closely.” But correlation is not causation, as we all know. And journalist Exner notes that there are outliers bucking those observed trends which will be highlighted in a future story. Should be good. (Cleveland.com, 9/17/19)

5. Back in the real world… Teacher vacancies persist in Akron three weeks into the school year. Dang. (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/16/19) Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was in DeCLE this week, where she visited Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute. It is described as an education facility where “the formerly incarcerated learn the ropes of fine dining and French cuisine”. I am unclear where it actually fits in Ohio’s education panoply, but there was a documentary about it a while back so it must be cool. Hey hey! Ho ho! Escargot have got to go! (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/17/19) The state board of education (remember those guys?) passed some recommendations this week described as changes to the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. Since it seems to involve extending “intensive reading instruction” up through fifth grade, I’m not sure whether it’s a support for or a hedge against said guarantee. Anyone know? (Gongwer Ohio, 9/17/19)
   

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