- State supe Paolo DeMaria and veteran analyst Howard Fleeter were featured presenters at this week’s meeting of the House Speaker's Taskforce on Education and Poverty. Truth be told, I didn’t hate what they had to say, especially their focus on schools which are already showing success in closing achievement gaps for students living in poverty. (Gongwer Ohio, 9/28/17)
- Kudos to Jeremy Kelley for being the first journalist to look at teacher ratings as part of the recent report card data. Brickbats for the data, which seems somewhat unrealistic. (Dayton Daily News, 9/29/17)
- “Dear ECOT, I have some questions about your expenditures under the line item ‘advertising’. Give me a call when you get a chance. Sincerely, Auditor Yost (…). P.S. – Please find enclosed several subpoenas and the phone number of the attorney general’s special counsel appointed to help me out on this. TTFN. Dave.” (Columbus Dispatch, 9/27/17) “Dear ECOT (and VCS, but that’s beside the point), still finding some big discrepancies in your attendance audit for last year. Because it wasn’t nearly as bad as the previous year, you may be pleased to find that the enclosed clawback invoice is a much more modest $19.2 million. We will make the appropriate adjustments in your next month’s payment. Sincerely, ODE.” (Columbus Dispatch, 9/28/17) “Greetings ECOT/Occupant. You may already be a winner! Sincerely, Publishers Clearing House.”
- Speaking of money, CEO Krish Mohip and board member Jackie Adair are sparring in the newspaper over the amount and types of legal expenditures incurred by Youngstown City Schools in the previous fiscal year. Yucky. (Youngstown Vindicator, 9/29/17)
- Speaking of districts operating under the aegis of an Academic Distress Commission, a full hour was devoted to the topic of Lorain City Schools’ past, present, and future in a panel event hosted by IdeaStream’s Mike McIntyre and taped this week live in Lorain. There are a couple of glaring omissions among the panelists. See if you can spot them. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 9/28/17) The show is slated to air on Monday.
- Not to ignore the only other district CEO in Ohio, Cleveland’s Eric Gordon urged his city to go all in for the “Say Yes to Education” initiative, which is sizing up the CLE for possible expansion but needs quite a hefty community buy-in to win them over. He said in his State of the Schools Speech this week that Say Yes will change a “no-win” situation into a “winnable” one. Hmmm… Seems like a bold admission to me. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/27/17)
- We end today with one of my favorite topics: starting school later in the day. Hilliard City Schools bought into the science and implemented a new evidence-based schedule this year. After the first couple of months of school, how’s it going? There are pluses and minuses. (ThisWeek News, 9/26/17)
