Editors in Akron opined in favor of revamped state report cards for schools and districts, opining in favor of Fordham’s recent report on same along the way.
I don’t know about you, but for the most part, I shut down my social media and news apps over the winter holiday this year. As it turns out, tending to your neighbor’s chickens, building gingerbread houses, and riding sleds are all good strategies for recovering from the dumpster fire that was 2017.
Ahead of this week’s state board of education meeting, the Dispatch took a look at the issue of graduation requirements, sure to be a highlight of the agenda. If the one board member quoted here is anything to go by, extending the no-competency diploma pathways to the Classes of 2019 and 2020—two new fronts in the state’s War on Knowing Stuff—is a slam dunk.
One of the perils of working at a think tank, especially one like Fordham, which encourages provocative ideas and never shies away from a debate, is that it can be easy to anger or frustrate even your closest allies. That’s especially true in this polarized, fraught time we’re living in.
A task force was created this week to lead discussion and recommend a course of action to deal with the—frankly pretty enormous—problem of Dayton City Schools’ numerous underutilized buildings.
Fordham is namechecked in this brief New Year’s Day story on possible report card changes for schools and districts coming via legislation in 2018.
Closing out the year with a further discussion of graduation rates, the Dispatch settled on the topic of charter school grad rates, finding them to be far lower than for traditional district schools.
To ring in the New Year, we at the Ohio Gadfly have a tradition—two years running!—of predicting the top issues in education for the coming year.
The outgoing school board and the interim supe made some fairly permanent decisions this week regarding the school closure process in Dayton.
In the world of American politics, controversy dominated 2017. In the world of Ohio education policy, things were a bit quieter—but still eventful. As we say goodbye (or good riddance) to 2017, here’s a look at the seven biggest education stories of the year.7) State budget
In case you missed it, Aaron Churchill had an op ed published in the Dispatch yesterday in which he argues for a revamp of Ohio’s school and district report cards. He lays out in brief the recommendations of his recent Back to the Basics report. (Columbus Dispatch, 12/19/17)
Here at Fordham, we try to keep our finger on the pulse of what our Ohio readers are interested in. But every year, we are pleasantly surprised when blog posts take on lives of their own.Herewith, the most-read Ohio Gadfly blog posts of 2017, with some thoughts as to why these pieces caught your attention.1. The student perspective
Fordham’s Aaron Churchill is quoted in this Dispatch piece on the topic of rising high school graduation rates. Our research guru warns that giving out unearned diplomas just for the sake of “fairness” can devalue both the piece of paper and the education it is supposed to represent.
The state board of education finished up their meeting this week by drafting a resolution proposing to create a working group to review and recommend changes to state report cards. The resolution will be debated at the next meeting in January.
As the song says, “There’s a war goin’ on out there somewhere.” It seems to be a war on knowin’ stuff and it’s being waged in the state board of education.
The gap in vocabulary for children growing up in poor households compared to their higher-income peers is well documented in research, especially for the youngest students just entering school. But shouldn’t the start of formal education begin to mitigate that gap?
Can you stand a couple more media hits on Fordham’s Back to the Basics report? Me too! First up was a really good write up I missed upon release of the report last Thursday.
In case you missed it, Fordham released a new report yesterday, offering up a redesign of Ohio’s school report cards to be fairer to schools and clearer for parents. Media response was generally pretty good.
At its November meeting, the State Board of Education reopened the debate over Ohio’s graduation standards.
I don’t usually clip blog posts, but the Ohio-centric nature of this piece from Citizen Ed was too much to resist. It describes a panel event called “The Faces of Education Reform,” held at the recent Excellence in Education annual conference.
The Associated Press published a story looking at the racial diversity of students who’ve opted into charter schools across the country and were very alarmed by their findings. I’m assuming that many news outlets across Ohio will be localizing the story in the days to come.
The inimitable Marguerite Roza has been taking a look at dual enrollment programs across the country, including College Credit Plus here in Ohio.
Maybe they were too optimistic? Maybe there was a wink and a nudge? Who knows?
We start the week with another update on Columbus City Schools’ upcoming surplus property auction.
Pretty busy meeting for the Columbus school board last night. Suspensions were approved for two more data scrubbing administrators. Both will retain their jobs after the sting of that wrist slapping abates.
Next September, Ohio districts and schools will receive an overall grade on their report cards. While the Buckeye State has generated overall ratings before—using labels such as “effective” or “academic watch”—this will be the first time Ohio assigns an overall A-F grade.
Fordham is namechecked in Jeremy Kelley’s look at the latest charter sponsor ratings. Makes sense since our sponsorship office (and two sponsored schools) is located in the Gem City. (Dayton Daily News, 11/20/17)
New Ohio charter sponsor ratings were released this week. For the first time, there are sponsors rated at the highest level, which is good. The Dispatch is focusing on the bad – 10 sponsors rated “Poor”.
Want a good read? Check out this little nugget on the Fordham-sponsored United Schools Network of charters here in Columbus, including a look at their new School Performance Institute. Just ignore the snarky subhead of the piece. They couldn’t help themselves, I suppose.
