- Gadfly Bites is back on the beat after a long Labor Day break. Let’s cast our net back to last week, in the wake of the Ohio Department of Education’s release of 10,000 pages of emails and attachments (!) in regard to the withdrawn charter sponsor evaluations from earlier this year. It is unclear whether this piece from the Enquirer is opinion or journalism on the part of the cadre of authors, despite being tagged as the latter. What I do know is that our own Chad Aldis is quoted here, with two items standing out. First, he says, “Charter schools have gotten a lot of bad press over the last couple of years.” Truer words have rarely been spoken. And much of that bad press has been warranted. Also true, and likely more important in the context of this particular journalism/opinion piece: “Pointing fingers doesn’t get us one step closer to providing a better charter-school experience for our kids.” (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/6/15) Other Gannett outlets also ran this piece.
- Here’s another piece from last week, in the immediate aftermath of ODE’s release of its emails. It contains a frankly incomprehensible chart but really concerns the question of who knew what when in regard to the sponsor rating process. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/4/15) But after the long Labor Day weekend studying those docs, the PD came back again, still trying to figure out who knew what when. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/8/15)
- Meanwhile, on the (clearly) opinion front, the PD’s resident curmudgeon Brent Larkin opined early on that the current charter sponsor rating issue – combined with several others from his long memory – points to “policy rot” in the Kasich administration. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/5/15) And after the long Labor Day weekend studying the PD’s reportage on those ODE docs, editors in Akron opined in favor of an official investigation into ODE’s rescinded sponsor ratings. (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/8/15)
- “Who knew what when?” seems to be the question du jour on the minds of Ohio’s media outlets. Here it is again re: the so-called “stealth” cancellation of the magnet school campouts in Cincinnati. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/8/15)
- Lest any reader forgets that there is a fairly comprehensive charter law reform bill still pending in the Ohio legislature, here’s an update from Patrick O’Donnell. Specifically, this piece aims to clarify the issues that ended up stalling the legislation at the end of the spring legislative session – issues that hopefully will be quickly resolved once the legislators return from summer break. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/8/15)
- One upside to the whole charter sponsor rating thing is the unprecedented cooperation and camaraderie among Ohio’s journalists. You can see it in some of the pieces clipped above, and here is another case in point: this giant piece from today’s formerly-Big D on charter school funding in Ohio. It is also published in the Canton Repository, and likely other outlets will follow after the reporters and editors have their next conference call. I do kind of wish that the brain trust might get together to tackle the question of why so many kids want to leave their district schools in the first place (which, of course, precipitates the state funding following them out), but the Ohio Education Gadfly is never invited to their conference calls. (Columbus Dispatch, others, 9/9/15)
- Finally, I must also admit that I don’t understand how headline writers do their jobs. While the headline of this piece about how districts match their instructional materials to Ohio’s New Learning Standards applies to one of the districts interviewed, the remainder of the piece cuts almost entirely against the headline. Many districts are finding locally-determined, locally-created, customizable, and cheap curriculum materials easy to come by. So, why don’t the folks who find it easy and cheap tell the other fellow how they manage? Do they not have his phone number? Why can’t the journalist or the headline writer connect them up? Wait: Ohio’s New Learning Standards include the Common Core for English and math. Oh – now I understand how headline writers do their jobs (and perhaps why that conference call invite will never arrive). (Columbus Dispatch, 9/6/15)
