Today's Dayton Daily News lifts up Fordham's latest book, Ohio's Education Reform Challenges: Lessons from the Front Lines, which describes our history in the charter school movement in Dayton and what we learned from being on the ground fighting for school reform in an actual place and on behalf of real kids.
Dayton Daily News highlights our experience with Moraine Community School as a prime example of just how difficult school reform and charter accountability are in practice. Moraine was one of the area's first charter schools and is still in operation today ?despite a decade of low scores.? When we tried to hold Moraine accountable for poor performance, the school ?bolted from a stunned Fordham for a new sponsor with a reputation for tolerating poor school.?
The editorial also describes the original ideas behind school choice, market-based education reform, and their beginnings in Dayton ? and acknowledges that the theory of making schools compete for students and funding in hopes of sifting out the bad schools is sometimes easier said than done: ?The buyers in the market (parents) didn't always focus on academic quality, allowing too many poor performing sellers (schools) to stay in business.?
The piece also calls for strengthening accountability in the Buckeye State and outlines a few recommendations to that end:
- Force consistently underperforming schools to close quickly.? Ohio has too many schools with long track records of failure; this shouldn't be tolerated.
- Reward those charters that are doing a great job educating kids, by allowing them to earn per-pupil funding that matches what traditional schools receive.
- Make sponsors responsible for their actions.? There are too many sponsors out there not doing their jobs of upholding academic quality, and they should be held accountable.
- Don't allow sponsors to charge schools under their control for services.? This practice can turn charters into cash machines that sponsors can't afford to shut down.
In conclusion, the Dayton Daily News points to (and seems to truly appreciate) ?Fordham's honesty about what went wrong in its experience? and encourages Daytonians, and Ohioans, to learn what they can from the book.
To find out more about Fordham's book, Ohio's Education Reform Challenges: Lessons from the Front Lines, how to order a copy from Palgrave Macmillan, or to read about more coverage of it, visit the book's webpage.
- Bianca Speranza,?intern?in Fordham's?Columbus office