COLUMBUS — Kids aren’t the only ones getting grades.
Every fall, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce releases its Ohio School Report Cards.
These report cards rate public schools on things like student achievement, academic progress, early literacy and graduation rates. But they also provide a treasure trove of data on school finance, staffing ratios, attendance and more.
In this guide, we’ll give you some tips for understanding school report cards.
What do the stars mean?
For each component, schools receive between one and five stars. One star means a district needs significant support to meet state standards.
Three stars means a district has met expectations.
Five stars means a district has significantly exceeded expectations.
How are schools “graded?”
Ohio School Report Cards include six components — achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation, early literacy and college, career, workforce and military readiness.
As of 2024, the first five components contribute to a school’s overall star rating. The sixth is informational only.
These components contribute differently to a district’s overall score. Achievement and progress both contribute a total of 28.6 percent each, while graduation rate, gap closing and early literacy contribute 14.2 percent each.
Achievement measures third grade through high school student performance on Ohio’s State Tests. The metric looks at whether or not students met expectations and how well they did on the tests overall.
Progress measures whether or not students made “expected growth,” using data from Ohio’s State Tests.
Early Literacy is a measure of reading improvement and proficiency for students in kindergarten through third grade.
The component takes into account standardized test scores for third grade English language arts, the percentage of students promoted to the fourth grade and how many K-3 students who were considered “off track” in reading went on to become “on track” during the previous two years.
Gap Closing measures several different factors — many of which were included in different components under previous report cards.
Essentially, it measures how well schools are closing achievement gaps, primarily through state testing data.
Under the current version of state report cards, Gap Closing takes into account:
- Gifted students’ academic achievement and growth (previously under Achievement)
- Chronic absenteeism rates (previously under Achievement)
- English Learners’ (students whose first language is not English) progress towards becoming fluent in English
- English and math scores of certain student subgroups (Black, white, Hispanic, multiracial, English Learners, students with disabilities and students who are economically disadvantaged) and how they compare to goals established by the ODEW
- Graduation rates for certain student subgroups (Black, white, Hispanic, multiracial, English Learners, students with disabilities and students who are economically disadvantaged) and how they compare to goals set by the ODEW
Graduation measures four year and five year high school graduation rates.
There’s a separate report cards for career tech programs.
Report cards for career technical planning districts (CTPD) are similar to ones for traditional school districts, with components including achievement, career and post-secondary readiness, graduation rate and post-program outcomes.
Richland County has three CTPDs — Pioneer Career and Technology Center, Mansfield City CTPD and Madison Local CTPD.
Pioneer received an overall score of 4.5. Mansfield City CTPD received an overall score of 3.5. Madison CTPD received an overall score of 5.
What else can school report cards tell me?
In addition to the five components, report cards include information on enrollment, chronic absenteeism rates, average teacher salaries and years of experience on the district home page.
The district detail page breaks down student body demographic data, including information on attendance and student mobility. This page also offers information on staff-to-student ratios and the level of higher education among teachers and principals.
The financial data page contains a breakdown of where district funding comes from, how much is spent per pupil and how much funding goes toward classroom instruction. It also offers information on how a district compares to similar-sized districts and the state as a whole.
Star ratings are heavily based on standardized tests
One limitation of the Ohio State Report Card is its heavy reliance on standardized test scores.
Supt. Michael Browning of Shelby City Schools said these tests are based on the standards public schools are required to teach.
“In reality, the state is giving you the answers,” Browning said. “Ohio educators have the blueprints for each test, the standards where the questions are created and roughly nine months to prepare students with engaging lessons to help students learn and understand the information we are presenting.”
Supt. Jim Grubbs said having tools to gauge student performance and understanding are important.
Nevertheless, state tests and the school report card have “limited relevance” on the daily operations of the district.
That’s because the report card is based mostly on spring assessment tests, so the data it draws from is roughly six months old when the final versions are released.
Several districts in the area use assessment tools like iReady to offer less intense, regular testing throughout the school year.
“There are other tools in our toolkit that are less cumbersome to administer and provide more timely and actionable data to our teachers than the state tests,” Grubbs said.
“Our educators work hard to leverage the test data available to them to tailor instruction to meet student needs without making the test their focus.”
Ohio School Report Cards provide a “snapshot,” not the full story
School report cards can be helpful sources of information, they don’t tell the full story of a school or district.
“It is one measure. It’s important; however, it’s still highly tied to this event that takes place one or two days a year,” said Stephen Rizzo, chief academic officer at Mansfield City Schools. “That’s a lot of still a lot of emphasis on one day.”
Browning called the report cards a “snapshot” of the district’s work and its impact.
He said there are other aspects of education the report card doesn’t cover that are just as important — from teacher quality to extracurriculars to making students feel safe and making sure families are part of the educational process.
Grubbs agreed.
“This emphasis on standardized testing may not fully capture a district’s overall educational quality, as it overlooks many aspects of student growth, creativity, critical thinking, and soft skills,” he said.
“Additionally, while districts work hard to motivate students to perform well, these tests reflect only a small portion of what students learn. The report cards often present a narrow view of educational success.”
Grubbs said it can be challenging to motivate students to do their best on the state tests.
Of the 19 state tests that factor into a district report card, only two (Algebra I and English Language Arts II) directly affect their ability to graduate.
“Gen Z students need to see the relevance in the work they are doing,” Grubbs said. “Many students perceive that they have little personal stake in the outcome of the state tests and invest their efforts accordingly.”
Browning said the connection between educators and students plays a key role in student performance on state tests.
“If all you do is give released test questions and hope that students will memorize answers, you forget an important aspect of teaching: the teacher,” he said.
“Students care more about the person in front of them who inspires and engages than about answering an essay or ten math problems. And when students care about the person in front of them, they care about doing well on assessments.”