COLUMBUS — The Ohio Department of Education on Wednesday named the superintendent of Perrysburg schools to a panel charged with developing a way to judge charter school sponsors after a former state employee removed poor test scores from some sponsors’ evaluations.

“We are committed to producing an evaluation program that rates charter school authorizers fairly and fully complies with the law,” Education Superintendent Richard Ross said. “Because the legal requirements are complex and leave broad discretion to the department, we are bringing on board an independent advisory panel that can help us ensure we develop the very best system.”

The three-member panel will include Perrysburg Superintendent Thomas Hosler, Canton certified public accountant Phillip Dennison, and Columbus attorney Mark Hatcher.

Critics have already argued that the naming of the panel is not enough as they voice suspicions that the problem extended beyond the department’s former school choice officer, David Hansen.

Mr. Hansen, who has since resigned, had said he made the decision to pull the scores out of fear they would cast a bad light on well-performing schools. He is married to Gov. John Kasich’s former chief of staff, Beth Hansen, who recently stepped down to manage his presidential campaign.

The state has since retracted the handful of evaluations it had issued without the bad test scores and is in the process of putting in place a new way of conducting those evaluations.

“I don’t have much faith in that (panel),” said State Rep. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo), a former public school teacher. “If you look at the record for the last 20 years and the (charter school reform) legislation before the General Assembly, the ODE superintendent never weighed in and never felt it was a priority.

“These are half measures that will not produce any real results,” she said.

Some members of the State Board of Education had expressed similar concerns in a recent letter to Mr. Ross. They demanded an independent, outside investigation into the test score scrubbing issue as well as the department’s involvement in rapid passage of a law allowing the state to take over the academically struggling Youngstown school system.

The Republican-controlled Ohio House left town for the summer at the end of June without taking up a Senate-passed measure designed to crack down on, among other things, the ability of some poor-performing charter schools to sponsor hop to stay ahead of closing orders.

“We are determined to put an accurate evaluation system in place,” Mr. Ross said. “Quality measurement is essential to ensuring that every child in Ohio benefits from an excellent education that prepares him or her for college or work.”

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published August 20, 2015, 4:00 a.m.