The state’s report cards on academic performance for Ohio’s 607 public school districts in 2024 are out, with most districts getting three or three-and-a-half stars on a five-star scale. And once again they show improvement in some areas, but not enough in others.
Reading scores are down a half a percentage point statewide from 60.9% in the previous report cards to 60.4% for the class of 2024. But education officials aren't panicking.
“The school year that just started a few weeks ago is the first year that everybody is required to be fully aligned to the Science of Reading," said Chris Woolard, Chief Integration Officer with the Department of Education and Workforce. "And so we want to make sure that we're taking time for those things to take hold.”
The Science of Reading curriculum, in use in more than 30 states, was introduced in Ohio in the previous state budget in 2023. The evidence-based, phonics-backed program had to be in use in all Ohio schools by June 30.
Math scores were up almost two points, from 53.5% in the previous report cards to 55.3%. But this shows just over half of Ohio's public school students are proficient in math, which Woolard said is "clearly not where we want to be."
Woolard said another area of improvement was in the number of students earning at least one of 11 measures of readiness for life and work after high school. Those include earning an honors diploma or advancement placement credits, a state-recognized license or acceptance into an apprenticeship program. That number went from 55% to 61%.
“We fully anticipate these numbers to go up over time because this is a lot of the key reforms that are in place, including things like having industry-recognized credentials to be a pathway towards graduation. We're now counting enlistment in the military," Woolard said. "The General Assembly has made a lot of investments in career technical education over the past few years, and the dividends that's going to pay off, that it's really important that students have those pathways. And I think we will see those numbers increase over time."
DEW reports 16% of the graduating students in the class of 2024 earned at least 12 college credits, up from 13.8% the previous year. A total of 25.6% of graduating students earned a state license or 12 or more industry-recognized credential points in a single career field.
Chronic absenteeism was down for the third consecutive year to 25.1%, though this means one in four Ohio public school students miss at least 18 days of school a year. And those numbers are higher in some districts, including the largest ones.
The star rating system just went into use in 2022. 261 of the 607 school districts got either three or three and a half stars – in the middle of the five-star scale. Woolard said while this looks like schools are being graded on a curve, five stars is the ultimate goal.
“In some ways, that distribution is by design, but we want folks to be striving to be moving towards the higher levels, and we'll obviously continue to monitor that and calibrate that as necessary," Woolard said. "In any good accountability system, you want to have a goal on a target and move the system towards that target and as more people are and more schools are meeting that, we always want to come back and reevaluate it to make sure we've got it set in the right place."
The overall star ratings are for six components: achievement, progress, gap closing, early literacy, graduation and post-secondary readiness. No district got lower than two stars in the six rated areas, though 83 individual schools did. A total of 47 districts and 283 schools got a perfect five-star score.
