WHHS soars, CPS plummets on Ohio school report cards
WHHS was one of the bright spots for CPS on the report card that came from the Ohio Department of Education. CPS scored two stars, out of five, in four of five categories, while the last category, which was based on graduation rates, scored one star. WHHS scored five stars in three of the four categories it was graded on, and four stars on the last category.
The Ohio Department of Education recently released their report cards for school districts in Ohio. District report cards evaluate how each district performed during the school year in five different categories, including achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation and early literacy. The grades for CPS are on par with other school districts in larger Ohio cities, including Columbus City Schools, but are relatively low when compared to the grades of school districts in smaller cities, such as the Athens City School District.
Although WHHS scored high on the individual report card, they were one of the few schools in CPS to do so.
CPS Superintendent, Iranetta Wright believes that fixing the district-wide transportation issue would allow students to get to school on time, and could, in turn, improve grades.
“While we haven’t had as many students that are missing school as a result of it, we have had students reporting to school late,” Wright told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “So that’s a barrier we have to remove.”
Another factor that has affected grades and learning country-wide is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disadvantaged many students education-wise.
“I think it’s very indicative of Covid and online learning and students have fallen behind,” WHHS Honors English teacher Barbara Stewart said. “Not all students, some percentages of students actually thrive on it and really liked it, but a majority of students didn’t.”
Education has stunted learning growth nationwide, with one study finding that children were an average of five months behind in math and four months behind in reading.
The lowest score on the report card was the graduation category, in which CPS only got one out of the possible five stars. Only four of the fifteen high schools in the district were above the state standard graduation rate of over 90%.
“I think it’s important that we have a clear picture of where we’re making progress and where we need to focus next, and the report card is one important way to do that,” CPS board of education president Ben Lindy told WCPO.
The biggest goal moving forward for CPS is to keep improving and achieve higher scores.
“At the end of the day, we want everybody achieving and we want this data to drive improvement. So that next year, we’re having this conversation, hopefully, we’re in a better spot than we are now,” chief program officer of the Ohio Department of Education Chris Woolard told WCPO.
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