12.15.2010

Thanks to Pandora and other free music-streaming websites, many Fordham staffers can be seen with at least one ear-bud channeling music during stressful report production, editing, etc. throughout the year. Now that the holidays are upon us, one popular jingle comes to mind:

So this is Christmas

And what have you done

Another year over

And a new one just begun

Even without John Lennon's quintessentially reflective/sentimental lyrics, we're in the mood to reflect on the last year, and so we've just released our special edition of the Ohio Education Gadfly, a 2010 year in review.

A lot happened in 2010 that impacted public education in Ohio: a continuing (and often all-consuming) recession; high-profile federal grant competitions like Race to the Top, School Improvement Grants, and i3; failed levies and persistent budget fears among Ohio's superintendents and school boards; emerging consensus around the ?new normal? (doing more with less) in education; stalled student achievement; adoption of the Common Core standards in English language arts and math; scandals among for-profit charter operators and a clarion call for authorizer quality; developments in teacher evaluations, value-added measures, and other policies wrought with both excitement and misinformation, and much more. Oh, and a mid-term election that's politically shaken up half of the country.

During the last year, we at Fordham Ohio have done what we always do: offer the best insight and analysis we can on K-12 education in the Buckeye State. This year we released a book chronicling our efforts as a charter school authorizer; authorized a new, ?blended? learning school; studied high-poverty, high-performing schools to extrapolate lessons for others; examined chronic student mobility in Dayton; analyzed achievement data; testified; weighed in; offered unsolicited opinions (only sometimes); praised; criticized; collaborated; acted as the lone wolf; wrote; hosted; and hoped. Our outlets for these actions varied widely but our goal remains narrow: to lift achievement for all Ohio students, but especially for those who need it the most.

It's been a full year, to say the least. Check out our full recap here.