Gadfly Bites 11/29/17 - More challenging thinking
Maybe they were too optimistic? Maybe there was a wink and a nudge? Who knows?
Maybe they were too optimistic? Maybe there was a wink and a nudge? Who knows?
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation’s sponsorship annual report highlights our work with eleven schools that served 4,150 students in five Ohio cities during the 2016-17 school year.
We start the week with another update on Columbus City Schools’ upcoming surplus property auction.
Pretty busy meeting for the Columbus school board last night. Suspensions were approved for two more data scrubbing administrators. Both will retain their jobs after the sting of that wrist slapping abates.
Next September, Ohio districts and schools will receive an overall grade on their report cards. While the Buckeye State has generated overall ratings before—using labels such as “effective” or “academic watch”—this will be the first time Ohio assigns an overall A-F grade.
Fordham is namechecked in Jeremy Kelley’s look at the latest charter sponsor ratings. Makes sense since our sponsorship office (and two sponsored schools) is located in the Gem City. (Dayton Daily News, 11/20/17)
New Ohio charter sponsor ratings were released this week. For the first time, there are sponsors rated at the highest level, which is good. The Dispatch is focusing on the bad – 10 sponsors rated “Poor”.
Want a good read? Check out this little nugget on the Fordham-sponsored United Schools Network of charters here in Columbus, including a look at their new School Performance Institute. Just ignore the snarky subhead of the piece. They couldn’t help themselves, I suppose.
Youngstown City School’s CEO Krish Mohip recently announced significant changes to how his district will evaluate its teachers.
We’re back after a little break on Friday, with a lot of central Ohio education news. Stay with me on this first one; it’s twisty. Twenty-some years ago, Columbus City Schools was embroiled in a lawsuit over the use of religious music—specifically Christian hymns and spirituals—used in its graduation ceremonies.
In the last week, central Ohioans got an interesting look at how Columbus City Schools deals with its taxpayer-provided finances and assets, courtesy of two stories from the Columbus Dispatch.
Props to Columbus City Schools for this accounting control measure that likely saved the figurative bacon of dozens of district employees. Surprisingly. (Columbus Dispatch, 11/6/17) Why the surprise?
Youngstown CEO Krish Mohip this weekend unveiled a new teacher evaluation framework coming soon to his district – in which 50% of a teacher’s performance rating will be based on how the district as a whole is doing in terms of value added measures.
Not sure why, but the story about Dayton City Schools’ contract tussle with the Preschool Promise folks—clipped earlier this week—garnered more interest than usual from readers.
In That State Up North, a debate is brewing over the state board of education.
It seems like Dayton City Schools is advocating here to receive money for pre-K kids they don’t have. But I’m probably misreading it.