Ida Lieszkovszky / StateImpact Ohio
There are no walls or doors between classrooms at Warren Local schools. Instead, the school has put up bookshelves and lockers as makeshift walls.
Carrollton Schools in rural Carol County hasn’t passed a levy since 1977. Union Local Schools in rural Belmont County hasn’t passed an operating levy since 1976. And the mid 1990′s was the last time officials at Warren Local Schools in rural Washington County managed to pass a levy for new funds to run the district.
Tom Gibbs, the superintendent at Warren Local, says he’s tried to pass six levies in the last four years, and failed each time.
In fact, since 2000, Washington County has passed just 20 percent of its schools requests for new local money.
Compare that to Franklin County, which includes Columbus. It has passed 51 percent of all new school levy requests. Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland, has passed 43 percent of theirs over the last 13 years.
Ohio has a rural-urban funding gap, and it shows. Continue Reading →
Molly Bloom / StateImpact Ohio
ACPA students wait backstage at the school's drag show.
At her old school, 16-year old Katie Johnsen says she couldn’t walk down the hallway without someone calling her a “dyke.”
After she cut her hair off, things just got worse.
Johnsen is now a student at Arts and College Preparatory Academy, a Columbus charter school where about a third of the students identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.
The school had gained a reputation as a place welcoming to gay students, and to other students who don’t quite fit in. It offers classes in gay history, and students write and perform plays about tolerance.
Founded in 2002 with about 60 students, Arts and College Preparatory Academy, or ACPA, now has 240 students and an”A” rating from the state for its academic performance. Continue Reading →
Ida Lieszkovszky / StateImpact Ohio
Students at Union Local MIddle School work on PowerPoints in a computer class. The district says they don't have nearly enough computers to meet the tests to be administered by the Common Core curriculum.
Testing in schools is moving quickly from pencil and paper to computers.
That’s kind of a problem for rural schools; many don’t have the technology.
But a new curriculum, called the Common Core, is pushing districts in many states – including Ohio – into the Internet era.
That’s because the new standardized tests that accompany the Common Core will be given online.
Continue Reading →
The Strongsville Education Association has taken to Facebook to rally support for its strike.
Among status updates about the negotiation process and thank you’s to community members for their support is a photo album titled “Wall of Shame.”
Continue Reading →
Molly Bloom / StateImpact Ohio
Morgan Linnabary says he was placed in a seclusion room dozens of times.
Morgan Linnabary was eight years old when he was sent to a special school for children with behavior problems.
At the new school, when he mouthed off to teachers or got upset, he was sent from his classroom to the isolation room: a plywood box inside a separate room down the hall.
It happened dozens of times, Morgan said.
Continue Reading →
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Ida Lieszkovszky / StateImpact Ohio permalink
Joey Carr is a student at a charter school that struggled to cut ties with the for-profit company that had managed it.
Molly Bloom / StateImpact Ohio permalink
Columbus teacher Greg Gualtieri left a career in the import/export business to become a special education teacher.
Ida Lieszkovszky / StateImpact Ohio permalink
Freshmen at Worthington City Schools in Columbus contemplate what could happen if their district fails to pass a levy in November. Their school, and many other big districts, ultimately were successful in passing levies, though many other districts' attempts failed.
Ida Lieszkovszky / StateImpact Ohio permalink
Students learn to get control of sheep during an animal handling class at Ohio State University.
Molly Bloom / StateImpact Ohio permalink
Students at the OHDELA all-online school have formed a school chorus.
