Our latest report documents the significant work Ohio has undertaken to implement science of reading reforms, while also recommending ways that policymakers can further strengthen implementation.
Rapidly growing numbers of Ohio students attain industry recognized credentials during high school, reflecting recent policy incentives that encourage their attainment. Our latest report examines the college and workforce outcomes of Ohio students who earn such credentials.
The brand new and fully updated ninth edition of our Ohio education guidebook is out now. It offers policymakers, journalists, and civic and business leaders easy-to-use statistics—sans commentary—about Ohio’s K-12 schools and the students they serve.
Our latest report examines the predictive value of Ohio’s state tests and finds that scores provide vital data predicting the post-secondary education outcomes of students.
Our 2025 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report details our work providing monitoring, oversight, and technical assistance to ten charter schools on nineteen campuses—serving over 6,000 students—throughout Ohio.
Our latest report sheds light on the academic trajectory of high-achieving, low-income (HALO) students in Ohio. They have demonstrated their potential to reach college and use it as a springboard to the American dream. Yet due to the widespread neglect of their talents, our education system allows too many of them to fall through the cracks.
Our latest report examines Ohio’s current diploma requirements as well as recent trends in high school graduation and student achievement. It uncovers large discrepancies in graduation and proficiency rates, indicating that many students leave high school without a strong academic preparation.
Rigorous career-and-technical education (CTE) can give students an edge when they enter the workforce, while also benefitting employers seeking skilled workers. But just how many students in Ohio avail themselves to CTE opportunities during high school? And what does CTE look like when they participate in such programs? Our latest report provides an overview of recent trends in CTE participation across the Buckeye State.
Over the past decade, Ohio policymakers have made upgrading career-technical education (CTE) a top state priority. Yet the CTE landscape remains complicated and quickly evolving, none more so than in the area of funding. This paper provides an overview of the various funding mechanisms for CTE, including state and federal programs that aim to provide students with high-quality CTE.
In 2022, the first year Samantha Eischen used Amplify CKLA, a reading curriculum based in the Science of Reading, the second-grade teacher at Escuela SMART Academy in Toledo was sold.
Our latest report provides insight into how Ohio teachers view the shift to the Science of Reading. Conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the survey finds promising signs that most teachers are supportive of these changes, while also uncovering areas that need continuing attention from state and local leaders.
The brand new and fully updated eighth edition of our Ohio education guidebook is out now. It offers policymakers, journalists, and civic and business leaders easy-to-use statistics—sans commentary—about Ohio’s K-12 schools and the students they serve.
Our 2023-24 Sponsorship Annual Report details our work providing monitoring, oversight, and technical assistance to ten schools across sixteen campuses that served approximately 6,300 students in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Portsmouth, Ohio.
Thanks to the leadership of Governor DeWine, Lieutenant Governor Husted, and the General Assembly, Ohio has recently made significant strides in narrowing the charter funding gap. Our latest report is an evaluation of the high-quality charter funding program.
We are excited to share the results of a new survey on the state of education opportunity in Ohio. It provides not only a unique window into the opportunities available to families in our state right now but allows us to compare those answers to parents in other states.
When Ed Kurt came home to Margaretta Local School District in the summer of 2020, it was his second tour as superintendent. He had left the district six years earlier to lead Findlay City Schools.
Ohio elementary schools are moving to the Science of Reading, an approach that emphasizes phonics along with vocabulary- and knowledge-rich content. Keen on learning what this transition looks like inside classrooms, we asked Ellen Belcher, a former journalist with the Dayton Daily News, to visit Northridge Local Schools to shine light on their literacy practices. Our latest publication details Northridge's approach to updating their reading curriculum and instruction.
Ohio is making bold moves to center its early literacy instruction fully on the Science of Reading. Our latest report examines one of the key implementation steps in the effort: Creating a state-approved list of high-quality literacy curricula and instructional materials.
One of the most routinely debated questions is whether charters provide a superior education when compared to the district alternative. Just prior to the pandemic, Fordham research showed that students attending brick-and-mortar charters in Ohio made significantly greater academic progress than their peers attending nearby district schools. Our latest research brief provides an updated analysis of brick-and-mortar charter school performance in the years after the pandemic (2021–22 and 2022–23).
For more than twenty-five years, public charter schools have served Ohio families and communities by providing quality educational options beyond the local school district. But it’s no secret that we’ve also had a long-standing debate over whether increasing school choice impacts students who remain in traditional districts. In important—and sometimes impassioned—discussions such as these, rigorous research is critical to ground conversations in facts and evidence.
In the post-pandemic era, Ohio’s K–12 education system continues to be the source of much debate. A mix of hot-button and bipartisan policies ranging from workforce readiness to early literacy to school funding to quality educational choice are drawing attention at the Statehouse and in communities statewide.
Our latest policy brief provides an overview of the CTE landscape for Ohio high schoolers.
Our 2022-23 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report shares our work during the last school year, overseeing thirteen schools that served approximately 6,000 students in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Portsmouth, Ohio.
Our latest policy brief offers recommendations aimed at enhancing local, citizen-led accountability for district performance, while also loosening bureaucratic constraints on district leaders so that they can focus on what matters most: Lifting student achievement.
This study takes a look at Ohio's elementary-school teacher preparation programs and the extent to which they're training candidates in the science of reading. Based on analyses of programs' course materials and syllabi, the report identifies exemplary preparation programs that cover the five components of the reading science. Other programs, however, are lagging behind. The report offers recommendations that will better ensure that all incoming teachers are well-trained in the science of reading.
For more than two decades, the charter school movement has aimed to provide parents with more public-school options, empower educators to launch innovative schools, and boost student achievement. This report looks at the progress Ohio is making toward achieving these ambitious goals. It includes an overview of the landmark reforms that state lawmakers enacted in 2015 to strengthen accountability for charter school performance, as well as the improvements the sector has made since then. The report also discusses the large funding disparities that public charter schools in Ohio still face, and how legislators can work to bridge those gaps.
In fall 2022, the Ohio Department of Education released state assessment results from the 2021-22 school year. The data continue to reveal the massive learnings losses that occurred during the pandemic, along with the uneven recovery in its wake. This report offers a close look at Ohio's achievement data from the 2018-19 to 2021-22 school years, and concludes with four recommendations that can help accelerate student learning across the Buckeye State.
Ensuring that all Ohio students receive an excellent education remains an important priority for state and community leaders. As Governor DeWine himself recently noted, a quality education for all is a “moral imperative” for Ohio. Making good on this obligation starts with a solid understanding of the state of K-12 education in Ohio.
Executive summary
This report explores the impacts of Ohio’s EdChoice program on school district enrollments, finances, and educational outcomes. The study includes detailed analyses of the state’s “performance-based” EdChoice program that, as of 2021–22 provides vouchers to approximately 35,000 students as well as its “income-based” EdChoice program which serves approximately 20,000 low-income students.
