- Report card analysis continues across Ohio. Our own Aaron Churchill is quoted in this piece on how poverty and report card outcomes are apparently “linked” for kids here in central Ohio, focusing particularly upon the value added measurement. Aaron is a whiz at explaining value-added; he has had to do so for me at least ten times. I am not a whiz. At anything. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/20/19)
- It should be pointed out that not everyone is obsessively analyzing their report cards. “We quit paying attention to the state school and district report cards years ago,” says the superintendent of Licking Valley Local Schools, so as to emphasize that point. “I haven't even looked at it for several years now. It's simply not how we measure effectiveness, and it certainly does not define the LV Schools.” Licking Valley’s overall grade rose from a D to a C this year. But by all means, don’t let that define you, sir. (Newark Advocate, 9/18/19)
- I don’t know if it’s technically possible, but the associate editor of The Blade appears to be tripling down on his hatred of the state’s academic distress paradigm following Toledo City Schools’ recent escape from same. Oh, and report cards too. Because they are the means by which academic distress determinations are made, you know. The only thing he does seem to like? The Joint Education Oversight Commission. I have no idea why. RIP JEOC – pronounced “rrrrrip jay-ock”. (Toledo Blade, 9/20/19)
- So what’s the status of the legislation that might make the Blade editor’s desired changes to Ohio’s academic distress paradigm? (“changes to” = “elimination of”, BTW) I am probably the wrong person to ask, but Carissa Woytach’s recent piece in the Chronicle sounds fairly optimistic. Did you know: there’s an effort to include a provision whereby the local teachers union gets final say in turnaround plans? I might call that hyper-local control, personally, but what do I know? (Chronicle Telegram, 9/18/19)
- Meanwhile, folks in Youngstown are moving forward as if there will be no changes at all for them. To wit: the process to dissolve the current elected board and to replace that board with members approved by the city’s mayor proceeds apace. Is it my imagination here or does Mayor Brown seem to have the coolest head in all of Youngstown? (Vindy.com 9/19/19)
- Finally this week, in non-accountability news—but in keeping with our theme of locals vs. state government—Plain Local Schools is suing the state to block a provision included in the recent budget bill. The provision is intended to simplify the process for families looking to rezone their property from one school district to another. Even though most such efforts result in a win for the homeowners (recently, anyway; Plain Local apparently won such a case back in aught-five), we have repeatedly seen it to be a long, drawn, out, and cumbersome process for them to get to any final decision. Why would we ever want to fix that, I ask you? (Canton Repository, 9/18/19)
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