This week, schools around Ohio are administering third-grade reading proficiency tests. The Third Grade Reading Guarantee became law in 2011 and, as a result, students must pass a test before moving on to fourth grade. Although thousands of students were held back in third grade at the start of this school year, many are now being re-tested to see if they can move on.

KnowYourCharter.com has the state’s most recent data on how many third graders in each school district and charter school met the reading standard in the 2013-2014 school year. Although a few charter schools did exceptionally well, the data shows that overall children in even the most struggling public school districts fare better.

Here are some key findings from the state’s data:

• Overall, traditional public school districts had an 88.5% passage rate. Only 31 of Ohio’s 192 eligible charter schools scored above that level. (Note: under Ohio law, each charter school is considered to be a “district” for funding purposes).
• In Ohio’s charter schools, there was a slightly higher percentage where all of the children passed the test (4%). In Ohio’s traditional public school districts it was 3.3%.
• On the other hand, in the worst-performing traditional school district, 61% of third graders passed the reading benchmark. In the worst-performing charter, just 18% passed.
• The average pass rate in Ohio’s Big 8 Urban districts (Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown) was slightly higher (72%) than in the state’s charter schools (71.4%). Charters sign up just over half of their students from the Big 8 districts.

Below are the charter schools and traditional districts where all of the third-graders passed the test:

Here are the 10 lowest scoring traditional public school districts and charters, along with their third grade reading passage rates: