Gadfly Bites 10/20/21—Down is up
In our topsy turvy tour of education news clips today, we start with Fairview Park City Schools, which appears to be heavily recruiting students to attend its swanky, newly-upgraded high school next year.
In our topsy turvy tour of education news clips today, we start with Fairview Park City Schools, which appears to be heavily recruiting students to attend its swanky, newly-upgraded high school next year.
Between the state budget, debates over school choice
Every parent has the right to educate their children in way that meets their kids’ needs and accords with their values and beliefs. Don’t just take my word for it: The U.S.
It’s been a banner year for private school choice in Ohio.
For nearly twenty years, EdChoice has provided tens of thousands of students with the opportunity to attend private schools via state-funded scholarships, also known as vouchers.
Opponents of school choice in Ohio continue to threaten a lawsuit seeking to eradicate the state’s largest private-school scholarship program, known as
The U.S. Department of Labor defines stackable credentials as a “sequence of credentials that can be accumulated over time.” Research indicates that they can lead to higher-paying jobs for students and improve talent pipelines for employers. Over the last few years, Ohio has become a national leader in developing stackable credential pipelines.
The state budget has long been the primary vehicle for instituting sweeping education policy changes in Ohio. Amidst all the hustle and bustle and debate, it’s easy to forget that standalone bills are still being proposed. In fact, given the high stakes, it may even seem wise to focus solely on the budget.
As Ohio’s General Assembly continues working on the biennial state budget, policymakers have the unique chance to pursue meaningful education reform for Ohio’s K–12 students. Given the dark rain clouds of the past fourteen months, we are all grateful to see a silver lining emerging.
Over the past year, media outlet
Improving the technical skills of Ohioans to meet changing workforce demands has been a priority for Governor DeWine since taking office in 2019.
With Covid-19 cases dropping, teachers getting vaccinated, and new data and guidance coming in all the time showing th
In March 2020, a group of researchers and economists led by Peter Q. Blair of Harvard University published a working paper exploring the idea that on-the-job skills acquisition could be just as valuable as a bachelor’s degree, or more, in helping workers move up the career ladder to higher-wage work.
Correction (12/17/20): A previous version of this article incorrectly indicated that the income-based EdChoice program was renamed the Buckeye Opportunity Scholarship.
The Ohio House and Senate have each approved legislation, Senate Bill 89, which significantly changes the state’s EdChoice Scholarship program. The EdChoice Scholarship, Ohio’s largest voucher program, has been a topic of robust debate for the past year as lawmakers argued over what state report card measures should determine if a school is considered low-performing.
In policy circles, school choice and desegregation discussions often stop at the schoolhouse door.
It’s been over two years since the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act was signed into federal law with overwhelming bipartisan support. The law is a reauthorization of the Carl D.
Last year, hundreds of business and industry leaders, educators, state policymakers, and advocates gathered in downtown Columbus for Aim Hire, a day-long conference focused on workforce development hosted
In the last decade, Ohio leaders have advocated for an increased focus on career and technical education.
Research has shown that the human visual system is generally better at processing information that’s oriented in the horizontal and vertical planes—that i
Over the last few years, states have attempted to offer a clearer picture of how well high schools prepare students for the future by measuring college and career readiness (CCR), instead of just student achievement and graduation rates.
Research has established—and common sense reinforces—that postsecondary
The Cincinnati Enquirer recently published a deeply flawed and misleading “analysis” of the EdChoice scholarship (a.k.a. voucher) program.
The pandemic has been a stark reminder of the importance of educational attainment in uncertain times.
Today, the Complete to Compete Ohio Coalition—a group of more than forty education, community, and business organizations—released a comprehensive action plan to increase the number of Ohioans who earn postsecondary cred
Editor’s Note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
Stackable credentials are coordinated pathways of two or more occupation-specific educational credentials—up to and including an associate degree—designed to share coursework and to build upon one another toward greater competency in a job field.
The growth of private school choice programs in Ohio has clearly struck a nerve with the education bureaucracy. After rapid expansion in the number of schools slated to be deemed “low-performing” in 2020–21, which ballooned the number of students eligible for vouchers, choice opponents pushed for massive changes in Ohio’s EdChoice program.
It’s no secret that Covid-19 has had a massive impact on schools.