Innovation, promise, elation greet start of the school year

Conflict over Common Core, controversy over third-grade reading guarantees and quandaries over school funding rank high on the academic agenda of Ohio legislators as they return to the hallowed halls of the Statehouse this fall.

As tens of thousands of Mahoning Valley youngsters head back to the hallowed halls of public, parochial and community schools this week, those policy issues can and should be left at the door. Let the politicking, lobbying and grandstanding play out in legislative chambers, school board meetings and teacher association seminars. Instructors, principals and, most importantly, students have better things to do with their school days. To the delight of many, school systems throughout the Valley are ramping up promising programming and exciting new curricula this school year.

To be sure, education in Ohio remains at a crossroads. Yes, there is the ongoing conflict over the state’s implementation of the national Common Core curriculum, the misguided politicization of which we discussed at length in this space Tuesday. There’s also the first real test of the state’s Third-Grade Reading Guarantee, in which many of last year’s third-graders have been held back for the start of the critical remedial phase of the statewide experiment aimed at ensuring adequate reading-comprehension skills. Then there’s that longstanding elephant in the classroom — state financial support for public and charter schools. Many school administrators remain understandably on edge over the long-term trend of decreasing state aid, falling property tax revenue and sagging federal assistance to ensure the best learning environment possible for the state’s most precious human capital — its children.

CURRICULUM IMPROVEMENTS

Fortunately, however, most of those debates are foreign to students and kept out of the way by teachers who are much more focused on skillfully engaging their pupils school day after school day. This school year, Mahoning Valley public schools are engaging students with a potpourri of impressive new learning programs.

First and foremost among those is the growing trend toward greater emphasis on the so-called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines. Struthers, Poland, Austintown, Canfield, Jackson-Milton and Boardman’s St. Charles schools are among those incorporating more STEM courses and programs into the curriculum. Such training will prepare many students for the STEM-Manufacturing Academy planned in partnership with the Mahoning County Educational Service Center. Plans call for that school, which would serve ninth- and 10th-graders, to open in fall 2015.

Elsewhere, a litany of exciting curriculum changes awaits eager young minds. In Canfield, new pre-school programming is planned at Campbell and Hilltop elementary schools. At Jackson-Milton, a therapy dog will be used in elementary classes and new college-high school dual credit programs are being launched. Struthers schools have strengthened computer labs with updated tablets and laptops in every building, as well as SMART boards. Lordstown schools are doubling junior-high math instruction from 43 minutes daily to 86 minutes daily.

Those improvements and projects merely scratch the surface of the hodgepodge of new and innovative curricula for the 2014-15 school year in school districts throughout our community. They also demonstrate a sincere commitment to student success by educators who far too often go grossly underappreciated.

Even as critical public-policy issues that affect educators’ livelihoods play out in governmental and political arenas throughout the state, most public- and private-school teachers will be far more busy focusing on guiding the next generation of Ohioans toward informed, productive and skillful lives. Their resilience and dedication to those tasks merit widespread applause.