Background
HB 555 establishes a new system of report cards for Ohio schools. The new report-card system will grade schools on a “A-F” scale instead of using ratings like “Excellent” and “Academic Watch.”
Starting in with the 2012-13 school year, the new report cards will award schools and districts grades in each one of several areas. Starting in the 2014-15 school year, schools will also receive a single, overall letter grade.
The new report cards will make it harder for schools to earn top grades, but many of the details of how report-card grades will be determined have been left up to the state Board of Education.
HB 555 also does a number of other things, including:
- Creating rules about when charter schools that serve students who have dropped out of other schools must be shut down;
- Setting criteria for new, statewide online charter schools; and
- Creating a one-year “safe harbor” that protects schools whose ratings fall under the new Common Core curriculum and standardized tests that start in 2014-15.
