Gadfly Bites 9/2/26—Against the grain

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1. U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati the top public high school in Ohio for the third consecutive year. It also rose 15 spots nationally, from 91 to 76. Huzzah! While it is part of Cincinnati City School District, Walnut Hills sounds much more like a high-dollar private school with high standards for admission when folks talk about it. “People know about Walnut Hills. People try to get here. It’s a big deal,” said the school’s assistant principal, who happens to have two children attending. (What are the odds?!) Aaron Churchill is also on hand to talk about how Ohio rates its public schools. And while the details might mean that Walnut Hills doesn’t come out looking perfect by state measures, I think it’s safe to say that everyone whose kids get to go there is perfectly happy with whatever those component rankings are. (Spectrum News 1, 9/2/26)
   
   

2. Cleveland Metropolitan School District is front-and-center in this national NPR story about school districts across the country steadily losing student enrollment over the years. Some districts, like CMSD, are finally taking the step they’ve long avoided: closing un- and underutilized buildings. While CMSD officials have worked very diligently to help students and families adjust to these necessary changes, you won’t hear much about that effort here. (Our Jessica Poiner has got you covered on that front, if you’re so inclined to investigate.) And a recent study on closures from California is cited without question as mitigating against Cleveland’s actions. (Fordham national’s Alicia Anderson has a different take on those findings.) So while important technical details are lacking in this public media coverage, the comments from a CMSD teacher at one of the merged schools seem heartening to me: “I think it’s just the culture…the little rifts” between the two groups of kids who previously attended different schools, she says. And it’s up to teachers to “get them to understand, like, now we’re one.” Yes. Yes. Yes. (Ideastream Public Media, 9/1/26)
   
   

3. Apropos of probably both of the foregoing clips, this piece digs into the fact that homeschooling has been on the rise in Ohio since Covid mitigation efforts shut down schools in 2020 and beyond. I find it interesting to focus on the data (how many students and where they are, for instance) and the various explanations and descriptions from families who chose homeschooling. Focusing on that good stuff allows me to ignore the outside voices—both pro- and anti-homeschooling—proffering their own explanations as to why homeschooling continues to be popular and what it means if the growth continues. I’m with the mom who says that even though it’s working well for her family, she still has to “manage the perception” of others. “You’re always going to be jabbed when you go against the grain, no matter what it is.” (Columbus Dispatch, 9/2/26)

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