Pupils score above average

Education funding in the United States has increased by almost 80 percent over the past 20 years.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
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.
ACT and SAT
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.
More choices
"We need to hold our schools accountable and demand results, and we need to give parents more choices when it comes to their children's education," said Rep. Jane Cunningham of Missouri, ALEC Education Task Force chairwoman.
"Raising student achievement levels and improving our schools is not a matter of spending more money doing the same things as before, but, rather, using the resources we have available in better and more innovative ways," she said.
The tremendous growth and popularity of charter schools, educational tax credit programs, private scholarship funds and vouchers would seem to indicate that improving student achievement is based more on accountability, choice and competition than on dollars spent, the report said.
Faced with losing students to other educational options, public schools will have to improve, the report said.
Ohio had 85,082 children in 277 charter schools in the fall of 2005. Pennsylvania had 51,504 pupils in 115 charter schools.
gwin@vindy.com