State report cards show: Student performance is related to income and poverty levels, yet again
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Scores on state tests are higher in richer school districts and lower as the poverty rate of students increases, the Ohio School Boards Association reported Monday, using data from the new 2012-13 state report cards.
The findings mirror some of the work that Cleveland.com's Rich Exner didright after the Aug. 22 report cards' release. In each case, the data continues a trend that has been documented for several years.
With several agencies and interest groups analyzing report card data to determine trends across Ohio, we'll pass on some of the findings as they become available.
While Cleveland.com used the A to F grades that districts received, the OSBA study uses Performance Index (PI), a composite score that rounds up several subjects and grades of test data into a single score. The highest possible score is 120. PI does not measure what many educators consider the other main indicator of school and student performance -- academic growth. PI looks at how well students scored on the tests, but not how much they improved from year to year.
The OSBA compared PI scores to the income level of a district, the poverty rate, the percentage of adults with a college degree and the percentage of minority students. A graph of each of these can be seen here: OSBA Report Card PI Charts.pdf
Though the relationship changed somewhat between each of the four factors, the graphs