Gadfly Bites 9/29/23—Ultimate

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Here’s how ADC districts performed on state report cards

Academic Distress Commissions (ADCs) have a long and controversial history in Ohio.

Is Ohio on the Path to Educational Pluralism? Lessons from Around the World

Ohio has long been a pioneer in school choices for students and families.  It is home to one of the nation’s first private-school scholarship programs, focused on Cleveland.

Ohio’s urban district and charter school performance, 2022–23

For more than two decades, Ohio’s school report cards have shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of the state’s public schools. This year’s report card is no different.

Gadfly Bites 9/27/23—Penultimate

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Gadfly Bites 9/25/23—Antepenultimate

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Gadfly Bites 9/22/23—That thing you DEW

News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.

Gadfly Bites 9/20/23—DEW or DEW not

How’d the first day of actual school go in Youngstown this week? Or even the second? No one in the local press seems to care since the teachers union is happy with the deal they won, so I have no idea.

As chronic absenteeism rates soar, some Ohio lawmakers want to make it easier for kids to skip school

The negative impacts of chronic absenteeism are well known. In elementary school, truancy can contribute to weaker math and reading skills that persist into later grades.

2021 PIRLS test results starkly illustrate global learning loss

The first pandemic-influenced data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) test are in. Unsurprisingly, an initial analysis says the news is bad.

Gadfly Bites 9/18/23—It only takes one whammy to make families scramble for solutions

The Youngstown teacher strike seems to be over after a tentative agreeme

Gadfly Bites 9/15/23—Seems like all tortoise and no hare

In case you somehow missed it, state report cards were released yesterday.

Fordham Institute statement on Ohio’s school report cards

This morning, the Ohio Department of Education released its annual school report cards based on results from the 2022-23 school year. This year’s iteration makes clear that the impacts of the pandemic on student learning are still being felt, especially for students from less advantaged backgrounds.

Gadfly Bites 9/13/23—A “digestible” counterproposal?

Looks like someone’s been listening to Fordham’s Aaron Churchill, who has been advocating for including party labels for candidates on local school board ballots for many years, with lots of great analysis backing it up.

Why Ohio’s school board elections should be on-cycle

It’s September and that means fall elections are coming soon. Not that election—the presidential is still more than twelve months away—but local school board races are right around the corner.

Gadfly Bites 9/11/23—School funding is a zero-sum game because we say it is

Gongwer covered the news of the massive parental response to expanded EdChoice voucher eligibility.

Gadfly Bites 9/8/23—A different kind of Friday the 13th; still pretty scary

OSU’s

Gadfly Bites 9/6/23—Reality bites…and so do bats

Despite steady gains, much work remains on Ohio’s academic recovery

NOTE: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.

Are college completion grants a no-incentive incentive?

At the same time that the number of degree earners in the U.S.

Gadfly Bites 9/1/23—The circus is in town—all three rings of it

Approximately 7 hours of talks on both Wednesday and Thursday between Youngstown teach