Ohio

For KnowledgeWorks, Ohio is home base. We are stimulating and guiding true system-level change in the state where our work began.

Ongoing productive dialogue among state leaders
Thirty-five state-level leaders – including the chief state school officer, education policy leaders and state association leaders – are digging into the work of re-conceiving public education in Ohio.

Using processes adapted from systems dynamics, the participants in our Transformational Dialogue for Public Education have articulated a shared core purpose and core values for public education. They are using this shared vision to guide the development of state strategies and growth within and across their organizations.

The leaders taking part in the long-term dialogue report dramatic progress in the quality of the relationships among organizations and individuals, the growth of collective thinking that puts the welfare of children at its center and success in using system-change tools to create conditions for change in their own organizations.

Education and school funding innovation
After more than 20 years of controversy surrounding a school funding system repeatedly declared unconstitutional, Ohio embarked on a different path in 2009. It approved an ambitious agenda of education innovation backed by a school funding model that uses research to determine how to make best use of education resources.

Through our School Funding Matters initiative, and later our Ohio Education Matters subsidiary, we helped chart the course toward a public policy that corrects funding imbalances and encourages 21st-century educational strategies.

Structural improvements to workforce development
KnowledgeWorks worked with state officials across two administrations to create an education system for adult workers that makes it easier for them to acquire new skills and advance in the workplace.

We played a substantial hands-on role in creating a new coordinating structure that put all adult training and education under a single umbrella and resulted in the formation of the Ohio Skills Bank, which is designed to match up the education programs offered in the state with critical employer needs.

Indiana

A robust partnership in Indiana has given rise to a uniquely supportive environment for the introduction and expansion of New Tech schools throughout the state.

This partnership – including Indiana’s governor, state superintendent and other leaders; the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning; and KnowledgeWorks – led to important waivers to state policy requirements in three areas:

• Textbooks: Schools can reallocate funding for textbooks to other information sources.
• Schedules: Schools not bogged down by seat-time requirements can accommodate longer block scheduling.
• Course titles: Schools have flexibility to integrate courses and not be constrained by traditional scope and sequence.

The state also provided flexibility around certification that allows teachers to teach outside of their certification.

One result has been establishing the state as a leader in high school innovation. Indiana’s embracing of the New Technology High School model was cited as one of 2008’s best new developments on MidwestBusiness.com and has been reported in the New York Times.