For most of his time as secretary of education, Arne Duncan has been saying the same thing: “We are lying to our children.” States have “dummied down standards” when they should be raising them, and “we continue to lie to ourselves” that our students are well educated, Duncan has remarked repeatedly.
Stan Heffner, Ohio’s superintendent of schools, isn’t quite as blunt in his choice of words, but there was no missing the point in his address this month to the Ohio School Boards Association. “ ‘Our good enough’ is no longer good enough,” he told the school officials. In fact, considering a study released this month by the Ohio Association for Gifted Children, the more accurate statement would be: “Our best is not good enough.”
The report, “Grading on a Curve: The Illusion of Excellence in Ohio’s Schools,” concludes that the state’s district rating system is misleading. It is not the accurate report on proficiency and progress it presumes to be, but rather it is fostering a false, inflated sense of accomplishment all around — among parents, students and the public.
The annual report card rates districts on six levels. At the bottom, a straight F, is Academic Emergency. At the top are districts rated Excellent or Excellent with Distinction. In 2002-03, 85 districts were rated Excellent. The number grew to 139 in 2006-07, rose to 226 in 2007-08 and reached 352 in the past school year. In short, well over half of the state’s 613 school districts are rated Excellent now. Not a single district is in Academic Emergency.
Shouldn’t all of us be impressed by the galloping rate of excellence? No. An honest review of the data does not allow it.
Why? First is the “dummied-down” factor, the low standard of proficiency. Compare performance levels between Ohio’s proficiency tests and national standards reflected in National Assessment of Educational Progress performance tests, and it becomes clear that excellence as defined in Ohio is highly inflated. For instance, 51.7 percent of Ohio eighth-graders tested at advanced and accelerated levels in reading this year on the state tests. A mere 3 percent of them rated as advanced on the NAEP reading test. In math, the scores were 33.7 percent advanced and accelerated on state tests versus 8 percent on NAEP. Fourth-grade math and reading tests resulted in similar wide variations.
The study cited 67 Excellent districts where no students participated in rigorous Advanced Placement tests. Of Ohio’s college freshmen, 41 percent require remedial work in language and math.
In effect, Excellent in Ohio doesn’t take much more — and sometimes less — than 75 percent of students in a district attaining minimum proficiency in core subjects. The rating system risks shortchanging students and encouraging complacency, all when Ohio most needs an honest and accurate read on how its students stack up.
