Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Differentiated instruction vs. ability grouping: It’s time to toss out “one or the other” thinking
How about a hybrid?
Report
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools
Charter School Performance in Ohio
Charter schools are quickly becoming a defining feature of Ohio’s public-education landscape, educating over 120,000 children statewide. The “theory of action” behind charters is fairly simple.
Report
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools
2014 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report
The 2014 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report is our opportunity to share the Fordham Foundation’s work as the sponsor of eleven schools serving 3,200 students, and our related policy work in Ohio and nationally. We are fortunate as an organization that our policy work benefits our sponsorship efforts; and, that our lessons from sponsorship inform our policy and advocacy strategies.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Why legislators should slow-walk demands to limit Ohio’s state tests
Rushing to find a solution could swing the pendulum too far the other way
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Next-generation teacher evaluations: Are they living up to expectations?
Early results say no. Chad Aldis
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Science and social studies: To test or not to test
Data and policy options for stakeholders in Ohio
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Give PARCC a chance
Assessment is the drab side of schooling; but high-quality assessments are crucial.
Commentary
Standards, Accountability & Testing
A portrait of Ohio at the cusp of a new era
The Buckeye State is at the cusp of an era of new emphasis in K-12 education - the college-and-career-ready era. We look at Ohio's report cards in this new light.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction
Getting classroom observations right
A new Education Next study has implications for Ohio's OTES teacher evaluation protocols.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Ohio’s school report cards in the press
Much analysis of Ohio's school report cards has already taken place in the mainstream media.
Report
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools
Poised for Progress: Analysis of Ohio's School Report Cards 2013-14
On September 12th, Ohio released school report-card ratings for the 2013-14 school year. This report compiles and analyzes the statewide data, with special attention given to the quality of public schools in the Ohio Big Eight urban areas: Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown (both district and charter school sectors).
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
A first-look at student performance on Ohio state exams from 2013-14
A quick first look at the trove of new performance data from around Ohio.
Commentary
Standards, Accountability & Testing
Effort to repeal Common Core leaves Ohio school board member “baffled”
Worthington school board member’s testimony in support of Common Core
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
The Condition of College & Career Readiness
We take a look at a new report on college and career readiness as measured by ACT test scores.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Failing schools, or failing to consider multiple indicators?
Achievement ratings alone don’t tell the whole story of a school.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Standards, Accountability & Testing
For higher performance, use informal channels of teacher feedback
Ohio’s new teacher-evaluation system requires evaluators to conduct two, formal thirty-minute classroom observations. Yet these legally prescribed observations seem ripe for compliance and rote box-checking; in fact, they may not be quite the impetus for school-wide improvement that policymakers had hoped for.
Commentary
Standards, Accountability & Testing
Ohio’s high-flying public schools, in reading
We look for - and find - the public schools ranked in the top 10 percent on Ohio’s value-added measure for reading in each of the past four years.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Standards, Curriculum & Instruction
Spending More of the School Day in Math Class: Evidence From a Regression Discontinuity in Middle School
We take a look at the evidence for and against "double dosing" in middle school math.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Standards
Ohio's New Learning Standards: Helping, not hampering
This piece was originally published the United States Chamber of Commerce’s website on Wednesday, July 23, 2014. Six days later, two legislators proposed a new legislative assault on Ohio’s New Learning Standards, which include the Common Core State Standards in math and English language arts.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Standards
Is alternative accountability real accountability?
Do Ohio's multiple accountability "systems" erode the very foundation of accountability?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Visual Environment, Attention Allocation, and Learning
A brief look at a study on visual clutter in the learning environment.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Standards
Standardized Tests: Correlation to Future Successes? (Part I of II)
First of a two-part analysis looking at early indicators to future success.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Academic Content, Student Learning, and the Persistence of Preschool Effects
“Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”: this clichéd adage, often found on motivational posters, actually has something worthwhile to say. Sometimes where we set goals determines where we end up, even if the goal is seldom met.
Report
Accountability & Testing, School Finance, Private School Choice
Pluck and Tenacity: How five private schools in Ohio have adapted to vouchers
Roughly 30,000 kids in Ohio take advantage of a publicly funded voucher (or “scholarship”).
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
PISA and Occam’s Razor
Occam’s Razor is the well-known principle that “among competing hypotheses, the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” Keep that in mind as various pundits hypothesize about why the U.S.
Report
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance
Remodeled Report Cards, Remaining Challenges
Fordham's 2012-13 sponsorship annual report addresses our schools’ perspective regarding persistent challenges and how the schools address those challenges.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
The Algebra Imperative: Assessing Algebra in a National and International Context
This valuable paper from the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings sounds an important alarm: “The danger is that grade inflation, the often discussed phenomenon of students receiving higher and higher grades for mediocre academic achievement, has been joined by course inflation.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction
Testimony to the Michigan House Education Subcommittee on Common Core Standards
Prepared for Delivery on August 28, 2013
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction
Implementation, Implementation, Assessment, Assessment
Despite the tireless marriage-wrecking efforts of Common Core opponents and their acolytes and funders, few states that initially pledged their troth to these rigorous new standards for English and math are in divorce mode.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction
Cliffs ahead: Test scores and the Common Core
New York made education headlines last week, as its public schools reported substantially lower test scores than in previous years. The cause of the drop?