Commentary
Commentary
Charter Schools
Creating “AgBioscience” STEM Schools in the Buckeye State
STEM education in Ohio is a growing component of the state’s K-12 system. Metro Early College High School opened as a STEM school in Columbus in 2007, and since then STEM schools have opened their doors in metro regions.
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Charter Schools
Ohio school districts refuse to compete with nuns
Ohio's districts are shrinking from competition with parochial schools through expanded voucher programs.
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Charter Schools
Is there an Act II for David Brennan the Revolutionary?
Recent news that White Hat, the big, Ohio-based, profit-seeking charter school operator, faces financial problems was surely received as an early Christmas present by many long-time charter opponents, particularly within the Buckeye State. The company?s founder and leader, Akron industrialist David Brennan, has been a larger-than-life-target for school choice foes since Governor George Voinovich appointed him in 1992 to head a commission intended to advance choice in Ohio k-12 education.
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Charter Schools
Incubate to promulgate
Since 2005, Fordham has been working in Ohio to recruit high quality charter schools to neighborhoods badly in need of better schools. During our six-plus years of effort as a charter authorizer we have managed to recruit just two high-performing models to Columbus (KIPP and a BES school).
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Charter Schools
From talking the talk to walking the walk of urban school choice
My husband and I have to decide in the next year where our 4-year old son will go to school and it is a daunting decision.
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Charter Schools
Charter school incubation 101
View the footage from the Fordham & CEE-Trust charter incubation panel discussion, "Driving Quality."
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Charter Schools
CRPE's Robin Lake on "Better Choices"
Robin Lake looks at the lessons from the Fordham and CEE-Trust policy brief.
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Charter Schools
Charter incubation as a strategy for improving the charter school sector
Fordham's Terry Ryan and CEE-Trust's Ethan Gray explain the potential of the charter incubation model and the characteristics of incubators.
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Charter Schools
Innovative Arizona school choice program faces legal challenge
Guest blogger Stuart Buck explains the virtues of the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship program and the legal obstacles it faces.
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Charter Schools
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Fordham Sponsorship 2010-11 Year in Review
Since their inception in 1997, charter schools have been at the center of some of the most politically contentious debates about education in Ohio. The past year offered yet another example of charter school controversy, but this time with a twist. The 2010 elections were very good for Buckeye State Republicans, with John Kasich winning the governor?s race (replacing Ted Strickland who had been a charter adversary throughout his four-year term). Republicans also took control of the House while expanding their majority in the Senate.
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Charter Schools
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Fordham's 2010-11 Sponsorship Accountability Report
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is pleased to share its latest annual Sponsorship Accountability Report, Two Steps Forward, One Step Back. The sixth of its kind, the report reflects on Ohio??s charter school policy environment and the performance of Fordham sponsored charter schools ??? in terms of absolute achievement, growth, and adherence to goals set forth in our authorizing contract ??? as well as developments in state law over the year. Despite some tough battles during the state budget as it relates to holding authorizers (and operators) accountable, overall Fordham and its schools had an encouraging year, with Fordham sponsored-charters making achievement gains and positioning themselves to do even better in the future.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Suffering schools should learn to do more with less
As school levies fail across central Ohio, I am concerned and disappointed to see so many school districts quickly threaten to reduce the quality of our children?s education. Providing an excellent education for our children may be the single most important thing we can do as responsible citizens.
Commentary
Charter Schools
From talking the talk to walking the walk of urban school choice
Fordham has been involved in the arena of school choice in Ohio at virtually every level for the past decade, except that of a parent. Issues of school choice and the quality (or not) of urban schools have been a big part of my professional life the last five years. Now, they are front and center in my personal life, too.
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Charter Schools
Ohio's Education Reform Challenges: Lessons from the Frontlines
Fordham has been both an advocate of choice and an authorizer of charter schools serving some of Ohio's neediest students. This book describes and analyzes our efforts, successes and failures, and what we think it means for others committed to school reform.
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Charter Schools
Is school choice a worthy end in itself?
The Columbus Dispatch ran competing op-eds by School Choice Ohio's (SCO) Chad Aldis and Fordham's Terry Ryan on the expansion of vouchers in the Buckeye State. Both Aldis and Ryan support the expansion of school choice programs in Ohio, but how the state should hold these new programs accountable for their academic performance and even whether it should do so is contentious.
Commentary
Charter Schools
E-school performance in the Buckeye State
This week we took a look at what impact, if any, charter authorizer type (e.g., non-profit, educational service center, school district, or university) has on a school's academic performance, how
Commentary
Charter Schools
Academic achievement & growth: a fuller picture of urban school performance
Yesterday, Jamie wrote about both the academic achievement and progress of students in Ohio's urban public schools.?? Today's analysis marries these two performance metrics together.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Head of Cleveland NAACP to turn around failing charter school
File this under pieces of news that confuse my emotions. Rev. Stanley Miller, executive director of the Cleveland NAACP, is leaving that post to take on an area charter school ? a very terrible one to be specific (Marcus Garvey Academy). I am equal parts inspired by this move (Rev. Miller is a 63-year old whose heart is undoubtedly in the right place) and cynical.
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Charter Schools
Ed reform victories in Ohio budget
A legislative conference committee has reported out its version of Ohio's next operating budget.?? The Senate and House are expected to approve the committee's report today and tomorrow, with Governor Kasich signing it into law Thursday.??
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Charter Schools
Setting the record straight: The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and charter school sponsorship
There has been a lot of controversy in Ohio in recent weeks around House-proposed legislative changes to the state's charter law that would decimate an already weak charter school accountability system (see here,
Commentary
Charter Schools
Parent trigger in Ohio: Much ado about very little
Ohio is in the midst of its biennial budget debate and there has been much angst and ink spilled about a proposal in the
Commentary
Charter Schools
KIPP and Baltimore Teachers Union solve pay dispute
The bickering between the Baltimore Teachers Union and the KIPP charter network involving overtime pay for teachers in two KIPP schools has come to a close.?