Only a glutton for punishment would want a rehash of the biggest K–12 education stories of 2020. They are no secret—and frankly depressing: widespread school closures, predictions about massive learning losses, and students going M.I.A. from remote learning.
It’s that time of year again when we at Fordham are forced to ask ourselves, “What were they thinking?” The “they” in question is you, our readers and subscribers.
The Fordham Institute has built its reputation over the years on the strength of its commentary and research. We’ll leave the former for another blog, but given all of the newsworthy events, you may have missed one of our research studies released in 2020.
NOTE: This is the last edition of Gadfly Bites to be published in 2020. We’re back on January 4, 2021 with a wrap up of 2020 stories. Regular service for 2021 will resume on January 6. Thank you so much for reading and subscribing!
While there isn’t anything good—if you ask me (which, thankfully, no one ever does)—about the plan to induce school districts across the state to pay a bunch of lawyers to execute what will likely be a years-long court battle against school choice, the launch of the public induction effort to that en
NOTE: This is the last edition to be published this year. We’ll return with a final look at 2020 stories on Thursday, January 7, 2021; regular service for 2021 resumes on Friday, January 8.
We’ll start today with my favorite riddle (heard here many times before). When is a charter school not a charter school? When an Ohio newspaper wants to say something nice about them!
Peter Greene gets a twofer in swiping at standardized testing and Ohio’s
A new report from Portland State University sociologist Dara Shifrer digs into the value-added data of thousands of teachers who switched schools and concludes that value-added measures reflect the socio-economic status of students and thus cannot be used to accuratel
School funding has been front-and-center over the past month in Ohio with the high profile Cupp-Patterson plan driving media coverage.
Remember back before the pandemic when school districts were being overly cautious about the student wellness funding approved in the last biennial budget?
Fordham’s Chad Aldis was quoted on the importance of conducting state tests this school year.
It’s been a busy lame duck session in Ohio.
Preble Shawnee Local Schools failed to pass a levy in November, the latest in a long line of renewal failures over the last five years.
Nearly a quarter century after the DeRolph v. Ohio decision, many still assume that the state’s school funding system is unconstitutional.
It was widely noted on Friday that the new school funding plan that passed the House faced less-affirmative prospects in the Ohio Senate (see what I did there?) due to the complexity of the issue and the time remaining in the lame duck legislative session.
NOTE: Ohio Charter News Weekly is back after a Thanksgiving break. Clips cover the period of 11/20 through 12/4.
Earlier this week, the Senate Education committee passed Substitute Senate Bill 358, legislation that would extend temporary waivers from state laws that were granted earlier this year in response to the pandemic and school building closures.
In case you missed it, Chad testified before the House Finance Committee yesterday as an interested party on the Cupp-Patterson school funding overhaul bill.
NOTE: Today, the Finance Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives is hearing testimony on House Bill 305 which would create a new scho
Correction (12/17/20): A previous version of this article incorrectly indicated that the income-based EdChoice program was renamed the Buckeye Opportunity Scholarship.
Triennially, we Americans await the results of the international PISA tests with equal parts hope and dread, although who knows yet if we’ll get
NOTE: Gadfly Bites is back after a Thanksgiving break. Clips cover November 25 – 30.
NOTE: Gadfly Bites will be off on Friday for Thanksgiving break. Back on Monday, November 30.
The latest iteration of the Cupp-Patterson school funding plan was recently unveiled in an amendment to House Bill 305 and the introduction of a
Two groups likely to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19-related learning disruptions are students with disabilities and English language learners.
NOTE: Bites is back from a short vacation. Today’s clips cover 11/19 – 11/23/20.
In the last week, there’s been a flurry of discussion around what the incoming Biden administration could do for student loan borrowers.
