Gadfly Bites 9/19/25—More!

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1. More report card coverage means more Aaron Churchill quotes. So let’s bring ‘em on! Here he’s parsing both reading (down) and math (up) achievement results. “Reading generally did not fall as much [last year as] during the pandemic,” he said, suggesting that teachers and schools are still getting used to new science-of-reading curriculum and pacing and needing a bit more time to get it all down pat. “We have seen more robust recovery in math. But that’s against a larger dip that we had in the pandemic,” adding that “One year doesn’t make a long-term trend.” Pragmatic and wise. “We need to preach some patience.” (Cleveland.com, 9/17/25)
   
   

2. Blog posts from both Aaron Churchill and Jessica Poiner are quoted and linked in this great piece on what is termed the “chaos” of industry-recognized credentials in Ohio’s schools. Sadly, the correct term is probably “fraudulosity” or “trickuliciousness” (if we're trying to be nice about it) because it seems pretty clear from my colleagues (and many others interviewed here) as well as the hard data that schools and districts across the state are spending a lot of time and effort to get students to earn credentials as a path to high school graduation without regard to whether the skills they represent—and they do represent skills achieved, don’t get me wrong—are of any practical value in the job market into which those graduates are emerging. I feel it’s pretty clear that a majority of them are valueless, and that adults pushing kids into them know this to be true. If so, it’s not “chaos” that’s happening, but something much worse than that, whatever you want to call it. (The 74, 9/18/25)
   
   

3. The former superintendent of Cincinnati City Schools opined doomily this week that “America’s schools are in historic turbulence” and must be fixed ASAP. This is not just her opinion; she shares it with the 200 current school district leaders she surveyed over the summer. “Their message was clear,” she says: “They are exhausted, anxious, and deeply concerned for our students’ futures. They identified five urgent challenges − and paths forward.” You will likely not be surprised to find out that poor academic achievement of students is barely clinging on at number 5 on the list (and characterized as “The Silent Emergency”, as if no one has been screaming it from the rooftops for years). You will be even less surprised to find out that the number one solution to all of these problems is Send More Money. I don’t know how much she was paid to come up with those findings, or indeed who footed the bill. Probably a lot. Personally, I could have gotten the same results for them for the price of 18 holes at General Custer’s. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/16/25)
   
   

4. The data used here are pretty old, but lawyer and podcaster Jack D’Aurora insists in this op-ed that student academic success clearly isn’t about the amount of money being spent—using Upper Arlington, Columbus, and Steubenville school districts as evidence—but about how (and how well) the dollars are used. I’ll leave you to read it and see if he’s truly making the points he thinks he is, but I will say I feel bad for the folks who run Steubenville City Schools for always being “the exemplar” in education discourse today…no matter what the point is or who’s trying to make it. That intense wattage of limelight cannot be a positive experience. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/18/25)

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