WHHS excels, district struggles to catch up

For the third year in a row, WHHS has been ranked as the top public high school in the state of Ohio. We’ve received some backlash because of our ranking. Some have described WHHS as a “private public” school and believe we should not be ranked or compared to other public high schools in the state. Should we slow down or should they catch up?

WHHS is the most successful Cincinnati Public School (CPS) academically with a graduation rate of 98%, which is 24 percentage points higher than the district average. Test scores are also higher than other CPS high schools. This should be something to celebrate, right? Well, not everyone agrees. Because WHHS has an entrance test, many people believe it is unfair to rank us with schools who do not have an entrance test.

To pass the Terranova test, students must receive a 70 percent or higher. Following the steady increase of students each year at WHHS, the district tried to come up with ways to slow enrollment. One of them was to up the passing grade for the entrance test. This was quickly shut down by the district, because it would decrease the enrollment of many African Americans and others of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Other schools can have the same entrance tests. Having an entrance test isn’t necessarily weaving out the “bad students”. Other schools can have an entrance test with different requirements that could be higher or lower than 70%. The entrance test can even serve as a placement test for certain subjects.

Instead of reflecting on WHHS and its ranking, we should reflect on why other schools aren’t performing at the same rates. According to Ohio School Report Cards that are issued annually by the Ohio Department of Education based on statewide tests, literacy tests and graduation rates, almost 92% of high schools in CPS received a D or F in the achievement category for the 2016-2017 school year. WHHS received an A for the Prepared for Success category compared to an overall score of a D for CPS.

One of the many reasons for underperformance is the student enrollment of certain schools. About 80% of the students who are enrolled in CPS are considered economically disadvantaged. Poverty and homelife are associated with underperformance in school. Most of the schools in CPS who are performing well have a lower percentage of students who are considered economically disadvantaged and a higher percentage of white, non-Hispanic enrolled.

Another leading problem is how public schools are funded. In the landmark case DeRolph v. Ohio, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the way public schools are funded in Ohio is unconstitutional. The state gives schools a certain amount of money based on the amount of economically disadvantaged students. Schools like WHHS do not benefit as much as other schools in the district.

School funding is linked to real estate and property taxes. Many schools in the district are located in areas that have a high percentage of low income homes so they do not benefit as much than schools in the suburbs that are in areas with homes with high property value. Since WHHS receives a large amount of money in donations from alumni, we aren’t as impacted by this.

The rankings of schools matter more than they should. It’s insane that we are competitive with something like education because it is important for everyone to have. The district should begin to focus on eliminating confounding variables for schools who are struggling, without the performance of the schools who are doing well being impacted.

Views shared in the Opinions section of The Chatterbox are those of their author, and may not represent the views of the publication as a whole.