© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Critics of Ohio School Report Cards Say They Shouldn't Have Been Released

Photo of Wagner and Fedor
Karen Kasler
/
Ohio Public Radio

After a long delay, report cards are out for Ohio’s schools – and they show a big drop in the number of “A” grades on student performance on statewide tests.

As Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports, some critics say they show serious problems with those tests.

State Board of Education member A. J. Wagner says the grades being reported are faulty because of the PARCC tests that students took last year.

“These report cards are not just inaccurate; they are harmful to our children, our schools and our communities,” said Wagner.

Wagner and some lawmakers, including Democratic Rep. Teresa Fedor, say the report cards shouldn’t have been released. So, is there any value in those report cards?

“Not much other than Realtors get to say to people who are interested in moving into a different area – they use that,” said Fedor.

State education officials had warned that grades on this year’s report cards would drop. And districts, students and teachers won’t face consequences because the state has scrapped the PARCC test and is moving to a new one.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.