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Cleveland Plain Dealer
Ohio 2020 school report cards lack grades: Here’s how to read them
2020 Ohio school report cards were released Tuesday
By Emily Bamforth
Sep 15, 2020
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- This year’s Ohio report cards lack the traditional A-F grades that rate Ohio’s many schools and districts.
The report cards released for 2020 still contain essential information
-- like district spending and graduation rates -- but some of those
numbers lag behind by a year, and other indicators are still affected
by the coronavirus pandemic.
The numbers included do show some encouraging trends, with a higher
graduation rate and more students earning credentials to prepare for
post-graduation.
Lawmakers canceled state testing amid the coronavirus pandemic, and
school closures affected many of the indicators that shape the
easily-digestible grade system. Removing the grades undercuts the
systems that mark schools as “challenged” or prompt an academic
takeover by the state, so lawmakers hit pause on those procedures as
well.
A bill that would seek waivers for testing for this school year is currently in the Ohio Senate.
Take a look at what you’ll see on the report cards for 2020, and what was scrapped because of the coronavirus.
Data fully available on the report cards
Graduation rates
Graduation rates will be available and were not affected by the
coronavirus closures. That includes lagged information for 4-year
graduation rates for the class of 2019 and 5-year graduation rates for
the class of 2018. Normally, graduation rates make up about 15% of the
overall report card grade.
“Prepared for Success” measures
About 15% of report card grades are “Prepared for Success” measures,
which are designed to assess how well schools prepare students for
college or jobs. Districts earn a point when a student achieves
“remediation-free” ACT/SAT, an honors diploma or an industry-recognized
credential worth 12 points. The district can then earn a “bonus” .3
point for AP scores, IB scores or College Credit Plus credits.
The report card would then use the number of points and the number of
students to determine a percentage. This data, like graduation rates,
lags behind by a year.
Enrollment, attendance and absenteeism
Enrollment numbers are mainly used to calculate other measures, but
reporting this data is helpful to see the size of schools and
districts, as well as demographics. Attendance is presented on the
report card as percentages, and is broken down by demographic.
Absenteeism is normally factored into the “achievement” component and
is one of the factors that makes up 20% of the report card. Though
absenteeism figures are available this year, the Department of
Education guide to the 2020 report cards advises against comparing
between years for school districts because of the way the coronavirus
affected attendance policies.
Districts needed to revisit how teachers would judge attendance because
of the sudden shift to remote learning. Many students were left
disconnected from online classes because of internet connectivity, and
schedules were scrambled as parents adjusted to the switch. Attendance
policies were slightly more lax in the spring, largely based on work
completion. As more districts that are operating online switch to
“synchronous learning,” or classes where students interact with
teachers, attendance is more traditional.
Educator information
The report card also lists details about educators, like how many there are and what level of education they have achieved.
Financial data
Financial data will be included on the report cards, including how much
is spent on each student and classroom instruction, and how those
compare to other districts of similar size. The report cards in 2019
also reported the amount of federal money spent per pupil compared to
the amount of state and local money spent per pupil.
Some information about the Third-Grade Reading Guarantee and school choice options
Ohio is not holding students back because they failed to meet the
standards set by the state’s Third-Grade Reading Guarantee, though
teachers and principals can still make that decision.
Only some data about third-grade reading will be available, because of
the shutdowns in the spring. Fall testing numbers will be reported.
Data not available on the report cards
The data that’s unavailable is largely linked to the lack of testing in
the spring. The report cards will also not include annual objectives in
the “gap closing” category, including annual objectives in English
language arts, math and graduation rates for subgroups of students.
This is meant to show whether schools are working to close achievement
gaps. English learner progress is also part of the “gap closing”
determination.
Districts were also not required to finish teacher or principal
evaluations this year. More than 80% of districts opted out of
evaluation information for all or some teachers, according to the Ohio
Department of Education. More than 50% opted out of principal and
counselor evaluations. Only evaluations that were submitted will be
available on the site.
Previous report cards
Cleveland.com compiled a searchable database of report card grades for 2019, but will not for 2020 because of the lack of data.
Other analysis of the 2019 numbers, including a ranking of school
districts with income level taken into account, along with information
from other years is below.
Get additional information at Cleveland Plain Dealer
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