“We know our students are much more than just their scores on high-stakes standardized tests, and the quality of teaching and learning in our classrooms is much more than what an overall star-rating can reflect. The new Student Opportunity Profile information in the state report cards goes a very long way toward providing a fuller, more useful picture of what is actually happening in Ohio’s public schools,” said Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro. “Especially as our schools and students continue to make up for pandemic-related disrupted learning, the Student Opportunity Profile reports can also be important tools to direct specific supports and resources to specific schools that need them, so every child can receive the excellent public education they deserve – no exceptions.”
The Student Opportunity Profile reports include metrics like the student-to-teacher, student-to-counselor, and student-to-librarian ratios; percentage of early career educators and principals in the workforce; percentage of students participating in advanced placement or honors courses; the percentage of students enrolled in career technical education courses; and much more. OEA members voted unanimously at the OEA Representative Assembly in December 2019, to call on the General Assembly to overhaul the state report card system and include a Student Opportunity Profile in the new version. OEA’s advocacy helped lead to the adoption of the state report card changes, beginning with last year’s release. The Student Opportunity Profile section was included for the first time this year as part of the phase-in process.
“This is the information that’s most helpful to parents and caregivers who are trying to determine whether a school is a good fit for their child. Class sizes and the availability of learning opportunities to meet their child’s individual needs carries far more weight in parents’ decisions than a dissection of standardized test scores,” DiMauro said. “It is unfortunate, though, that parents still can’t make apples-to-apples comparisons with these report cards, because private schools taking public tax dollars through the state’s near-universal voucher expansion scheme still aren’t held to the same academic or financial transparency standards as public schools. It’s time for Ohio’s lawmakers to fix that.”
