Successful Ohio Schools: What’s Working?

Published Date January 09, 2025
News Type College News

Kendrea Ward, right, now an engineering technology graduate, brainstorms necessary changes to the manufacturing system in her Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation class with Assistant Professor Amber Rader on the Ohio State Mansfield campus. (Credit: Ohio Manufacturing Institute/Logan Wallace)

By Joan Slattery Wall

The Ohio Education Research Center in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs received a new $1 million award from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to generate knowledge for Ohio schools about the types of strategies and supports that are leading to positive outcomes for all students. 

The center will help create the externally facing online data tool for the state, educators, families and students to understand the careers and success of students who go directly into the workforce and those who complete certificate, apprenticeships or two- or four-year education programs or enlist in the military. It will generate numbers and percentages of graduates who were employed at periodic intervals, for one, three and six years after high school; median earnings of those employed; and percentages of those with living wage incomes. The tool could include interactive charts and maps related to high school graduation pathways for school, district, regional and statewide analysis.

Erin Joyce, associate director, Ohio Education Research Center

“This is an important piece of the puzzle from a policy standpoint around understanding this part of the talent pipeline and a whole host of questions about retaining talent in Ohio, supporting thriving communities, supporting good jobs and attracting good jobs to the state,” said Erin Joyce, associate director of the Ohio Education Research Center (OERC), noting that the project brings together collaborators including the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Ohio Department of Higher Education and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The work will expand evidence-based resources and decision tools to help educators select the approaches most likely to accelerate learning for their students.

The project, the first to enable a longitudinal look over several years, will provide reliable data to help schools, parents and students understand education outcomes and the state to evaluate investments such as in Ohio Career and Technical Education or public scholarship programs, said Eben Dowell, administrator in the Office of Research, Evaluation and Advanced Analytics at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

There’s a push for students to be more planful and think earlier, as soon as middle school, about education and career planning.

Eben Dowell
Ohio Department of Education and Workforce

“This project allows a new way to say, ‘You’re going to be heading into this high school. Here’s how recent sets of your peers are faring, the industries they’re going into, the percentage going into two-year and four-year colleges,’” Dowell said. “From parents’ perspective, it might help in finding out what to advocate for and in making sure the district is providing opportunities for success.”

In addition, he said, the data will help the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce make policy decisions and advocate for actions from the Governor’s Office or the state legislature. 

 

Zachary Ernest, right, an Ohio State engineering technology graduate, in the computer lab with fellow student Zach Carroll, was promoted to quality engineer at Covert Manufacturing during the program. (Credit: Ohio Manufacturing Institute/Logan Wallace)

Business Advisory Councils, required for all Ohio school districts and Educational Service Centers, can use the data to determine how to set up new lanes for students to access the jobs that are actually available in their communities, Dowell added.

The project is facilitated by the State of Ohio’s Innovate Ohio Platform, a resource that created conditions to legally and technically generate matches between high school students and the workforce data while eliminating personally identifiable information. 

“Because of that computing environment, in 2023 we delivered the first benchmark data on post-graduation outcomes looking particularly at employment and earnings. It was super innovative and had never been done before on a state level,” said Joyce, noting that OERC has previously generated the data at a school district level. 

This innovation will enable us to reduce the burden for school districts.

Erin Joyce
Ohio Education Research Center

“The districts won’t have to do the post-grad surveys such as college-going rates, college persistence and employment information,” Joyce said.

“OERC brings hard core statisticians into play, which is helpful,” Dowell said. “They also run the gamut of being able to work well with all the technical piece but also being good communicators with agency leaders, the governor and the lieutenant governor, so I feel all along the way they can help a project from the nuts and bolts to getting it in front of the right people.”

OERC’s projects in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce also include:

  • Investigating the implementation of enrollment practices in Ohio Career and Technical Education programs, and specifically the use of lottery admissions, with an ultimate goal of analyzing career and technical education and its role in employment outcomes.
  • Documenting the practices of successful schools and districts to inform policy and create guidance for other schools. Previously, OERC provided analysis on early literacy success programs and achievement on Ohio statewide assessments in reading and math.
  • Supporting and maintaining Ohio’s Evidence-Based Clearinghouse, which provides solution-focused data and evaluation to build educational, workforce, and social and housing support for Ohio communities, educators and government. For example, the clearinghouse currently includes resources for literacy and safe and healthy schools. OERC will curate additional content to help schools better understand and implement Ohio’s new law regarding suicide prevention, violence prevention, social inclusion and school safety.
  • Conducting an exploratory study of successes in Ohio’s literacy coaching in schools.

Learn more about the Ohio Education Research Center.