The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a strong supporter of charter schools, says state report cards on public schools are unfair to those with high poverty rates. The group is releasing its recommendations to improve the report cards today. The group says the Ohio Department of Education focuses too heavily on test scores and not enough on student growth over time, leaving high poverty schools with grades of D's and F's. Spokesperson Aaron Churchill.
Churchill says weighing a school's grade more on annual student growth will help show which schools are improving academically. The institute also recommends Ohio reduce the number of letter grades on the report cards from 14 to 6. Meanwhile, a growing number of Ohio children live in homes with parents who speak little English. And a national education advocacy group says the state isn't doing enough to communicate with those parents about their children's schools. The nonprofit Data Quality Campaign annually reviews state school report cards in its "Show Me the Data" report. The 2017 report, says Ohio does not translate school report cards into any other language, even though 100 thousand kids live in homes where parents have difficulty speaking the language. Campaign spokesperson Paige Kowalski.
Kowalski says language is one of the largest barriers to access school information across the country.
