The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is the nation's leader in advancing educational excellence for every child through quality research, analysis, and commentary, as well as on-the-ground action and advocacy in Ohio. The institute advances: (1) High standards for schools, students and educators; (2) Quality education options for families; (3) A more…

For the past two decades, lawmakers from both parties in Ohio have invested heavily in the public education sector. As a consequence, total K-12 education funding, measured in constant dollars, has grown by over 60 percent since 1997, even as Ohio's K-12 student enrollment has shrunk by more than 24,000 students (1.4 percent) during that same…

This report offers a comprehensive account of Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's sponsorship policies and practices, including a history of its sponsorship efforts, as well as individual profiles of all Fordham-sponsored schools in Ohio. Included in the profiles are in-depth descriptions of each school's educational program, school philosophy, and…

This report is the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's first ever comprehensive analysis of education reform and results in the 50 states. For each of them, this report examines: (1) student achievement, with a focus on poor and minority students; (2) achievement trends since the early 1990s for these same students; and (3) reform efforts centering on…

The author defines "middle schoolism" as "an approach to educating children in the middle grades (usually grades 5-8), popularized in the latter half of the 20th century, that contributed to a precipitous decline in academic achievement among American early adolescents." She argues that many middle schools are on the right path, but those that…

Two-thirds of schoolchildren in America attend class in states with mediocre (or worse) expectations for what their students should learn. That's just one of the findings of Fordham's The State of State Standards 2006, which evaluates state academic standards. The average state grade is a "C-minus"--the same as six years earlier, even though most…

This first-ever thorough report reviews academic standards in world history in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine whether we are setting the solid, challenging expectations for our schools and children that will equip the next generation with the skills and knowledge it will need. The report, written by renowned historian…

Education policy leaders from across the political spectrum identified and evaluated four models that national standards and testing could take. These models are: (1) "The Whole Enchilada," the most direct and aggressive approach in which the federal government creates and enforces national standards and assessments, replacing the current 50…

At the request of Ohio's top government and education leaders, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and National Alliance for Public Charter Schools have issued a report seeking to strengthen the state's charter school program. Among its 17 recommendations are calls for closing low-performing charter…

These are critical times for Ohio's system of educating its young people. Initiatives to reform the public schools have been gaining momentum for some time. Elected officials, organized interest groups, think tanks, and civic leaders are tugging and pulling at the system, trying to move it this way or that. But where do the people of Ohio--the…

"Miracle" is a word you would expect to hear from people familiar with the Assumption Catholic School story--but don?t wait for it. More likely you will hear a name: Mary Anne Stanton. In just more than five years, Stanton has led Assumption and 12 other Catholic schools from high-poverty Washington, D.C. neighborhoods into a consortium--the…

The importance of state academic standards soared in January 2002 with passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Not only does that milestone law require all states to have demanding academic standards in place and to demonstrate steady student progress toward academic proficiency as set forth in those standards, it also links states'…

Two decades after the United States was diagnosed as "a nation at risk," academic standards for our primary and secondary schools are more important than ever?and their quality matters enormously. In 1983, as nearly every American knows, the National Commission on Excellence in Education declared that "The educational foundations of our society…

Are charter school students in Dayton learning more than students in traditional district schools? You might be surprised to find that the answer is "yes," though there is still tremendous room for improvement on both sides. This analysis takes Ohio's 2004 School Report Card data from the state Department of Education and compares them with 2003…

This project evaluated 30 state accountability systems, including each state's academic standards, assessments (in both reading and math and for elementary, middle, and high school), and the accountability policies that define success and failure and provide both positive and negative incentives for success. The 30 accountability systems evaluated…