Education

A new education initiative has launched in Dayton. At an event yesterday, hundreds of community and business leaders gathered for Learn to Earn. The goal is to bring together education and community members to provide students with an education that will equip them to go on to college. It will give a specific focus to high poverty areas to improve kindergarten readiness, third grade reading proficiency, 9th to 10th grade transitions and college enrollment. The nonprofit organization aims to increase the percentage of students with college degrees from 34% currently to 50% by 2025.

State education leaders have agreed to replace the Ohio Graduation Test with a nationally standardized college readiness test, such as the ACT, and 10 subject-area exams.

The college readiness test could be offered free to all Ohio sophomores as soon as next year under the timeline announced Tuesday by the state Education Department, Board of Regents and state school board.

That test and the 10 subject-area exams that replace the OGT would be required by the 2014-15 school year.

A panel studying ways to boost Ohio's college graduation rate says tuition should be raised on students to out-of-state rates and the state should withhold money from those students' institutions if they're taking too long to graduate.

In a report released Tuesday, the Complete College Ohio Task Force says institutions should tie tuition guarantees to completing on a set schedule, and distribute financial aid like a paycheck to encourage students to work less and take more classes.