With property values soaring throughout Ohio—and property taxes climbing upward—state lawmakers have been giving more time and attention to local tax policy.
Student math and reading achievement continue to lag in schools across Ohio. Governor DeWine is proposing numerous initiatives to address this issue via the state budget. Yet lawmakers can and should go further in the following ways.
Debate on the biennial state budget is in full swing, as Governor DeWine has unveiled his proposals and House lawmakers are now holding committee hearings. Through the amendment process, the chamber is expected to put forward its plan in April and send the legislation over to the Senate.
School funding guarantees have been a much-discussed element of Governor DeWine’s proposed
Our latest report is an evaluation of the high-quality charter funding program. It finds positive results: The additional dollars have allowed charters to boost their teachers’ salaries, reduced staffing turnover, and driven student learning gains.
Last year, during his state of the state address, Governor DeWine called on the legislature to “make a very simple fix in statute to insert career planning into existing graduation plan requirements.” The
Note: On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, the Ohio House Education Committee heard public testimony on the education provisions in House Bill 96—the next biennial state budget.
If policymakers are serious about improving student achievement, Ohio needs to double down on the literacy efforts already underway and add numeracy to the mix. Here are four provisions in the proposed state budget that can help.
While many fret over the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), the jury is still out regarding its benefits and drawbacks for K–12 education, and researchers are trying to catch up to the rapidly-expanding technology.
NOTE: On February 11, 2025, the Ohio Senate Education Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 19.
Today, Governor Mike DeWine released his biennial budget proposal, outlining his commitment to Ohio’s students through continued investment in key education areas including statewide literacy improvements, high-quality charter schools, and
Surprising as it may seem, high-ability students often end up falling short of their potential.
Ohio’s push to improve charter school funding has made real progress in recent years. But there are still thousands of charter students who need—and deserve—more support.
The uproar over private school scholarship programs, which support the education of more than 150,000 Ohio students, continues to drone on.
Dual enrollment, which allows students to complete college coursework and earn transferrable credits while still enrolled in high school, is a popular and growing pathway into postsecondary education.
The Cupp-Patterson school funding plan was heralded as a “fair” and “constitutional” replacement for Ohio’s previous formula. After four years of implementation, it’s clear there is still plenty of room for improvement.
In just a few short months, Ohio lawmakers will be knee-deep in the state budget for FY 2026 and 2027. A large portion of the budget is K–12 education, and Ohio’s school funding model is sure to be a topic of discussion.
Ohio is in its early literacy era. Last year, policymakers established a statewide science of reading initiative that champions high-quality instructional materials and professional development for teachers. To support this effort, legislators set aside approximately $169 million.
Through its science of reading initiative, Ohio is devoting significant resources to strengthening literacy across the state. Boosting reading proficiency is essential, and this ambitious effort holds great promise to do just that.
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.
Last year, Ohio policymakers established a statewide science of reading initiative. And this year, that initiative is well underway.
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.
Last week, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) released updated school report cards that offer a
When Ed Kurt came home to Margaretta Local School District in the summer of 2020, it was his second tour as superintendent. He had left the district six years earlier to lead Findlay City Schools.
Ohio elementary schools are moving to the Science of Reading, an approach that emphasizes phonics along with vocabulary- and knowledge-rich content. Keen on learning what this transition looks like inside classrooms, we asked Ellen Belcher, a former journalist with the Dayton Daily News, to visit Northridge Local Schools to shine light on their literacy practices. Our latest publication details Northridge's approach to updating their reading curriculum and instruction.
Dual enrollment (DE) is a catch-all term for the means by which students earn college credit while still in high school (or middle school). But that singular term covers a number of pathways with varying structures and delivery models. Do those differences impact student outcomes? And can program structure help ensure quality?
Ensuring rigorous implementation of the science of reading in Ohio's public schools is a heavy lift, but the payoff for success will be huge for students. Here's a look at three more important areas where implementation is underway.
Earlier this year, the Louisiana Department of Education launched a Let Teachers Teach workgroup. More than two dozen educators were tasked with identifying “common classroom disruptions and unnecessary bureaucracies” and then brainstorming solutions.
This is the fifth in a series in which I examine issues in K–12 education that Ohio leaders should tackle in the next biennial state budget.
Ohio is making bold moves to center its early literacy instruction fully on the Science of Reading. Our latest report examines one of the key implementation steps in the effort: Creating a state-approved list of high-quality literacy curricula and instructional materials.
