As the new school year gets underway across the state, there is a constant stream of news, views, and commentary on education issues. If you want to keep up, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has you covered!
We start today with the good news. Briefly mentioned in Friday’s Gongwer news roundup was the seemingly super-important tidbit that college remediation rates across Ohio dropped significantly between 2010 and 2016. Tell us more, y’all. Please! (Gongwer Ohio, 8/17/18)
In case you didn’t know it, discussion of Ohio’s graduation requirements is still front-burner stuff for some folks.
Our own Chad Aldis was a guest on All Sides yesterday, talking about the moldering corpse of ECOT and trying to get folks to understand what the real lessons of this story are. I’m not sure anyone on the panel was listening. (WOSU-FM, Columbus, 8/14/18)
The list of individuals whose personal wallets the state can tap to claw back funds from the moldering and far-more-extensive-than-you-might-have-though remains of ECOT seems nearly endless when you read this piece.
With so much great news this week, Ohio’s education reporters could be forgiven if they are not sure where to focus their time and effort first. Here is a very brief look at the departure of White Hat Management from the charter school management space in Ohio.
Reporter Josh Sweigart is still digging deeply into the difficulties facing Dayton City Schools. Case in point: his look at six factors that contribute to the observed achievement gap between black and white students in the district.
Geez. When you take LeBron out of the equation don’t read the sports page, there’s a lot less education news to talk about these days. What is out there is “eclectic”.
While the so-called “word gap” between children from low and high socioeconomic circumstances continues, as it has for decades, to get much attention, researchers are continuing to dig deeper into the quantity and quality of language with which young children interact. There is more to successful language acquisition than just pouring more words into their ears.
The good news: everyone in Dayton now seems to be on the same page regarding the timeline for a possible academic distress designation in the district.
As you may have seen in media outlets both social and not, Monday’s opening of the I Promise School in Akron was quite the event.
Since 2007, Ohio’s minimum wage has climbed from $6.85 per hour to the current rate of $8.30. Earlier this year, state Democratic leaders introduced a bill that would further accelerate minimum wage increases to $15.00 per hour by 2025.
Fordham’s own Mike Petrilli and Amber Northern have an editorial published in today’s Cincinnati Enquirer, discussing the findings of the recent Charter School Deserts report and urging changes in Ohio law that could address those issues here in the Buckeye
As we have discussed previously, Madison Local Schools near Mansfield has been engaged in a monthslong kerfuffle with a number of district parents over implementation of a new STEM curriculum in elementary and middle schools.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but summer will be over sooner than you think. Don’t blame me; blame LeBron James. Because his new I Promise School in Akron opens next week!
A couple of years ago, I had the honor of interviewing for a vacancy on my local school board. Working at an education think tank, especially one that supports school choice, leads many to assume I’m not supportive of traditional public schools. They are mistaken. My three kids have all attended their neighborhood schools, and my school district is a critical part of my community.
Both Chad Aldis and Jessica Poiner are quoted in this Gongwer piece on the potential effect of new rules for dropout recovery schools, recently approved by the State Board of Education. Sounds like those effects are difficult to prognosticate, but we will likely see how they did within a year.
Death, taxes, and the Browns missing the playoffs are just about the only predictable things on this earth. But far greater uncertainty exists in other aspects of life, including matters of school finance. A new paper by Stéphane Lavertu and Travis St.
If, many months ago when we were discussing the interdistrict open enrollment situation in Liberty Local Schools, you were asking yourself how it was possible for a district to enact a policy barring white students from utilizing open enrollment to leave Liberty
What’s up in Dayton? Awesomeness, that’s what. Just take a look. First up, a change in bell schedules for nearly every school building in the district is on tap for the new school year. Awesome.
With summer vacations now in full swing, the Ohio legislature is taking a breather after an eventful first half of 2018.
The Dayton Daily News has, it seems, decided to spearhead an all-out effort to help Dayton City Schools. It is part of their “The Path Forward” initiative which highlights different problem areas in the city. Not sure how extensive this series of articles will ultimately be, but it begins with three pieces published yesterday.
Not much to cover in education news today, but half of what there is includes quotes from our own Chad Aldis! So there’s that. First up, Chad is among the folks discussing A-F school report cards. Good? Bad? Informational? Punitive?
Following up on Monday’s big news: How did Secretary DeVos’ visit to Northwest Ohio go? Seems pretty good, but it’s hard to tell from this piece, which is more about protestors for some reason. Even Penta Career Center gets shortchanged here.
Noted newspaper nabob Bertram de Souza opined this weekend in support of the Youngstown Plan. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/8/18)
While LeBron James is leaving Northeast Ohio for a new job out west, his family foundation is plowing ahead with its support of the new I Promise School in Akron. He promises to be there on opening day in August. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/3/18)
Remember what we were saying last week about the downbeat assessment of the passage of a bill that would, among other things, change many facets of e-school accountability?
As we noted on Wednesday, the state legislature was moving expeditiously to pass a ton of bills, including one that contained measures to deal with Ohio’s “online charter school problem” (yes, that problem).
On Saturday, editors in Akron opined on the topic of Ohio’s “online charter school problem” – you know the one they’re talking about – and on the need for legislation to fix it.
The leader of the newest statewide e-school is introduced in this glowing piece from his hometown newspaper. Awesome. (Delaware Gazette, 6/22/18)
