Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
The impact of phonics instruction in England
Back at the turn of the millennium, we at Fordham published a paper that urged a stronger focus on phonics.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Teacher appreciation
NOTE: In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Fordham Ohio staffers will be blogging about teachers, principals, and guidance counselors who made a positive difference in their schooling and in their lives. This is the third post.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Small town, great expectations
NOTE: In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Fordham Ohio staffers will be blogging about teachers, principals, and guidance counselors who made a positive difference in their schooling and in their lives. This is the second post.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
One of the teachers who changed my life
NOTE: In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Fordham Ohio staffers will be blogging about teachers, principals, and guidance counselors who made a positive difference in their schooling and in their lives. This is the first post.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
What’s with the fixation on educator certification in Lorain?
Last week, the Elyria Chronicle published a piece headlined “Another Lorain Schools hire lacks state certification.” The hire in question is Scott Dieter, who has been selected by CEO David Hardy to serve as the
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Addressing language acquisition issues for bilingual children
Despite genetic hardwiring of babies’ brains to learn language, emerging evidence suggests that different languages are acquired in different ways based on their specific characteristics. Most of what child development and education professionals know about language acquisition in young children is based on monolingual studies and is difficult to apply to bilingual children.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Why Ohio should toss out teacher evaluation mandates
Over the past year, Ohio lawmakers have been mulling revisions to the state’s teacher evaluation policies.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Efforts to improve teacher observations in New Mexico
As teacher evaluation systems evolve around the nation—decreasing the importance of student growth scores in favor of more reliance on classroom observations—how best to support principals in observing and giving feedback on teacher performance will gain importance.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Cleveland casts a shadow on a solid teacher evaluation bill
Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of talk about changing the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES).
Report
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Standards
Back to the Basics: A plan to simplify and balance Ohio’s school report cards
For more than a decade, Ohio’s annual school report cards have offered the public information on school quality. The current iteration of report cards has notable strengths: School ratings are grounded in hard data, they use an intuitive A-F rating system, and several of the metrics encourage schools to pay attention to the achievement of all students.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Youngstown takes a wrong turn on teacher evaluations
Youngstown City School’s CEO Krish Mohip recently announced significant changes to how his district will evaluate its teachers.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Ohio revises its test for new teachers
It’s one of those perennial ideas in education reform that never seems to get across the finish line: raising the standards for who can teach in our schools.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Teacher salary schedules: More equitable but are they fair?
Most American public school teachers are paid according to salary schedules that take into account their years of experience and degrees earned.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Kasich keeps Ohio teacher residency program
Nestled within the General Assembly’s final budget plan as sent to Governor Kasich on June 28 was an under-the-radar provision that would have eliminated Ohio’s teacher residency program. This didn’t get a lot of coverage.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Sizing up teacher induction
The New Teacher Center (NTC) is a nonprofit organization that aims to improve student learning via supports for beginning teachers.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Ohio teacher preparation programs shine in new ranking
For years, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released reports that rate and compare hundreds of teacher preparation programs across the country.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Three problems with Ohio’s performance-based funding for schools
Performance-based funding in the public sector has begun to take root in recent years, most prominently in higher education and in merit-pay plans for some teachers.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
All teachers prepare young people for the working world
NOTE: This blog was first published in a slightly different form on The 74 on 5/12/17.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Hits and a miss: Ohio’s Educator Standards Board recommends teacher evaluation changes
In March, Ohio’s Educator Standards Board (ESB) released six recommendations for revising the
Commentary
Standards
Evaluation of Grades 2 and 3 Reading Tutoring Intervention in Youngstown
Research on individualized, in-school tutoring such as Match Corps has demonstrated impressive results.
Report
Charter Schools, Teachers & School Leaders
Pathway to Success: KIPP Columbus takes seriously its mission to send kids to and through college
KIPP Columbus achieves extraordinary outcomes for its students, predominantly students in poverty and students of color. Led by Hannah Powell and a visionary board, the school has a rare knack for forging powerful partnerships at every turn—ones that strengthen KIPP students, their families, and the entire community near its campus.
Report
Accountability & Testing, Standards
Setting Sights on Excellence: Ohio’s School Report Cards, 2015-16
On September 15, Ohio released report cards for approximately 600 school districts and 3,500 public schools (district and charter). These report cards are based on state exam results from the 2015-16 school year, along with several other gauges of student success.
Report
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Standards
Facing facts: Ohio's school report cards in a time of rising expectations
A deep dive into the performance of Ohio’s public schools, statewide and in its eight largest urban areas
Policy Brief
Accountability & Testing, Teachers & School Leaders
Policy Brief: Pathways to Teaching in Ohio
A thorough overview of how teachers are trained and licensed
Report
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Standards
Establishing a baseline: Ohio’s education system as it enters a new era
Like other states, Ohio has over the past few years put into place a standards a
Policy Brief
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Policy Brief: The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System
A thorough overview of Ohio's teacher evaluation framework
Report
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Getting Out of the Way: Education Flexibility to Boost Innovation and Improvement in Ohio
For the past year, Ohio policymakers have been grappling with the issue of deregulating public schools. But what does deregulation mean--and how should policymakers go about doing it?
Commentary
Commentary
Standards, Accountability & Testing
Deconstructing Ohio’s testing report recommendations
"Test mania" debunked - now for the real work to improve testing in Ohio
Commentary
Standards, Accountability & Testing
Cheers and Jeers for January 26, 2015
The good and the bad in recent Ohio education news.