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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > December > 09 > Entry
Editorial: Gov. Strickland should change A’s to C’s
Gov. Ted Strickland should get real about the flaws with Ohio’s school report cards. He’s standing in the way of a change in the law that won’t fix all that’s wrong with the report card system, but that would correct a glaring, unfair flaw that penalizes good-performing districts by classifying them as serious underachievers.
A bill sponsored by state Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, would prevent school districts that fail to meet “adequate yearly progress” on state achievement tests — but do well otherwise — from falling more than one rung on the report card rating scale. It’s intended to correct a flaw that in August hit several districts around the state, including Kettering and Lebanon.
Both of those districts would have earned the equivalent of an “A” from the state, but were dropped to a “C” because small subsets of students — such as those in special education or those who speak English as a second language — fell short of an expected test score gain.
The bill had huge support in the Senate, passing 32-1, with the only “no” vote coming from a Cincinnati senator who didn’t think it went far enough. The Ohio Department of Education and several education groups back the bill.
Now it moves to the Democrat-controlled House, where Rep. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, is its primary champion. She expects support from Stephen Dyer, an Akron Democrat and head of the Education Committee. Its prospects in the House look good.
However, even if it passes in the House, the bill will require Gov. Strickland’s signature, and he has consistently opposed making this change. The governor’s spokeswoman said he believes in rules requiring “adequate progress” for all groups of students in order to ensure “accountability for every child.”
Gov. Strickland is wrong if he believes this change harms that goal. Sen. Cates’ bill continues to ensure that schools must focus on struggling minority groups, and the report card system will continue to severely penalize those who don’t ensure those kids keep up.
Under the Cates bill, a district that has two subgroups of at least 30 kids falling short would be knocked down one rung on the rating system. So Kettering or Lebanon would still be dropped from an “A” to a “B.” That’s a big hit.
What Sen. Cates wants to prevent is driving them down from an “A” to a “C.” Keep in mind, Kettering met 29 of 30 state benchmarks; another state metric ranked that district in the top 26 percent in the state; and for the second consecutive year, it got extra credit for better-than-expected growth in test scores.
Even so, Kettering was rated a “C,” leaving the district only rated ahead of 10 of the state’s 610 school districts — the tiny handful of lowest scorers that earned a “D” or “F.” A district performing that well simply does not belong so close to the bottom.
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