Report cards for Ohio schools and school districts are expected to be released next week. But the magazine Education Week is handing out grades for each of the 50 states. Ideastream’s Mark Urycki reports on how Ohio measured up.
Ohio, see me after class. Your grades are slipping.
In its 20 th annual Quality Counts survey on K-12 education, the Education Week Research Center gives Ohio a grade of C. The Buckeye State ranks number 23 rd just about tying the national average.
That’s a drop from a number 18 rank last year and all the way down from number 5 in 2010. Ed Week scores states by comparing them to each other. Massachusetts again ranked number one in the country with an overall B+ rating. It was followed by New Jersey and Vermont. The lowest ranked states for education were Nevada, Mississippi and New Mexico, all receiving D’s.
Ed week looked at 3 main categories, one measured indicators that included preschool enrollment to adult outcomes. That counted years of education, employment, and annual income. Onother category measured achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP test. The third examined how schools were financed.
Ohio scored well in high school graduation but low in kindergarten enrollment. Its achievement scores were middle of the road but they were dragged down by the state’s unusually large achievement gap between rich and poor students.
Nationwide, the only F grade from Education Week went to Idaho for its low funding for schools.