Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 11/8/24—Moving parts
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Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
The impact of an influx of English Learners on existing students
The number of English learner (EL) students enrolled in public schools has grown substantially in the United States over the past two decades. How has this impacted non-EL students in those schools? New research aims to find out.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
With third-grade retention in shambles, it’s another year of social promotion in Ohio
Under pressure from public school groups, Ohio lawmakers last year gutted retention requirements that had been in place under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 11/4/24—Money (not) well spent
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Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Keeping Ohio’s talented students in the Buckeye State should be a priority for policymakers
The Economist recently made the case that the United States economy is the envy of the world.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 11/1/24—No follow-ups
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/30/24—Competition abounds
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Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Ohio receives a federal grant to support its early literacy efforts
Last year, Ohio policymakers established a statewide science of reading initiative. And this year, that initiative is well underway.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/25/24—And they would have got away with it too…
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Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Teacher salary reforms could boost efforts to retain more early-career educators
About a month ago, I published an analysis of the starting salaries of teachers working in school districts across the Cleveland and Columbus metro areas. Strong entry-level pay is crucial as schools work to attract talented folks into the profession.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/23/24—Complicated calculus? Downright twisted, if you ask me
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Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Implementation of citizen science curriculum in elementary school: A case study
The term “citizen science” refers to research in any field conducted with participation from the general public and/or amateur researchers—a way of crowd-sourcing data in more volume through observations or experiments conducted outside of a lab.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/21/24—Please won’t you be our neighbor?
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/18/24—The art and architecture of connecting the dots
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/16/24—Overcomplicating things
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/14/24—Fecklessness
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/11/24—Proper
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/9/24—Bring on the flex, bring on the heat
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Commentary
Governance
Expanding schools’ capacity for career advising should be on Ohio’s to do list
A perennial question for high schoolers is what they plan to do after they graduate. But for many students, the answer is elusive—not because they don’t care to find it, but because they lack the information and support needed to do so.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Pre-K programming and third grade achievement: Evidence from Wisconsin
The jury remains out regarding the true impact of pre-K enrollment on early elementary outcomes. Some research finds a positive impact, some a negative, and much of it shows the fading out of impacts by third grade or soon thereafter.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Kindergarten literacy data raise questions about diagnostic assessments
Author update (10/11/24): Since this piece was posted, sources have indicated Canton’s kindergarten data were misstated on its report card—a possibility acknowledged in this piece. The district's report card, as well as its elementary school report cards, now have “watermarks” flagging the data reporting error and indicating that the error may have impacted the ratings.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/7/24—Culture change is needed to fight the scourge(s)
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/4/24—Flushing out the problem
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Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Has Ohio made progress narrowing achievement gaps, post-pandemic?
One of the most pressing challenges facing American education is closing achievement gaps.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 10/2/24—How about doing the actual job at hand?
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Report
Governance
The State of Educational Opportunity in Ohio: A Survey of Ohio Parents
We are excited to share the results of a new survey on the state of education opportunity in Ohio. It provides not only a unique window into the opportunities available to families in our state right now but allows us to compare those answers to parents in other states.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Setting the baseline for Ohio’s early literacy reforms
New early literacy data from state report cards are part of the baseline from which we can measure the impact of Science of Reading reforms going forward. Here’s a look at ten Ohio districts whose results fill in important details for the future.
Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/30/24—Priority zero
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/27/24—Between a rock and a hard place
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Commentary
Governance
Gadfly Bites 9/23/24—“If kids aren’t here, how can you teach them?”
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