Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 5/2/25—Pretty vile
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Topics
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Senate bills push for stronger interventions for low-performing students and schools
As budget deliberations continue, we can't lose sight of other important legislation. Here are two current bills aimed at improving interventions for low-achieving students and beefing up Ohio's school-improvement framework.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/30/25—Your humble clips translator
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
Proponent testimony on Ohio Senate Bill 158
Note: Today the Ohio Senate Education Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 158. It proposes sharp limits on the use of cellphones by students during the school day.
Commentary
School Finance
Let’s stop crying “unconstitutional” about Ohio school funding
Ohio is in the thick of another biennial budget season. The governor has rolled out his proposal, the House has passed its version, and now it’s the Senate’s turn to take the wheel.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/28/25—GUTTED!
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Private School Choice
Ohio’s EdChoice scholarship program improved college outcomes
As private school scholarship (voucher) programs sweep the nation, debate over their impacts on students remains heated.
Commentary
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/25/25—They Know They Can; I Figure They Won’t
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
The House’s policy changes on chronic absenteeism could lead to unintended consequences
Chronic absenteeism is a significant problem in Ohio. During the most recent school year, 25 percent of students were chronically absent statewide.
Commentary
Private School Choice
New study finds improved college outcomes for Ohio’s EdChoice students
This week, the Urban Institute—a national think tank—released a study that examines the college outcomes of EdChoice scholarship students.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/23/25—Paying the bills…and the piper
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Report
Career & Technical Education
Funding Career and Technical Education in Ohio: An overview and policy recommendations
Over the past decade, Ohio policymakers have made upgrading career-technical education (CTE) a top state priority. Yet the CTE landscape remains complicated and quickly evolving, none more so than in the area of funding. This paper provides an overview of the various funding mechanisms for CTE, including state and federal programs that aim to provide students with high-quality CTE.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/21/25—What in the eCampus are you talking about, you dinosaurs?
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
To improve academic outcomes, Ohio needs to get early identification right
It’s state budget season, which means Ohioans are being inundated with an abundance of confusing numbers. Most have dollar signs attached.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Ohio Charter News Weekly – 4.18.25
Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. Haven’t we been here before?
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/18/25—Wake up!
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/16/25—Greed, ego, and foolishness
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
The good, bad, and ugly in the Ohio House education plan
The House has passed its version of the state budget, and its K-12 education provisions run the gamut from good to bad to even worse. We look at some marquee examples of each.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Impacts of a pre-kindergarten preparation program in Texas
Can a parent-education initiative help a school district to boost the readiness of three-year-olds who will soon enter pre-K? One Texas district has been implementing such a program for almost a decade, and a new working paper documents outcomes that are both promising and problematic.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/14/25—“The Little Engine that Couldn’t”
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Ohio Charter News Weekly – 4.11.25
Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. Ohio budget update
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/11/25—Rounding errors
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/9/25—The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Taxation
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
School Finance
Ohio House puts the brakes on Cupp-Patterson
Facing an out-of-reach price tag and questions from leadership on its sustainability, the Ohio House proposed stopping the Cupp-Patterson funding plan in its tracks, replacing it with a middle ground proposal feature some important pluses and minuses.
Report
Curriculum & Instruction
The Science of Reading in Action: How Toledo’s Escuela SMART Academy is making phonics and content knowledge central to literacy instruction
In 2022, the first year Samantha Eischen used Amplify CKLA, a reading curriculum based in the Science of Reading, the second-grade teacher at Escuela SMART Academy in Toledo was sold.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
House lawmakers throw a wrench in DeWine’s principal apprenticeship plan
Governor DeWine first announced his interest in principal apprenticeship during his 2024 state of the state address.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/7/25—Banging on about the bucks
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Ohio Charter News Weekly – 4.4.25
Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full. A sad update
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 4/4/25—Miswritten
News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
