• OH Standards Advocates

    Ohio Core Advocates are a collaborative network of teachers, administrators, parents, instructional coaches, educational support team members, and education leaders working together to support Ohio's teachers by increasing their knowledge, skill, and confidence in making the instructional shifts that are central to Ohio's Learning Standards.

  • Our Mission

    We believe that all Ohio students should have the opportunity to learn in classrooms that are standards-based and promote the instructional shifts. Those shifts include having regular practice with complex text and its academic language; reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational; building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction; participating in lessons that focus strongly where the Standards focus; following math progressions where learning is carefully connected across grades so that students can build new understanding onto foundations built across previous years. Learning takes place in classrooms where each standard is not a new event, but an extension of previous learning; and experiencing rigorous math lessons where conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application are taught with equal intensity.

  • Our Work

    Ohio's standards based challenge in ELA/literacy center around students not having frequent opportunities to develop and demostrate deep understanding, analysis, reflection of the content. In math, students are unprepared to engage in grade-level mathematics. 

    To address the challenge in ELA/literacy teachers create and use high-quality questions and tasks to support students' knowledge and engagement with complex texts. 

    To address the math challenge teachers are helped in preparing to deliver strong, intentional instruction in the major work of the grade. 

  • Who We Are

    We are a collaborative network of teachers, administrators, parents, instructional coaches, educational support team members, and education leaders working together to support Ohio's teachers by increasing their knowledge, skill, and confidence in making the instructional shifts that are central to Ohio's Learning Standards.

    Ohio Core Advocate Captain - Char Shryock

    Char is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Bay Village City Schools. She has lead the development of curriculum for all content areas k-12. Her responsibilities also include acting as district testing coordinator and overseeing the technology integration resources in the district.  For the past 2 years, she has served as state captain of the Ohio Standards Advocates, a network of education leaders across the state who are supporting Ohio's Learning Standards, and the literacy and math instructional shifts.   This work is supported by Student Achievement Partners through their national Core Advocate program.  Char has also served as the state lead for the Ohio PARCC Educator Leader Cadre and was the OWG Chair for the PARCC Non-Summative Speaking and Listening Tools project. She was honored to serve on the Ohio Senate Education Advisory Committee on Assessment. This past year, she was awarded the Golden Oak Award for advocacy by the Ohio PTA for her work advocating for high standards and quality assessments for all children.  Prior to becoming a Dir. of Curriculum, she spent 22 years in the classroom as a 7-12 ELA and science teacher, and technology integration specialist.  Her areas of interest include Planning High Quality Professional Development, Formative Assessment, Differentiated Instruction and Integrated Unit Design. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and English from Baldwin-Wallace University and a Master's degree in Educational Administration from Ashland University.  When she isn't working, Char acts as a field supervisor for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's summer archaeological field school.  She likes spending time with her family on the beaches of Lake Erie and Isle of Palms, South Carolina.

  • Stay Informed

    Ohio Core Advocates have access to 

    • direct connections to an immediate support system as you work within your own professional networks. Ohio Standards Advocates work in every grade level preK-16 across all fields, all types of districts, and participate in a broad range of state and national professional organizations. By joining this network, you will be connected to the go-to people when you have questions or need support, problem-solving collaboration, or have an idea you'd like to bring to life around implementing the instructional shifts at the center of Ohio's Learning Standards.
    • free, high-quality instructional resources and the opportunity to participate in the creation of additional instructional tools that can be used across our state or the U.S.
    • multiple doorways that will allow you to stretch leadership legs and use your voice to support all Ohio students and Ohio's Learning Standards.

    If you would like to participate in this work, please consider: