Ohio School Rankings Raise Questions

Ohio’s biennial budget for fiscal year’s 2012-2013, signed into law by Gov. John Kasich on June 30, includes a provision to rank the state’s 3,500 public schools. Here’s an article about the new rankings that ran in The Columbus Dispatch on July 8:

From best to worst
School rankings rate low with educators

Friday, July 8, 2011
By Catherine Candisky
Starting next year, Ohio’s 3,500 public schools will be ranked best to worst in annual reports issued by the state.
 
The lists will show parents and others how schools – traditional, charter and vocational – stack up based on student performance, per-pupil expenditures, percentage of funding spent on classroom expenditures and other measures.
 
The recently passed state budget included a provision requiring the Ohio Department of Education to issue annual school performance and expenditure reports. The first ones should come out in 2012.
 
The Kasich administration, which pushed for the rankings, hopes to give a clearer picture of how schools are doing by going beyond the grades schools receive on state-issued report cards. Those are based largely on student scores on standardized tests.

The rankings, for instance, will distinguish two schools with high-achieving students by how much they spend.
 
“The current report card system laid the foundation for better school accountability but omits some important information, making it difficult for parents to compare schools side by side and ensure their child is in the best learning environment possible,” said Connie Wehrkamp, a spokeswoman for Kasich.
 
“By ranking schools on a wide spectrum of factors, such as test scores and per-pupil spending, the new system will more clearly show where a school is excelling or falling behind, empowering parents with the information they need to ensure their children are not trapped in failing schools.”
 
But some say rankings can be misleading and it’s difficult to factor in differences in student populations and spending levels when making comparisons.
 
Michelle Francis, a lobbyist for the Ohio School Board Association, said one school district may spend less but only offer one elective course to students while another district may spend more but give students additional offerings which most would consider more desirable.
 
“Is it going to be a race to the bottom?” she asked.
 
The current report card system is preferred by many educators because there isn’t just one No. 1 school. All schools that meet established benchmarks can receive an A or excellent rating.
 
“We prefer ratings to rankings. We have 49 area career centers in Ohio.” Rankings “presume there are bad ones out there,” said Thomas N. Applegate, executive director of the Ohio Association of Career Technical Superintendents.
 
“If I have 25 students in a class, I would hope that all 25 would get A’s, not just one No. 1 and one No. 2 all the way down to No. 25.”
 
When schools are listed top to bottom, those that improve won’t necessarily move up in the rankings, said Tom Ash, director of government relations of the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. For instance, if your school is ranked 50th and student performance improves – but it also improves at the schools ranked above your school – your school would still be ranked 50th.
 
“In an attempt to be transparent, we are going to confuse people,” Ash said.
 
The state Department of Education will issue lists based on: student performance on state assessments; growth in student performance; performance of gifted students; performance of career-technical students; per-pupil operating expenditures; and percentage of spending on classroom instruction.
 
Wehrkamp said rankings will provide incentives for administrators and teachers to improve student learning and help shape education policy and school funding.
 
“(Lawmakers) will be able to more easily see what different districts are spending per pupil and how those dollars are, or aren’t, translating into improved student performance.” she said.

More information about the budget can be found on the state’s budget web site.

Heights Senior Recognized as Future Leader

As economic issues command attention across our nation and the world, the next generation of leaders is already being trained and educated in the foundations of our economy.  Julia Gay, a soon-to-be senior at Cleveland Heights High School, has been recognized as one of those future leaders. She is spending her summer participating in Economics for Leaders, an elite program conducted at the College of Wooster July 10-17.  Julia is one of just 32 students from the entire country to be identified as a future leader and invited to attend.
 
During this week-long program, students attain an understanding of economic reasoning principles and how to employ these concepts for successful and effective leadership.  Economics for Leaders is conducted by the Foundation for Teaching Economics.  The goal of the Economics for Leaders program is to give promising students the skills to be more effective leaders and to teach them how to employ economic analysis when considering difficult public policy choices. Given the existing challenges confronting our nation, and assuming that problems in years to come will be equally consequential, the job of preparing the next generation of leaders may be one of the most important actions we can take now to ensure our well-being in the future. The Foundation for Teaching Economics is committed to finding and nurturing those budding leaders.