Support Issue 108 and High Quality Education in Cleveland

As recently reported on Cleveland.com, we wanted to share about Issue 108 and why it’s important not only for Breakthrough Schools, but for quality public education in Cleveland.

CLEVELAND.COM

Here’s why it’s in every Cleveland citizen’s interest to vote “Yes” on Issue 108 to renew the Cleveland school-reform levy:

*School reforms are working. Just a few years into the revolutionary remake of the Cleveland schools — including how the district rates teachers and partners with the city’s best charter schools — graduation rates are rising and so is the measurable success of those who go on to college.

But above all, there’s this: Those new state report cards are Exhibit A for how Ohio has shamefully see-sawed both with its regulation and oversight, and its funding and demands of public schools in ways that have hurt all students.

What Ohio has done wrong highlights what Cleveland is doing right — and the importance of consistency and sustained momentum in improving education. That, in a nutshell, is the Cleveland plan.

Real, enduring change can’t happen in a year, or two or three. Cleveland school reform must be an extended effort that allows trust to grow between the district and balky teachers who recently rejected a new school contract, sending negotiators back to the table. Reform must carry on in ways that enable the district to push its experiment in new directions.

CONTINUE TO READ THE FULL STORY