State Representatives Jerry Stebelton (R-Lancaster) and Jim Butler (R-Oakwood) have announced the Ohio House’s concurrence on Substitute House Bill 555, which creates a new academic performance rating system for public schools and creates a new evaluation process for community school sponsors.

Specifically, Sub. House Bill 555 establishes a new school report card system that includes six components:

• Student achievement (which includes performance index and performance indicators similar to what exists on the current report card)
• Student progress (which includes additional measures to the existing value-added composite measure)
• Gap closing (which measures progress toward reducing achievement gaps by 50% over the next six years)
• Graduation rate (which will be a separate component rather than combining it with other indicators)
• K-3 literary progress (which will allow proper monitoring of the reading intervention provisions in Senate Bill 316)
• Preparedness for success (which measures to what extent high school graduates are prepared for success after high school)

Performance components on the report card will be graded using an A-to-F grading system beginning with the current school year, but no overall grades will be assigned to schools or districts for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years. All six components and an overall composite grade will be assigned beginning with the 2014-15 school year.

Additionally, Sub. House Bill 555 creates an alternative report card for dropout recovery schools that includes every student every year, and is more comprehensive than the report card for traditional high schools. When fully implemented during the 2014-15 school year, this provision will eliminate the current exemption from closure for poor performance.

The legislation also moves away from ranking community school sponsors based solely on school performance and creates a comprehensive evaluation and rating system designed to dramatically raise expectations for community school performance.

Sub. House Bill 555 will now be sent to Governor Kasich for his signature.