Education

Local law students are getting a new insight into the Cuyahoga County justice system thanks to the latest season of "Serial."  A new Cleveland State University law school course will focus on the popular podcast.

Two more Ohio school districts want to join in the court case against the now closed online charter school, ECOT. The districts say they don’t trust Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to fight for their best interest. 

Lake Local Schools in Wood County and Springfield City Schools in Clark County are the latest districts trying to join the fight against ECOT’s founder Bill Lager.

This month, both the University of Akron and Kent State University announced partnerships with 2-year colleges.  It’s part of a growing trend in higher education.

The University of Akron and Stark State College have announced a partnership to allow students to proceed from a 2-year program to a 4-year degree with much greater ease.

The mother of a six-year-old killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut came to Glover Community Learning Center in Akron this week. She talked with local parents and teachers about making schools, and the world, safer through a coping skills training program for students that she founded.  

Universities throughout Ohio are reporting crime statistics on their campuses as part of the Clery Act – a law that requires colleges that receive federal funding to make known crime statistics for the past three years. But State Auditor Dave Yost says he thinks the process for doing this needs to be improved. 

Yost says colleges need to reach out to a lot of different sources to get the data needed to compile the report. He says it’s been a challenge for them so he wants his office to help in that effort.

Two public school districts say Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine shouldn’t handle the state’s lawsuit seeking to recover millions of dollars from the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow. The districts are asking a Franklin County court if they can take over the lawsuit against the now-closed online charter school.

A new state law gives Ohio’s auditor the ability to do audits of the efficiency and operations of state agencies and universities. Ohio State University offered to be first and underwent a performance audit that revealed ways it could save significant dollars. 

Auditor Dave Yost says OSU could save more than $6 million a year if it optimized the use of printers and copiers, changed the way it hires employees and processes payments and moved its computer services. Still that’s small change when you consider the university’s budget is around $7 billion. 

The Summit Victim Assistance program is partnering with Akron Public Schools to provide mental health support for students when tragedies occur.

Akron Schools’ student support services director Daniel Rambler says having outside support for students helps limit mistakes in care while allowing teachers to focus on what they know best.

Schools throughout Ohio are finding out whether they are making the grade on the state’s annual school report cards released Thursday.   State school Superintendent Paolo DeMaria is upbeat about the report cards this year, urging Ohioans to look at the data behind the grades. “We’re seeing improvement and academic achievement happening all across the state in every corner of the state.” Overall school and district grades are new this year, and it would be hard to see that improvement by looking at those.

The Ohio Department of Education has released its report cards for more than 600 school districts across the state.  Twenty-eight districts received an overall letter grade of A. Fourteen were stamped with the letter F.   It’s the first time overall letter grades were given to school districts.

The state has put out the latest report card for school districts. Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Youngstown and Toledo got failing grades while many wealthier suburban areas of the state got high marks.  

Kent State’s Geauga County campus is about to see a major building project.  But it’s not for the university.

The university board of trustees approved leasing some of the Kent campus in Burton to a local school system. In May, voters in the Berkshire School District approved a $28-million dollar bond issue to build a pre-K-through-12 complex on the site. 

Ohio’s school system is in a decline compared to schools nationwide according to the Democratic candidate for governor. Richard Cordray’s plan to fix that includes more accountability and support for student services. 

Ohio’s school system is in a decline compared to schools nationwide, according to the Democratic candidate for governor. Rich Cordray's plan to fix that includes more accountability and support for student services. 

Kent State University’s overall enrollment is down.  That’s according to a report delivered to the school’s Board of Trustees at their regular meeting Wednesday. But KSU spokesman Eric Mansfield says there’s more to the story.

"We had ten straight years of growth on the Kent campus until a year ago. And so now we’ve ticked off just slightly; a little over 3 percent year-to-year.  But our Kent Campus numbers are extremely healthy.  We’re at 27,143.  But what we’re seeing is a full-time freshman class that’s the largest we’ve ever seen.”

The Ohio Department of Education will release report cards on the state’s more than 600 school districts this week. Meanwhile, a Republican lawmaker is still pushing a bill that would once again overhaul the report card system, saying those simple-to-understand letters are hiding essential information about schools. 

Republican Gubernatorial Nominee Mike DeWine wants to reduce the amount of standardized testing in Ohio. That’s one of several goals DeWine laid out in his new education plan.

In his plan for Ohio’s education system, DeWine wants to prepare students for college or for the job they want.

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine wants to reduce the amount of standardized testing in Ohio. That’s one of several goals DeWine laid out in his new education plan. 

DeWine’s plan also emphasizes vocational training and making sure college-bound students are prepared.

And DeWine wants to create stability, saying teachers are tired of government creating new standards and regulations.

“We have to resist the temptation of constantly changing, you know, moving the goal line." DeWine said. 

Some schools throughout Ohio were closed Wednesday due to heat. And state lawmakers are considering ideas to help students beat the heat.

Before air conditioning became common, many K-12 students went back to school after Labor Day. There are bills in the Ohio House and Senate to allow or mandate districts to do that. 

High temperatures this week have led a number of schools to cancel classes in buildings that don't have air conditioning. One state lawmaker would like to know just how many buildings that is. 

Republican House Education Committee chair Andy Brenner says he’s not sure the state actually has information about how many school buildings in the state are air conditioned. And even if it did, he doesn’t think it’s the state’s obligation to make sure they are.

State education leaders have a new policy they say will ensure student success.  But it involves doing some basic things many schools and teachers already do – focusing on individual students’ needs. It is meant to de-emphasize required standardized testing.

The state’s 2018 Teacher of the Year, Jonathan Juravich, helped develop the new policy that focuses less on teaching information that could be on state standardized tests and more on meeting the needs of individual students.