Reports and websites
Click on a topic of interest to you
Accountability • Adult education • Career Pathways • College access • Community engagement • Future of education • General education issues • High school reform • Ohio Smart Schools • P-16 • School design • School funding • 21st-century skills
Accountability
Education Commision of the States Research on accountability, including what other states are doing and new models.
2008-09 Guide to Understanding Ohio's Accountability System This resource from the Ohio Department of Education provides a comprehensive overview of how district and school report card designations are calculated.
Adult education and workforce development
National Center on Education and the Economy is dedicated to providing the policies, tools and technical assistance the nation needs to lead the world in education and training. Its New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce produced the 2006 report, Tough Choices or Tough Times, which called for a dramatic redesign of the nation's education and training systems.
Association for Career and Technical Education is a national education association dedicated to "the advancement of education that prepares youth and adults for successful careers." Its website includes reports and policy papers connected to workforce development.
National Council for Workforce Education is an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges with a vision of developing and sustaining a premier workforce for the global economy.
University System of Ohio Adult Workforce Education and Training Network links organizations that serve adult populations, with more than 200 adult workforce centers and Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) programs included.
Community Research Partners is the lead Ohio organization for the Working Poor Families Project. CRP undertakes research on issues facing Ohio's low-wage adult workforce and has identified best practices in education and training to prepare adult workers for family-sustaining jobs.
College access
Measuring Up 2008 is the latest report card from The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. It evaluates the nation's progress and that of all 50 states in providing Americans with education and training beyond high school.
College Access for the Working Poor: Overcoming Burdens to Succeed in Higher Education from the Institute for Higher Education Policy calls attention to the need for policies and practices to raise expectations, enrollment, and completion rates of the working poor.
The Pathways to College Network is an alliance of national organizations that advances college opportunity for underserved students by raising public awareness, supporting innovative research, and promoting evidence-based policies and practices.
Community engagement
The Institute for Creative Collaboration creates partnerships and conversations among Ohio’s education leaders that lead to new ways of thinking about learning and the future.
The Education Sector works with parents and community-based groups to improve education.
The Annenburg Institute for School Reform at Brown University works with a variety of community organizations to build their capacity to become effective partners in education.
Future of education
KnowledgeWorks' 2020 Forecast is a tool for thinking about, preparing for and shaping the future. It outlines key forces of change that will shape the landscape of learning over the next decade.
The Future of Education is a social network for people interested in education to discuss teaching and learning in a networked world.
General education issues
Questia, the online library, has a section of academic resources on topics related to education.
Education Commission of the States provides data, research and analysis on education issues in an easily searchable database.
High school reform
Building a Grad Nation This major annual report examines the nation's progress in lowering high school dropout rates. The 2011 report includes a case study on the success and progress of Canton City Schools.
Talent Development High School Developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Research on Students Placed at Risk, this model divides large urban high schools into smaller "academies," including a Ninth Grade Success Academy and academies based on career themes for students in the upper grades.
First Things First First Things First aims to create “closer, more respectful and more productive relationships" between students and adults through small learning communities, the Family Advocate System and instructional improvement.
High Schools that Work This comprehensive school reform strategy is intended to improve academic achievement and combine technical studies with college preparatory academics.
EdWorks offers several models for high school improvement based on extensive experience with redesign and innovation in Ohio and elsewhere.
New Tech High Schools offer an innovative model for high schools that uses project-based, student-driven learning and is proving successful across the country.
Coalition for Essential Schools The Coalition of Essential Schools uses personalized instruction to address individual needs and interests, small schools and classrooms, multiple assessments based on performance of authentic tasks, democratic and equitable school policies and practice, and close community partnerships.
New Century High Schools Initiative This program is transforming underperforming New York City high schools into innovative campuses of community-based small schools using rigorous academics, innovative teaching, personalized and supportive learning environments, and partnerships with community organizations.
Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement The Center assists schools and school districts contemplating or engaged in school reform and improvement. It provides information about research-based strategies and assistance and offers a searchable online database, webcast discussions and published materials.
Schools Making Progress Series Schools Making Progress is a web-based and print series that highlights schools showing gains under Smaller Learning Communities grants. The website also highlights structures and strategies that work in high schools.
Meeting Five Critical Challenges of High School Reform: Lessons from Research on Three Reform Models: This report discusses three comprehensive initiatives — Career Academies, First Things First, and Talent Development — that have grappled with the challenges of improving low-performing urban and rural schools.
High-Quality High Schools: In 2004, a task force on high schools set up by the Ohio State Board of Education recommended steps to improve the state's high schools and increase graduation rates.
National Conference of State Legislatures: High School Reform Overview This website is organized around five key issues related to high school policy – High school graduation requirements, dropout prevention and recovery, calculating dropout rates, improving high school through rigor, relevance and relationships and redesign tools for policymakers.
The ASCD High School Reform Proposal This website outlines the pieces of a 2006 high school reform proposal developed by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development to help the U.S. Congress foster the innovation needed to fully support our nation's high school students. It also offers additional resources and articles about high school reform.
Alliance for Excellent Education The Alliance for Excellent Education is a national policy and advocacy organization that works to make every child a high school graduate. The website offers information about the crisis and solutions for America’s high schools.
National High School Center The National High School Center offers research-supported improvement tools and identifies high-quality research on pressing high school improvement topics.
American Diploma Project This partnership of Achieve, Inc., The Education Trust, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation has identified what it considers an essential knowledge base for postsecondary success.
Education Commission of the States – High School Policy Center The High School Policy Center gathers and analyzes information about issues and trends in high school reform at the state level.
The Center for Secondary School Redesign CSSR aims to catalyze the transformation of learning and schooling to enhance core academic and 21st- century learning, knowledge and skills. The website offers services, publications and links to other resources on high school reform.
Ohio Smart Schools
Ohio Smart Schools: A collaborative, nonpartisan initiative of Ohio Education Matters that has been seeking ideas and approaches that will allow the state to achieve innovative education reform against a difficult budgetary picture. After months of reviewing public education spending, Ohio Smart Schools is releasing a series of in-depth reports to offer state leaders:
Benchmarking Ohio's School Districts finds that nearly $1.4 billion a year in non-instructional spending could be saved statewide if school districts met the efficiencies of top performers.
See how all Ohio school districts compared to the most efficient in non-instructional services:
Towards a New Model of Educational Governance for Ohio recommends that the state collapse fractured existing regional entities into Regional Service Agencies that would lead the state’s effort to save hundreds of millions in education spending by sharing services across districts.
A Check-Up on School Employee Health Care suggests that Ohio Schools can save $138 million in healthcare benefits a year by changing how school districts purchase employee health insurance.
P-16
Education Policy Information Clearinghouse: This website offers a wealth of links to P-16 initiatives nationwide, as well as research and reports on the topic.
Ed Trust: Thinking K-16 Series: Published periodically by The Education Trust, this series of reports examines critical educational issues in depth and presents them in language that is clear and accessible for general readers, as well as for educators. Each issue of Thinking K-16 cuts through rhetoric to get at the impact on students, and concludes with practical recommendations for action.
Claiming Common Ground: State Policymaking for Improving College Readiness and Success (The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2006): This P-16 report identifies four state policy dimensions for improving college readiness opportunities for all high school students: alignment of coursework and assessments, state finance, statewide data systems, accountability. Through these policy levers, states can create the conditions for claiming common ground between our systems of K–12 and postsecondary education.
Local/Regional P-16 Council Planning Guide (KnowledgeWorks Foundation, 2006): This guide is designed to help local P-16 councils of educators, business, community and civic stakeholders develop a plan for better aligning education from preschool through postsecondary and onto career in order to dramatically increase the number of Ohioans with the skills and credentials needed to thrive as workers and citizens and contribute to the continuing vitality of our state.
Strive is a comprehensive P-16 initiative in the Cincinnati area that is uniting common providers around shared issues, goals, measurements and results, and then actively supporting and strengthening strategies that are effective.
What Is P-16 Education? A Primer for Legislators – A Practical Introduction to the Concept, Language and Policy Issues of an Integrated System of Public Education (Education Commission of the States, 2001): This primer is designed to serve as a practical guide to an integrated public education system. It offers a basic orientation to P-16 education, beginning with an overview of the varying definitions of P-16 and concluding with specific questions for legislators to consider.
P-16: Building a Cohesive Education System from Preschool Through Postsecondary (2003): This article reviews the goals, progress and challenges of P-16, offering an analysis of the role of postsecondary education in P-16.
P-16: The Last Education Reform - Book One: Reflections on School Restructuring and the Establishment of Local Preschool through College Compacts (2005): This web-published book by the Stark Education Partnership in Ohio tells the story of the creation of the Stark P-16 and examines the P-16 roadblocks and policy, as well as steps to P-16 reform.
A Noble Opportunity: Leading Education Change through a P-16 Accountability Model (Education Commission of the States, 2002): This Briefing Paper from the National Forum on Accountability presents a new accountability model guided by the P-16 system of education -- preschool through college. The model aims to ensure that all segments of a state's education system are serving students well and working together to meet student and educator needs.
Student Success: Statewide P-16 Systems (State Higher Education Executive Officers, 2003): This report draws on examinations of P-16 systems in California, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Rhode Island. It includes essays focusing on the following components of an integrated education system: early outreach, curriculum and assessment systems, high quality teaching, student financial assistance and data and accountability systems.
Landmines P-16/P-20 Councils Encounter — and How They Can Be Addressed (or Avoided Altogether) (Education Commission of the States, 2008): Building on the findings of the ECS database on P-16 and P-20 councils, and experience in the states, this policy brief sets forth the numerous challenges that can foil the best-laid plans of P-16 and P-20 councils, and suggests how they can be addressed or avoided altogether. These "landmines" lie in four areas: Actors, Agenda, Appropriation of Resources and Political Climate.
The Case for P-16: Designing an Integrated Learning System, Preschool Through Postsecondary Education (Education Commission of the States, 2002): This policy brief P-16 summarizes the thinking of eight national experts commissioned by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) to explore why and how states are redesigning their education systems for the benefit of all learners.
Estimated Costs of Organizing a P-16 Education System (Education Commission of the States, 2001): Restructuring high school, expanding preschool programs and other P-16 initiatives carry a hefty price tag, but there could be major savings in the long run, according to this ECS report.
While no one was looking – Community-based solutions to linking early learning and the early grades: Implications for state policy - Lessons from the SPARK Initiative (Education Commission of the States, 2009): This policy brief discusses the three high-impact strategies used at SPARK sites (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids) — a five-year initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation — to bring the early learning and the K-12 communities together. In addition to discussing each of these strategies, the policy brief provides implementation examples and policy opportunities associated with each strategy.
P-16 Collaboration in the States (Education Commission of the States, 2006): This ECS StateNote provides information on the activity of state P-16 councils nationwide, including each council's start date, whether the council's work is P-16, K-16 or P-20 in scope, funding to start or maintain the council's work, the council's goals, whether early learning, high school reform or business involvement is a component of the council's efforts and progress to date.
School Design
Citizen’s Guide for Planning and Design: This guide provides a roadmap to schools and communities that are rehabbing or replacing their outdated schools about how to design their educational facilities to meet the needs of today’s children and provide an optimum school learning environment. It offers six design principles, and the steps to making it happen, as well as examples of “Centers of Community” schools.
Public Engagement and School Facilities Conversation Workbook: KnowledgeWorks Foundation and The Harwood Institute produced this workbook for school districts and communities to use to engage communities on school facilities. The engagement process will help to generate real community knowledge about facilities while also contributing to strengthening the relationship between schools and the community.
Community and School Facilities: Our Vision, Goal, and Initiatives: This white paper lays out KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s role and focus as part of the “Rebuilding Ohio Schools” initiative.
School Funding
School Funding Matters, an initiative of KnowledgeWorks Foundation that gave rise to Ohio Education Matters, has a wealth of information about recent efforts to reform the state's funding system, including the governor's proposal, legislative response and the issues and thinking behind them. It also offers comprehensive information about the evidence-based model for school funding and the history of Ohio's problems.
Education Voters of Ohio is a grassroots group working to connect and engage Ohioans in the discussion of education reform and school funding. The group hosts a listening tour throughout the state and other civic participation activities.
The Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy for School Funding, the plaintiff in Ohio's landmark DeRolph case, seeks a constitutional amendment on school funding.
School Finance Redesign Project is a research project focused on redesigning school finance to support student performance.
Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA). Information on school funding issues and a legal platform on school finance. Includes a glossary of school finance terms.
Ohio Education Association Information in Issues and Legislation offering the teacher union's perspective on school funding issues in Ohio.
Education Update. The League of Women Voters Education Update provides a timely update of state and federal legislative and key education stakeholder matters, as well as information on key education reports and studies.
Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO) Contains school funding information including their legislative platform and testimonies.
21st-Century Skills
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a leading organization that advocates for infusing 21st century skills into education. It brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a vision for 21st century education.
The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future published a book titled Building a 21st Century U.S. Education System that brings together the thinking of some of the nation’s education thought leaders and presents a diverse set of strategies and solutions to provide every child with a high-quality, world-class educational opportunity.
Results that Matter: 21st Century Skills and High School Reform: This report creates a compelling vision for learning in the 21st century, which represents a consensus among educators, employers, policymakers, parents, students and other stakeholders nationwide. The report covers the challenge for America’s high schools, a vision for 21st century learning, recommendations for connecting 21st century skills and high school reform, and next steps for action.