Empowering Teachers for Educational Excellence

State Superintendent of Public Instruction
,
Ohio Department of Education
Friday, September 27, 2013 - 10:30am (updated Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - 1:41pm)

Ed.—This guest post is the second in a series looking at back-to-school topics. For others in this series, follow the Back to School 2013 tag.


I am a passionate advocate for empowering high-quality teachers. I believe that’s partly because I had a high-quality teacher who made a huge impact on my life. Helen Heller, my high school Latin teacher in Farmer, Ohio, believed in me and gave me a directive—backed by a cash gift—to go to college. I had lost my father that school year, and Mrs. Heller was just the kind of teacher I needed.

Maybe because Mrs. Heller had such high expectations of me, I’ve had high expectations for teachers—and students—throughout my career. In my many years as a district superintendent, I made tough choices to invest resources where they could make the biggest difference—in the classroom. I believed that if we were going to have high expectations, we had to give teachers effective tools to help our boys and girls learn all they could and should. Now, as state superintendent of public instruction, I want to see us making those kinds of decisions statewide.logo.jpg

This is why I believe so strongly in Ohio’s efforts to introduce new technology that empowers teachers, increases students’ access to great digital learning opportunities, and improves student achievement.

In an earlier blog post, Chancellor John Carey talked about ilearnOhio, our state’s new eLearning platform that includes digital resources based on state learning standards, teaching materials, and testing tools. ilearnOhio also offers fee-based online courses, including Advanced Placement and credit recovery courses that give districts more flexibility to meet the needs of different kinds of learners. This is an important development for Ohio education.

Another promising aspect of Ohio’s technology efforts is the collaboration between ilearnOhio and our new ThinkGate instructional improvement system, selected through a joint process by Ohio and Massachusetts. This instructional improvement system will provide educators online access to curriculum and standards, the ability to customize curriculum, and easy-to-use test options for determining where students have progressed and still need help. The system also allows teachers to see and analyze student data and keep a portfolio of every student’s work.

Together, ilearnOhio and the ThinkGate instructional improvement system will round out the resources schools and districts need to personalize, accelerate, and track student learning. The Ohio Department of Education will be working closely with the Ohio Board of Regents to integrate the ilearnOhio and ThinkGate platforms so they work smoothly for schools. I truly believe that through these efforts Ohio is on its way to being a leader in educational technology.

As we begin another school year, it is an exciting time to be involved in Ohio education.