Emily Bernstein for APM Reports
In Steubenville, Ohio, many students are considered to be economically disadvantaged. But unlike some similar towns and cities across the United States, standardized testing doesn’t strike fear among members of the school board, principals, and superintendent.
That’s because for the past two decades, 93 percent or more of students in Steubenville’s public schools have scored proficient on state reading tests by the time they’re in third grade.
“It was astonishing to me how amazing that elementary school was,” said Karin Chenoweth, who wrote about Steubenville in her 2009 book How It’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons From Unexpected Schools. According to research from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, Steubenville has routinely scored in the top 10 percent or better of schools nationwide for third-grade reading, sometimes scoring as high as the top 1 percent.
But a new law in Ohio put all the small city’s success at risk. Learn more this week on Reveal, as reporter Emily Hanford shares the latest from APM Reports podcast Sold a Story.