The Ohio Department of Education releases the 2016-2017 sponsor evaluations.

A change to Ohio law in the recently passed state budget requires the evaluations to be released by November 15.

“High quality sponsors are the key to successful community schools,” said Paolo DeMaria, superintendent of public instruction. “Their oversight drives effective operations and increased academic achievement. The sponsor evaluations are an important piece of Ohio’s accountability system, helping to ensure Ohio’s families have quality school choice options.”

The sponsor evaluation system assists the Ohio Department of Education in its oversight of sponsors and helps increase the quality of sponsor practices. The evaluation framework is made up of three equally weighted components:

• Academic Performance;
• Compliance with Rules and Laws; and
• Quality Practices.

The Academic Performance component is designed to determine how well students are performing academically at the sponsor’s schools. The Compliance component rates whether sponsors are compliant with all relevant laws and rules and whether sponsors are monitoring their schools’ compliance with laws and rules. The Quality Practices component looks at a sponsor’s adherence to quality practices, which was created using national standards and input from sponsors.

All three components are scored on a common scale (0-4 points) to allow for simple calculations. Sponsors receive points for each component that, when added together, provide a summative rating. This creates a fair, transparent and not overly complex calculation for the summative ratings that weights all three components equally. The point scale for 2016-2017 is as follows:

The 2016-2017 community school sponsor evaluations can be found online by clicking here.
Ohio law includes a set of incentives for sponsors rated “exemplary,” as well as a set of consequences for sponsors rated “ineffective” and “poor.” For example, sponsors rated “exemplary” for 2 consecutive years are able to take advantage of incentives, which include receiving a longer term on their contracts with the Department.

Any sponsor that receives an “ineffective” overall rating is prohibited from sponsoring any new or additional community schools, and the sponsor is subject to a quality improvement plan. Any sponsor that receives a “poor” rating or three consecutive “ineffective” ratings is subject to revocation of their sponsorship authority.

An appeals process is available to sponsors that are subject to revocation of their sponsorship authority.

Michaela Madison Reporting

(Press Release-ODE)