School Matters

The Westlake Educational Foundation, along with the Westlake Music Boosters, the Westlake PTAs, the Westlake Demons Athletic Boosters, and the Westlake Alumni Association, will hold a drawing to give away a new 2020 Chevy Trax, donated by Serpentini Chevrolet of Westlake.

“We’re delighted to be in partnership with Serpentini Chevrolet for the ‘Win This Car" give-away," said Westlake Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Scott Goggin. "What an exciting way to jump-start our fundraising to start the new year.”

After a brief hiatus, the Westlake Educational Foundation is once again an active 501(c)(3) organization within the Westlake community. The Foundation’s newly stated mission is to enhance opportunities and experiences of Westlake City Schools’ students in the endeavor to Educate for Excellence.

As schools infuse more technology into our classrooms, we often hear from people who question whether this is a good idea.

It is not just the expense that is questioned, though technology can certainly be expensive. People want to know if reliance on calculators and spreadsheets reduces computational skills in students. They want to know if too much screen time hinders development of social skills and fine motor skills. And they question whether students actually learn when they can just do a Google search for answers.

The Observer is pleased to introduce a new column, written by Bay Schools Superintendent Clint Keener. The series of articles will center on the challenges and possibilities of education today in our public schools.

It has been more than two decades since public schools in Ohio began using state tests to measure learning in core subjects like reading, math and science, comparing not just an individual student’s learning from year to year, but comparing schools and school districts to one another.

As the saying goes, “What gets measured, gets done.” School boards, administrators, parents and community members pay attention when state test scores annually sort out school districts and communities. Real estate studies have directly linked published test scores to property values. It is not surprising that in some school districts, scarce resources might be taken away from those areas not measured and reported by state achievement tests.