Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 6/12/24—You ain’t seen nothing yet
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
A closer look at how Ohio fared on Strada’s State Opportunity Index
Over the last few years, Ohio leaders have focused on improving education-to-workforce pathways through a variety of
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 6/10/24—Play the hits!
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Ohio Charter News Weekly – 6.7.24
Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. Demolition on hold
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 6/7/24—How to
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 6/5/24—Some good news, some bad news, and some silliness
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
School Finance
Ohio’s school funding formula is hurting open enrollment
Changes to the way districts are funded when they accept open enrolled students from outside their borders threatens to shrink a popular and important public school choice program. This longstanding option must remain widely available and robust.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
The impact of private schooling on students’ civic engagement
In 2023, Sarah Stitzlein—professor of education at the University of Cincinnati—asserted that “the health of our democracy in the United States depends directly on our public schools.” Her assessment summed up decades of thought and scholarship on the subjec
Commentary
Charter Schools
Digging in to the 2024 Charter School Ecosystem Rankings
The Education Freedom Institute (EFI) recently released the newest iteration of its charter ecosystem rankings, its third such effort to gauge the health of states’ charter-school sectors.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
For principal apprenticeships, look to the Peace Garden State
Registered apprenticeship programs offer workers paid, on-the-job learning experience under the supervision of an experienced mentor, job-related classroom training, and the chance to earn a portable industry-recognized credential.
Commentary
Private School Choice
Gadfly Bites 6/3/24—Blurred line vibes
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Ohio Charter News Weekly – 5.31.24
Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. Case dismissed
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/31/24—Maybe it IS a culture thing
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/29/24—If we really want to compare apples to apples…
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Ohio Charter News Weekly – 5.24.24
Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. Analysis of segregation data
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/24/24—The narrative
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
School Finance
Give Ohio teachers control over their own retirement
The soap opera at the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), the entity that manages Ohio’s teacher pensions, has made non-stop headlines of late.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/22/24—Ohio shows the world
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
“Teaching to the test” done right? Evidence from Austria.
“Teaching to the test” is a common pejorative term that touches on a number of hot-button education policy issues—top-down mandates to schools, shrinking curriculum, hamstringing teacher autonomy and creativity, and dampening student interest in learning to name just a few.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
The A to Z of sequential bias in grading student assignments
The use of technology in education—in place before the pandemic but increased in magnitude and ubiquity since 2020—is drawing increasing scrutiny from many sides.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/15/24—PR time
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Lessons from Columbus on early literacy
Evidence from the state’s largest school district indicates that there are some potential pitfalls facing Ohio on its road toward improved reading achievement that policymakers should keep an eye on.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Invited testimony to the House Higher Education Committee—May 14, 2024
NOTE: Today, the Ohio House Higher Education Committee invited testimony from state and national policy leaders as part of their exploratory
Commentary
School Finance
Ohio needs to fix its method for counting and funding low-income students
This is second in a series where I examine issues in K–12 education that Ohio leaders should tackle in the next biennial state budget.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/13/24—Funhouse mirror vibes
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Ohio Charter News Weekly – 5.10.24
Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. New NAPCS CEO announced
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/10/24—The learning phase
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/8/24—96 Tears
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full.
Commentary
Career & Technical Education
Getting career planning right
One of the hallmarks of Governor DeWine’s administration has been its emphasis on expanding and improving career pathways for students. Thus, it came as no surprise that the governor focused on this critical issue in his recent state of the state address.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Information sources, data quality, and parental school choice
Los Angeles Unified School District’s Zones of Choice (ZOC) program began in 2010 as an effort to provide more high school options for a large swath of district eighth graders, combining historical catchment areas in lower-income and lower-performing neighborhoods into larger choice zones and eliminating the default feeder system from middle to high school.
