Gadfly Bites 9/25/26—Dogged digging

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1. Researchers gonna research opine set the record straight, I guess. The researcher who led Upjohn’s team evaluating the impacts of the Columbus Promise scholarship program is in the Dispatch today, refuting a number of points made by Fordham’s senior research fellow Vlad Kogan in his criticism of that report. I don’t presume to speak for Professor K, but I posit that he will not be swayed from his own analysis by anything in there. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/25/26)
   
   

2. Kudos to Signal Cleveland’s Franziska Wild for doggedly digging into the test score “anomalies” flagged at 15 high schools in northeast Ohio. She provides data on how many tests were flagged at each school and for what reason(s). Fordham’s Aaron Churchill is in the mix, discussing the importance of state test scores as an external check on course grades and student learning: “The integrity of test scores matters.” One of the charter schools flagged—Harvard Academy—said through a spokesperson that the school “has no evidence that improper testing practices occurred and remains fully confident that the Spring assessment scores accurately reflect its students’ achievement levels.” More to come, I’m sure. (Signal Cleveland, 9/25/26)
   
   

3. Here’s a nice look at Emerson Academy, a charter school in Dayton celebrating an improved (and asterisk-free) report card this year. Principal Nia Hogue told WHIO-TV that data, culture, and accountability are the keys. Every Wednesday, staff look at data from students to determine which lessons students understood and which need more work. That extra work comes via Friday afternoon and even weekend study hours at the school. “Our students bought into the culture that we created around academics,” she says. That a great start, but here’s a lot of room to improve. And Emerson staffers aren’t about to stop. New this year: a parents’ academy designed to spread that culture to families and to help instill it in the home as well as the classroom. Good stuff. (WHIO-TV, Dayton, 9/23/26)
   
   

4. Yesterday, we got word that Cleveland Metropolitan School District is going to announce plans for dispensation of 12 of its 18 recently-closed school buildings sometime today. As of this writing, those plans are not out yet, but given that the United Schools charter network has apparently already been rebuffed in their effort to locate in one of the buildings, I think we can predict how this is going to play out…despite the fact that the Ohio Attorney General’s office says they are “monitoring” the district’s dispensation effort. (Cleveland 19 News, 9/24/26)
   
   

5. Did you know that CNBC recently named Ohio the nation’s top state for starting and growing a business in its annual analysis of such things? If not, Ohio Excels’ Baiju Shah and Lisa Gray want you to pay attention. In their Ohio Capital Journal op-ed, they say that if the Buckeye State wants to maintain that crown, we must become “the best place for every student to learn, prepare for a career, and build a successful life.” And they’ve got a prescription to do just that—make Ohio top-performing state in K-12 academic performance and postsecondary outcomes—by 2035. Check it out! (Ohio Capital Journal, 9/24/26) Meanwhile, Bruno Manno, senior adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, focuses on Ohio in this piece, saying that our industry-recognized credential system has been out of control (as in too many kids earning too many “junk” certifications too easily), but that things are changing for the better. He digs into what the Buckeye State has done to rein in the old “anarchy” and to make credentialing valuable to students and employers again. Nice. (The 74, 9/24/26)

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