Gadfly Bites 8/29/18 – “If you can get the social stuff, the academics will come.”

1. In case you didn’t know it, the brilliance of Fordham’s Chad Aldis knows no bounds. Earlier this week, he was in Indianapolis to give expert testimony regarding online schools to the Indiana Board of Education. Aldis unleashed! (Chalkbeat Indiana, 8/28/18)
    
2. Missed this on Monday: an important commentary piece connected to Round Two of the Path Forward series in the Dayton Daily News. The author is a business owner who offers a radical suggestion to jump start big picture solutions, especially for minority students: countywide schools. (Dayton Daily News, 8/26/18)
    
3. It’s been super hot here in central Ohio this week. So much so that Columbus City Schools have sent kids home in the afternoons. That fact did not deter the school bus-powered tour conducted yesterday by State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria as he unleashed his new five-year strategic plan for education upon Ohioans. Mother Nature’s was the only heat he seemed likely to encounter because the plan was rapturously received. See today’s title for a preview. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/28/18)
    
4. That invite-only “community meeting” of parents in the Madison Local school district took place yesterday. It went down about how you think. But honestly, reading a couple of the quotes from the event’s ringmaster in this piece, I think maybe lack of STEM education is the least of the district’s worries. They should be looking at the effectivity of their English curriculum too. (Mansfield News Journal, 8/28/18)
    
5. Finally today, no less a light than Eric Hanushek has a commentary piece in the Plain Dealer today—opining that Ohio could take advantage of the growth in tech sector jobs if it just teaches its young people successfully. Oh well. Never mind. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/29/18)
    

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