“The dedication of Ohio’s educators to support our state’s students is evident in the progress shown during the past year,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “The growth in math and reading scores among English Learners and Economically Disadvantaged students—two groups that were hardest hit by learning disruptions during the pandemic—and improved reading scores for elementary students are a testament to the hard work of Ohio educators.”
DiMauro also noted the improvement in student attendance, with chronic absenteeism rates declining from 26.8% to 25.6%, saying, “Students need to be present to learn, and the positive trend in attendance is directly related to the increases we are seeing in academic outcomes, including overall graduation rates. It is crucial that Ohio continues to properly fund wraparound services and promote academic programs that address the needs of the whole child.”
At the same time, the OEA says significant work is needed to make the state report cards a useful tool for parents, including changes to improve accountability standards for Ohio’s charter schools and the private schools that take taxpayer-funded vouchers.
“Parents cannot make apples-to-apples comparisons between their local public schools and the private schools taking public taxpayer-funded vouchers because private schools are still not held to the same accountability and transparency standards as public schools in our state,” DiMauro said.
“Public tax dollars belong in the public schools that serve nearly 90 percent of the students in our state. If the state is going to continue to take critical resources from our public schools to fund private school tuition for the mostly wealthy families who have overwhelmingly taken the near universal vouchers since that became available to them, we must make sure Ohio’s taxpayers are getting a good return on their investment for what they’re spending on private schools,” DiMauro said. “With our state’s current report card system, it is impossible to say, and that is by design.”
The General Assembly has failed to require the accountability and transparency standards for private schools that would enable Ohioans to make any true comparisons. While the State Report Cards released this week for public schools continue to rely heavily on data from high-stakes standardized tests public school students are required to take every year, private schools continue to be able to pick and choose assessments for their students, often not even on the same subjects for which their public school peers are tested. Private schools should be included in the State Report Cards, but the data about private school performance—limited as it may be—is released separately, much later in the year.
“Ohio is constitutionally required to maintain a ‘thorough and efficient system of common schools’ but Ohio lawmakers have intentionally created two very different systems of evaluating and sharing
information about the quality of our state’s private and public schools,” DiMauro said. “Ohio parents, students, and taxpayers deserve better.”
