Charter schools are different from traditional district schools in that they are free of many regulations and operating constraints, but in return for their freedoms they are held accountable for their results. Those charter schools that fail to deliver results over time are closed, the theory holds.
Yesterday Terry outlined five ideas for strengthening Ohio's Race to the Top application for round two submission: invite critics into the conversation; remove the fat from the proposal; focus on real measures of teacher performance; remove the teacher unions' veto power ove
Based on today's round one Race to the Top (RttT) rejection, Ohio still has work to do to before submitting its round two application (due June 1) and demonstrating to the US Department of Education that the state is serious about education reform. Despite the disappointment many may feel, now is not the time for turning back.
The superintendent of Ohio's Twin Valley Community Local School District has come under fire in his first year on the job from the local teachers union for, among other grievances, trying to mak
The National Council on Teacher Quality recently reviewed the 16 Race to the Top finalist states' ???great teachers and leaders??? application sections.
The 2009 NAEP reading scores were released this morning with little fanfare for Ohio. There has been virtually no growth in the Buckeyes State's NAEP reading results, with only 36 percent of fourth graders and 37 percent of eighth graders in Ohio proficient or above in reading.
Don't miss the latest Ohio Education Gadfly!
When asked how he would go about improving Pittsburgh, Frank Lloyd Wright offered a simple solution: ???Abandon it.???
“[This plan] will fundamentally change the federal role in education. We will move from being a compliance monitor to being an engine for innovation.” --Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, March 17, 2010, before the House Education and Labor Committee
Brookings' Brown Center on Education Policy just released a proposal for ???America's Teacher Corps,??? a federally funded program that would recognize highly effective teachers in Title I schools, award them a salary bonus ($10,000), and give them a ???portable credential???
Despite a debate among residents and school board members in Worthington, Ohio, over global warming, the district has put itself on the map for install
This week's edition kicks off with a great piece by Terry discussing the unprecedented move by the Ohio Department of Education to close a charter school sponsor (aka authorizer) for fiscal mismanagement.
When federal education Secretary Arne Duncan unveiled the finalists for his $4.35 billion Race to the Top sweepstakes last week, surprise was a common reaction – surprise both at how many (16 out of 41 applicants) and who made the cut.
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) is seeking to close a troubled charter school sponsor (aka authorizer), the Cleveland-based Ashe Culture Center, Inc.
Forget accusations of terrorism, it seems wise to shy away from involvement with Bill Ayers if only because his ideas on public education reform are, well ??? pretty awful.
Spurred by a new report and the looming state financial crisis, the time may be right for school district consolidation for Ohio.??
It's no surprise that Ohio's economy is in crisis, but you might be amazed at the price tag for some of Gov. Strickland's new education mandates. Terry points out the implications of decreasing class size in grades K-3 alone (to 15:1), which will cost $784 million per year by 2014.
???Teacher effectiveness??? has made its way to the top of the education policy agenda, supplanting the focus on ???highly qualified???
RIP snow days. Viva virtual learning. The mid-Atlantic may have lost electric power, its dignity, and a week of work days when the white fluffy stuff blanketed the region in early February. But it didn’t lose learning time, at least for some students with enterprising teachers. Using internet chats and document uploading websites, teachers across the D.C.
This has been a tough winter for Ohio and its cities, and I don’t mean because of the weather… In last week’s Ohio Education Gadfly, we pointed out another rating system that, although not education-specific, is still somewhat disheartening.
???????The overriding question is how will having a teachers union improve on our ability to educate all of our children and make sure they're ready to graduate from college? We respect that they represent the interests of teachers; we represent the interests of students.???????????
This has been a tough winter for Ohio and its cities, and I don't mean because of the weather. Ever since the December release of math test results from NAEP's Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) ???
Ask Americans if they support “public schools,” and you will get a resounding “yes.” At the heart of our abiding commitment to the idea of public education is Horace Mann’s ideal of the “common school”: a place whose doors are open to everybody, and where all children, regardless of social class, race or eth
Since the troubled birth of charter schools here in 1997, school districts have had a love/hate relationship with them. Some district officials have sought to embrace them as part of their larger reform efforts, while others have done everything in their power to kill them off. A few leaders have actually done both simultaneously.
Can a school district sell a school building and prohibit the buyer from opening a school in that building?
In a recent poll of elementary school principals commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a majority of principals reported that recess has a positive impact on student achievement.
???????Value-added??????? measures of academic progress are undeniably important, and we've cheered their addition to school assessment and accountability systems.???? At the school level, knowledge about how much progress a child is making can help teachers and school leaders make smart decisions about instruction.????
