This has been a tough winter for Ohio and its cities, and I don't mean because of the weather. Ever since the December release of math test results from NAEP's Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) ??? Cleveland's scores were so abysmal that only Detroit fared worse??--??the city has been getting hammered in the world of rating systems.
In last week's Ohio Education Gadfly, we pointed out another rating system that, although not education-specific, is still somewhat disheartening. Both Cleveland and Columbus made Forbes' worst 10 winter cities list, with Cleveland taking the title. I have to admit I was somewhat surprised to see Columbus alongside infamously blustery cities like Boston, Milwaukee, and Chicago.
Yesterday the Buckeye State earned yet another Forbes prize (do they employ a legion of disgruntled Ohio natives or what?), with Cleveland rising to the top of the ???most miserable cities??? list. The Misery Index takes into account unemployment, taxes, commute times, crime rates, success of sports teams, pollution, weather, and even corruption (yikes, Cleveland ??? 309 of your public officials have been convicted of crimes in the last decade!?)?? What's even worse is that five of the 20 most despondent places are in Ohio: Cleveland, Canton (#9), Akron (#12), Toledo (#15), and Youngstown (#18). ??And this comes less than two years after Forbes declared that four of the top 10 fastest dying cities were in Ohio.
These Forbes rankings have serious implications, beyond illustrating that apparently post-industrial Ohio is a cold, poorly snow-plowed, downtrodden place. Perceptions of Ohio as a worthwhile place to live and work ??? whether real or imagined ??? play into the Buckeye State's ability to retain and attract talent, especially into the education sector.?? Fordham Ohio has been concerned for a long time about our state's brain drain. Especially in places like Cleveland, where the superintendent recently unveiled a bold (and expensive) plan to dramatically improve district schools, the ability to draw in talented leaders and educators to lead turnaround efforts is critical.
Ohio is already a vacuum when it comes to education reform groups like Teach For America, New Leaders for New Schools, and high-performing charter networks (for example, Ohio only has one KIPP school and just two Building Excellent Schools founded schools). Certainly their absence has everything to do with Ohio's political opposition to alternative teaching and leadership programs, the strength of its unions, a general anti-charter climate, etc. but the portrayal of Ohio as a sad, wintery, unemployed, rust belt certainly can't help. (Teach For America, for example, chooses its sites in part based on how desirable they are to live in.)??
These rankings are a reminder of Ohio's precarious fight for human capital to improve our future. I can handle grey skies, unplowed roads, lousy sports teams, and even rankings that place Ohio fifth to last in terms of ???attractiveness.??? But when it comes to our quest to combat the brain drain and draw in innovative talent to improve Ohio schools, these rankings give me reason to truly feel despondent. ??
-Jamie Davies O'Leary
