Camping out for school choice

Jamie Davies O'Leary / November 20, 2009

One week from today shoppers across the nation will prepare for the madness known as Black Friday. Consumers will ready themselves for a labyrinth of lines, often queuing up at odd hours of the night to be among the first to stampede toward special bargains and giveaways. Such is the American way.

This week the Cincinnati Enquirer highlighted another unique American phenomenon involving long lines and midnight campers - parents lining up as far as two and a half days in advance in order to win their child a spot in one of the city's elite public magnet schools. The Enquirer writes:

"Despite attempts from Cincinnati Public Schools to discourage camping, parents once again formed a long queue outside Fairview Clifton German Language School - the earliest will wait for more than 2.5 days before submitting their applications.

The first parents arrived by about 10 a.m. Sunday morning, and the crowd quickly grew. By 5 p.m. Monday, about six dozen people stood in line and some were erecting tents on school property."

And

"In Clifton, Winton Hills parent Carmen Pitts had the No. 1 spot in line and on a list parents hope will be enforced Tuesday night. Her daughter is currently in preschool at Winton Hills Academy, a school in Academic Watch. Fairview is rated Excellent, one of just a few CPS schools to earn that rating.

??"To make sure that my

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Camping out for school choice

Ohio's odds in the Race to the Top

OhioFlypaper / November 19, 2009

The deadline for the first round of Race to the Top applications is just two months away.?? How does Ohio stack up???We??analyzed Ohio's current education policies and reform climate against the criteria of the recently released Race to the Top application.??

What did we discover? See here to find out.

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Ohio's odds in the Race to the Top

Leaders and Laggards gives kudos to Fordham-Ohio

OhioFlypaper / November 16, 2009

Last week, Laura flagged a useful interactive map that grades states on their level of educational innovation in areas ranging from school finance to a state's reform environment. The map accompanies the recently released report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Center for American Progress, and Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card of Educational Innovation. The second of its kind, this edition of Leaders and Laggards grades states not only according to how they are performing currently, but also on the basis of groundwork they are laying to address impending challenges and fuel innovation in the years to come.

For the most part, Ohio's results are disappointing. The Buckeye State scores a "C" and a "D" respectively in two staffing areas: "hiring and evaluation" and "removing ineffective teachers." (All the more disappointing when considering that Race to the Top's final priorities gives the most weight to great teaching and leadership.) Ohio ranks average ("C") in technology and school finance, and gets a "B" for its data, and having a solid pipeline to postsecondary education.

However, we are happy to report that despite Ohio's mixed results, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute is highlighted as a group that contributes positively to the state's reform environment:

"There are few reliable state-by-state data on local education advocacy and research efforts-a reflection of the lack of overall commitment to this issue.

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Leaders and Laggards gives kudos to Fordham-Ohio

Ohio keeps its word, will adopt Common Core Standards

Jamie Davies O'Leary / November 13, 2009

For the last month, we've been wondering whether Ohio would truly adopt the NGA/CCSSO Common Core State Standards , or whether the Ohio Department of Education would forge its own path in revising academic content standards so as to meet the June 2010 deadline. The issue was one of timing, as Common Core Standards won't be finalized until January, and this didn't give Ohio enough time to meet its June 2010 mandate.

Given that Fordham gave Ohio a "D+" in our last State of the State Standards report, and that we think the Common Core Standards are substantially better (see our latest report, "Stars by Which to Navigate"), the possibility of Ohio reneging on the Common Core Initiative was worrisome. Emmy wrote on Flypaper:

"What's the Buckeye State to do??? Should the state board of education risk non-compliance with state law and wait for the Common Core work to be finished??? Should state lawmakers revisit the law and extend the deadline for updating the standards??? Are other states in similar predicaments??? If so, what becomes of the Common Core Initiative?"

This week we got our answer, as state education officials announced that Ohio is fully committed to pursuing the Common Core Standards. According to the Columbus Dispatch:

"This decision means the department won't be releasing its own draft standards in English and math this month as planned, because most, and possibly all, of those updates

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Ohio keeps its word, will adopt Common Core Standards