Strong language and literacy skills provide the foundation for all learning. Ensuring Ohio educators are equipped to deliver high-quality language and literacy instruction for all students, including struggling readers and those with disabilities and learning difficulties, is imperative. Recognizing and responding to the need to improve literacy outcomes for all learners in Ohio, the Ohio Deans Compact, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Education, established the P20 Literacy Collaborative.
The P20 Literacy Collaborative serves as a peer-to-peer learning group or community of practice, to support authentic, meaningful, and sustainable university-school district partnerships to strengthen core reading course content offered through Ohio institutions of higher education.
In Ohio, there is a critical shortage of educators who are adequately prepared and trained to support students with low incidence sensory disabilities (LISD). The shortages are even greater in hard-to-staff areas, specifically in rural and more remote communities. To help address these shortages, the Compact and its partners are exploring, investing in, and supporting important work, including:
Research shows that students experience specific academic benefits and improved wellbeing when they receive instruction from educators who reflect and represent the student population they serve. The Compact established the Diversifying the Educator Workforce (DEW) Committee in 2020. Comprised of higher education, school district, professional association, regional provider, and state agency representation, the Committee’s work is supported through the Compact’s partnership with the Education Trust and the national CEEDAR Center.
The committee, renamed TREW (Toward a Representative Educator Workforce), is identifying strategies to affect state policy and practice in actualizing the Compact’s commitment to expand representation in the educator workforce. Incentive grant funding to institutions of higher education for the 2023-2025 funding cycle will include a priority on expanding representation in the educator workforce.
The use of explicit instruction and high-dosage tutoring in reading and mathematics increases teacher capacity to accelerate learning for each child. To support teacher and teacher team knowledge and application of foundational skills using evidence-based practices, the Compact worked with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) to establish the P20 Literacy & Math Tutoring Initiative.
This Initiative provides a forum for individual and collective learning through participation in a comprehensive professional learning program.
Ohio’s central goal is an annual increase in the percentage of high school graduates who, one year after graduation are enrolled and succeeding in postsecondary learning experiences, serving in a military branch, earning a living wage, or engaged in a meaningful, self-sustaining vocation. Leveraging our existing partnerships with institutions of higher education, school districts, and other community partners, the Compact works to develop and implement innovative and sustainable improvements across the P20 continuum to advance postsecondary learning experiences, successful employment, and independent living for students with disabilities.
