Anemic urban academic performance data show little reason for cheer

Emmy L. Partin , Terry Ryan , Jamie Davies O'Leary / September 1, 2010

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has analyzed the academic performance of schools in Ohio’s Big 8 cities annually since 2003. This year, we kept up the tradition and examined the number of Big 8 district and charter students attending schools rated A, B, C, D, or F, as well as how many attended schools that met, exceeded, or didn’t accomplish one year of academic growth (according to Ohio’s value-added measure) in 2009-10.

As in previous years, it’s sobering to see how little student achievement has moved for the state’s neediest students recently. In short, academic proficiency is stuck in place for most children in these communities. Other key findings from this year’s academic data include:

• The percent of students in Ohio’s eight major urban communities attending a school rated A or B was 26 percent, while the number attending a D or F school was 47 percent (akin to last year).
• Cincinnati made gains, earning the Effective rating, and Cleveland moved up to Continuous Improvement; yet despite these gains, a great number of students in both cities attended schools stuck in academic perdition (64 percent of district and charter students in Cleveland attended a D or F school, while 43 percent in Cincinnati did so).
• Several cities fared poorly on Ohio’s value-added measure (notably Columbus and Akron) with many schools – district and charter – not meeting one year’s worth of growth. (For an explanation of this year’s changes to value-added, see

  » Continued

  ---

  Anemic urban academic performance data show little reason for cheer