Ohio to begin ranking all schools from best to worst

By Catherine Candisky

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

Starting next year, Ohio’s 3,500 public schools will be ranked best to worst in annual reports issued by the state.

The lists will show parents and others how schools — traditional, charter and vocational — stack up based on student performance, per-pupil expenditures, percent of funding spent on classroom expenditures and other measures.

The recently passed state budget included a provision requiring the Ohio Department of Education to issue annual school performance and expenditure reports. The first ones should come out in 2012.

The Kasich administration, which pushed for the rankings, hopes to give a clearer picture of how schools are doing by going beyond the grades schools receive on state-issued report cards. Those are based largely on student scores on standardized tests.

The rankings, for instance, will distinguish two schools with high- achieving students by how much they spend.

“The current report-card system laid the foundation for better school accountability but omits some important information, making it difficult for parents to compare schools side by side and ensure their child is in the best learning environment possible,” said Connie Wehrkamp, a spokeswoman for Kasich.

“By ranking schools on a wide spectrum of factors, such as test scores and per-pupil spending, the new system will more clearly show where a school is excelling or falling behind, empowering parents with the information they need to ensure their children are not trapped in failing schools.”

But some say rankings can be misleading, and it’s difficult to factor in differences in student populations and spending levels when making comparisons.

Michelle Francis, a lobbyist for the Ohio School Boards Association, said one school district may spend less but offer only one elective course to students while another district may spend more but gives students additional offerings that most would consider more desirable.

“Is it going to be a race to the bottom?” she asked.

The current report-card system is preferred by many educators because there isn’t just one No. 1 school. All schools that meet established benchmarks can receive an A or excellent rating.

“We prefer ratings to rankings. We have 49 area career centers in Ohio.” Rankings “presume there are bad ones out there,” said Thomas N. Applegate, executive director of the Ohio Association of Career Technical Superintendents.

“If I have 25 students in a class, I would hope that all 25 would get A’s, not just one No. 1 and one No. 2 all the way down to No. 25.”