NOTE: Today the Ohio House of Representative’s Primary and Secondary Education Committee heard testimony on House Bill 127, a measure which would put a moratorium on new Academic Distress Commissions being enacted for consistently low-performing
NOTE: Today the Ohio Senate’s Education Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 110, a measure which would alter the state’s current academic distress framework for consistently low-performing school districts.
Editor’s Note: Back in September 2018, awaiting the election of our next governor, we at the Fordham Institute began developing a set of policy proposals that we belie
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the increasingly loud kerfuffle surrounding academic distress commissions, or ADCs. Often referred to as “state takeovers” by the media, ADCs are a mechanism in law that calls for state intervention in low-performing school districts.
The Data Quality Campaign, an organization dedicated to advocating for effective educational data policy and use, recently released its third comprehensive review of school report cards in all fifty stat
As winter turns to spring, the question roiling the General Assembly is what Ohio should do about chronically underperforming school districts.
Back in July 2017, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation permitting students in the class of 2018 to graduate based on weak alternative pathways recommended by
At their March meeting, the State Board of Education voted to send its proposal for a new set of high school graduation requirements to the Ohio General Assembly for consideration.
In an article published on March 5, Bill Bush of the Columbus Dispatch wrote that Columbus City Schools plans to target key areas of their state report card where “modest gains
One of the defining characteristics of Ohio’s graduation debate is a lack of data.
Editor’s Note: Back in September 2018, awaiting the election of our next governor, we at the Fordham Institute began developing a set of policy proposals that we belie
Creating smart, coherent education policy is painstaking work; there are technical, budgetary, and political challenges at almost every turn. But it is some of the most important work that state leaders can undertake.
Jeremy Kelley of the Dayton Daily News
In early February, Chalkbeat published an analysis of New York City’s graduation rate, which rose to nearly 76 percent in 2018—a 1.7 percent increas
In the waning days of January, Chiefs for Change—a nonprofit, bipartisan network comprising state and district education chiefs, including Oh
In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, pundits and analysts were hyper-focused on rural communities.
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." -- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. That sentiment has never been more profound and applicable than it is today.
As Ohio’s high school diplomas erode in value, there will be a growing need for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills through other means.
Last summer, President Trump signed into law the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act.
With popular, bipartisan support, career-and-technical education (CTE) is being embraced by policymakers across the
During his inauguration in early January, Governor Mike DeWine spoke of his desire to use education to improve Ohio. “Education is the key to equality and the key to opportunity,” he said.
Ever since the supposed “graduation apocalypse” was first declared two years ago, we at Fordham have been vocal about the dangers of
COLUMBUS (OH) – The Senate Education Committee today amended House Bill 491 to extend previously-relaxed graduation requirements for the class of 2018 to the classes of
Thank you, Chair Lehner, Vice Chair Huffman, Ranking Member Sykes, and Senate Education Committee members for the opportunity to provide written testimony on amendments potentially being offered on House Bill 491 related to softening the graduation requirements for future graduating classes.
The ongoing debate on what standards (if any) students in the class of 2019 should have to meet in order to receive a diploma has resulted in very little attention being paid to recent
Editor’s Note: As Ohioans await the start of the new governor’s term in January, and as state leaders look to build upon past education successes, we at the Fordham In
In Ohio’s great graduation debate, we at Fordham have
Since 2005, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has published annual analyses of Ohio’s state report card data, focusing on district and charter schools in Ohio’s Big Eight urban areas: Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown.
Across the nation, urban public charter schools are posting impressive student achievement gains.
Ohio’s news outlets have covered the debate over graduation requirements as if it were a burning problem that policymakers need to urgently “fix.” For instance, the local NPR affiliate headlined an article, “Ohio education panel still crafting long-term fix on graduation stan
