Education Week magazine ranked Ohio sixth in the nation in its 2009 Quality Counts report released last week, but state officials said its score could improve.
The magazine gave Ohio's K-12 education system an overall score of 81.2, which beat the national average of 76.2, according to the annual report.
Although Ohio improved on its score of 80.6 from last year, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) still sees room for improvement, ODE spokesman Scott Blake said.
We are happy with the results; we did make improvements
but a B- leaves room for a lot more improvement for next year he said.
The report ranks states based on six broad categories from school finance to teacher accountability. Ohio's scores ranged from a C- in student achievement to an A in student standards and assessment, according to the report.
However, scores for three categories are updated every other year so the magazine relied on some of last year's data to determine this year's overall grade.
With only three categories containing recent data, Blake said the report might not show all of the Department's changes.
The categories with last year's scores may not reflect Ohio's education improvements throughout the year he said.
Ohio received a B- overall with 2009 data, including the State's effort to move students from one point of education to the next - an area the Department will examine closely, Blake said.
We're really going to pay particular attention to how we transition students from high school to higher education
he said.
The magazine's report also stresses a particular theme each year. This year's report examined how schools are teaching students who are learning English as a second language.
Although states' English Language Learners (ELL) classes were not ranked, the report concluded that every state needed to improve its teaching standard and funding to ELL classes.
Ohio's ELL students score higher than the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, though no formal standards exist in Ohio for its 35,000 ELL students, Blake said.
Some school districts have a strong need for teachers with specialized training in teaching English as a second language
but most rural areas don't have that need because they don't have non-English speaking students
he said.
Yet, 12 states - including Ohio - saw a 50 to 100 percent increase in the ELL students between 1995 and 2005, according to the report.
The population of these (ELL) students is growing and the Department is looking into how it can better serve them
Blake said.
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Jessica Neidhard
