Grade inflation has infected Ohio’s school report cards. Here’s how to address it.

Five years ago, the Ohio General Assembly overhauled school report cards. The reboot was necessary, as the former version had gotten bogged down with too many measures and unnecessary complexity. To their credit, state lawmakers crafted an improved report card whose design is now more streamlined and better balanced. But whether the report card maintains high expectations remains unsettled.

The overall rigor of the report card hinges greatly on where the state sets the performance benchmarks. At the time the legislation passed, state officials faced real challenges determining where exactly to place those targets, as the pandemic had scrambled education data. The state board of education did a respectable job establishing the initial grading scales, given the uncertainties in play.[1] It also put forth admirable principles to guide the standards-setting process. They included the following, which note the importance of high expectations and envision raised standards after a transition period.

• The accountability system should be transparent and encourage high expectations for all students, schools, and districts.

• The implementation of the new report card ratings should include transition time ... then appropriately transition to higher expectations for all students. Ohio should expect all students to reach proficiency or higher.

With four years of implementation on the books, it’s time for the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) to raise the performance bar and follow these wise principles. Last year, 91 percent of districts and 78 percent of schools received overall ratings of three stars or above, which indicates “meeting or exceeding state standards.” Yet at the same time, just 60 percent of Ohio students achieved proficiency on state assessments—a troubling disconnect that DEW itself flagged in a 2024 analysis of the report card.

Soft standards are behind these rose-colored ratings, and the department has a perfect opportunity to tighten them as the relevant administrative rules are under review.[2] Here’s how state officials can raise expectations and help fulfill the promise of a rigorous report card (some of these issues have been covered in more detail in a recent series on the report card).

1. Demand greater progress on chronic absenteeism. Given the attendance crisis roiling Ohio schools, the state has rightly made cutting chronic absenteeism a top priority. In fact, Governor DeWine and DEW Director Dackin pledged to reduce absenteeism in half by 2029. Ohio still has a long way to achieve this goal, and it must get serious about holding schools accountable for attendance. Unfortunately, the report card gives credit to schools with unacceptable rates of chronic absenteeism through a weak improvement measure. Columbus City Schools, for instance, received full credit on the chronic absenteeism indicator last year, despite 53 percent of students being chronically absent, which represented a decline of just 1.6 percentage points versus the prior year. Schools and districts with sky-high absenteeism rates should have to make significantly more progress to earn accolades on this measure.

2. Take some of the hot air out of the graduation component ratings. Due to relaxed graduation standards—a story for another day—graduation rates and the ratings based on them have gone through the roof. Last year, 49 and 43 percent of districts and schools, respectively, received five-star graduation ratings.[3] These inflated ratings came perilously close to running afoul of a statutory provision that prohibits more than half of districts or schools from receiving any one rating. To ensure adequate differentiation, DEW should rescale (i.e., raise the benchmarks) for the graduation ratings.

3. Provide a more honest picture of achievement gaps. Stubborn achievement gaps continue to plague our school systems, and they ultimately represent diminished opportunities for Ohio’s low-income students, special-need students, and students of color. Last year, less than a quarter of students with disabilities achieved proficiency on state reading and math exams and only about one in three Black students met that mark. Despite these sobering numbers, the report card offers an almost jubilant portrayal of how Ohio schools educate our neediest children. Last year, 88 and 76 percent of districts and schools, respectively, were awarded three or more stars on the gap closing component, which focuses on specific student groups. Part of the problem is that DEW substantially softened its annual proficiency targets shortly after the pandemic, making it easier for schools to meet gap closing indicators. To provide a more realistic picture of Ohio’s progress in narrowing achievement gaps (or lack thereof), DEW should also raise the performance benchmarks for gap closing.

4. Fix the grading scale used to determine overall ratings. The overall rating combines the results of the various report card components to yield a bottom-line summary of school performance. As described in more detail previously, DEW’s method for converting scores on the underlying components into an overall rating is flawed. In essence, it implements a lenient “rounding” rule that subtly gives schools and districts an artificial bump in their overall rating, worth about a half-star. The rule also produces some head-scratching results. There are examples of schools receiving one-star component ratings across the board, only to receive a 1.5-star overall rating due to the misalignment. DEW should rescale the overall rating to remove the artificial inflation and link overall ratings more closely with the underlying component results.

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Grade-inflation has crept into classrooms, and it’s creeping into Ohio’s report card. The basic problem with inflating grades and ratings is that it’s dishonest. It hides the truth and sweeps academic deficiencies under the rug. That’s not fair to students who need help or parents who deserve an accurate picture of student achievement. In the case of school report cards, inflated ratings withhold the truth not only from students and families, but also from the taxpayers who fund public education.

When Ohio adopted its current report card, promises were made that it would be a rigorous, fair, honest, and transparent system. Unfortunately, those promises aren’t being fully met. It’s time for state officials to take actions that raise expectations.