In this week's Ohio Education Gadfly, the Fordham Ohio team weighs in on several controversial national debates and brings a thoughtful perspective to each.
Yesterday Ohio was announced as a winner of the Race to the Top federal education sweepstakes, and we're glad to see much-needed dollars ($400 million of them) flow to the state. But we're concerned with Ohio's ability to effectively implement its promised reforms, both because we can't really afford most of them and because we've yet to see the political will to carry through on ideas such as partnerships with Teach For America or state takeover of failed school turnaround attempts.
Next, we put the uproar over The LA Times' value-added analysis into context for Ohio. While the manner in which the newspaper outed poor-performing teachers is questionable, the findings of the analysis have important implications and we hope they won't be overlooked. Ohio is at the forefront of collecting value-added data and should think of ways to be proactive about how to use it (in combination with other factors) to measure teacher effectiveness.
Then, we pull apart the ACT report's results for Ohio, which have been hailed widely in the state as a success. But what does ?college-ready? by ACT's definition really mean? And shouldn't Ohio be up in arms about conspicuous achievement gaps between whites/Asians and Blacks?
Don't miss a personal letter from a Fordham staff member announcing her quest to turn around schools in Ohio. Given the madness over the approved list of School Turnaround Grant-funded providers in the state, our sarcasm is warranted.
For some unabashedly good news, we bring you a list of ten districts in Ohio that have experienced high growth in poverty over the last seven years while upholding ? or improving ? student performance. These districts deserve recognition and others should learn from them.
For reviews, check out why we think AFT's/NEA's Professional Learning report missed the boat, our unease about the Schott Foundation's findings on Black males in Ohio (and how this doesn't line up with the Yes We Can title), and an Ohio-ized take on Education Sector's latest public pension report.