enquirer

Education News for 01-04-2013

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State Education News

  • Ohio Lottery Commission reinstates spelling bee funding (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • After discontinuing funding and considering a reduction in program support, the Ohio Lottery Commission has reached an agreement with Scripps National Spelling Bee…Read more…

Local Education News

  • School officials: Journey is safe (Ashtabula Gazette News)

    • Crossing guards, school resource officers, teachers, administrators and two additional police officers were on duty Thursday at Ashtabula Area City Schools to assist students on their way to and from school.…Read more…

  • Stark schools beef up security after Conn. Shootings (Canton Repository)

    • Shala Brown popped into Warstler Elementary School on Thursday to drop off the hat and gloves her daughter had forgotten that morning. As expected, she found a locked main door and a new doorbell outside.…Read more…

  • Focus group date set for Winton Woods schools superintendent search (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • The Ohio School Boards Association will host a community focus group to discuss the search for the next superintendent for the Winton Woods City School District.…Read more…

  • Deer Park schools' scores fall short, district looks ahead (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • After preliminary results of the state’s report card revealed lower scores and ranking, Deer Park Community City Schools officials are looking for changes to improve for next year.…Read more…


  • Finneytown to find superintendent by March 11 (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • The Finneytown Local School District is one step closer to finding a permanent superintendent to replace Alan Robertson who will retire Jan. 3.…Read more…


  • Parent widens claim against Columbus schools over data rigging (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The Columbus school district admits in a court filing that its employees made errors that could have resulted in bogus student-achievement gains on state report cards, and that they must stop.…Read more…

  • Mansfield school board elects officers (Mansfield News Journal)

    • Chris Elswick was re-elected president of the Mansfield City Schools Board of Education and Cliff Crose was elected vice president Thursday evening.…Read more…

  • New TPS board leader puts levy atop agenda (Toledo Blade)

    • Passing a new levy for Toledo Public Schools will be a top priority this year, the Toledo Board of Education’s new president said after her election Thursday evening.…Read more…

Editorial

  • Concussion rules to protect athletes (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Belatedly, Ohio has joined the ranks of states requiring extra caution for young athletes who may suffer head injuries.…Read more…

  • Graduation rates make poor measure of education levels (The Lantern)

    • In September, Gov. John Kasich gathered the presidents of Ohio's public universities and tasked them with determining how the state’s aid would be distributed.…Read more…

  • How school improved by 2 letter-grades on Ohio report card (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • The rising voices of about 70 middle-schoolers echo in the cafeteria at CSR Academy. “People, people, can’t you see?” the students shout in a sing-song chant. “CSR is building me!”…Read more…

  • Colleges set bar for remedial classes (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohio’s public colleges and universities have agreed to minimum ACT and SAT scores that will guarantee students don’t have to take remedial courses that cost them money but don’t count for credit.…Read more…

Education News for 09-17-2012

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State Education News

  • Ohio school board member appointed by gov resigns (Associated Press)

    • COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A member of the Ohio Board of Education is resigning for what he describes as "personal reasons."…Read more…

  • Kasich appointee off state board (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Dennis Shelton, an at-large member from Delaware who has advised the Republican governor on education matters, cited “personal reasons” for his departure in an email to the governor’s office following the board’s monthly meeting in Columbus this week.…Read more…

  • State auditors examining attendance records from Cleveland schools (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Ohio auditor's office is looking into attendance data at 15 Cleveland district schools as part of a statewide investigation.…Read more…

  • School funding issue in Ohio (Marietta Times)

    • With a new school funding model expected to be unveiled next year, Ohio is one of 35 states a report says are giving less money to public education now than before the recession.…Read more…

  • Consolidating districts may not save schools money (Middletown Journal)

    • In 1915, there were 2,674 school districts in Ohio.
    Several rounds of consolidations, beginning in the 1930s when school buses became…Read more…

Local Education News

  • Financial state of Caldwell schools on public's mind (Cambridge Daily)

    • CALDWELL -- The Ohio Department of Education has placed Caldwell Exempted Village School District in a state of "fiscal caution," Treasurer Jeff Croucher told members of the audience at the school board's meeting on Thursday night.…Read more…

  • Prep school accepting special needs applications (Chillicothe Gazette)

    • CHILLICOTHE -- Wesley Taylor Preparatory School is accepting students who are eligible for a special needs scholarship for the 2012-2013 school year.…Read more…

  • Rosters longer at city's schools (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • Cincinnati Public Schools has about 3,000 more students enrolled – at least on paper – than it predicted back in the spring.…Read more…

  • Cleveland schools hoping pay cuts will resolve $13 million budget gap (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland schools have a $13 million budget hole this year that will have to be closed with cuts in teacher pay or programs, or by voters passing a proposed tax increase in November.…Read more…

  • Architect sues Columbus school board (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The architect on a now-shelved renovation of the historic Indianola Middle School has sued the Columbus school board in federal court for more than $41 million.…Read more…

  • Now this is early intervention (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Some teens had iPod earbuds stuffed in their ears, drowning out the wild cheering. Hoodies up. Others stared straight ahead or at the ground.…Read more…

  • Are charter schools really making the grade? (Dayton Daily News)

    • In the past 15 years, some public charter schools have shined as examples of what they were intended to be — incubators in educational innovation that could be replicated elsewhere.…Read more…

  • Seniors act as school amabassadors (Hamilton Journal-News)

    • Four Faifield High School seniors are gaining real-world experience this school year while sharing news from their school district with the community.…Read more…

  • Technology turns the classroom upside down (Hamilton Journal-News)

    • Paper is optional, on the way to becoming obsolete in Mollie Marot’s biology classroom at Badin High School.…Read more…

  • A closer look at the school data scandal (Mansfield News Journal)

    • Government inspectors have been poring over student attendance records across Ohio, looking for evidence of impropriety that could affect the way communities view the success of their schools.…Read more…

  • Licking County schools feeling pressure of new state reading program (Newark Advocate)

    • NEWARK -- For Licking County third graders struggling with reading, their scores on next year's Ohio Achievement Assessment could mean the difference between moving to fourth grade and being held back when Ohio's Third Grade Guarantee takes full affect.…Read more…

  • Electric buses under study for schools in area (Toledo Blade)

    • FINDLAY — School officials from Hancock County and the surrounding area are taking a look at adding buses to their fleets that will require a plug-in rather than a fill-up.…Read more…

  • Message to Mathews board: You need to address this (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Representatives of the Ohio Department of Education say they will be quite clear about the severity of the deficit facing the Mathews schools when they address the board of education at its next regular meeting Wednesday.…Read more…

Editorial

  • Memo to students: Change is on the way (again) (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • To:Ohio and Kentucky Public School Students
    From:The Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial Board
    Subject:The Common Core Standards, Your Education and Your Life…Read more…

  • Under a cloud (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Debate over how much, if any, school-performance data the Ohio Department of Education should release this year is understandable.…Read more…

  • Editorial: Third Grade Guarantee -- Read or flunk (Lima News)

    • While there are few guarantees in life, folks in Ohio can take this one to the bank. Starting next school year, every third-grader must read at a proficient level or they'll be held back.…Read more…

  • Long-distance busing just a few students a waste of resources (Newark Advocate)

    • The legal struggle regarding the Northridge school district's sensible decision to stop busing private school students to schools near Columbus raises a host of questions.…Read more…

The diminished power of the press

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The governor wasn't the only big loser last night. In fact, he probably wasn't even the biggest loser. That accolade might well be laid at the door of Ohio's print media. In usual tradition, each of Ohio's major newspapers made their endorsements to both fanfare and derision, but as the State Troopers Association notes not so ironically on the Facebook page

Ohio State Troopers Association (O.S.T.A.)
Newspaper Endorsements: Building a Better Ohio trumpeted the endorsements of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Columbus Dispatch. A review of the clout of these endorsements discloses the Dispatch endorsement produced a 36/64% vote against Issue #2 in Franklin County. The Plain Dealer did even worse, helping Issue #2 to a better than two to one thumping and the Cincinnati Enquirer endorsement preceded a 42/58% vote against Issue #2.

Is it any wonder that the printed media is looking so economically unstable. The real endorsements were found in the millions of social network pages that served as a peoples press.

Quite. But that is not all. Plunderbund, in their long SB5 reaction piece makes mention of this too

The irrelevancy of newspaper endorsements

Building a Better Ohio made much to do about getting the endorsements of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Columbus Dispatch.

Here’s the splits on Issue 2 for those counties:

Cuyahoga: 31% (endorsed position)/69% (against endorsed position).
Franklin: 36%/64%.
Hamilton: 42%/58%.
The Dispatch and Plain Dealer saw their endorsed position perform substantially worse in their home counties than they did overall. How is endorsing a position that is opposed by roughly two-thirds of your customer base smart business?

Let’s also not forget that it was many of these media outlets who called labor “foolish” for risking an all-or-nothing political gamble on a referendum campaign, even as polls at the time showed them with twenty-point leads. That was the main argument for a compromise… because Issue 2 was too divisive. Issue 2 won by almost the same margin as Ted Strickland did against Ken Blackwell in 2006. Nobody called Strickland’s election “divisive” with those numbers.

Keep in mind, there wasn’t a single newspaper in Ohio that endorsed Issue 3, either. There is nothing in the 2011 results to suggest that these endorsement brought about anything but cancelled subscriptions.

We raised this question, with the Editor of the Dispatch, Ben Marrison, about newspapers making endorsements and how they might cause readers to question the partiality of the Dispatch's reporting. The reply

@jointhefutureOH Newsroom doesn't make endorsements. We just write stories.

We replied "@dispatcheditor Yeah, but do you think readers really make a distinction? Newspapers should get out of the endorsement biz, and just report."

Given that newspaper endorsements no longer appear to carry any influence, and rightly run the risk of alienating readers, subscribers, advertisers and raising doubt on the partiality of reporting, should newspaper endorsements be cast into the dustbin of history? We believe they should be.