School Report Cards Demonstrate Need for Whole Child Approach

COLUMBUS — Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) President Melissa Cropper believes that the state's recently released report card for public school districts reveal a strong correlation to COVID-19 and learning loss. On behalf of the OFT by the state of released the following statement on the Ohio Department of Education's 2022 Report Cards: "These report cards demonstrate something that teachers and school staff have observed: our students need more support to fully bounce back from the pandemic and remote learning disruptions in the last few years," Cropper said. "While we believe the report cards could be more useful if they were less dependent on standardized test scores, they are helpful in determining where there are gaps that need to be addressed." Even still, Cropper says the report card does not tell the entire story when it comes to the efforts teachers, school administrators and staff members are putting in to give their students the best learning opportunities they can. "The results are not indicative of the hard work that is happening every day in Ohio's public schools by dedicated teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, and other educators," she stressed. "In order to address academic challenges, schools must be ready and equipped to help students deal with trauma and a deficit in social emotional learning. As we've seen in some school districts in Ohio and across the country, one way to achieve this is by turning schools into Community Learning Centers, which bring community resources and supports into school settings." At the end of the day, OFT believes it is a collaborative effort that requires capital in all forms across many fronts to service the needs of students. "Investing in Community Learning Centers can have a multiplying effect on school resources, because they can be leveraged to bring other sources of funding and resources into the school. We urge school districts to explore this model of education, and we urge our state legislators to fully fund the Fair School Funding Plan, so that districts can be proactive about meeting the challenges our students face," Copper stated.