Report card recap

/ September 21, 2011

This year with the help of researchers from Public Impact in North Carolina we continued our tradition of conducting an annual analysis of student achievement in Ohio’s Big 8 districts and charters. State report card data were released in late August, and we released a quick turn-around analysis on Big 8 charters and traditional schools. However, this year we decided to dive deeper into the data and stagger various analyses day-by-day on the Fordham blog. This approach allowed us to develop a deeper and more nuanced perspective that a one- or two- day analysis simply couldn’t deliver. Many interesting findings emerged from the data; a few are highlighted below.

• Fewer students in Ohio’s urban district and charter schools attended a school rated D or F in 2010-11 (40 percent this year, down from 47 percent last year).
• Dayton student performance saw an uptick, with far fewer students attending an F-rated school, and more students meeting or exceeding value-added gains.
• Charter schools were some of the highest rated schools (according to both absolute achievement and growth) in the Ohio Urban 8, as well as some of the lowest rated.
• Cincinnati once again was the highest rated urban district, holding onto its “B” rating for a second year in a row. Only four percent of CPS students attended a school rated “F.”
• While 60 percent of both charter and district schools made expected growth on the state’s value-added measure, charter schools generally outperformed their district counterparts on this measure.  A smaller percentage of charters (16 percent) than district schools (20 percent) failed to meet growth targets. And nearly a quarter (24 percent) of charters exceeded academic growth expectations, compared to only one in five district schools.

For more information on how schools are performing in each of the Big 8 cities check out this comprehensive report produced by Public Impact, or check our blog series on achievement in 2010-11.

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