Critics of public education in Ohio, especially Republicans who control the Statehouse, paint a picture of declining rigor, the specter of social promotion, and weakened accountability. Gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, for example, says he wants to pursue excellence by “bringing back standards to public education .”

In fact, standards-based teaching is alive and well in our classrooms. As a longtime educator, I know that teachers do not treat standardized assessments as arbitrary hurdles. In the schools where I’ve worked, we used test data to help students hone their skills, rooting our instruction in state standards.

Also problematic is the push by Ramaswamy and others to bring back retention under Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee – it is not a silver bullet. During my tim

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