The state has released its annual report cards, evaluating the performance of every Ohio school district and each individual school. This is just the second time that the state has used its “A” through “F” grading system. But this time the grades are lower in one area for a lot more districts.
The state’s report cards give letter grades in 9 areas of academic performance. More Ohio school districts this year earned an A in 7 of those nine areas than last year. But in the “Indicators Met” area – which covers how students did on required proficiency tests – there was a huge drop.
Last year 320 school districts earned an “A” but this year that number plummeted nearly 60%, to just 188 districts earning the highest mark.
John Charlton with the Ohio Department of Education says a school district used to need 75% of its students to be proficient in a certain section to score an “A” but it was changed to 80%.
“So a lot of districts are going to see a lower grade in that indicators met measure but there’s a reason for that the reason is that we raised the bar 5% to 80% of students that have to meet that proficient level,” said Charlton.
The report cards do not include overall district grades. Those will happen starting next year.
You can get more details on district grades by clicking here.