"AS THE WORM TURNS" ON STATE GRADING K-12 STARK CO. EDUCATION

STARK CO. EDUCATION LEADERSHIP SHOWS A "MARKED" HYPOCRISY?

It was not that long ago that the state of Ohio Department of Education (ODE) was issuing a bevy of "A" grades for many of Ohio's (including Stark County's districts) school districts.

When such was the case, superintendents of the "A" perhaps even "B" graded districts were ballyhooing their respective achievements.

But recently, with the issuance of the 2014-2015 school year Report Cards and within the last few weeks the 2015-2016 school year Report CARD, "the worm has turned" and the ODE has decided to quit coddling school administrators in giving a pollyannish look at what is going on in education in Ohio has now taken a turn to what is "really" going on, to wit:

there is a great "hue and cry" being broadcast throughout the villages, cities, townships and school districts of the Buckeye State seeking the "explain away" the dramatic change in picture with the onset of a new reality.

The SCPR applauds the ODE's "worm-about" and thinks that superintendents across the state and emphatically in Stark County need to toughen up their curriculums and education instructional processes and, over time, get ranks "authentically" on the up tick.

Instead of bellyaching, big-pay collectively, and, in some instances individually (e.g. Adrian Allison in Canton City Schools), school administrations need to own up to the largely "non-value added" education that all too many Ohio/Stark County school children are receiving from the 21st Century Ohio school model.

It appears that the "bellyaching" approach is the one that Stark County education leaders had decided to employ.

Recently, a sampling of the folks met with The Repository bigs in a damage control session.  It seems to have worked.  The Repository recently published a article giving voice to the excuse making.

Readers should take seven minutes (LINK) to view this video of a Saturday appearance of Cleveland City Schools superintendent Eric Gordon as likely being representative of what The Repository folks heard of the delegation of Stark County-based superintendant in their rec

It it well known that the American education model is not faring well in comparison made in the international community.  See this LINK to a BBC report which ranks the United States at 28th on science and math among the nations of the world.

Recently the SCPR published a chart summary of how Stark County school districts fared in the 2015-2016 school year report.

Recently, the Cleveland Plain Dealer took the report card grades of all 608 Ohio school districts and assigned them a GPA (grade point average).  (LINK to article).

Here is how Stark County school districts fared:

There you have Massillon with a GPA of F+ on academic related matters and recently embroiled with the Ohio High School Athletic Association (LINK 1, LINK 2) on a football player recruiting/eligibility questions.

Interesting.

This is Mayor Kathy Catazarro-Perry's touted "City of Champions," no?

And not slight perennial Massillon athletic rival Canton McKinley;  the Bulldogs may excel in at many athletic endeavors, but a GPA of 0.20 is very telling the academic state of affairs in showing in the GPA rankings in "the race to the bottom" in that Canton school system is exceeded only by the Cleveland public school system which marks barely a blip on the education achievement radar at 0.10.

Apparently, neither the Massillon nor Canton school districts have their priorities straight.  Moreover, the likes of North Canton not even achieving a B should be raising alarm bells in Stark even at the top of the relative to the rest of Ohio grading scale.

Accordingly, it is fitting and proper for the state of Ohio to do what it has been doing for a couple of years now and raising the bar.

Rather than doing "damage control," Stark County's school administrators ought be about "undoing the damage" that years, probably decades now, has done to the quality of education in Stark County's 17 school districts.