This report, the first in the series, points out that, while urban families increasingly have access to a variety of school options--including charter schools--many rural families have just a single school option. There are numerous examples of rural charter schools that have done great things for students while also benefiting the larger…

Is it time for Ohio to take bolder steps toward turning around its most troubled schools and districts? If so, what might the alternatives look like? Options for rebooting these troubled schools have come in the form of mayoral control, state takeovers, market competition through charter schools and other choice programs, as well as millions of…

Reaction questionnaires administered at the conclusion of a training program are a common method of evaluation. Because such questionnaires are often constructed and analyzed in an ad hoc manner, their usefulness is often difficult to gauge. However, if properly constructed and analyzed, such instruments can help to make clear the strengths and…

Working with Richard Ingersoll, professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) examined and analyzed data from the "Schools and Staffing Survey" (SASS), the largest and most comprehensive source of data on teachers, gathered from a nationally…

Training, recruiting, developing, and supporting talented and effective educators throughout their careers is known as human capital resource management (HCRM) in education. HCRM has been identified in recent literature as one of the ways in which districts and states may increase school effectiveness and improve student learning (Heneman &…

If the State of Ohio is to grow and prosper, it must raise the education level of its population. The goal of this 10-year strategic plan is to raise the educational attainment of the state each year, and to close the gap between Ohio and competitor states and nations. To accomplish this goal, stakeholders must do three things: (1) Graduate more…

The "Report on the Condition of Higher Education in Ohio" is issued annually as a statutory responsibility. Its purpose is to provide policymakers and the general public a snapshot of where the state stands in providing the higher education services Ohio needs in the competitive world. The Regents believe that Ohio needs college…

The 5-year impacts of mandatory welfare-to-work programs on welfare recipients and their children were examined by using a rigorous research design called a social experiment to examine 11 welfare-to-work programs in 6 states (California, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Oregon). Four employment-focused and seven education-focused programs…