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By Pat Smith
Published on Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
COLUMBUS: How good is Ohio's education system? Seventh best in the nation? So several have declared — to show that progress was made during the nine-year tenure of Susan Zelman, the state school superintendent.
How valid is this ranking? What is it based on? How do others judge Ohio's progress?
The source of the back-slapping is an educational publication's annual report. Education Week's Quality Counts 2008 graded states on six categories. Half Ohio's grades were Cs, yet the state still ranked seventh.
Ohio got an A for standards, assessment and accountability, even though we do not regularly revise standards as 38 other states do. Our A stemmed from having standards for core subjects at all grade levels, and we test and report results.
In school finance, the state received a B-. It's ironic that a school funding system that has so often been labeled bad contributed to Ohio's good ranking. Fifty-six percent of our school districts spend at or above the national average per pupil. Ohio spends 4.2 percent of all taxable resources on education compared with a national average of 3.6 percent.
Ohio received a B- on chance for success, which covers preschool and kindergarten enrollment, parental education, employment and income.
The Cs were for:
• The teaching profession: Prospective teachers in Ohio have to pass a written test on knowledge of subjects, but not on basic skills or on how to teach subjects. Ohio does not require training in how to evaluate teachers as 26 other states do.
• Transitions and alignment: Ohio defined children's readiness to enter school, but not college readiness or work readiness as 26 other states have. We haven't aligned high school assessments or course credits with our post secondary system.
• Academic cchievement — by far the most important category: Included here are national test scores, and Advancement Placement Test passage rates, 11 percent for Ohio, four percentage points higher than in 2000 but still below the national average of 17 percent.
Looking at the above grade book, some would stamp ''Shows Progress'' on Ohio's report card. But what if we average in other marks?
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce awarded Cs for return on investment and postsecondary and workforce readiness and a D on rigor of curriculum standards.
The Alliance for Excellent Education's ranked Ohio 20th in the nation in graduation rates. (The state was rated below average for the percentage of Asian, Hispanic and black graduates.)
The American Legislative Exchange Council ranked Ohio 24th on SAT scores and 25th on ACT scores.
Education Week's 2008 Technology Counts gave Ohio a C on technology use, even though the state made an early investment of $1 billion on computers. The national average for the assessment: a B-. Ohio ranks 47th in the percentage of science teachers with a major in science.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that 36 percent of Ohio's fourth-graders and eighth-graders are proficient in reading while the state reports 80 percent. In math, NAEP found 46 percent Ohio's fourth-graders proficient; the state reports 76 percent. For eighth-graders, NAEP found 35 percent proficient in math; the state reports 72 percent.
On standards:
• The American Federation of Teachers found that only Virginia had a strong knowledge-rich curriculum in all subjects at all levels. Ohio was strong in three-quarters of its standards. Ohio's math and science standards for K-12 were designated ''model.'' Our middle and high school English and elementary social standards were not clear, specific or grounded in content. (The Quality Counts grades are based on AFT rankings.)
• The Fordham Foundation's average state grade was a C-. Ohio's standards averaged a D+ — with English receiving a C; math, D; science, B; U.S. history, D; world history, F.
Surely, Ohio's report card should now be stamped: ''Needs Improvement.''
Factor in that Stanford University's Hoover Institution found that between 2003 and 2007, Ohio had one of the largest drops in the rigor of its standards of all states. Factor, too, that The Proficiency Illusion reports that among 26 states, Ohio's cut-off scores on reading and math proficiency tests for grades three and eight are 8 percentage points to 14 percentage points below the other states' median cut-off scores.
Then consider that these comparisons are just among states, not with other countries that ''beat the socks off'' the United States on international assessments.
We can only conclude that the real question is not whether Ohio made progress but has Ohio made sufficient progress and how can we more accurately track it.
Policymakers must undertake a candid and very public comparison of Ohio's standards and assessments with those of the best states and other countries (as was called for 17 years ago) and revise where needed. Yes, No Child Left Behind requirements need to be tweaked. However, no reform or refinement should be used as an excuse to remove test scores — still our best measure of progress — from Ohio's report card.
Smith, a former teacher and past president of the Worthington and state boards of education, served as executive assistant for educational policy in
COLUMBUS: How good is Ohio's education system? Seventh best in the nation? So several have declared — to show that progress was made during the nine-year tenure of Susan Zelman, the state school superintendent.
Get the full article here.
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