Coronavirus has made EdChoice debates even more complicated
It’s no secret that Covid-19 has had a massive impact on schools.
It’s no secret that Covid-19 has had a massive impact on schools.
After a one-year pause in Ohio's school accountability system, the road back to normalcy is uncertain. Fordham's new policy brief titled Resetting school accountability, from the bottom up offers a clear and concise plan to restart state assessments and school report cards.
As the economy slowly reopens and Ohio returns to something resembling normalcy, it’s a nice opportunity to reflect on what we’ve learned during the pandemic. For me, time itself became very different, both in practice and in concept. The plague rid our daily lives of conventional time constraints—and freed us to use our days differently.
Editor’s Note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
As schools across Ohio stagger toward the finish line of a bizarre and difficult school year, educators, parents, and state and local leaders are beginning to turn their attention toward the uncertainties of the future.
A couple years ago, a district superintendent gave an astonishing quote to his local newspaper stating his belief that the only relevant measure for school quality and the evaluation of school districts is the high school grad
One of the tougher accountability nuts to crack is how to gauge educational quality in early elementary grades. Federal education law does not require state exams until third grade, and states choose not to administer end-of-year assessments in grades K–2.
In the face of a public health crisis, Ohioans have risen to the occasion. While images of heroic deeds by health care workers and grocery store employees come immediately to mind, there’s no shortage of positive stories from the education community as well.
These are unprecedented times. COVID-19 has greatly altered or paused much of what we do on a daily basis, including education. Governor DeWine has suspended in-person classes in K–12 schools statewide from March 17 until at least May 1. While most schools are attempting to offer some type of distance learning, it’s decidedly not business as usual.
Now in its fourth edition and fully updated for 2020, Ohio Education by the Numbers Education is a look at vital statistics about Ohio’s schools and the students they serve. We intend it to be a readily accessible resource that keeps education stats—with cites to original sources—at your fingertips.
The vast majority of voucher program studies have shown positive competitive effects, meaning that students who remain in public schools benefit as their schools are exposed to competition from private-school-choice programs.
On March 25, Ohio lawmakers unanimously passed emergency legislation that covers an array of policies affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Update (3/30/20): On March 27, Governor Mike DeWine signed legislation waiving state assessment requirements for the 2019-20 school year.
It’s no secret that tough accountability measures are out-of-fashion in education circles these days.
NOTE: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
“Education is not one-size-fits-all” is a common phrase heard in today’s education debates. There’s a good bit of truth to the mantra. Every child is unique in his or her own way, and policies and practices should reflect those differences. To its credit, Ohio acknowledges the importance of tailoring education to the needs of individual students.
For the past several years, there has been a steady push by traditional education groups in Ohio to weaken state accountability and school report cards in particular.
The raucous debate over school choice took yet another turn last week as the Ohio House approved an amendment that would overhaul the EdChoice program.
Politics is sometimes called the “art of compromise.” Under tremendous pressure from school systems, Ohio legislators for the last few weeks have sought to find a compromise on EdChoice—Ohio’s largest voucher program—that addresses district concerns ab
High-quality academic offerings. Distance from home. Campus culture. Student safety and supports. Access to the arts, sports, and cultural opportunities. Price tag.
Sorry we have to tease out the updates on the voucher groucher saga a bit today. That’s the trouble with not posting daily (and don’t you dare suggest doing that either!).
Against the backdrop of Ohio’s Attainment Goal 2025, the state’s annual report on college remediation rates—the number of first year college students requiring remedial courses before beginning credit bearing work—has taken on a greater
In my annual review of Ohio report cards, I concentrate on the performance of public schools located in the state’s major cities, known as the “Big Eight.” The reason is twofold.
This is the last edition of Gadfly Bites for 2019. Thank you for reading and for subscribing. We’ll be back on January 2 with a 2019 wrap up; back to regular service for 2020 on January 3. Happy New Year to all!
School districts, let’s face it, are the giants in K–12 education. Because states traditionally awarded districts “territorial exclusive franchises”—a gentle way of saying monopolies—they enroll the vast majority of Ohio students.
NOTE: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
Since 2005, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has published annual analyses of Ohio’s state report cards.
Titles and descriptions matter in school rating systems. One remembers with chagrin Ohio’s former “Continuous Improvement” rating that schools could receive even though their performance fell relative to the prior year. Mercifully, the state retired that rating (along with other descriptive labels) and has since moved to a more intuitive A–F system.
In the United States, there are more than 34,500 private schools. Tuition-charging high schools run the gamut from small religious institutions that serve dual academic and social purposes, to larger schools centered around a certain pedagogy, to elite academies that draw highly-motivated students from far and wide.
Since 2005, Ohio’s Educational Choice Scholarship Program, or EdChoice, has allowed tens of thousands of students to attend private schools via a state-funded scholarship in the form of a voucher.