6/24/08
New York Times
Erik Eckholm
FLINT, Mich. - Because he has moved so often, 9-year-old Richard Kennedy has already attended four different schools in Flint. In his mother’s latest rental house the other day, he described how it felt to enter an unfamiliar classroom.
“My mind gets mixed up,” he said softly. “They’re always starting with different stuff […]

6/24/08
Plain Dealer Letter
The June 19 editorial “High-stakes tests are useful” perpetuates several harmful myths.
Most educators do not oppose high-stakes testing out of fear, but because the practice has a long record of failure and creates devastating collateral damage in terms of motivation, curriculum, learning, physical and mental health, student behavior, democracy and the burnout and […]

6/23/08
Columbus Dispatch
Charlie Boss
A glitch in the school-funding formula awarded some districts extra money and shortchanged others.
But fixing it will cost 188 districts statewide a total of $6.4 million, and 17 of the districts are in central Ohio.
As school officials prepare to close the books for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends June 30, those districts […]

6/23/08
Columbus Dispatch 
Jennifer Smith Richards
Teacher Mohamed Moallin makes sure ESL students grasp science concepts as he tutors them for the graduation test.
Mohamed Moallin stands at the chalkboard and, in a thick accent, says words such as phenotypes and heterozygous to a roomful of students who are still learning to speak English.
Down the hall at the Welcome […]

6/22/08
Plain Dealer
Scott Stephens
Ohio State’s not playing football yet, and pro hockey is on ice for the summer.
So among the popular sports in Columbus these days is the guessing game over who will replace Susan Tave Zelman as state schools superintendent.
Even before Zelman’s announcement last month that she would be departing before year’s end, pundits in […]