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Ohio education in top 10 nationally despite a so-so grade
By Catherine Candisky
The Columbus Dispatch
Thursday January 12, 2012 6:56 AM
Ohio’s grade on a national report card this year slipped to a C-plus, down from a B-minus, but the state inched up to the 10th best school system in the nation. Ohio was 11th in last year’s report.
READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/12/ohio-in-top-10-despite-a-so-so-grade.html
mrsgeedeck
Castle of Lions
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As someone who attended middle and high school in New Jersey...I've got to say I'm pretty happy to see their ranking in at #6.
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Anne & I are currently in school exploration mode with a child who will start kindergarten in the fall, and I have to say that these types of large arbitrary averages don't seem to matter a whole lot for the individual, whether looking at a state level, regional level or even district level.
At the end of the day, a kid will go to one classroom in one school, so Ohio's ranking or even Columbus City School's average ranking doesn't matter a whole lot to us. Even the standardized testing scores and rankings for individual schools doesn't seem to be a great way to measure things as there still are good teachers and good students and good programs in schools that receive less-than-stellar scores. Just as I'm sure there are bad teachers and bad students and bad programs to be found in well-ranked schools.
Overall it seems like an incredibly complex system to navigate (especially the multiple layers of lottery systems and how they work and which ones take priority over others) but the plethora of options that do exist give us comfort that we'll find a good school for our children after we figure everything out in the next few months. ;)
mrsgeedeck
Castle of Lions
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Walker said:
Overall it seems like an incredibly complex system to navigate (especially the multiple layers of lottery systems and how they work and which ones take priority over others) but the plethora of options that do exist give us comfort that we'll find a good school for our children after we figure everything out in the next few months. ;)
Agreed. We're years away from having any kids let alone school age kids and the time, effort, and research of choosing a good school for Zygote seems quite daunting.
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Well, we may start a separate thread to chronicle our adventures then. We're soliciting advice from friends and neighbors and others who have navigated the system before us, so we're not doing this totally alone, but it is a mental workout. ;)
That being said, it sounds like the "easiest" option for remaining within Columbus and being guaranteed a good school is to move to Clintonville/Beechwold. ;) Lots of good CCS schools in that neighborhood.
Twixlen
Westgate, Columbus
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That list makes me sad for the whole country, though. Without a decent education, if you weren't born to some kind of money, you're handicapped right at the outset.
It's making me think about all the stuff I've read lately on the Finnish school system and how they'd completely overhauled what they do - the biggest thing that stands out for me is that they have no private schools. It's truly egalitarian.
Analogue Kid
5th by West-Northwest
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The rankings seem to run counter to various reports I've heard in the past. People often note that Texas has an overall mediocre to poor public education system and this shows them doing well. At the same time, Minnesota is often at the top on other surveys, and here they're far down. Not saying one report is better than another, just find it interesting.
Pablo
Crestview Addition
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Walker - Our kid goes to Indianola K-8 and we're pretty happy with the school. We live within walking distance so we lucked out in that regard. Kids from all over the city attend the school so some have long bus or car trips... Our home school would have been Clinton Elementary, also a great school.
You better get moving on the lottery if that's the way you choose to go - isn't the deadline at the end of February? I'm glad I'm done with the lottery for a while since Indy is K-8. For my daughter, I had to go through it for MS and HS. I must say that CAHS prepared her well for college - she's on track to graduate from OSU at the end of her junior year! (proud parent!)
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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joev
Merion Village
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Walker said:
Well, we may start a separate thread to chronicle our adventures then. We're soliciting advice from friends and neighbors and others who have navigated the system before us, so we're not doing this totally alone, but it is a mental workout. ;)That being said, it sounds like the "easiest" option for remaining within Columbus and being guaranteed a good school is to move to Clintonville/Beechwold. ;) Lots of good CCS schools in that neighborhood.
But then you'd have to live in Clintonville.
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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joev said:
But then you'd have to live in Clintonville.
Ha! I know you think the neighborhood is kinda dysfunctional, but their public schools are quite good, speaking from a general standpoint. Clinton, Indian Springs & Indianola for Elementary. Dominion is a pretty good Middle School. And Whetstone for High School.
I can certainly see the appeal for young families who want to not have to think about school choices and lotteries and still want a central urban neighborhood.
manticore33
Delaware, OH
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My wife and I in the same situation, but are considering homeschooling opposed to a traditional public school. Fortunately, the homeschooling community is quite strong in Central Ohio and provides ample opportunities for group trip, educational events, and socialization. We also have considered online charter schools (mainly for materials) and combining it with homeschooling.
The Finnish method of education intrigues me as well as "unschooling." Furthermore, giving the child the opportunity to learn and discover the real world beyond texts is extremely important to me.
My experiences with Delaware City Schools left me unchallenged, bored, neglected my creativity, and eventually lost me (I'm 30 now). This is the public school system I live in. I do not want to send them into the same school system. And, with the long-term goal to move to a more rural area, the quality of education is going to decline even more.
gramarye
In Exile
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manticore33 said:My experiences with Delaware City Schools left me unchallenged, bored, neglected my creativity, and eventually lost me (I'm 30 now). This is the public school system I live in. I do not want to send them into the same school system. And, with the long-term goal to move to a more rural area, the quality of education is going to decline even more.
I had a similar experience in Southwest Licking. The challenges available were moderate at best, at least on the academic front. (On the other hand, the less demanding academic schedule did mean I had ample time to spare for artistic and athletic extracurriculars.)
I also sympathize with the Finnish skepticism about standardized testing, and I don't say this as sour grapes--I was a gifted test-taker, to the point of getting a lot of scholarship money off of it. The statistics that I'd really like to see with respect to Finland, though, are their family-deterioration statistics (divorce, single motherhood, etc.). It's a pretty open secret that if we took the test scores of only the American students from stable nuclear families, we'd be scoring a lot higher.
Twixlen
Westgate, Columbus
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gramarye said:
I also sympathize with the Finnish skepticism about standardized testing, and I don't say this as sour grapes--I was a gifted test-taker, to the point of getting a lot of scholarship money off of it. The statistics that I'd really like to see with respect to Finland, though, are their family-deterioration statistics (divorce, single motherhood, etc.). It's a pretty open secret that if we took the test scores of only the American students from stable nuclear families, we'd be scoring a lot higher.
A couple thoughts - from what I can find, the divorce rate in Finland is higher than in the US (tho the stats are a little old for my liking - it's probably hedging to equal rates at this point); but the rate of single parenthood is considerably higher in the US, than in Finland. (Best data I've found is here.) The statistic from that article that is more telling to me is the percentage of single-parent households where that parent works full time - it is about the same considerable different *less* in Finland. There are a lot of reasons for that - likely the biggest one being social safety nets. I know a lot of y'all are going to hate hearing that.
That all children in Finland are educated to the same standard, regardless of their economic standing cannot be overlooked - it's basically the thing that makes our system fail.
The other thing to keep in mind, in regards to those single parent households (and this is down the rabbit hole a little) - you have to start looking at where people live, what their socioeconmic status is (in the US, single parent households are majority poor & low income). You get involved, deeply, in income inequality, since about 80% of those single U.S. households are women, women that statistically earn less, AND are penalized in the workplace for having children (childcare issues, sick days, etc). In this country, that means not only less education in regards to years, but less in regards to quality.
That doesn't even begin to cover the differences in race - which adds a whole 'nother dimension onto the problem here. The rabbit hole goes deeper, and the War on Drugs gets involved. With that came the near systematic jailing of young black men.
The equality here isn't equal.
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