The Ohio Department of Educationhas released its new strategic plan on Tuesday. The department’s main goal is to increase the number of high school graduates enrolled in college, earning a living wage, learning a skilled trade, or in the military one year after graduation.
State superintendent Paola DeMaria says the plan, dubbed Each Child, Our Future, focuses less on standardized testing goals and more on the individual needs of the child.
The 35-page policy outlines four “learning domains,” like leadership and reasoning and well-rounded content, as well as 10 priorities, like expanding the quality of early learning and improving literacy.
Ohio’s 2018 Teacher of the Year, Jonathan Juravich, helped develop the new policy.
“For our students to be academically successful, the individual, diverse needs of our students must be met first," Juravich says.
DeMaria says this policy is what good teachers and schools are already doing.
Testing is still required, but one of the goals of the new structure is to more broadly assess students' learning. It emphasizes both foundational knowledge, like reading and technology, and what educators call “social-emotional learning.”
DeMaria says the new structure will help students use their strengths and overcome their weaknesses to develop important life skills.
