Submission guidelines

OSBA accepts article submissions for the OSBA Journal magazine and the School Management News newsletter.

OSBA Journal

The Journal is OSBA’s flagship publication. With an audience of over 5,500 school board members, school administrators and other public school officials, the Journal is a platform for educators to discuss, celebrate and promote the work they and their colleagues are doing in Ohio’s public schools.  

We are looking for: 

  • Unique or inspiring stories about how a public school district rose to a challenge, met a need or introduced a new idea.  

  • Informative pieces, written for a general audience, that help school board members and public school administrators do their jobs better. 

  • Expert, fact-based analysis of issues affecting public schools. 

 

We are not looking for: 

  • Editorials or opinion pieces. 

  • Marketing content promoting a product or service. 

  • Academic articles. If you are an education researcher, we would love to hear from you, but all submissions must be journalistic pieces presented for a general reader.  

  • Humor, fiction, poetry or personal essays.  

  • Reviews of books or other media. 

  • Pieces aimed at students, teachers, parents or building-level school staff. Our readers are almost all district-level decision makers. 

 

Tips: 

  • Start with the information that matters most to readers. 

  • Tell a story—even if you’re writing an informative piece, set up a beginning, middle and end with a problem and a resolution. 

  • Keep your writing concise, conversational and jargon-free. Write the story as you might tell it to an interested co-worker with a different career background. 

  • Include high-quality photos illustrating your piece, if you have them. 

  • If you’re an expert on a topic that’s important to our audience, please reach out! We may be able to work with you to develop an article, even if you only have an outline. 

Journal 2025 Themes:

February: Student wellbeing for every school

April: The power of play

June: Build the team your district needs

August: The arts for life

October: STEM pathways

December: Capital Conference recap

 

School Management News
School Management News is a monthly school management newsletter designed to provide districts with the latest news affecting day-to-day operations. Topics include:

  • labor relations
  • human resources
  • business and finance
  • arbitration awards
  • State Employment Relations Board decisions
  • court decisions
  • labor contract settlements
  • district and building-level management considerations
  • other relevant commentary

The audience for School Management News includes school district superintendents, treasurers, administrators and school board members. The writing may be more technical to explain how a topic affects school district operations. In spite of its technical nature, the writing should be clear, concise and free of educational jargon. Articles should be written in a journalistic style, beginning with the most relevant, interesting or important point and proceeding with supporting detail. The “inverted pyramid” metaphor describes this style of writing.

Submissions must answer a question or offer a solution to a challenge school districts or board members are dealing with. Articles that are a sales pitch, an advertisement or solely focus on selling a product or service will not be accepted.

Submitting an article or proposal for the Journal or School Management News and what comes next
Submit your article or proposal via email attachment to the address below. Include your name, address and telephone number. Give your name exactly as you wish it to appear with the article and provide a brief author identification blurb that includes your professional title and any qualifications that pertain to your article.

If the article was previously published, please include details and an internet link, if available.

We edit everyone in varying degrees for length, style, clarity and content. Although we might reach out to the author for clarification, we will not seek the author’s approval on final edits.

Acceptance and publication
Proposals and articles for consideration may be submitted at any time. The publication editor will acknowledge receipt of your article as soon as possible. A decision on the disposition of your article may take several weeks. In some instances, there is a lead time of up to a year before your article appears in print. 

We do not accept:

  • Advertisements cloaked as stories or columns, fiction, humor, poetry or book reviews.

Please direct questions, proposals and submissions to:

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