Ohio: CTE Report Cards

As part of an overall restructure of the state's school accountability report card, Ohio created a CTE-specific school report card, reporting on achievement, preparation for success, graduation rates and post-program outcomes.

Ohio: CTE Report Cards

In 2012 the Ohio state legislature passed a law to reframe the structure of the state’s school accountability report card. After that law passed, the Ohio Board of Education developed a plan to integrate career readiness data starting with a CTE-specific school report card. This process began with a gradual increase in data collected, reported and then graded, with all components in place by September 2018.

Students included in the report card have completed at least half of their CTE programs and are enrolled for the second half. The CTE report cards include four components, along with an overall grade. The four components are:

Achievement: This component represents the proportion of students who pass the state’s technical skill assessments for their CTE programs. This component will soon include a performance index, which will measure every learner’s individual level of achievement rather than a binary pass/fail measure.
Career and Postsecondary Readiness: This component examines student participation and achievement across a menu of experiences, including remediation-free ACT and SAT scores, dual enrollment, CTE program completion and industry-recognized credential attainment. Learners each earn one point by completing career and postsecondary readiness experiences and can earn bonus points for work-based and service-based learning.
Graduation Rate: This component examines the four- and five-year high school graduation rates for CTE programs. Sixty percent of the score is weighted towards four-year graduates and 40 percent towards five-year graduates.
Post-Program Outcomes: This component measures the proportion of students who are employed, in an apprenticeship, join the military, or are enrolled in postsecondary education or advanced training in the six months after leaving school. Since it can be challenging to obtain post-program data for high school graduates, schools are also graded on their “Status Known Rate”, or the percentage of learners whose placement status is known. Schools with a “Status Known Rate” at 95 percent or above have their letter grade increased by one level.

All of these component grades and the underlying measures are publicly available on the Ohio Department of Education website, along with federal accountability results for each program.

Policy in Action

The roll-out of these report cards was accompanied by new state tests in math and English in the 2014-2015 school year. The legislature enacted “safe harbor” provisions to allow schools and students time to adjust to the new exams without facing consequences of low scores. These scores are factored into the achievement component for the CTE report cards.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, school report cards for the 2019-2020 school year were suspended.