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Standards and Assessment: Key Findings
| Ohioans favor testing in math and reading every year in grades three through eight. Many respondents are skeptical, however, about the value of such test results as a singular measure of school or teacher performance. Thus, test results may be viewed as just one component of a comprehensive solution to improve student performance. |
Many Ohioans (47%) believe that Ohio's current academic standards are "about right," although a substantial proportion, 39%, believes current standards are "too low." Less than 10% of Ohioans surveyed believed current standards were "too high." Generally speaking, respondents supported standardized testing, with 83% agreeing that students should be tested annually in reading and math in grades three through eight. Far fewer respondents, however, believed that teachers should align courses and course material around the content of standardized academic tests; 53.2% agreed with this sentiment and 44% disagreed.
Furthermore, despite support for annual testing in math and reading, there appeared to be some reticence toward using test results to measure school or teacher performance. Although more than 80% agreed annual tests should be administered, only 52% agreed that testing is the best measure of school performance and just 44.5% agreed that testing is the best measure of teacher performance. Thus, although there is support for use of tests as measurement tools, respondents seem to be cautious in relying on them as the most important way to measure schools or teachers.
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