Schools in Ohio earn B- grade

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

A national report gives Ohio schools a B-, but area educators are concerned about the impact of expected budget cuts on schools’ ability to continually make the grade.

The 15th annual edition of Education Week’s Quality Counts was to be released today, tracking education indicators and grading states on policy efforts and outcomes. It’s compiled by Editorial Projects in Education, a Maryland-based nonprofit. Its mission is to raise awareness about issues in education.

This year’s report gave Ohio a B- overall, ranking it 11th in the U.S. It’s the same grade as in last year’s report, but the overall score dipped from 81.2 in 2010 to 79.8 for 2011.

The nation earned a C this year, compared with a C+ in 2010.

Ohio earned an A in standards, assessments and accountability — its highest grade. Its lowest, a C-, was in kindergarten through 12th-grade achievement.

The theme of this year’s report is the impact of the economy on education.

Ronald Iarussi, superintendent of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, said the grade is probably fair as it relates to the criteria the report examined.

“The good thing is in just about every area it indicates we’re better than the national average,” Iarussi said. “The bad thing is it shows we still have a lot of work to do.”

A huge barrier in getting that work done, though, is the state’s deficit, he said.

Ohio relied on federal stimulus money to help fill the budget gap in the last two years.

“That stimulus money is not going to be here in the next budget,” Iarussi said.

Schools are bracing for a 20 percent cut in education funding over the next two years.

Boardman Superintendent Frank Lazzeri expects that cut will cause a lot of districts to place levies on the ballot.

“If they don’t pass, and if there’s cutbacks in state funding, it will mean a loss in teaching jobs,” he said. “We’ll have higher expectations and fewer teachers trying to do the same kind of work.”

The state’s earning an A in the standards, assessments and accountability, doesn’t surprise Iarussi as the state has worked to develop standards, ensure that curricula matches those standards and provide professional development to train districts in the changes, he said.

However, in looking at some of the criteria, there is some cause for concern, Iarussi said.

“In K-12 achievement, the state got a C-, one of our lower grades,” he said.

The tool used in the summary is a national test. Ohio uses its own state standards.

“Each state was given the capability to adopt its own state of standards,” Iarussi said. “It was developed years ago in math, science, social studies and language arts. So they’re not always fully aligned with the national standards.”

Since the advent of Race to the Top though, a federal educational grant program aimed at bolstering achievement, Ohio has been working to more closely align its standards with the national ones.

“I think once we do that, students in Ohio will have a chance to score better” on the Quality Counts summary, he said.

Lazzeri said Ohio has come a long way with rest of states in student achievement and changing classroom practices. Testing has helped schools focus on what students need to know to function in society, he said.