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Columbus Dispatch
Report: Ohio's
school report cards mostly make the grade
In an era when “Google” is just as much a verb as a proper noun, states
collect tons of education data, but most make it too hard for the
average person to find online and use.
Ohio’s online report card has a few problems, but its clear format and
content make it a “bright spot” among the report cards from all 50
states and the District of Columbia, according to a national report
released Thursday morning.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan Data Quality Campaign spent the summer
digging into online report cards. The team said that it was surprised
at some basic information that was missing: For example, 13 states
didn’t break down test scores by gender; six didn't by race and
ethnicity.
In many cases, states used educator jargon that likely could confuse
the casual searcher, such as “AYP” (average yearly progress).
“It doesn’t make a hill o’ beans difference if you put out a bunch of
charts of numbers with fancy words on them,” said former North Carolina
Gov. Bev Perdue during a news conference.
Out of 51 report cards, only four states — Iowa, Nevada, Virginia and
Washington — provided every piece of information required under the
federal No Child Left Behind Act. That law now has been replaced by the
Every Student Succeeds Act, which still is being hashed out.
Brittany Halpin, Ohio Department of Education spokeswoman, said in an
email that the department is “proud of the work we’ve done to improve
the report cards over the last several years.” In addition, Ohioans
soon will be able to access the report cards directly through a
smartphone app.
Among Ohio’s demerits, the reviewers found that the report card takes
three or more clicks to reach from a search engine and can’t be
accessed in languages other than English. (About 46,000 Ohio students
speak limited English, according to the state’s 2015-16 data.) It does
not break down how many students are in foster care or come from
military families, which could indicate that a student moves around.
The group said not finding the data doesn’t mean a state didn’t release
the information; it just means the team couldn’t find it online, even
after digging.
“We’re data geeks. We’re passionate data geeks. And we’re not finding
this data,” said Aimee Guidera, president and CEO of the Data Quality
Campaign. “What a waste that this information is sitting in a lot of
data warehouses and we’re not getting it into the hands of people who
need it."
Guidera said the goal is that state officials won’t just look at their
report cards as a box to check off for the federal government, but they
will ask what people might want to know and then provide it in an
easy-to-understand way.
Read this and other articles at the Columbus Dispatch
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