Those letter grades were not included in the report card for the COVID-disrupted 2020-21 school year, but some of the raw data was listed including academic, graduation and attendance measures.
Graham had the lowest chronic absenteeism rate, which is when at least 10% of the year’s instructional time is missing, at 12.1, according to state report card data.
For performance index, which measures state test performance, Graham scored 64.7%. These numbers from last year were not available.
The district had a four-year graduation rate of 87.2%, compared to 95.8% last year and 93.3% in 2019.
Superintendent Brad Silvus said Graham was the only district to see increases from 2019 to 2021 on 12 of the 20 state tests.
“It is exciting to see that our students were able to see growth in the percentage of students that were proficient in 12 of the 20 tested areas during the pandemic. In the other six tested areas, five of them saw a less than 4% change in proficiency from the 2019 testing numbers,” he said. “Teachers will continue to meet students where they are at in their learning and will continue to work towards increased proficiency percentages in all tested areas.”
When it comes to the prepared for success component, which is how well-prepared students are for future opportunities, Graham scored 31.6%. Last year, the district scored 35.8%.
Prepared for success data measures college and career readiness through high school students’ ACT/SAT scores, Ohio Honors Diplomas, job industry credentials, College Credit Plus achievement and more.
Silvus said although there were increases on tests, it still is not a good reflection due to the pandemic.
“The comparison of last year’s scores to the scores from two years prior really is not a good reflection due to the extreme differences in learning due to COVID,” he said. “Through this, Graham Local was still able to increase our scores so we are proud of that. We will continue to work to improve our scores to earn more indicators overall.”
Each school and district usually receives an overall A-F grade on the report cards, and more than half of each school’s overall grade depends on how students perform on state tests each spring. The report cards also usually measure student achievement, performance index, year-over-year growth and gap closing.
Last year, schools got the equivalent of an “incomplete” mark and no A-F letter grades because there was much less data than usual. The report cards only contained a handful of normal data points as the spring 2020 state tests in English, math, science and social studies were canceled after mid-March coronavirus-related school closures. The main data categories available last year were graduation rates and high school “prepared for success” measures.
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