Paolo DeMaria

Schools throughout Ohio are finding out whether they are making the grade on the state’s annual school report cards. 

State education leaders have a new policy they say will ensure student success.  But it involves doing some basic things many schools and teachers already do – focusing on individual students’ needs. And it is meant to de-emphasize required standardized testing.

The state school board has voted to oppose a controversial bill that would give the governor more authority over a new education and workforce agency. And there are questions about the relationship the state’s education leader has with Gov. John Kasich.

The bad grades for many school districts latest round of report cards has upset some parents and school officials. And now they’ve angered a state lawmaker who says he’s writing a bill to change the report cards. 

Ohio’s school report cards are out, and the state says its 1.7 million school kids are doing better academically across all subjects, and across different economic and racial groups.  But there are mixed grades for Ohio’s public school districts, and mostly bad ones for charter schools.

The state school superintendent is recommending cutting out some mandated state tests, and suggesting that local districts consider trimming tests for teacher evaluations.

The state school board votes on Monday on whether to require the state’s largest online charter school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, to pay back $60 million in state funding it got for actually having 60% fewer students than it claimed it did. It’s the latest in the fight between ECOT and the state, and it won’t be the last.

Some 47,000 of Ohio’s high school juniors are in danger of not meeting a set of tough new graduation standards for next year. And the state school superintendent says he’s pleased that the Senate version of the budget will likely include an alternative for those students.

Once again, there’s a new state schools superintendent in charge - he’s a former state budget director who’s worked for two governors, the state Senate and in the Department of Education. And things could be different with this new state schools chief.

The state auditor is standing by his concerns about the oversight of charter schools by the Ohio Department of Education, an agency he said two weeks ago is among the worst in state government.