Ohio’s all-star schools serve students who are poor, wealthy, and somewhere in between

Earlier this week, the Ohio Department of Education announced a new award for schools that exceeded expectations for student growth, the “Momentum Award.” Any school or district earning straight As on the state’s value-added measures was eligible, assuming it had at least two value-added subgroups (an idea my colleague Aaron explored last year). One hundred and sixty-five of Ohio’s 4,200 schools earned the recognition in its inaugural round.[1] The state also recognized schools and districts earning all As on every report card measure—forty-six schools and two districts achieved this outstanding feat.

We’re most excited about the Momentum Award because it gives credit to schools that make significant contributions to student growth regardless of where students enter in terms of raw achievement. In addition to earning an overall A, winning schools made gains with at least two of the following subgroups: students with disabilities, students who are low-achieving, and gifted students—populations that are often underserved or overlooked.  

It’s been said time and time again that growth measures are essential to any state’s accountability system because they show the contribution a school makes to individual student learning and because they are not correlated with student poverty (as achievement measures are). But it’s worth repeating, given that Ohio is undergoing a review of its value-added measure and the last year has proven we are not immune from attempts to weaken or replace it.

A quick glance at this year’s Momentum Award winners illustrates that student poverty truly doesn’t matter when it comes to scoring well on value-added. This year’s winners include public charter schools serving very high percentages of students in poverty, like Columbus Collegiate West, KIPP Columbus, and Entrepreneurial Preparatory School (Woodland Hills) in Cleveland. The list also includes traditional public schools with similar demographics, like North Linden Elementary in Columbus. Schools with very low percentages of poor students also proved it was possible to deliver more than a year’s worth of learning for their students, including Bexley Middle School (9.7 percent economically disadvantaged) and Liberty Tree Elementary School (Olentangy Local in Delaware County – just 2.9 percent economically disadvantaged).

Graph 1 shows the number of schools winning the award, by their percentage of economically disadvantaged students. As you can see, schools serving very high percentages of economically disadvantaged students (80 to 100 percent) won the most Momentum awards. But schools from all poverty quintiles are represented. About as many schools from the top two poverty quintiles (those serving poor student populations ranging from 60 to 100 percent) won Momentum Awards as those from the lowest two quintiles.

Graph 1: Number of Momentum Award–winning schools by poverty quintile (2014-15)

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Graph 2 depicts the total percentage of schools statewide falling into each poverty quintile, as well as the percentage earning Momentum awards, to illustrate how many schools in each category exist more broadly and whether the awards in general were earned proportionately.[2] For instance, schools serving students populations that were 60 to 80 percent disadvantaged earned the award at the lowest rate, but there’s also the fewest of those schools generally (just 11.6 percent of Ohio’s total schools). Schools with predominantly poor student populations are slightly overrepresented among Momentum Award winners—a reflection, perhaps, of how these schools must keep their feet on the gas pedal, focusing relentlessly on helping students achieve meaningful gains. Meanwhile, schools from the lowest poverty quintile are also slightly overrepresented. This dispels the notion that schools with wealthier student populations (who are typically high-achieving) have a harder time helping students achieve more than a year’s worth of growth.  

Graph 2: Percent of Ohio schools and Momentum Award–winning schools by poverty quintile (2014-15)

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In contrast, the overwhelming majority of schools earning all As did not serve high or even moderate percentages of students in poverty: nine out of ten straight-A schools had student populations that were less than 40 percent economically disadvantaged. This underscores yet again what we already know about the persistent and well documented relationship between poverty and achievement.

Unfortunately, Ohio’s current report cards are stacked heavily in favor of achievement-based metrics, and there is little opportunity for schools serving high percentages of poor students to earn high marks across the board. As the state determines how it will calculate overall letter grades in 2017–18, it’s important to keep data like these in mind. This year’s Momentum Award illustrates that any school—regardless of its student composition—can score well on value-added measures. As such, Ohio legislators and policy makers should consider how to more fairly weight each report card measure as part of the overall grade, and place more emphasis on student growth.

In the meantime, kudos to the Ohio Department of Education for creating this award recognizing high-growth schools, and congratulations to this year’s Momentum schools for making significant contributions to student learning no matter their background.