Two of over 60 charter schools in Franklin County received five out of five stars and eight others received at least four stars on the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) annual report cards released recently.
Conversely, three charter schools received the lowest one-star rating and four others got 1½ stars out of five, a Dispath review found.
ODEW collects information from the state’s traditional public districts and charter schools and sorts the data into six categories: achievement, progress, early literacy, gap closing, graduation rate, and readiness (college, career, workforce, military). Beginning in 2022, the state shifted away from an A-F letter grade system to new categories and calculations based on a star system.
The state ratings for schools go from one star (the lowest) to five stars (the highest).
A charter (or community) school is a public, state-funded school that is not connected to a traditional public school boundary, and can be either for-profit or nonprofit. There are 64 charter schools in Franklin County rated by the ODEW.
Jennifer Rausch, principal of South Columbus Preparatory Academy, said in a release that the school’s four-star overall rating — including five stars in Progress and Gap Closing — “reflects our commitment to meeting students where they are and using data to help them grow.”
“When students take ownership of their learning, the results speak for themselves. Our PATS values — Perseverance, Achievement, Teamwork, and Self-Determination — are at the heart of our school culture and help drive both academic and personal success,” Rausch said.
Aaron Churchill, lead Ohio researcher for education think-tank Fordham Institute, said that charter schools in urban areas tend to outperform traditional public schools on the progress category, which he said is a crucial measurement of performance to see whether students are growing over time.
He said it was important for parents to look at the ODEW report cards when considering where to send their children.
“You see variability in quality, whether it’s (traditional) districts, charters. There are a lot of schools that are doing an excellent job educating their students and there’s some that need to improve quite significantly,” Churchill said.
So what are the highest and lowest-rated charter schools in Franklin County.
What are the highest-performing charter schools in Franklin County?
(This list includes schools with five and four stars.)
What are the lowest-performing charter schools in Franklin County?
(This list includes one and 1½-star schools)
See your charter school report card results here:
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Which Franklin County charter schools got the highest, lowest ratings on state report cards?
Reporting by Cole Behrens, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
