PRESS RELEASE:

Redesigning Ohio’s High Schools is Not a Task for the Timid

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03/29/2007

Center on Reinventing Public Education issues report on Ohio’s high school reform efforts

SEATTLE, WA — Ohio’s educators and state policy leaders have made substantial progress in improving the performance of the state’s high schools. However, a new report issued today concludes that the creation of breakthrough high schools in Ohio will require reform efforts that have a sharper focus on results, a substantial realignment of resources, and higher expectations for what students and teachers accomplish.

Among the report’s recommendations:

• Give new, “break-the-mold” schools greater operational flexibility, while improving their accountability measures;
• Conduct a comprehensive review of Ohio’s teacher preparation programs;
• Raise academic aspirations and expectations for all students and make sure all students have opportunities to take challenging courses; and
• Ensure that public schools have the resources they need to succeed.

These findings come from a detailed analysis of Ohio law and regulations and resemble similar findings in other states, said Mitch Price, who directed the project and co-authored the report, Not for the Timid: Breaking Down Barriers, Creating Breakthrough High Schools in Ohio, with Donald Van Meter, an Ohio-based consultant.

The study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted by the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE).

“Like our studies in other states, the Ohio study identified serious legal, regulatory, and policy barriers to school reform – impediments that stand squarely in the way of creating breakthrough high schools,” said Price, a research consultant at CRPE. “But it is important to understand that not all of the encountered barriers are based in the law or inherited regulations.”

According to Price, some of these barriers reflect a tension between competing approaches that serve as a reminder that one individual’s barriers to positive reform can be someone else’s shield against unwanted change. Other impediments reflect a lack of funding and/or difficulties in reallocating existing resources. Still other barriers are set in Ohio’s strong and highly valued tradition of local control of public education, or in fundamental cultural and “mindset” differences that lead to low learning aspirations and expectations.

Van Meter emphasized that Not for the Timid is not an “outside-looking in” perspective on Ohio’s high school reform initiatives. Dozens of high school principals, teachers, union officials, state and district policymakers, reform advocates, and others involved in Ohio’s high school redesign work were interviewed as part of this study.

“This report reflects the perceptions of educators and others who are working daily on the front lines,” Van Meter said.

Analyzing impediments to implementing Ohio’s high school reform agenda, as defined in 2004 by the State Board of Education’s Task Force on Quality High Schools, Not for the Timid recommends several actions intended to break down identified legal, regulatory, and policy barriers to the creation of breakthrough high schools.

The report’s recommendations are structured around five purposes, initially identified by the State Board’s advisory group to:

1. Create more personalized learning environments and improve learning conditions for every student.

2. Ensure that all students have an opportunity take a challenging curriculum.

3. Prevent and recover high school dropouts.

4. Bridge the gap between high school and postsecondary education.

5. Provide schools with the resources they need to succeed.

“The interviews conducted as part of this study confirmed broad support for the kinds of changes that the state’s Task Force called for more than two years ago,” said Price, “Yet they reminded us that creative, outside-the-box thinking has little value if policy makers – and in this case educators – are not committed to turning clever strategies into measurable results. Very simply, it is execution – not strategy – that will define Ohio’s capacity to create breakthrough high schools. And that capacity, in large part, will define Ohio’s success in the 21st century knowledge- and innovation-driven economy.”

According to Price, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked CRPE to identify legal, regulatory, and policy barriers to the creation and successful operation of redesigned high schools in Ohio and a select number of other states. To date, the foundation has invested nearly $1.3 billion in efforts to improve education, including supporting the creation of more than 2,000 high-quality high schools in 41 states and the District of Columbia. The foundation’s investments in Ohio’s school reform efforts are in excess of $60 million.