Editorial: School ratings plan a novel concept

If you want to know how good a restaurant or a movie is, you can visit a website like Yelp or Rotten Tomatoes for a simple rating system. But how do you determine that for a school?

Earlier this week, the Maryland State Board of Education approved a plan that would rank every public school in the state on a five-star rating system beginning next school year. The plan is part of the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act.

The ratings system — part of a larger plan that will be sent to the governor and state legislature for review this week, and ultimately must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in September — presents a simple way for parents to get a feel for a whole school experience, rather than just test scores.

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