It’s been a great year for the Buckeye State. LeBron is back—and the Cavs are rolling into the playoffs. The Ohio State University knocked off the Ducks in the national championship, the economy is heating up, and heck, state government actually has more than eighty-nine cents in its rainy day fund.
But if you’ve been following the education headlines, you might feel a little down. The fight over Common Core and assessments continues to be bruising. Legislators are seriously scrutinizing the state’s problematic charter school law. Various scandals continue to plague local schools, and we’re not that far removed from the meltdown in Columbus City Schools. To shake off the wintertime education blues, I offer my list of the top five most exciting things happening in Ohio education today.
1. Four for Four Schools
In 2013–14, forty Ohio schools made a clean sweep on the four value-added components of the state’s school report cards, receiving an A on each one. This is an impressive feat. These schools had to demonstrate significant contributions not only to overall student growth, but also for their special needs, gifted, and low-achieving students. (Starting two years ago, Ohio began to rate schools on an A–F scale based on the gains—or value added—of students in these three subgroups.) In fact, one could argue that “four for four” schools are best fulfilling the aspiration of “no child left behind.” So hats off to these forty schools (out of more than 1,400 eligible) for proving that good schools can help all students make big academic progress each year. Check whether your local school made this distinguished list by clicking on this link.
2. Great Charter Networks
The Buckeye State is the proud home of several outstanding—and growing—charter school networks serving mainly low-income and minority students. In Northeast Ohio, the high-performing Breakthrough and ICAN charter networks will together educate more than three thousand students this school year. Columbus has Ohio’s only KIPP charter school, which is on track to educate two thousand students by 2020. Fantastic charter networks United Schools and the Graham Schools also make also their homes in the capital city. Farther downstate, Fordham’s hometown of Dayton has the hard-charging college-prep school Dayton Early College Academy (DECA), which also recently opened a feeder school, DECA Prep. High-quality, grassroots charters like these are blazing a new path forward in Ohio charter quality.
3. Relentless Urban Superintendents
Not to be outdone, several of Ohio’s urban districts are showing signs of improvement under a great crop of superintendents. In Cincinnati Public Schools, Superintendent Mary Ronan and her team are embracing the Common Core standards and have engaged local businesses to help support their successful implementation. Meanwhile, in Columbus, Dan Good is undertaking a massive overhaul of the district that has earned the support of the community. In Cleveland, schools CEO Eric Gordon, Mayor Frank Jackson, and the business and philanthropic community are driving the bold reforms laid forth in the “Cleveland Plan.” Perhaps less heralded than their Big-C counterparts, the energetic leadership of Superintendents Lori Ward in Dayton and Romules Durant in Toledo are also pushing the reform needle in the right direction. The dynamism of urban school leaders like these promises a much brighter future for the school systems they lead.
4. Vocational Education
For too long, vocational education has been considered an inferior pathway for high school students. But the winds are shifting in Ohio. Last year, Governor Kasich made transforming vocational education a major theme in his State of the State speech. On the policy side, the last General Assembly created five categories of funding for students who participate in a vocational program. The incremental amounts range from an additional $1,210 per student (for students focusing on family and consumer sciences) to $4,800 (for agricultural, construction, health science, and other fields). To complement the increased attention on technical education, the state is developing detailed report cards that show the performance of the state’s ninety-one Career and Technical Planning Districts. Ohio’s turn towards robust vocational education bodes well for Buckeye students journeying on a career-ready path.
5. Competitive Grants for Innovation
The Straight A Fund is Ohio’s new $250 million competitive grant program that rewards the most creative and innovative educational ideas. On February 5th, I had the opportunity to examine these projects at the Straight A Day. The most exciting projects were those that engaged their local businesses; in Springfield, the Straight A grant is helping to create a job-readiness program in conjunction with the local chamber of commerce, community college, and more than a dozen employers. In Eastern Ohio, a consortium of schools, technical centers, and businesses are teaming up to create the Young Entrepreneurs Consortium. And Marysville School District is building an early college academy in partnership with its local career and technical center and Honda Manufacturing, one of the area’s largest employers. Alex Fischer, the grant program’s chair, is correct when he writes that the “Straight A Fund has inspired a wave of creativity.” Cheers to state policymakers—and to local schools—for making innovation a key priority.
To be sure, many more inspiring things are happening in Ohio’s education universe. What do you find most exciting in your neck of the woods? Tell us what you’re seeing and we’ll consider posting them.
