Patrick O'Donnell
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Education reporter for @The74. Former Plain Dealer and @ColumbiaJourn @FellowsSpencer. Big interest in career training for young people. PatrickONews@gmail.com
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Articles by Patrick O'Donnell
Michigan Moves Closer To Universal Pre-K-But It’s Not Quite So Universal Yet Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Michelle Gurgul has a good job as a dental hygienist, but the expense of private preschool for her daughter near her home in a Detroit suburb is beyond her budget. “If we had to pay for a tuition-based program, she wouldn’t be going,” Gurgul said, who lives in Allen Park with her family. “It’s a big extra cost. Do you pay however many hundreds of dollars a month for preschool?
Parents’ Rights, School Choice Advocate Kelly Ayotte Wins N.H. Governor’s Race Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter This article is part of The 74’s EDlection 2024 coverage, which takes a look at candidates’ education policies and how they might impact the American education system after the 2024 election. Former Republican U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte won the New Hampshire governor’s seat Tuesday, giving her a platform to push for the universal school choice and “parental rights” she called for during the campaign.
Indiana Banking Apprenticeships and Academy to Break the Mold for U.S. Training Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The banking apprentices in Zurich, Switzerland, look up from the loan applications on their laptops when trainer Burak Besler calls for their attention. “What do I actually need from the customer?” Besler asks the second year apprentices, all 17 or 18 years old at the Chase Your Potential wirtschaftsschule — business school.
With State Still in Charge, Providence Will Elect New School Board Members Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter This article is part of The 74’s EDlection 2024 coverage, which takes a look at candidates’ education policies and how they might impact the American education system after the 2024 election. Voters in Providence, Rhode Island, won’t have as much power over their city’s schools as some had hoped when they elect five new school board members on Election Day — but it will be more than they’ve had in decades.
Preschools Teach ‘Hardly Any Math’, Even as Students Struggle in Later Grades Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Preschool teacher Emily Johnson counts the row of green bear figurines Mayeda Alan, 4, has set on a table at the George Forbes Early Learning Center in East Cleveland, Ohio. “How many do you have? One…two..three…four,” Johnson says, before they place another bear in the row. “What if we add more? What comes after four?” Johnson smiles when Mayeda replies with “five.” The stealth math lesson is working.
New Indiana All-Girls STEM School Offers Robotics, Aviation - and Scout Badges Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Amelia Haggard was too shy to talk about her future, but her father wasn’t. “She’s going to be an astronaut,” boasted David Haggard as she started kindergarten at Indianapolis’ new Girls IN STEM Academy. Amelia, just 5 and already wearing a Girls IN STEM shirt, smiled and bashfully buried her face in her shoulder. “She’s just big into science,” Haggard explained.
Indiana Looks to Swiss Experts to Create Thousands of Student Apprenticeships
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Indiana officials have turned to experts at the Swiss version of MIT for help becoming a national career training leader by making apprenticeships available to thousands of high school students across the state.
Ohio Moves Ahead with Science of Reading Lessons, But Some Schools Still Lag Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Boxes of new science of reading workbooks sit at the front of classrooms at East Woods Intermediate School in Hudson, Ohio, ready for teachers to start using when students return to school next month. Like a third of the 600 districts across the state, the Hudson schools near Cleveland didn’t use science of reading books until Ohio Gov.
Reinventing Report Cards: Reading, Writing, Collaboration and Other Work Skills Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter A movement to throw out traditional A-F grades in favor of tracking high school students as they gain mastery of academic and life skills is gaining momentum, with five states and powerful players joining forces to advance it.
Private School Just For Low Income Kids Looks To Create Thriving Adults Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Fourth-grader Jeiona Odon sets the tray of food on a lunch table at The Greater Dayton School as fellow student Jacyn Diamond begins placing bowls on a revolving tray at the center. The bowls of Caesar salad, spaghetti and chicken piccata are all made with fresh ingredients. And each bowl has tongs for the half dozen students and a teacher at each table to serve themselves as they rotate the wheel.
New Indiana ‘Checkpoint’ Tests To Give Mid-Year Snapshots of Student Progress Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Indiana will soon try to end a common criticism of state tests — that results come back too late for teachers to help students fix what they didn’t learn. About 600 schools have joined a pilot program to give Indiana’s Learning Evaluation and Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN) tests in four stages next school year, instead of just end-of-year tests that are used for state report cards.
Growing ‘What Works’: Indianapolis Summer Learning Goes Statewide Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The Boys and Girls Clubs in the South Bend, Indiana area had to turn away 800 students from its summer learning program last year — even though many of the children who didn’t get a spot were academically two years behind after the pandemic.
Indiana Science of Reading Teacher Training: More Than Most States, But Not All Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The 80 hours of science of reading training Indiana has mandated for teachers, criticized by some educators as too long and unnecessary, is more than many states, but fewer than others. Indiana, like all 38 states that have adopted the phonics-based approach of teaching reading, has to navigate several challenges to put it in classrooms quickly.
To Hold Back Struggling Readers or Not: Indiana & Ohio Take Different Paths Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Indiana and Ohio joined the growing number of states last year mandating teachers use the science of reading, but the neighboring states have gone in opposite directions with another reading strategy — holding back struggling third graders.
Indianapolis High School Carves Time Away from Class for Internships for All Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Victory College Prep senior Harlie Sylvia has dreamed of being a veterinarian, so she was ecstatic when her internship through the Indianapolis high school placed her at a local pet hospital.
Explosive Growth for Ohio’s School Vouchers, as 50% More Students Applied to Program in 2023
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The massive growth of Ohio’s controversial tuition voucher programs has been a lifeline for schools like St. Anthony of Padua elementary school in Akron, which once had such low enrollment it had to merge with another struggling school.
A Reckoning in Cleveland: COVID Cuts Slash Laptops, Summer School, After-School Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The Cleveland school district, one of the poorest and largest recipients of federal COVID relief cash in the country, may soon slash summer school, after-school and a program providing laptops for every student as the flow of aid ends this summer.
74 Interview: Director of Ohio’s Department of Education on Adding “Workforce” to Name and Mission Original
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter In a move that puts career education on par with traditional academic schooling, the Ohio state education department has become the first in the nation to add “and Workforce” to its name.
Indiana’s New Career Scholarships Create Training Choice, Cut Student Costs
Support The 74's year-end campaign. Make a tax-exempt donation now. A year ago, 12th grader Deven Bounds would have had to spend $1,000 or more of his own money on tools for his construction apprenticeship at Grant Regional Career Center in Marion, Indiana. But new career scholarship accounts the state legislature created this spring have slashed costs for Bounds and students across Indiana in career training programs.
Advocates Warn Expiring COVID Funds Could Threaten Key Summer & Afterschool Learning Programs Across Indiana
Support The 74's year-end campaign. Make a tax-exempt donation now. Indiana state officials must continue to fund strong afterschool and summer learning programs that have helped many students catch up after the pandemic — even when government money runs out, according to a new report from advocates.
Ohio's K-shaped post-pandemic learning recovery is a tale of extremes
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter. Ohio’s academic recovery has been a tale of two extremes, with many of the best students doing as well or even better in English than before the pandemic — even as more students have plummeted to the bottom.
Northeast Ohio manufacturer encourages engineering grads to get their hands dirty
Bowden Manufacturing in Willoughby doesn’t have machinists working on its production floor cranking out gun and aerospace parts all day. It has “manufacturing engineers.” Bowden’s unusual Next Gen Manufacturing program recruits engineering students and new engineering graduates — people who many would consider overqualified — to work with Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines and other heavy equipment.
East Cleveland schools go under state control despite objections: Here's what will happen
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio - East Cleveland's school board and superintendent are about to lose control over the school district. Thanks to a 2015 state law and the district's overall F on new state report cards, a new group called an "academic distress commission" will soon be taking over. That commission will name a new schools CEO who will then step in, create a school improvement plan and carry it out.
Schools skip A-F grades during coronavirus disruption, make classes pass/fail
Brunswick teacher Lynette Miller can see images of several students and parents as she talks to them on Google Meet for her daily "office hours." Her district has stopped giving students normal A-F grades the rest of this school year and shifted to a Pass/Fail system instead.
Cleveland’s charter and parochial schools are uneven in offering online classes during coronavirus shutdown
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Connecting Cleveland’s kids to online classes during Ohio’s coronavirus-related school closures has been a challenge for the other schools in the city, both charter and parochial, as much as for the city’s school district. But many are making it work, to varying degrees.
Cleveland schools still stuck in planning stages for ungraded online “enrichment,” during coronavirus closure
CLEVELAND, Ohio - CLEVELAND, Ohio –The Cleveland school district still is setting its plans to teach students during the coronavirus closure with more than paper handouts of exercises, even as other districts launched online learning plans this week, if not earlier.
Coronavirus concerns cause Ohioans to cut highway travel nearly in half: ODOT
File photo of westbound traffic in Interstate 90 in Mentor near mile marker 196 (David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com)The Plain Dealer CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohioans have cut their travel nearly in half since Gov. Mike DeWine called for restrictions to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, data collected by the Ohio Department of Transportation suggests. The department monitors traffic on several roads to help with planning, so it collects counts of vehicles using these roads on a daily basis.
Some schools embrace online lessons, others mired in Internet obstacles during coronavirus shutdown
CLEVELAND, Ohio — John Zitzner thought he found a way last week to connect about 25% of the students in the Breakthrough charter school network to online classes. He pulled the trigger and spent about $100,000 to order 500 Internet hotspot devices to give to students who don’t have Internet access at home.
Build your career from your couch: Free, low-cost and safe ways for Ohioans to add job skills during the coronavirus shutdown
CLEVELAND, Ohio - CLEVELAND, Ohio — With layoffs reaching record levels and working-age adults stuck at home amid coronavirus shutdown orders, now might be a good time, experts say, to learn new job skills to better compete in the coming job market. “It’s a stop in life than none of us could ever anticipated,” said Martin Van Der Werf of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.
Free lunches have few takers during coronavirus school closures: “We need our babies to eat."
CLEVELAND, Ohio – “Good morning y’all,” Michael Maclin calls out as a group of children crowd into an entryway of Cleveland’s Marion Sterling elementary School. “How can I help you?” As students approach his table, the school security officer hands them brown paper bags and a larger clear bag, each filled with pre-packaged and sealed food items like juice, sandwiches and heatable pasta meals. “Now, you get yours,” he says, handing over a bag.
Voucher freeze draws grumbles, but legislature’s easing of graduation rules and testing earn praise
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The state legislature is earning praise for its vote Wednesday to eliminate state tests and report cards this year and to let local schools decide which high school seniors can graduate amid the closure of schools due to the coronavirus. But the legislature’s freeze on eligibility for tuition vouchers is drawing predictable opposition from both the pro-voucher and anti-voucher camps.
Cleveland schools CEO promises seniors in-person graduation and, hopefully, prom
Cleveland school district CEO Eric Gordon tells his high school seniors in a video message that he will make sure they have an in-person graduation ceremony after the coronavirus crisis passes. CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland school district CEO Eric Gordon wants his high school seniors to have a real graduation ceremony, despite the coronavirus school shutdowns. He wants them to have a prom, too.
Cleveland schools donate nurses’ supplies to medical fight against coronavirus
Bryan Lynch, left, and Dan Murphy, both sanitarians with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, carry boxes of donated medical supplies to a cart to load onto their truck at the Cleveland school district's East Professional Center Tuesday. The Cleveland District is donating medical and sanitizing supplies to area hospitals, since schools are likely canceled for the rest of the year.
Coronavirus impact: Legislature looks at quick changes for vouchers, graduation and testing for schools this week
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio could see quick short-term changes regarding hot-button issues like state testing, report cards, graduation and vouchers come out of the state legislature’s emergency meetings this week. But don’t count on any solutions to the disparity in how lessons are provided to affluent school districts and to poor and urban ones as the statewide school coronavirus continues.
Help! I don’t know how to be a teacher! Home-schooling parents, teacher trainers offer advice during coronavirus shutdown
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Parents across Ohio had a surprising new role thrust upon them this week: teaching their children. With Ohio’s schools shut down, possibly for the school year, because of coronavirus concerns, parents now have to make sure their children learn the lessons their schools send home or post online.
Are at-risk grandparents handling child care as schools, day care centers close because of coronavirus? They traditionally have
Erica Patton of Cleveland walks home with her two grandchildren last week from Cleveland's Benesch elementary school as the school shut down for at least three weeks because of the coronavirus. Patton is one of many grandparents taking on childcare duties during the school shutdown. (Patrick O'Donnell/The Plain Dealer) CLEVELAND, Ohio — Erica Patton thought nothing of picking up her two grandchildren at Cleveland’s Benesch elementary school last week as schools closed down.
Spectrum offers 60 days free Internet to aid students during coronavirus crisis
The Spectrum cable television and Internet provider is offering free Internet for 60 days for students without a connection during the coronavirus school shutdowns. CLEVELAND, Ohio — Spectrum, a cable television and Internet provider, is offering 60 days of free Internet access to any student without it during the coronavirus crisis. Both colleges and K-12 schools are shifting to online classes to help slow the spread of the virus.
Coronavirus school closure will be longer, but graduation not in jeopardy, say DeWine and State Supt. DeMaria
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio’s three-week school shutdown will run longer than planned, Gov. Mike DeWine said at his afternoon press conference Wednesday, but high school graduation will not likely be in jeopardy. Neither DeWine at his daily briefing nor State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria, in an interview with The Plain Dealer, were able to give parents, teachers or schools clear direction this afternoon about how long they should prepare to be away from school.
How many households lack Internet access during the coronavirus crisis? Search all Ohio cities, school districts here
Internet access is available at home for most residents, but not for all. Here's a look at the percentage of households in each Ohio city and school district lack Internet connections. CLEVELAND, Ohio - The coronavirus has made Internet access even more crucial for families than before, but many still do not have it in their homes. Social distancing and the closure of theaters, concerts halls and meeting places make the Internet a greater source of entertainment and interaction.
‘Digital divide’ leaves some schools giving lessons on paper, some online during coronavirus school closures
CLEVELAND, Ohio - CLEVELAND, Ohio – Solon teachers are spending the first two days of Ohio’s coronavirus shutdown preparing videos and lessons to provide to students online. But in districts like Cleveland and Lorain, the task is less high-tech: Teachers are creating lessons on paper or making copies from books and websites.
There’s lunch for all, just no lessons, at Cleveland schools during coronavirus shutdown
Tamyra Johnson, 26, right, and her children picked up free meals and classwork from Waverly elementary school in Cleveland Monday. Since all Ohio schools are closed for three weeks to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Cleveland Metropolitan School District is continuing to offer breakfast and lunch meal for kids.
Need child care during coronavirus shutdown? Start here, but plan to call to verify
Kadin Larry uses a pointer and a calendar to help him learn the days of the week and his numbers in this 2016 photo at the Early Childhood Enrichment Center in Shaker Heights. (Lynn Ischay/The Plain Dealer)The Plain Dealer CLEVELAND, Ohio — Finding child care in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic is no easy task, as some preschools and daycare centers are closing, and Gov. Mike DeWine is urging parents to avoid daycare sites.
State offers few clues about voucher costs as Cleveland Heights, other school taxes appear on ballots
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Cleveland Heights-University Heights voters will have to decide on a school tax Tuesday without any clarity from the state legislature on how much money Ohio’s tuition vouchers are costing the district or will cost in the future. Heights voters will be faced with an $8 million tax increase, one the district says is largely forced by its estimated $7.1 million in voucher costs.
Cleveland schools offering free meals to anyone under 18; students depart for three weeks with lesson packets
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland school district will offer free grab-and-go lunches and breakfasts to anyone under 18 during the coronavirus shutdown, regardless of where students attend school. District CEO Eric Gordon said the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the district to distribute food to any needy minor. So distribution centers at 22 schools will offer two meals a day from Monday to Friday to youths, no matter whether they attend a district, suburban, charter or parochial school.
Cleveland schools and other districts closing Friday, sooner than DeWine coronavirus order
Elementary students from Broadway Academy charter school leave school for the day on buses in the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland on Thursday, moments after Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that all Ohio schools will be closed for three weeks starting Monday as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus. (Lisa DeJong/The Plain Dealer)Lisa DeJong/The Plain Dealer CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland school district won’t wait until Monday afternoon to close its schools, as Gov.
Hawken, Lawrence, Laurel and University schools students on AIPAC bus with person with coronavirus
The Laurel School had five students on a bus to Washington, D.C., with a person positive for the novel coronavirus. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Four local private schools - Hawken, Lawrence, Laurel and University schools - all had students on a bus to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C., with an adult confirmed as positive with the novel coronavirus. These include four Hawken students, five from Laurel and four from University School.
Say Yes to Education to update public on eventful first year
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Say Yes to Education leaders in Cleveland will give their first public update on the college scholarship and supports program this week, while also hoping to answer questions from residents. The New York-based Say Yes to Education program officially launched in Cleveland last January when city, school and charitable foundation leaders raised enough money to start offering scholarships to last year’s high school graduates.
Merged Montessori campus throws lifeline to Stonebrook Montessori and Michael R. White schools
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Teachers and leaders of two competing elementary schools in Glenville — Stonebrook Montessori charter and Cleveland school district’s Michael R. White school — are excited about plans to merge and become one school. They should be. The existence of both schools depends on it. Stonebrook Montessori was created in 2015 by renovating the old Amasa Stone House, a 90-year-old building atop the Rockefeller Cultural Gardens along Martin Luther King Blvd.
Euclid Superintendent pulls woman from burning vehicle: “I just did my best to help.”
Chris Papouras, superintendent of Euclid Schools, pulled a Lakewood woman from a burning car after an accident outside him home early Sunday morning. Gus Chan, The Plain DealerGus Chan, The Plain Dealer EUCLID, Ohio — Euclid Superintendent Chris Papouras is eager to get back to a normal day running the Euclid schools, after drawing praise and media attention for pulling a woman from a burning car outside his home early Sunday morning.
What private schools use the most vouchers in Ohio? A few may surprise you
Here's a look at the private schools accepting the most tax-funded tuition vouchers in Ohio. See below for interactive rankings. CLEVELAND, Ohio — Catholic schools dominate the list of private schools using the most vouchers in Ohio, but a few Jewish schools in East Side suburbs are near the top.
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