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Monday, August 29, 2011

Shanker Blog » Charter And Regular Public School Performance In "Ohio 8" Districts, 2010-11

Shanker Blog » Charter And Regular Public School Performance In "Ohio 8" Districts, 2010-11:

Charter And Regular Public School Performance In “Ohio 8″ Districts, 2010-11

Every year, the state of Ohio releases an enormous amount of district- and school-level performance data. Since Ohio has among the largest charter school populations in the nation, the data provide an opportunity to examine performance differences between charters and regular public schools in the state.

Ohio’s charters are concentrated largely in the urban “Ohio 8” districts (sometimes called the “Big 8”): Akron; Canton; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbus; Dayton; Toledo; and Youngstown. Charter coverage varies considerably between the “Ohio 8” districts, but it is, on average, about 20 percent, compared with roughly five percent across the whole state. I will therefore limit my quick analysis to these districts.

Let’s start with the measure that gets the most attention in the state: Overall “report card grades.” Schools (and