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Ohio public school statewide report cards show improvement, but students are still lagging in math

By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Monday, September 16, 2024

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — This year’s statewide report cards on Ohio’s public school districts shows reading levels and graduation rates are up from the previous year and absenteeism is down. But there are still struggles with improving kids’ scores in math.

Most schools got either three or three and a half stars. But Dr. Chris Woolard with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce said that rating isn’t considered a “C” as many parents might see it.

“The state law set this up so three stars is meeting the expectations. We see that 90% of districts are either at that three stars or higher,” Woolard said. “So the vast majority of districts and schools across the state are meeting expectations.”

No district got zero stars, and one district got one star.

But 53.5%, or nearly half, of all students aren’t proficient in math, and around a third of third grade students can’t read at grade level. Statewide 64.5% of third grade students are reading at or above grade level, up from 62.3% previous year. But that’s still a third who are falling short in a school year that’s considered critical when it comes to reading skills.

“I don’t think, it’s not rounding up. I mean, obviously, these are pretty technical things on where to draw these lines,” Woolard said. “So we feel confident that these are measuring what they’re supposed to be measuring.”

Woolard said the expectation is the Science of Reading program will improve literacy and that math will improve with it.

“That’s also gonna have an impact on math, too, because it’s in, especially you look in some of those you know, the middle school and higher grades, and being able to read is really important to be able to do a lot of things that we’re asked to do in math,” Woolard said.

Once again, high wealth districts got the top ratings, which highlights an achievement gap with districts that have a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students. That gap

Woolard said that’s why it’s important to measure not only scores but also progress toward improving those scores.

“If you’re starting down here or starting at a higher spot, it’s trying to measure that that improvement you’re making over the year,” Woolard said. “You could have lower achieving schools, lower achieving districts, but can do well on that progress measure. And I think that’s what we want to see. We want to be focusing on there where you’re at having that improvement and tracking that.”

Graduation rates are the highest they have been in over a decade, and chronic absenteeism is down, but a quarter of kids still aren’t coming to school regularly.

You can access the overall view of the state report cards and track individual districts and buildings here.