Commentary
Online K-12 Schooling in the U.S.: Uncertain Private Venture in Need of Public Regulation
Surprisingly sound recommendations from the anti-capatalists
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Teacher-to-be wishes SB 5 was still around
Fordham intern and future teacher Matt Kyle reflects on why SB 5 mattered.
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State Superintendent Heffner makes case for more demanding K-12 expectations
Ohio teachers and administrators work tirelessly to deliver an excellent education to the state?s 1.8 million students, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner at the annual Ohio School Boards Association?s conference earlier this week. So why are fewer than one in three of Ohio?s fourth graders reading at a proficient level (according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress)? Worse, why are achievement scores unimpressive among not only the Buckeye State?s urban districts, but even among wealthier suburban districts, especially in contrast to students internationally?
Commentary
State Superintendent Heffner makes case for more demanding K-12 expectations
Ohio teachers and administrators work tirelessly to deliver an excellent education to the state?s 1.8 million students, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner at the annual Ohio School Boards Association?s conference earlier this week. So why are fewer than one in three of Ohio?s fourth graders reading at a proficient level (according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress)? Worse, why are achievement scores unimpressive among not only the Buckeye State?s urban districts, but even among wealthier suburban districts, especially in contrast to students internationally?
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Ohio's Senate Bill 5: A union dissenter's perspective
Ever wonder what happens to teachers who don't want to join the union? In her emotional testimony to the Ohio House's Commerce and Labor Committee on Senate Bill 5 this morning, teacher Carol Katter of Wapakoneta provided an answer.
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Colorado initiative could serve as model for Ohio schools
The Falcon 49 School District near Colorado Springs is implementing an innovative structure to their administrative system, according to this article in Education Week.
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Hey, big spender
We are going to see increasing in-fighting among big government types as big-spending school districts compete for resources with the rest of the agenda supported by the public fisc. Schools are increasingly going to lose those battles, which they?re not used to. Today?s example comes from Montgomery County, Maryland, where I live.
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Curriculum & Instruction
Teacher Prep Falls Short
To improve student learning in Ohio, and in other states, we need to improve the quality of our teaching force.
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Ohio superintendents discuss efficiency, lament limits
Yesterday Ohio Education Matters (a subsidiary of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation) hosted a forum for Ohio superintendents and district
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Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts
New study explains the ?what? and ?how? but not the ?who?
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High-Stakes Reform: The Politics of Educational Accountability
Centralization leads to politicization
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You???d be crazy to see SB5???s defeat as rejection of Ohio school reform
A vote of support for first responders
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You'd be crazy to see SB5's defeat as a defeat for Ohio school reform
Ohio's electorate soundly rejected Issue 2 (the referendum on Senate Bill 5) on Tuesday. As almost everyone knows, that statute made significant changes to collective bargaining for public employees in the Buckeye State.
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Calling out the education schools
It is never easy to challenge your own friends and colleagues. But Thomas Lasley, the former dean of education at the University of Dayton, does just that in his hard hitting piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education ??? ???Why do Teacher-Education Programs Fear a New Rating System????
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Fixing Rhode Island's pensions
Rhode Island's teacher pension system is a mess. The annual cost of the retirement system has doubled since 2003 and will likely double again by 2013.
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Call for common sense education reforms in Ohio won't die with defeat of Senate Bill 5
Ohio's airwaves have been abuzz with commercials for and against Issue 2 (the referendum for Senate Bill 5). For those not living in the Buckeye State, SB 5 is the state's highly contentious public sector reform law. According to Ohio's Secretary of State, opponents of the law have raised almost $24 million to shoot it down, while supporters have mustered about $6 million to save it.
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Putting Ohio's teacher evaluation reforms in a national context
The State Board of Education has just eight weeks left to develop a model framework for teacher evaluations that will be used or adapted by over 1000 local education agencies (LEA) by July of 2013. (Ohio's biennial budget ? HB 153 ? stipulated that the Board come up with a model by December 31 of this year.)? Skeletal requirements are spelled out in state law.
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Voucher student performance promising, better data needed
Ohio currently has a basket full of publicly funded, private-school voucher programs, making it unique in America's school choice landscape. Ohio has three separate programs for students in failing districts, students with autism, and students living in Cleveland. A voucher program for students with disabilities launches next year.
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Why I support the education provisions in the hotly debated SB5
Earlier this year I testified in both the Ohio Senate and the House in support of the education provisions embedded in the highly contentious Senate Bill 5. SB5, now known as Issue 2, is up for referendum next Tuesday and current polls show the bill will very likely be overturned.
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Florida leads the way for low-income & minority students
Yesterday School Choice Ohio held a discussion led by Matt Ladner, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Educational Choice who's conducted a mountain of research on school choice programs nationally and in Ohio.
Report
Charter Schools
Ohio's Education Reform Challenges: Lessons from the Frontlines
Fordham has been both an advocate of choice and an authorizer of charter schools serving some of Ohio's neediest students. This book describes and analyzes our efforts, successes and failures, and what we think it means for others committed to school reform.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Is school choice a worthy end in itself?
The Columbus Dispatch ran competing op-eds by School Choice Ohio's (SCO) Chad Aldis and Fordham's Terry Ryan on the expansion of vouchers in the Buckeye State. Both Aldis and Ryan support the expansion of school choice programs in Ohio, but how the state should hold these new programs accountable for their academic performance and even whether it should do so is contentious.
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Charter schools a hot topic in Ohio
This week StateImpact Ohio is featuring a series on charter schools in Ohio that will address questions about charter school performance, management/governance, finances, and more.