Ohio Public Schools
By Tennegon Johnson
Relevant data:
- Total public school student population: 1,610, 541 Students (2020-2021)
- Public v. private school attendance:
1,492,219 in traditional school districts, 114,095 in community schools, 81,791 in inter-district open enrollment, 69,713 receiving vouchers for private school, 51,502 in home school and 167,330 in chartered private schools.
https://education.ohio.gov/Media/Facts-and-Figures
- Total state public education budget: $10.9 Billion (2021)
https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Finance-and-Funding/Overview-of-School-Funding
- Average per pupil expenditure: $12,692 per pupil in Ohio (2020)
- High/low per pupil expenditure within state:
Urban Districts: $14,447
Small Town Districts: $11,295 (2020)
https://www.ohiobythenumbers.com/#school-funding
- Average national per pupil expenditure: $13,187 per pupil (2019)
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/public-school-spending-per-pupil.html
- Student demographics (race/ethnicity, English Language Learners, poverty rates):
https://education.ohio.gov/Media/Facts-and-Figures
- Graduation rates (total, and by demographics)
87% state average, 95% suburban, 93% small town, 92% rural and 78% urban.
Despite urban districts receiving the most average per pupil and small town districts receiving the least, the small town districts graduation rate is over 10% better than the urban district’s.
https://www.ohiobythenumbers.com/#college-readiness
85.3% for white, 69.4% for black, 73.4% for hispanic, 90.7% for asian or pacific islander and 71.0% for American Indian or alaskan native.
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/graduation_disparity/state/OH
- Accountability measures (testing, portfolios, growth, etc.)
Each public school in Ohio has a “report card” and is graded on subjects such as overall grade, achievement component, progress component, overall value-added, gifted value-added, lowest 20% value-added, gap closing component, graduation component and and prepared for success component. I see how this could be helpful in identifying the areas in which schools needed to improve. However, just as it is demoralizing and humiliating to fail a test, it must feel awful as a child to see that you attend a “failing” school.
https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Data/Report-Card-Resources
- Subject matter assessed by accountability measures
| English language arts |
Mathematics | Science | |
| Grade 3 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Grade 4 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Grade 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Grade 6 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Grade 7 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Grade 8 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Chart from Ohio Department of Education
High School: End-of-course tests in English language arts II, algebra I, geometry (or integrated mathematics I and II), biology, American history, and American government (For class of 2023 and after). It is noteworthy that before 2023, an English language arts I test was also required to graduate, so hopefully this can be seen as a slight shift towards reducing standardized testing.
https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Testing/Ohios-State-Test-in-ELA-Math-Science-SocialStudies
- Adoption of Common Core
Ohio adopted common core in 2010 and fully implemented them for public schools for the 2013-2014 school year.
- Adoption of Next Generation Science Standards
Ohio public schools have not officially adopted NGSS, although Ohio’s Learning Standards for Science and NGSS were founded on the same research. Public school teachers are encouraged to use NGSS as support in classroom instruction.
https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Science/Ohios-Learning-Standards-and-MC
- Number of charter schools and percentage of students served
729 Charter Schools and 8.5% of Ohio students attend a chartered private school.
https://education.ohio.gov/Media/Facts-and-Figures
- Voucher dollar amounts and percentage of students served
For K-8: $5,500 per student
For high school: $7,500 per student (2022)
Total cost to tax payers: $628 million
Serves 69,000 students across Ohio (2021-2022)
- Teacher Demographics
https://education.ohio.gov/Media/Facts-and-Figures
- Average teacher salary
Elementary School teachers: $67,850 – $87,700
Middle School teachers: $67,190 – $94,690
Secondary School teachers: $61,970 – $71,180 (2021)
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/map_changer.htm
- Presence of teachers unions/collective bargaining (e.g., AFT/NEA)
Ohio Education Association (OEA)affiliated with NEA – represents more than 121,000 members, 748 local affiliates
Ohio Federation of Teacher (OFT) affiliated with AFT
https://www.ohea.org/about/local-affiliates/
https://www.oft-aft.org/about-us
Underfunded and Underrepresented:
Historically, low-income students and students of color have always been underfunded and underrepresented. Almost always the wealthier, whiter neighborhoods will have the higher rated, better resourced schools. Ohio’s system of school funding was found unconstitutional in 1997 by the Ohio supreme court because of how it increased the inequity by further disadvantaging low income students and students of color. Little has been done to try to reverse that even until present. According to A good move for Ohio’s schools, and how to make it even better, the superintendent of Middletown City School District stated that, “Black students in Ohio are eight times more likely to attend an F school than their white peers… the difference between an F school and an A school is not the of the students or teachers, it’s the resources invested in those students and educators” (Patton, 2020). But House Bill 305 (HB 305) and Senate Bill 376 (SB 376) aim to start to reverse the unfair cycle and boost low-income schools with increased funding, taking a big step toward equity.
HB 305 and SB 376 would change the funding system to a more flexible one, where more funds are allocated to schools that need more funds. The bills aim to give the lower graded schools the resources they would need to ensure that their students get as good an education as anywhere else in the state by capping local funding to make the formula more fair for state funding. The bills also would remove public funding for private and charter school vouchers, which have a history of taking the students and resources from low-income districts without giving those students the better education. Fairer funding is key because in a study done by Ali Enami, Ph.D., increasing teachers’ salaries in high poverty areas in Ohio has a direct impact on improving test scores. Ohio has a program to help fund low-income district’s construction projects, but this doesn’t make near as big a difference as increasing teacher’s salaries has been found to do. Enami’s study also showed that the boost in test scores due to increased teachers salaries were almost only limited to the low-income districts, giving even more reason to increase the funding to these districts. HB 305 and SB 376 may not be perfect, but they will sure have Ohio public schools moving in the right direction.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be fully said for the underrepresentation aspect of Ohio public schools. While 2/3 of Ohio’s public school students are white, a whopping 94% of the public school teachers are white. As seen in the Teacher’s Demographics chart, only 4.4% of Ohio’s teachers are black, and no other race even reaches 1%. Like discussed in Becoming a Teacher, this can leave students of color without a role model, and lead them to think that they don’t belong in a school setting.
To make matters worse, in October 2021, the Ohio State Board of Education condemned an anti-racism resolution and replaced it with one, “condemning any teachings that “seek to divide”” (Staver, 2021). Shortly after the death of George Floyd, the Ohio board passed resolution 20, which aimed to teach about America’s inherently racist history and educate students on how those inequities can still be seen today. However, it was labeled as critical race theory by conservatives and the resolution became a hot topic and received lots of backlash. In response, the board drafted resolution 13, which would essentially condemn any teachings that invoked guilt because of one’s race. Opponents to this new resolution point out how racist groups might use this to cancel healthy diversity and inclusion lessons. For now, the resolution is not law, and teachers are still free to teach as they see fit. Hopefully, it will stay this way for now and eventually return to the direction of resolution 20.
Overall, I see hope for Ohio public school’s future. Ohio has made great strides to recognize and even combat the effects and impacts of inequity and will continue to. Even if there are minor setbacks here and there, I believe the students, parents, teachers, and authority figures have the power to overcome them and keep moving in the right direction. Not too long ago, Ohio had segregated schools, and today they are working to make sure that every student has the resources they need to receive the best education the state can offer, and I believe their momentum will carry them onward toward even greater equity.
Citations:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EQn7gmrTo-9gPkQi5elq1mf9yc632FXVFQt6MsZKKHw/edit?usp=sharing