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Education: Making the Grade - Public Schools
MAKING THE GRADE
Public school districts are a major factor to consider when choosing a place to live. Read on for details about options in the Columbus Region.
Choosing the best school district for your child to attend is an important step in any relocation process. In 2022, U.S. News & World Report ranked Columbus public schools based on college readiness, college curriculum breadth, state assessment proficiency and performance, underserved student performance, and graduation rates.
Bexley High School earned the top spot in the Columbus metro area and fourth in the state for giving students Advanced Placement course opportunities and exams, in which 85 percent of the high school participates. Here, 98 percent of the students graduate high school, and collegereadiness scores are high.
Other schools rounding out the top five in the metro area were Grandview Heights, Dublin Jerome, Olentangy and Granville high schools.
The statistics used in the subsequent listings were pulled from the Ohio School Report Card system. Report Cards are designed to give parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers information about how the state’s schools perform. The reports not only identify points of improvement, but also celebrate successes, and were revised in 2022 for the 2021-22 school year.
“Report Card reform was enacted in state law to address multiple years of stakeholder feedback regarding desired improvements to the state’s report card system, specifically moving away from the A-F system,” says chief program officer Chris Woolard. “The reforms moved to a star rating system and made several improvements to the measures within the system, with the goal of transparent and easily understandable performance measures for schools and districts.”
The updated Report Cards’ six components include achievement; progress; gap closings; graduation; early literacy; and college, career, workforce and military readiness. The star system associated with these components shows where the school falls on a spectrum from exhibiting need of significant support to significantly exceeding the state’s standards.
The achievement component represents whether student performance on state tests meets established thresholds and how well students performed overall. Progress examines the growth all students are making based on past performances. Gap closings measures the reduction of educational gaps between all students and specific subgroups related to race/ethnicity, economic disadvantage, disability or English as a second language. Graduation looks at four- and five-year cohort graduation rates. Early literacy examines improvements to reading scores for at-risk students in grades K-3. College, career, workforce and military readiness looks at how prepared students are for a variety of future opportunities, including those in technical fields, jobs, college or the military.
Select Report Card data for area districts in the 2021-2022 academic year is listed in the following pages. Of course, reports only share a part of the story of any school. Parents are encouraged to visit schools, talk to teachers and review school websites for a more complete look at any district to determine if it’s a good fit for their family.
GINA DUNHAM
Meta | Business Portfolio Manager
Special Education
Special needs students are in good hands in Franklin County. Each year, two historic Central Ohio schools, both located in the Columbus neighborhood of Clintonville, meet the unique needs of hundreds of area deaf, hard-of-hearing, visually impaired and blind students.
Ohio School for the Deaf
Image Credit: Doral Chenoweth III
The Ohio School for the Deaf was established in 1829 and is one of the longest-standing public deaf schools in the United States. The campus, comprising over 200 acres of mature trees, flower beds and wooded areas, welcomes over 125 deaf and hard-of-hearing students for comprehensive preschool through grade 12 education each year.
In line with Ohio’s public schools, the OSD provides a sequential curriculum for academic achievement and career development, plus support services including speech therapy, psychological testing, counseling, technology instruction and adult transition. The residential program operates Sunday evening through Friday afternoon, with some exceptions, and offers a wide variety of student-development activities, athletics and recreation. Current efforts are underway to improve OSD students’ bilingual literacy and language skills.
osd.ohio.gov
Ohio State School for the Blind
Founded a few years later, in 1837, the nearby Ohio State School for the Blind was the first public school in the country for the education of blind and visually impaired students. Each year, the school welcomes over 100 students enrolled in educational programs including early childhood, K-12 and post-secondary transition, also known as EDGE.
During the school day, students engage in academic and fine arts courses. After school, students may continue their learning through extracurricular clubs and athletics, and the school’s on-site residential program serves students who live on campus with expanded evening programming.
ossb.ohio.gov
