Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/23/17 - Gem City Funk
CEO David Hardy yesterday released a draft of his turnaround plan for the district, dubbed the “Lorain Promise”.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/20/17 - "It would break my heart to see students work so hard for their diploma only to...get the same job a dropout could get"
Ugh. Some days the clips write themselves, and some days are like today. Our own Chad Aldis is quoted in this brief piece from public radio on the possibility that Ohio’s various diplomas may fall afoul of ESSA graduation calculation requirements. I think. (WKSU-FM, Kent, 10/19/17)
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/18/17 - We informed you thusly
Our own Chad Aldis is quoted on the uniquely Ohio-centric nature of the attendance audit issues which resulted in a funding clawback order for ECOT (and other online schools, but who cares?) and reportedly threatens ECOT with
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Ohio revises its test for new teachers
It’s one of those perennial ideas in education reform that never seems to get across the finish line: raising the standards for who can teach in our schools.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/16/17 - Can-do, Won't-do, Don't-wanna-do
Just like other online general education charter schools and even brick-and-mortar charter schools before them, dropout recovery schools in Ohio are currently being ECOTted. That is, tarred with a brush meant for the much-reviled-in-whatever-form Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/13/17 - The CEO packs his bags
Big changes in the district became breaking news in Youngstown this morning.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/11/17 - "Hometown Hero" or "The Prodigal Returns"?
A statistic from a Fordham study regarding charter school attendance is referenced in this piece looking at education in central Ohio over the last 25 years, including both K-12 and higher ed. Nope. Me neither. (Columbus CEO, 10/9/17)
Commentary
Governance
How many millennials in Ohio hold college degrees?
Most American teenagers plan to head off to college after high school. In my organization’s recent survey of over 2,000 U.S.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Teacher salary schedules: More equitable but are they fair?
Most American public school teachers are paid according to salary schedules that take into account their years of experience and degrees earned.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/9/17 - “It's easy to learn to drive an empty school bus, but fill it with kids and it’s another story."
In the wake of ECOT’s assertion that it will have to close its doors in January if the clawback of funds by the state continues as planned, the Dispatch wondered what might happen to said clawback if those metaphorical doors – and the funding spigot – did indeed close.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/6/17 - The Sound of Lorain
Not much to report today; which is probably fine. The hour-long panel discussion of Lorain’s journey into (and hopefully out of) Academic Distress recorded last week finally aired yesterday on Cleveland public radio’s Sound of Ideas program. Worth a listen.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/4/17 - Administrator resigns! Board dissolved!! Another online charter school ready to bite the dust!!!
Another outcome of the report card data this year is that three school districts are another step closer to falling into Academic Distress classification due to two years of bad grades.
Commentary
ESSA
Standardization: How Ohio’s students with special needs may be affected by ESSA’s graduation provision
On September 15, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) submitted its ESSA plan to the U.S. Department of Education. Ohio’s current accountability system meets most of the stipulations of the new federal law.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/2/17 - Euphemistically speaking
I have said it before, but it bears repeating: the reach of Aaron Churchill knows no geographic bounds. Here he is commenting on standardized testing in a Pennsylvania news outlet.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/29/17 - Say Yes to what now?
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.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/27/17 - Fishing for sticks
I was remiss in not clipping this piece from the massive “CBus Next” education package in the Dispatch last week. It is about “the future of education” and talks a lot about technology – robots, combining science with art and history classes, virtual reality, etc.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/25/17 - But what if you measure it and don't improve it?
Two separate stories; a similar theme. That theme is the correlation between test scores and race/income as reflected in state report card data. First up, Aaron is quoted on that topic in the Dispatch.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/22/17 - Doesn't everyone hate loopholes?
More on state report cards to start the day. To wit: at least one state legislator is very very unhappy about state report cards, for reasons which are barely articulated in this piece. He’s got some support among the usual statewide public media interviewee pool.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/20/17 -- “They know it. They know they are treated differently.”
The folks at the Mansfield News Journal were curious as to how the district’s Malabar Middle School earned As on their progress grades (across the board, nice!) while still getting D and F grades in areas of achievement.
Commentary
Charter Schools
How did Ohio’s urban charters stack up on report cards?
Last week, the Ohio Department of Education released school grades for the 2016-17 school year. These report cards offer Buckeye families, community members, and taxpayers an important annual review of the performance of the state’s 3,000 plus schools and 600 districts.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/18/17 - "IRL" gets a bit more real
A little more on school report cards this morning if you can handle it. First up, Jeremy Kelley took a look at charter schools’ performance in the Dayton area as compared to each other and to local districts. Our own Aaron Churchill is there to help.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/15/17 - Report card palooza
In case you missed it, state report card data were released yesterday. Among the things we were looking at: the new two-year value added ratings, charter/district school comparisons, and how schools with large concentrations of poor students fared in serving them.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Will Ohio’s ACT scores dip next year?
The Statehouse newspaper, Gongwer, recently ran a piece covering the ACT test results for Ohio’s graduating class of 2017. The headline trumpeted the fact that Ohio’s scores again topped the national average—definitely good news.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Fordham Institute media statement on new school report card data
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) today released school report cards for the 2016-17 school year. The report cards offer an independent, objective lens through which Ohioans can view student and school performance in their local communities.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/13/17 -- Seemingly random
Editors in Columbus today opined in sunny approval of KIPP: Columbus (and a seemingly random list of a few other local charter schools). Nice. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/13/17)
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/11/17 - CEOMG - Parte Deux
The D took a look at some new national stats on chronic absenteeism and compared them with central Ohio districts. Some not-so-rosy findings, it seems. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/10/17)
Commentary
Charter Schools
Gadfly Bites 9/8/17 - Paging Dr. Hardy! Paging Dr. Hardy!
Not much to report on today, but let’s not let that get us down. First up, we’ve got a bit more insight into that “final offer” from the Columbus City Schools board to the teacher’s union.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/6/17 - New grad requirements spur district spending spree?
ECOT’s proposal to convert to a dropout recovery school has drawn predictable reaction (using words like “maneuver” and “switch”) especially in terms of the differences in accountability frameworks between general ed charters and dropout recoveries.
Commentary
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Policymakers should be careful about championing student GPAs
In response to widespread fears that too many students would fail to pass the state’s seven high school End Of Course (EOC) tests, Ohio lawmakers recently created additional graduation pathways for the class of 2018.