Understanding the terms
There are six component grades for each district – no overall grade. Here are their descriptions:
Achievement: Grades schools based on their overall scores on state tests. Performance index is weighted 75 percent, and "standards met" is the other 25 percent. There are 31 state exams, and in most cases, schools needed 70-80 percent of students to score proficient for the school to "meet the standard."
Performance index: A subset of Achievement, this is the most detailed measure of state test performance. Goes deeper than just proficiency, giving more credit for the highest performers and less credit for lowest scorers.
Progress: Judges whether students made one year's worth of academic growth from last school year. Based on what percentile students score in each year.
Gap closing (AMOs): Reports whether each subgroup of students (by race, economics, disability, etc.) narrowed achievement gaps when compared with the student body as a whole.
Graduation rate: Shows diplomas earned within four or five years of starting ninth grade. The four-year rate measures students who would have normally become the class of 2015. The five-year rate measures the class of 2014.
K-3 Literacy Improvement: Measures what percentage of struggling readers get back on track to proficiency by the third grade. Schools with less than 5 percent of kindergartners scoring below grade level are not graded.
Prepared for Success: Tries to measure how well prepared students are for the future, via ACT/SAT scores, honors diplomas, industry credentials and participation in college credit-bearing programs.
Unmatched coverage
The Springfield News-Sun digs into important stories about education in Clark and Champaign counties, including tracking performance on state report cards and efforts to expand pre-school.
Nearly every public school district in Clark County got an F for indicators met and a D for its performance index score on the 2016 state report cards.
Many schools across Ohio saw similar grades as the Ohio Department of Education released district report cards Thursday. School leaders expected grades to be lower this year after the state changed the way it tests students and upped proficiency standards.
Local superintendents expressed frustration with the current testing structure. Springfield City School District Superintendent Bob Hill said the constant changes in testing — three different systems in three years — have hurt scores.
“If we can get a consistent bench mark, this is the goal, we will get there,” Hill said. “But ultimately we are not going to teach kids to be test takers. We teach kids to be thoughtful, communicative critical thinkers.”
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Springfield schools have struggled in proficiency ratings. It failed to meet any indicators in the past three years and received an F from the state for it. The district did get As this year in two value-added categories, which measure how much progress students make in a school year.
Hill understands Springfield City Schools need to meet state benchmarks and is disappointed in the results. But he believes students are getting a good education.
“I am very proud of the efforts of our students, teachers, principals and classified staff,” Hill said.
Comparing last year’s scores to this year’s scores isn’t a good strategy to determine the progress of a school, State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria said.
Clark-Shawnee Local Schools was the only district to get a D on its indicators met score; every other Clark County district received a failing grade. That district was also the only one in the county to score a C on its Achievement Component Grade. The rest of the Clark County school districts got a D on that part of the test, besides Springfield, which got an F.
Clark-Shawnee and Northwestern Local Schools were the only districts to get Cs on their performance index grade; every other Clark County district received a D on that measurement.
Results were more mixed in Champaign County, with Graham, Mechanicsburg and Urbana getting Fs on their indicators met. Triad got a D on the indicators met and West-Liberty Salem got a B.
“We have raised expectations for students to reflect what is necessary for them to be ready to succeed in a competitive, global economy where employers’ expectations are higher than ever,” state school board President Tom Gunlock said. “This year’s report cards and the grades we’re seeing reflect a system in transition to these higher expectations for student learning.”
Superintendents around the county said they didn’t believe the scores represented how well educated their students are, citing the frequently changing system that makes it difficult to plan.
“I don’t believe the current report card system represents what is going on in classrooms,” Northeastern Local Schools Superintendent John Kronour said. “I believe we are trying to give the best education for our students.”
Tescumseh Local School District Superintendent Norm Glismann also said he was disappointed with the results, but didn’t believe it reflected the quality of education students get at the school district.
“Our scores were not very good, but we have not put a huge focus on the results in our school district,” Glismann said. “Instead what we try to do is foster better teaching that we hope will increase student learning.
Family members of students in Springfield schools said Thursday they believe their students are getting a good education. They said they don’t want teachers focused on getting students ready for a state test.
“Too much time is spent preparing kids for the test instead of teaching them,” parent Michele Camp said. “I think teachers are doing the job they can do. The state puts so much pressure on passing these test they do the best they can.”
Grandparent Alice Goodfellow said the local education system is important to her.
“It’s good to test because we kind of know how the students are doing and how the school is doing, but then testing makes people nervous,” Goodfellow said. “I think a lot of the kids get anxious.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Kelley contributed to this report.
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