COLUMBUS – Ohio has released its latest report cards for school districts without the usual performance rankings and some other key indicators.
That comes after school closures and legislative changes related to the coronavirus affected the state’s system for reporting and accountability.
State testing requirements were waived in the spring under legislation passed as schools faced closures and the pivot to remote learning because of the pandemic. As a result, report cards released Tuesday for the 2019-2020 school year don’t include ratings that are based on the tests that were canceled, which was OK — for now — with Gov. Mike DeWine.
“People need to know where there kids are, but as far as grading schools or ranking schools and doing things like that, and other ramifications, I’m not sure that that’s really that important,” he said.
The report cards do still include information about graduation rates, enrollment, attendance and spending.
The state’s largest teachers’ union is urging lawmakers to take the opportunity to overhaul the report cards.
“These latest school and district report cards shine a spotlight on the major problems with the entire report card scheme. The fact that the state recognizes that any 2020 letter grades and rankings would be useless without spring testing data proves just how overly-reliant the existing grade card system is on standardized tests,” Ohio Education Association president Scott DiMauro said.
The OEA supports a measure in the Statehouse seeking a waiver of federal testing requirements and suspending the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment and a third grade English test and calls for suspending school and district report card ratings through 2021-2022 school year.