by Jo Ingles
Report cards are out for Ohio’s schools – and they show a big drop in the number of A grades on student performance on statewide tests. Critics say they show serious problems with those tests.
State Board of Education member A. J. Wagner said the grades being reported are faulty because of the PARCC tests that students took last year.
“These report cards are not just inaccurate, they are harmful to our children, our schools and our communities,” Wagner said.
Wagner and some lawmakers, including Democratic Rep. Teresa Fedor, said the report cards shouldn’t have been released.
Fedor said there’s “not much” value in the report cards, “other than realtors get to say to people who are interested in moving into a different area – they use that.”
State education officials had warned that grades on this year’s report cards would drop. And districts, students and teachers won’t face consequences because the state has scrapped the PARCC test and is moving to a new one