Public Support for Restoring Local Control

At the annual Capital Conference sponsored earlier this month by the Ohio School Boards Association, Greg Ring shared the results of a Lorain County opinion survey which shows there is strong public support for a statewide initiative to restore local control of Ohio’s public schools.  Greg is superintendent of the county’s educational service center and serves as one the leaders of the Ohio Public School Advocacy Network.  At the conference, he reported that only 32% of the residents in Lorain County think policy decisions made at the state level are in the best interests of students.  On several measures, he reported that residents in his county oppose what the state is doing to reform Ohio’s schools.  He said 67% do not believe increased state testing has helped student achievement, —69% do not support utilizing scores from one standardized test to evaluate teachers and 71% think teachers, students and schools should be rated on several measures (test scores, parental engagement, graduate success, etc.), not just one test.

—67% do not believe that increased state testing has helped student achievement.