Ohio/Pa. academics in U.S. top 20

YOUNGSTOWN — Ohio and Pennsylvania stack up well when compared with academic achievements in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

But even though both states rank in the top 20 in a recent national survey, the performances of their students on standardized achievement tests leave much to be desired.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, which lists itself as the nation’s largest nonpartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators with more than 2,400 legislator members, has issued its “2006 Report Card on American Education.”

The 50 states and District of Columbia are rated on their academic achievements, and Ohio finished at 15 while Pennsylvania was ranked at number 20.

Yet the majority of schoolchildren tested in math and reading in both states in 2005 failed to reach the level of proficient in all categories. The national averages were even worse.

Ohio did score better than the national average in both ACT and SAT test scores for college-bound students in 2004, the latest year for which data was available.

Ohio’s average ACT scores were 21.4, as compared with 20.9 nationally, and 1080 on the SAT, compared with 1026 nationally.

Pennsylvania’s average ACT score was 21.8, but its SAT average was only 1003, according to the report.

It pointed out that education funding in the United States has increased by almost 80 percent over the past 20 years so that school districts today are spending an average of more than $9,000 per pupil. The average pupil-teacher ratio across the country was 15.5 to 1.

Despite the funding increase, student achievement has remained stagnant, and the overall results found in the report strengthen the growing consensus that simply increasing spending on education isn’t enough to improve student performance, according to ALEC.

In 2005, Ohio spent an average of $10,107 per pupil (up 117 percent from the 1983-84 school year) and had a pupil-teacher ratio of 15.2 to 1. Pennsylvania spent an average of $10,208 per pupil (up 74 percent from 1983-84) and also had a 15.2 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio.

Ohio’s average teacher salary for 2005 was $47,482, while Pennsylvania was paying an average of $51,835. The national average was $44,133.