No Child Left Behind

Report cards for Ohio school districts, required by state law and the No Child Left Behind Act, come out today. Changes in the way the ratings are calculated will make it hard to make apples-to-apples comparisons to earlier ratings. In addition, the multiple components of the rating system may be somewhat confusing for parents who want a snapshot of how their child's school is performing.

What's on the Report Card
The element that gets the most attention is the rating. There are six, ranging from "excellent with distinction" to "academic emergency." While it will be easy for parents to compare this year's rating with last year's, the rating does not tell the whole story. Other indicators are:

Proficiency rates. This is the result of standardized tests given in the primary and secondary grades.

Performance Index Score. A way to measure average scores on the proficiency tests.

Graduation rates. The state goal is a 90% graduation rate, one that urban districts struggle to come near.

Attendance rates. The benchmark is 93% attendance. Some schools find attendance surprisingly hard to measure, especially in districts with transient populations.

Federal measure. An evaluation of how well the district met the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act for progress in math and reading.

Value-Added. This is a new measure of how much students learned in the past year. It responds to research like that featured in our August 19 post.

Improving Scores
Many school districts appreciate the addition of the Value-Added measure this year. It helps overcome the lower ratings they have received in the past because of lagging achievement in certain groups of students, such as immigrants for whom English is not their native language and special-education students. For some students who struggle in a traditional classroom, online education can be a viable alternative. Contact IQity to find out more.