Ohio School Choice Leaves Behind Traditional Public Schools of Last Resort
Policy Matters Ohio has released Misleading Measurements: How Ohio School Ratings Foster False Comparisons, a new report on school ratings in Ohio’s large urban districts. The report examines demographic characteristics of students in Ohio’s highest rated urban district public schools (often special or magnet schools) and highest ranked urban charters.
“Policy Matters compared demographics of the urban schools scoring highest on state measures with the districts in which they are located. We found that the majority of the highest-rated schools served different populations from those districts, enrolling fewer children with disabilities, fewer poor students, and fewer minorities.”
Here are specifics:
- Of 28 high-rated schools studied, 27 enroll a lower percent of students with disabilities than the school district where the school is situated.
- While Ohio’s urban districts serve, on average, 86 percent of students in poverty, the higher rated district and charter schools average only 50 percent poor students.
- Highly ranked schools, with one or two exceptions, serve significantly fewer black and Hispanic students and more white students.
- Nearly two-thirds of the schools studied are selective. Examples of screens include a