Starting this August, Ohio schools will be graded on a new set of criteria - criteria that’s supposed to be tougher than the current district report cards. As StateImpact Ohio’s Ida Lieszkovszky reports, that means most urban districts and charter schools would get F’s.
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Report cards used to rate districts on a scale from “Excellent with Distinction” to “Academic Emergency.” Under the new standards, they’ll be graded on a more familiar A to F scale. But that scale is also supposed to be tougher.
The new report cards will grade schools on a variety of measures, including students’ performance on standardized tests, graduation rates, and how much academic progress students make in a year.
Projections from the Ohio Department of Education show the big 8 urban school districts – including Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Cincinnati – will get F’s in many areas. Same goes for charter schools.
It’s not a big surprise that the state’s urban districts and charter schools wouldn’t fair well under the new standards. In fact, an estimated three-fourths of districts statewide are expected to slip in the rankings once the first full set of new report cards is released.
The new standards will be put in place starting this year, though districts won’t get an overall grade until 2015.