- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has come out swinging in opposition to changes in charter school oversight passed by the Ohio House in the education MBR. He is particularly vexed by language addressing the Cleveland Plan’s efforts to promote successful charter schools in Cleveland while choking out those not successfully educating children. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel wades into the education world in a big way - touting his love for vocational education loud and clear - in the Wall Street Journal no less! (Wall Street Journal)
- Several papers in central Ohio are touting the new Innovation Generation initiative, intended to link local students to a community college/employment pipeline, generously funded by J.P. Morgan Chase. (Columbus Dispatch)
- Speaking of community college, the PD reports on new research that shows transfer students with associate degrees were 49 percent more likely than those who didn’t complete a two-year degree to complete a bachelor’s degree within four years. A link to the research study is available from the PD as well. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Last stop in Cleveland today: an update on parent/teacher meeting numbers in the district so far this year. And they’re actually pretty good. Note that this is the first year such statistics are being tracked and reported…and that it’s actually the law in CLE for parents to have such meetings. Color me impressed. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- An op-ed by a former district administrator and current adjunct professor proposes a two-year "begin school ready to learn" program free to any child who qualifies for a lunch subsidy or has been identified as lacking age-appropriate literacy/number skills through pre-K readiness assessment. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- Marion City Schools has hired a former Common Core training guru as its Assistant Superintendent. (Marion Star)
- The details of Mansfield City Schools' fiscal recovery plan are not the most interesting aspects of this story, although they are interesting in themselves. What’s most fascinating is the clearly uneasy relationship between the fiscal oversight committee (led by the frankly brilliant Paul Marshall) and the district. Also worth noting is the high quality journalism which uncovers the tension by juxtaposition of long quotes between the two parties. (Mansfield News Journal)
- Back in March, the Lorain County ESC touted the results of a survey of registered voters that indicated legislators were "out of touch" with regular folks on education issues in Ohio. You can find that golden oldie here. Well, last week two tiny districts in the county passed some resolution vowing to “return local control” to districts, based on those survey results. Note that that survey was returned by 630 registered voters – that’s .0031 percent of all registered voters in the County (as of November, 2013). Note also that Lorain City Schools, currently under state oversight via an Academic Distress Commission, did not pass such a resolution. Let the revolution begin! (Northern Ohio Morning Journal)
- We’re all gung-ho for vo-tech around here - seriously, see item #2 above - but let’s beware of a possible downside to hanging out in a traditional vocational school all day. And I'm serious about that. (Amherst News Times)
