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Fordham in the news: Charter school law and Ohio's brain drain
Two recent Dayton Daily News articles cast the spotlight on important education reform discussions. As a sponsor of 11 charter schools in Ohio, the Fordham team understands the importance of accountability. This article mentioned financial oversights in some of Ohio’s charter school laws and Terry Ryan, Fordham’s vice president of Ohio programs and policy, said Ohio needs to rewrite charter school law.
The second article focused on retaining Ohio’s graduates. While Ohio had previously experienced a brain drain and lost graduates to other states, a rebounding economy and job opportunities could keep graduates in the state. Ryan said while some larger cities have appeal to graduates, their primary concern is finding employment. Stay tuned for upcoming articles and discussions related to these evolving topics and share your thoughts below!
Fordham in the news: Charter school law and Ohio's brain drain
Calling all Career Technical Providers - Ohio has a deal for you
Ohio has put the welcome mat out for charter schools that provide career technical education. Building on criteria from the federal Carl D. Perkins Act Ohio’s biennial budget (HB59) provides a significant increase in funding for charter schools that provide career technical courses. Table 1, is based on the “Estimated Formula Aid for Community (aka charters) Schools” released by the Senate earlier this month. It shows some of the big winners under the plan.
Table 1: Bumps in Career Technical Funding for Selected Ohio Charter Schools (FY2014 and 2015)
Source: All numbers come from “Comparison of Estimated Formula Aid for Community Schools Under H.B. 59, As Reported by Senate Finance and Actual Aid Under Current Law, FY2012
It is not just charters that benefit from this new emphasis on Career Technical education. The state’s Joint Vocational Education Centers, STEM Schools, and district high schools with career technical programs will see increases in funding comparable to the charters if they meet the Career Technical requirements for Perkins and the Ohio Department of Education.
This increased support for career technical education is not without controversy, especially when it comes to the charters gaining from these new dollars. For example, some of the state’s highest performing charters are likely to see a reduction in state aid, while those charters deemed providers of technical education will see state funding increases of 10, 15 or even 20 percent. Also
Calling all Career Technical Providers - Ohio has a deal for you
What happens to charter school graduates?
The number of high school graduates from Ohio’s charter schools has risen sharply in the past decade. In spring 2002, only 580 students graduated from a charter; in spring 2011 (the last year of available graduation data), 6,301 students graduated from a charter, only slightly below of graduates of Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus school districts combined.
Where do charter school grads go upon graduation? Not likely to college. Only around 1 in 10 charter school graduates head directly into an Ohio public university or college (two- or four-year), according to the Ohio Board of Regents. Note: The Regents’ data do not account for high school graduates who attend an out-of-state, private, or for-profit college—thus, underreporting the number of college-bound grads.
For graduates of e-school charters, a measly 9 percent made the plunge into college, while for graduates of brick-and-mortar charters, it’s 11 percent. There is, however, considerable variation across the charters. As might be expected, Ohio’s few high-performing high school charters had a higher percentage of grads go off to college. For example, 48 percent of Dayton Early College Academy’s (DECA) and 50 percent of Toledo School for the Arts’ graduates enrolled directly into an Ohio college. On the flip side, only 8 percent of ECOT (the state’s largest e-school) graduates went to an Ohio college immediately after graduation, and 50 out of 115 charters had zero students.
The chart below shows that, compared to traditional districts, charter schools lag considerably behind in
What happens to charter school graduates?
A school for the gifted: Menlo Park Academy
FOREWORD
Like a rose in an unkempt garden, Menlo Park Academy stands out among Ohio’s hodgepodge of charter schools. First and foremost, Menlo excels academically—it was one of 30 charters in Ohio that earned an “Excellent” (A) or above state academic rating in 2011-12. (This, out of 302 rated charter schools.) Second, Menlo, which enrolls 300 or so students, is a regional school, drawing K-8 students from 40 school districts in and beyond the Cleveland metro area. And, Menlo is Ohio’s only charter school dedicated to educating gifted students.
Menlo’s uniqueness, together with Fordham’s long-standing interest in gifted and talented students, quickly attracted our attention. We’ve visited the school on two occasions, once with Fordham’s president Checker Finn. During these visits we learned much from Menlo’s leaders, teachers, parents and students about how the school has grown, as well as its current and future challenges. These discussions whetted our appetite to dig deeper—to learn more about Menlo’s story, its people, and how it goes about educating gifted students. We asked Ellen Belcher, an award-winning journalist formerly of the Dayton Daily News, to report the Menlo Park story and what she uncovered made us even more excited about the work of Menlo. It also made us wonder why there aren’t more charter schools in Ohio committed to serving the needs of the state’s gifted and talented students.
Ohio law permits gifted-focused charter schools such as Menlo. Under Ohio Revised Code (ORC) §3314.06,
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