State Sen. Peggy Lehner used to be completely behind Ohio’s testing and school accountability system.
“I no longer feel that way,” the chair of the Senate Education Committee told a panel in Shaker Heights this week. “I look at 20 years of federally-mandated testing…and I came to question it.”
She is not alone.
Ohio’s latest batch of state report cards for schools and districts, has drawn pushback over poor districts having to compete against rich ones and about affluent districts slammed with F grades because of a slight dip in their high scores.
Some report card measures are too hard to understand. And others say low grades, while designed to guide improvement, just damage trust between schools and their communities.
All those factors led some state school boardmembers to the value of report cards earlier this month and the A-F grades on them.
Board member Linda Haycock, of Lima, said too many grades are based on “mathematical, high level computations” that are hard for school board members to fully understand, let alone the general public.
Members had to ask Ohio Department of Education staff exactly how the value added measure of student progress and the K-3 literacy grade work. Even board member Kara Morgan, a professional data analyst, asked several questions to be clear on value-added.
Told that A-F grades on report cards help parents understand what is happening at schools – but don’t signify a failure – Haycock and others objected.
“F means failing,” she said. “It’s drilled into everyone’s head.”
Board member Meryl Johnson of Cleveland, said grades “make community members feel like they cannot trust their school systems.”
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