TOLEDO, Ohio — Editor's note: The following story has been edited to include the ODE's Overall Rating, in addition to the raw average number of stars achieved by each district.
The Ohio Department of Education released its annual school district report cards Thursday, offering insight into the quality of education locally and state-wide.
ODE used the same scale during the 2022-2023 school year as it did the previous year, offering a year-to-year comparison across the state. ODE scored schools out of five stars, with five being the highest.
For the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, ODE did not provide overall reports because of complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, school districts received a letter rating on a scale of A-F, similar to a student report card.
Critics argue the ratings aren't reflective of students' actual performance because they are based exclusively on testing, which is only one component of the educational experience. Additionally, some say the new rating system complicates yearly comparative analysis because of absent or inconsistent data.
But ODE officials said the yearly report card is important to the future of Ohio education.
"While the Ohio School Report Cards are an important snapshot of progress and challenges at a point in time, they are not an end point," Interim Superintendent of Public Instruction J. Christopher Woolard said in the state report card results page. "As the challenges in education evolve, so too must our work to produce solutions, enrich essential learning experiences and strengthen the critical partnerships central to student success."
ODE stressed that the report cards are only a part of the story. In the same press release, the department encourages "communities, including parents caregivers, business and philanthropy, to learn what's happening in their local schools" because it can "provide a more complete picture of students' educational experiences."
Each district is scored on five components: achievement, progress, gap closing, early literacy and graduation.
Achievement measures how well students performed on state tests throughout the year in a variety of subjects in grades 3 through high school. Thresholds of maximum points earned in academic performance determine how many stars a district receives. According to the ODE guide to the 2023 report card, the achievement component accounts for the "level of achievement of every student, not just whether they score a proficient level based on the test score".
The progress component measures the changes in achievement schools see from year-to-year. The 2023 guide reads, "Academic growth is measured by looking at the current achievement compared to prior achievement results on Ohio's State Tests."
According to the ODE, "gap closing" measures reduction in the educational gap for student subgroups, graduation measures the four-year and five-year graduation rate and early literacy measures reading proficiency in K-3 grades.
The Early Literacy component measures reading improvement and proficiency for students in kindergarten through third grade.
Lastly, the graduation component measures the four and five-year graduation rate in a school district.
The rankings have important qualitative descriptions. For both components, the number of stars awarded have descriptions that are crucial to understanding the rankings. They are as follows:
Achievement component
Five stars: District significantly exceeds state standards
Four stars: Exceeds state standards
Three stars: Meets state standards
Two stars: Needs support to meet standards
One star: Needs significant support to meet standards
Progress component
Five stars: Significant evidence the district exceeded student growth expectations by a large magnitude
Four stars: Significant evidence the district exceeded student growth expectations
Three stars: Evidence the district met student growth expectations
Two stars: Significant evidence the district fell short of student growth expectations
One star: Significant evidence the district fell short of student growth expectations by a larger magnitude
The ODE uses a weighted method to determine a district's overall rating. For the purposes of this data, the raw average, rounded to the nearest tenth, has also been calculated and included to demonstrate change over time from the previous year's average.
Below are the report cards for the 10 Ohio districts included in the WTOL Big 11 schools:
Anthony Wayne
Overall Rating (ODE): 4.5 stars
Achievement component: 5
Progress component: 3
Gap closing: 5
Graduation: 5
Early literacy: 4
Current Average: 4.4 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 4 stars
Bowling Green
Overall Rating (ODE): 4 stars
Achievement component: 3
Progress component: 4
Gap closing: 5
Graduation: 5
Early literacy: 2
Current Average: 3.8 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 3.6 stars
Findlay
Overall Rating (ODE): 4.5 stars
Achievement component: 3
Progress component: 4
Gap closing: 5
Graduation: 4
Early literacy: 4
Current Average: 4 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 3 stars
Maumee
Overall Rating (ODE): 4 stars
Achievement component: 4
Progress component: 3
Gap closing: 5
Graduation: 5
Early literacy: 3
Current Average: 4 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 4.2 stars
Oregon
Overall Rating (ODE): 4 stars
Achievement component: 4
Progress component: 4
Gap closing: 5
Graduation: 4
Early literacy: 3
Current Average: 4 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 2.8 stars
Perrysburg
Overall Rating (ODE): 5 stars
Achievement component: 5
Progress component: 5
Gap closing: 5
Graduation: 5
Early literacy: 4
Current Average: 4.8 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 4.6 stars
Springfield
Overall Rating (ODE): 4
Achievement component: 3
Progress component: 4
Gap closing: 4
Graduation: 3
Early literacy: 2
Current Average: 3.2 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 3.4 stars
Sylvania
Overall Rating (ODE): 4.5 stars
Achievement component: 4
Progress component: 4
Gap closing: 5
Graduation: 4
Early literacy: 4
Current Average: 4.2 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 4.2 stars
Toledo Public
Overall Rating (ODE): 2.5 stars
Achievement component: 2
Progress component: 4
Gap closing: 3
Graduation: 1
Early literacy: 1
Current Average: 2.2 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 2.2 stars
Washington Local
Overall Rating (ODE): 2.5 stars
Achievement component: 2
Progress component: 2
Gap closing: 3
Graduation: 2
Early literacy: 2
Current Average: 2.2 stars
2021 - 2022 Average: 2 stars
Northwest Ohio
Average from all listed schools: 3.7 stars
Previous year's average: 3.4 stars
You can search for your school district's performance by clicking here.
State of Ohio stats rundown
Across the state of Ohio, data indicated that students of all economic, racial, ethnic and linguistic groups and abilities improved scores in English Language Arts and mathematics from the 2021-2022 school year to the 2022-2023 school year.
Out of the 607 evaluated districts in Ohio, the following is the breakdown of the overall rating:
1 star: 0%
1.5 stars: 0.1%
2 stars: 2%
2.5 stars: 7%
3 stars: 14%
3.5 stars: 22%
4 stars: 25%
4.5 stars: 16%
5 stars: 12%
You can view more state-wide statistics here.
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