At first glance, results from the release this week of the 2024-25 state report cards on academic achievement in Ohio’s 607 public school districts contain no knock-your-socks-off surprises.

School districts that traditionally have scored well continue to do so. Those that have marks they’d likely prefer to hide remain relatively consistent as well. And even those 15 school districts in Mahoning and Trumbull counties that saw their overall performance worsen, the vast majority dropped by a measly half-star, indicating relative stability in the educational climate of the Mahoning Valley.

But that does not mean the recently released annual assessments from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce do not contain real value. In fact, they open a treasure trove of information that could and should guide school districts and individual school buildings on a path toward elevated excellence. To be sure, a deep dive into their multifaceted results should be must reads for responsible educators, administrators and taxpayers alike.

Many parents and others supporting public schools with their hard-earned dollars, however, will skim only the big-picture ratings on academic performance. There, they will find predictable outcomes.

In Mahoning County, for example, unlike previous years, not one single district in the tri-county area received a perfect 5.0 score. But districts including Canfield, South Range, West Branch, Maplewood, McDonald and Weathersfield schools were awarded overall near-perfect scores of 4.5, which means they greatly exceed state standards. Among the highest achieving is the Canfield Local district, ranked among the top 4% of all districts with its 2024-25 academic performance index of 106. On the other end of the spectrum, Youngstown City Schools ranked among the state’s worst, with a performance index score of 57, with Warren not far behind with a score of 66.

But as with many other complex barometers of achievement, one quick glance at the grades for schools and districts for the 2024-25 academic year can be very deceptive. Indeed, a closer examination of all of the individual measurements shows reason for guarded optimism and, in some cases, pride over the success and progress many schools in the Valley achieved in the past school year.

Take Youngstown, for example. Yes, its overall rating shows tremendous room for gargantuan improvement, but in the area of career and technical education, the district’s Choffin school excels with five out of five stars. Its Rayen Early College High School also scored superlatively with 4.5 stars. The often-maligned school system no longer finds itself in the basement of this state’s urban districts. That distinction now belongs to the Dayton, Columbus and Toledo districts, all of which scored lower than Youngstown this year.

Additionally, its performance index, while still far below state average, has increased a whopping 19 points over the past four years. Warren has increased 12 points over the same time frame. In some key respects, the Valley’s two largest urban and sometimes troubled school districts find themselves in a true growth mode.

Other data can be telling as well. Take the report cards’ measurement of chronic absenteeism. Those cards reported Warren’s rate at 46% compared with Howland’s at 26% or Weathersfield’s at 21%. Translated into action, that means Warren City Schools administrators may want to consider more investment in keeping students in class, as chronic absenteeism and academic excellence clearly are inversely proportional.

Or take academic disciplines. Among the two dozen subjects measured, Youngstown recorded its worst scores in math, with only 7.9% of all sixth graders and only 10% of fifth graders performing proficiently in arithmetic. In both Boardman and Howland districts, students performed worst in eighth-grade language arts, and in Austintown, scores were lowest in high school geometry and middle school math. Such measurements can provide school board members and administrators in those communities direction on which programs may need additional review and resources.

Of course, the annual report cards on the state of Ohio schools fail to take into account the impact of external factors in students’ lives that weigh heavily on achievement levels.

Many other ingredients go into building good grades, including the availability of strong learning resources, economic status and the support system students receive in their personal lives from parents and guardians. That’s why test and report card results should never be used as the sole indicators of the success or failure of a student, a school or a district.

In his presentation of the results earlier this week, the state’s Director of Education and Workforce, Stephen Dackin, aptly pointed out, “The Ohio School Report Cards are never an end point, but a building block for data-driven decisions that guide where to focus state and local resources, and, most importantly, how best to support Ohio students.”

On the whole, however, the report cards do serve as one viable tool among many that schools should use to identify and then address their own strengths and weaknesses.

If taken seriously, examined closely and used appropriately, they can play an important role in improving the overall quality of learning for Ohio’s most precious commodity — its 1.5 million public school students.