Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/1/17 - Venting your spleem
Fordham is namechecked in this story about charter school sponsorship in Cleveland. But in a good way.
Commentary
Diversifying our selective colleges begins in kindergarten
By Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Brandon L. Wright
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/30/17 - Going to the dogs
Tis the season, apparently, for reinvention in Ohio’s charter school sector. One such reinvention has made big news (you know the one I’m talking about), but another has occurred under the radar until now.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/28/17 - Peace in the (Mahoning) Valley?
Some dude was busted last week for receiving and selling public transit bus passes stolen from Columbus City Schools and intended for students in lieu of yellow bus transportation.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/25/17 - New study on school closures gets some attention in Ohio
ECOT’s transformation from general online school to dropout recovery school drew some additional ink this week. First up, the Dispatch suggests this is an effort by the school to avoid certain areas of accountability.
Commentary
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/23/17 - Seriously - what's that smell?
Fordham is namechecked in this story noting the first day of school in Columbus. Specifically, the crack journalists at Columbus’s Fox affiliate discussed the new lowered graduation requirements for this year’s seniors.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/21/17 - Developing a culture of trust in Youngstown
Lots of folks in the Dayton area seem to be angst-ing over ongoing expansion of the EdChoice Scholarship program to give vouchers to more students from low-income families each year. Even the comments section is more lively than usual for the DDN.
Commentary
Governance
New approaches to fighting poverty in Ohio worth keeping an eye on
Research continues to point to the correlation between socioeconomic status and educational outcomes. Three new initiatives in the Buckeye State are cause for cautious optimism that old methods of addressing poverty may be giving way to innovation and new promise, especially for our youngest citizens.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/18/17 - Flavorized!
Fordham’s Chad Aldis is quoted as saying that online schools are “not going away” in this piece from earlier in the week in which Columbus editors opine in support of Auditor Yost’s (…) recent guidance regarding charter school funding claw backs. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/17/17)
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Don’t rush to judgment on test scores
Back in July, the Columbus Dispatch posted an article entitled “Ohio high schoolers test poorly in math.” The story emerged from a State Board of Education meeting at which the Ohio Department of Education (ODE)
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/16/17 - The too-many-quotation-marks edition
Our own Chad Aldis, an expert in charter school policy if the press it to be believed, is quoted in this new piece regarding pending legislation designed to “return” money clawed back from charter schools to the district schools from which it was “taken”.
Commentary
Governance
Ohio’s State Board of Education: We need a high bar, not just for students, but for our leaders
July and August might otherwise be sleepy months best reserved for recovering from Ohio’s biennial budget process, lounging beachside, and avoiding one’s smartphone and computer. The downtime also creates space to reflect.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/14/17 - "Bogged down in bureaucratic stuff"
As all my loyal Gadfly Bites subscribers know, your humble clips compiler is consistent in believing that, aside from you, very few others take this little news clips lark seriously (and that both of you should probably find additional hobbies; just sayin’).
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/11/17 - Guidance issues
In case you missed it, State Auditor Dave Yost (…) issued some guidance this week. What’s the big deal, I hear you ask. Doesn’t he do that literally every week? Well, probably.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/9/17 - "Innovation? We don't need no stinkin' innovation."
But we do. Really.
Commentary
Governance
On poverty: Coming to our senses
Somewhere between the right and the left – between the un-nuanced mantras of personal responsibility and big government – lie most of the problems related to poverty, as well as most of the solutions. So said Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance in his opening remarks at a Columbus Metropolitan Club event in Columbus last week.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/7/17 - Stumped
Contract talks in Dayton resume today with some distance still between the two sides. Folks seem upbeat but it will be a long day today and probably Wednesday too, the only other scheduled bargaining day. In between – a school board meeting.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/4/17 - But which one is the room where it happens?
Contract negotiations between the teachers union and district administration resumed in Dayton yesterday after nearly two months off. Those negotiations were to begin with the two sides sitting in separate rooms. That way nothing could go wrong. Nice.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 8/2/17 - “You couldn’t argue with it... It’s like the keystone of academic and social success.”
Dayton school board members are not the only ones preparing for a possible teachers strike to start the school year: the union ratcheted up the tension to at least “triple dare” by voting this week to authorize a 10-day strike notice ahead of resumed contract negoti
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Kasich keeps Ohio teacher residency program
Nestled within the General Assembly’s final budget plan as sent to Governor Kasich on June 28 was an under-the-radar provision that would have eliminated Ohio’s teacher residency program. This didn’t get a lot of coverage.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 7/31/17 - Hillbilly Melody?
There is a new superintendent in Youngstown City Schools. In a surprise to almost no one, it is not one of the out-of-towners recommended by the school board. It is instead, the current interim supe, a district veteran. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/29/17)
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 7/28/17 - "Poverty is a lifestyle."
Let’s start today with some statewide education news. To wit: this question.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 7/26/17 - And the Lorain CEO is...
Our own Chad Aldis is one of several Ohio sources quoted in this national piece looking at the state’s second-draft ESSA plan: how and why it’s changed, what its reception at USDOE might be, and what it means for accountability back home.
Commentary
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 7/24/17 - "What are you doing with that Blackberry during school hours, young lady? You know the rules."
Not much education news to report on from the weekend. In fact, there’s very little in the following pieces that has to do with education. More about adult interests, as usual. How very sad.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Sizing up teacher induction
The New Teacher Center (NTC) is a nonprofit organization that aims to improve student learning via supports for beginning teachers.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 7/21/17 - Oh the thinks you can think
We start to today with a clutch of stories from Lorain. The “realness” of the arrival of a CEO in the district seems to have caught up with the elected school board.