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City schools teeter on academic emergency

See the results: Click here to view the results on the Ohio Department of Education's web site.

Preliminary test results show Springfield City Schools is in danger of sinking back into academic emergency in August.

The silver lining is that students scored better than expected on the new Ohio Graduation Test, said Becky Workman, district coordinator of student and program assessment. She presented the test data at Thursday’s school board meeting.

“The OGT is a very difficult test. We didn’t think we’d do as well as we did. We’re elated,” Workman said.

Overall preliminary results from all tested grade levels reflected “pockets of excellence” as well as areas that need more work, she said.

Official test results will be released in mid-August. Workman doesn’t expect them to differ significantly from preliminary test data.

“I’m encouraged, but I would have liked to see better results, as I think most people would have,” she said.

Out of the five subject areas assessed in the OGT, North and South high schools scored highest in reading. North had 82 percent and South had 78 percent of students scoring proficient or better.

That surpasses the state standard of 75 percent.

Both high schools dropped below that standard in all other subject areas, but some weren’t far off the mark, Workman said.

North scored 71 percent in writing and math, 61 percent in social studies and 70 percent in science. South scored 60 percent in writing, 55 percent in math, 42 percent in social studies and 49 percent in science.

Heavy emphasis was placed on reading and math instruction this past year in the high schools. Tutoring was offered during school hours, Workman said.

“It shows,” she said.

Superintendent Jean Harper said the district created assessments for teachers to measure progress every two to three weeks during the 2004-05 school year. Professional development sessions also helped align curriculum with standards, she said.

“It really should make a big difference for us for next year,” Harper said.

Reading and math need more work at the middle school level, Workman said.

The state assesses school systems based on their graduation rate, attendance rate and performance on the proficiency tests. Districts all receive a yearly report card that places them into one of five categories: academic emergency, academic watch, continuous improvement, effective and excellent.

The district met six of the 18 benchmarks on last August’s report card, shedding the emergency designation it had held since 2000. Improved test scores lifted it up one level into academic watch.

The district had been meeting standards for the ninth-grade proficiency test, but it was replaced by the OGT in the school year that just ended.

As a result, Workman expects Springfield to meet two of the 23 benchmarks assessed on the upcoming state report card. One is the reading portion of the OGT and the other is attendance.

Nothing is certain, though. It’s still possible for the district to maintain the academic watch designation or move up the designation ladder if it gets a high “performance index” score that gives credit for improving individual students’ scores. For example, the district could get credit for having a higher number of third-grade students scored in the advanced to accelerated range.

Preliminary data include scores from all the students who took the test, but the official numbers will exclude students who were enrolled in the district for fewer than 120 days. Likewise, officials scores for individual school buildings will not include students who attended the building less than 120 days.

School board member Todd Jones said some test results were encouraging and others were not.

Reach Gail Cetnar gcetnar@coxohio.com