Needle in a haystack: Citizens' Academy

Congratuations to Andy Boy!

Congratulations to Andrew Boy, the co-director and founder of Columbus Collegiate Academy, one of the six charter schools Fordham authorizes.

Should federal dollars be used to try to turn around failing charters?

Charter schools are different from traditional district schools in that they are free of many regulations and operating constraints, but in return for their freedoms they are held accountable for their results. Those charter schools that fail to deliver results over time are closed, the theory holds.

Columbus Collegiate Academy wins prestigious national award for student achievement gains

Today's Ohio Education Gadfly: find out why Ohio might be a trailblazer in charter accountability

This week's edition kicks off with a great piece by Terry discussing the unprecedented move by the Ohio Department of Education to close a charter school sponsor (aka authorizer) for fiscal mismanagement.

Buckeye State holding charter school sponsors accountable

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) is seeking to close a troubled charter school sponsor (aka authorizer), the Cleveland-based Ashe Culture Center, Inc.

The latest Ohio Education Gadfly ?????' who knew decreasing class size was so expensive?

It's no surprise that Ohio's economy is in crisis, but you might be amazed at the price tag for some of Gov. Strickland's new education mandates. Terry points out the implications of decreasing class size in grades K-3 alone (to 15:1), which will cost $784 million per year by 2014.

Re: Cleveland teachers union: If you can't beat ???????em, join ???????em

???????The overriding question is how will having a teachers union improve on our ability to educate all of our children and make sure they're ready to graduate from college? We respect that they represent the interests of teachers; we represent the interests of students.???????????

Romeo and Juliet have nothing on Ohio charter schools

Since the troubled birth of charter schools here in 1997, school districts have had a love/hate relationship with them. Some district officials have sought to embrace them as part of their larger reform efforts, while others have done everything in their power to kill them off. A few leaders have actually done both simultaneously.

Cincinnati: We'll sell you a school building, just don't use it for a school

Can a school district sell a school building and prohibit the buyer from opening a school in that building?

Curious omissions: charter schools left out of Ohio's Race to the Top application

Ohio has the sixth-highest charter school enrollment in the nation ???????? about 90,000 children attend a Buckeye State public charter school.????

The latest Ohio Education Gadfly is here!

Make sure you catch the latest Ohio Education Gadfly!

Dayton Education Association makes (weak) case for rejecting RttT

Last week I, and o

Lessons from the Garden State

Having spent four years working in New Jersey, I was happy to hear the announcement this week that New Jersey Governor-elect Christie selected a school choice advocate (Bret Schundler) to serve as state education co

Setbacks in Cincinnati

After the release last month of The New Teacher Project's Cincinnati-focused human capital reform report (see Jamie's take here), both district and union leadership

Buckeye Education in Review: 1999 to 2009

Check out this special edition of the Ohio Education Gadfly, a look back at the decade's most significant education events in Ohio.

Ohio on path toward diminishing spirit of Race to the Top

Like other states, half of Ohio's $200 to $400 million in potential Race to the Top (RttT) winnings will be distributed to participating LEAs via the Title I formula.

A canard worth torpedoing

Did You Know? Findings from Fordham's latest charter school accountability report

Fordham's annual charter school accountability report, "Seeking Quality in the Face of Adversity," is now out! As many of you know, Fordham authorizes (called "sponsoring" in Ohio) six charter schools in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Springfield.

Camping out for school choice

Making middle schools work

By guest blogger and Fordham's Director of Charter School Sponsorship Kathryn Mullen Upton

Letting go of romantic notions about charter schools in Ohio

This conversation about churches authorizing charter schools has raised my hackles.

Re: Churches and charters: what do you think?

I'll take??Emmy's bait. I have no objection to churches working as authorizers, if they can do it well.

Churches and charters: what do you think?

A central Ohio church has appealed the Ohio Department of Education's denial of its application to become a charter school authorizer (more on the story here, subscription required):

Continued debate on charter schools in Ohio

While we at Fordham view the results of the much talked about Hoxby charter study as encouraging and a good rebuttal to charter critics, here's a reminder of the antagonism towa

Did you know? Academic progress of Fordham-authorized charter schools

The Thomas B.

Jay Mathews, a creative (but maybe illegal) 11th option to "pick the right school"?

Yesterday in his column, Jay Mathews asks a question that plagues many of us:"How do parents evaluate the schools their children may attend and escape the heartbreak of buying a great house that turns out to be in the attendance zone of a flawed school?"

Fordham in the news -- Buckeye State clips worth paying attention to

This weekend saw a flurry of news stories on education in Ohio, and Fordham was in the middle of these in our usual roles of analysts and prognosticators.

Let's praise all schools that work as we don't have enough of them

In February, during the heated political debate around Governor Strickland's education reform plan, I wrote an opinion piece for the Columbus Dispatch that argued the governor's attack on for-profit charter schools "wou

Majority of Americans misinformed about charters

Okay, I know I'm about the 31,487th person to pick up on this, but there's one factoid in the 2009 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll of Americans' attitudes toward public schools that is driving me especially nutty.