The Persuadable Public

William Howell, Martin West, and Paul PetersonEducation NextFall 2009

This week's Ohio Education Gadfly brings you up close and personal

Do you want a nitty gritty view of how funding issues and accountability ratings affect local school districts? Then you won't want to miss this week's Ohio Education Gadfly.

A new kind of victim-blaming

One frequently hears arguments that redirect blame from failing schools (and their teachers and principals) to ubiquitous social monsters that are bigger and hairier (poverty, broken families, crime) but also impossible to hold accountable.?? I get this. There are undeniable correlations between student achievement and socioeconomic status.

School Choice Ohio is blogging

Our friends at School Choice Ohio have joined the education blogosphere. Visit http://scohio.org/wordpress/ for the latest news and updates about choice in the Buckeye State.

Innovative Ohio schools struggle to make ends meet

While funding for most public schools will be flat - and schools will be lucky with that - for innovative schools at both ends of the state's pre-K-12 education ladder, the budget is nothing short of doomsday.

2009 Ohio report card analysis

Terry Ryan, Fordham's vice president for Ohio programs and policy, talks about the recently released performance data for Ohio's urban district and charter schools. Watch here.

Exciting news: The New Teacher Project will conduct study of Cincinnati Public Schools

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Friday that Cincinnati Public Schools will be the focus of a study by The New Teacher Project (TNTP).

Fordham in the news -- Buckeye State clips worth paying attention to

This weekend saw a flurry of news stories on education in Ohio, and Fordham was in the middle of these in our usual roles of analysts and prognosticators.

Ohio 2009 Education Report Card Analysis

Terry Ryan of our Ohio offices offers a concise explanation of our Ohio 2009 Education Report Card Analysis in this video.

Let's praise all schools that work as we don't have enough of them

In February, during the heated political debate around Governor Strickland's education reform plan, I wrote an opinion piece for the Columbus Dispatch that argued the governor's attack on for-profit charter schools "wou

Majority of Americans misinformed about charters

Okay, I know I'm about the 31,487th person to pick up on this, but there's one factoid in the 2009 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll of Americans' attitudes toward public schools that is driving me especially nutty.

Our analysis of Ohio report card data

Here in Ohio, the annual report card release from the Ohio Department of Education is like Christmas.

Analysis of Local Report Cards: Ohio Urban School Performance for 2008-09

Since 2003, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has been analyzing the academic performance of schools in our hometown of Dayton and in other Ohio cities. We continued that analysis this year, taking a close look at the local report card data released by the Ohio Department of Education yesterday (see here).

Pictures: The first days of school

Teachers and administrators arrive at Columbus Collegiate Academy by 7am.

Obama & Duncan: Democrats after my own heart

Winning the award for pretty much the least surprising news ever is that the National Education Association (NEA) has slammed President Obama's Race to the Top (RttT) initiative, a $4.35 billion competitive grant program fo

Smart anti-choice strategies emerging

School-choice foes in the Buckeye State are getting smarter about the strategies they employ to undermine the choice movement.???? Since the birth of charters here in 1998 and vouchers in 2005, opponents--namely Democrats, teacher unions, and the education establishment--have fought a "districts = good, choice = bad" fight.????

Absence of TFA in Ohio has larger implications

An editorial in the Dayton Daily News from this Monday argued that Ohio should bring Teach For America (TFA) into the state.

Ohio's K-12 cyber-learning community is an emerging landscape

 While Ohio's higher education cyber-learning landscape is firmly established (see here), the K-12 cyber-school landscape is still in its infancy. Of Ohio's 1.7 million students, 23,000 were enrolled full-time in one of the state's 28 cybercharters in 20-2008.

Save the date: World-Class Academic Standards for Ohio

 The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are hosting a one-day conference, "World-Class Academic Standards for Ohio," in Columbus October 5.

Survey says -- Ohio AP science students score well nationally

 Ohio may be lagging in the numbers of students taking Advanced Placement courses, although students who do take the AP science tests are among the top scorers nationally, according to a recent survey.

Hard work with Ohio's charter schools paying off

 The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) recently released a report, Quality, Diversity and Choice: the Value of Multiple Charter Authorizing Options (see here), which outlines various types of charter school authoriz

Debunking the demonizers of student testing

An op-ed by Cleveland State University education professor Karl Wheatley in the August 9 Cleveland Plain Dealer argues that the pursuit of improved student achievement in our public schools is largely a waste of time (see here).

Hard work with charter schools is paying off

From Stumbling to Sprinting- Ohio Senator Calls for Charter Improvements

Ohio intern Rachel Roseberry wrote this guest post.

Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow

Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic AdvisersJuly 2009

Am. Sub. H.B. 1: The 2010-'11 Ohio budget's successes and failures

By guest blogger Ohio Policy & Research Intern Matt Walsh

Buckeye State sell out

The dust has finally settled on a long and contentious legislative battle over education reform in Ohio.

Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress

Alan Vanneman, Linda Hamilton, Janet B. Anderson, and Taslima RahmanNational Center for Education StatisticsJuly 2009

Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement

Jesse RothsteinPrinceton University and National Bureau of Economic ResearchFebruary 2010 (anticipated)

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable