The state’s report cards give letter grades in 9 areas of academic performance. More Ohio school districts this year earned an A in 7 of those nine areas than last year. But in the “Indicators Met” area – which covers how students did on required proficiency tests – there was a huge drop.
Last year 320 school districts earned an “A” but this year that number plummeted nearly 60%, to just 188 districts earning the highest mark.
John Charlton with the Ohio Department of Education says a school district used to need 75% of its students to be proficient in a certain section to score an “A” but it was changed to 80%.
“So a lot of districts are going to see a lower grade in that indicators met measure but there’s a reason for that the reason is that we raised the bar 5% to 80% of students that have to meet that proficient level.”
The report cards do not include overall district grades. Those will happen starting next year.