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E-mail Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > August > 30 > Entry
On average, charters went up and DPS went down
Most of the city’s charter schools made gains for test performance last year while more than two-thirds of schools within the school district saw scores decline on state report cards.
Overall, charter schools dominated a list of top scoring schools in the city, and those district schools that did score well were mostly “charter like,” schools with special themes or unique programs.
Consider the top 20 elementary schools as ranked by performance index score, a figure meant to represent test performance in a school across all grades. Charter schools make up 12 of the top 20 and only two of the eight district schools ranked that high — Valerie and Eastmont — are traditional schools. The rest are Montessori themed, single gender or serve only handicapped students.
On the other hand, only seven of the 20 lowest scoring elementary schools are charters.
“If you look at the charter results they are undeniably better than the district on almost all indicators,” said Terry Ryan, vice President of the pro-charter Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. “But if you look at the district schools, the schools that are performing best are the schools of choice. Something is going on there.”
Test performance across the city remained low compared to state averages and nearby school districts. Only one elementary school in the city was rated “effective” by the state — Pathway School of Discovery, a charter school.
Among high schools, The ISUS Institute of Manufacturing charter school was rated effective while Stivers School for the Arts, a district-run specialty school, was rated excellent. Schools are rated on a six-step scale — excellent with distinction, excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.
The city school district also compared badly to the other seven large urban Ohio districts. Dayton was the only large urban district that met none of the 30 state standards, its performance index score was last among those districts and it had the second biggest drop in performance index from the prior year. The district’s average ACT score of 17 was lowest among the big urban districts, as was its participation rate of 51 percent of eligible students taking the ACT.
Kurt Stanic, interim superintendent of the city schools, said the district has suffered from deep budget cuts over the past two years and is working to refocus on improving student learning.
“Being new I have had the opportunity to observe and I am not happy with our academic achievement,” he said. “We are not anywhere near where we need to be.”
Urban districts, including Dayton, have long argued that the state’s evaluation system failed to give them enough credit for raising student performance. Often very low scoring students make large gains but still fall short of state standards, urban district argued.
This year, the state gave extra credit to district that met growth targets, bumping those district up one level on the state rating scale. None of Ohio’s urban district earned that extra push.
Stanic said his focus is on improving the learning experience for the average student in the average classroom.
“I’m trying to put strategies in place that will improve academic achievement,” he said. “I am concerned about the core students who are not getting the instruction that they need.”
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Dayton Public Schools
Comments
By Bishop162
September 23, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this
Have any of you ever heard the expresion, education starts at home? Where are the fathers? The ones that father the kids and dont support them. And shame on the mothers who lay up with them and let that happen to their childres. The kids run wild with no parental superivison or adult guidance. Look at Main and Third Street on any day of the week. Why are the kids not in school? Sure, Taft is a boob. Only he could let 40 million dollars go from the WC program for stamps and coins and actaully have people believe he was stupid enough to not know where the money went. Oh yeah, he never spent a day in jail. I went to Meadowdale High School with Jacobson. He graduated first in his class, graduated Yale and then first in his law school class at UD. He’s no boob but has his own private agenda just like the dems who ran Dayton for so many years had prior to his arrival on the political scene. Dayton City Schools have been a disaster since the busing of the 70’s and the city has be an equal failure because of the schools. I left in 89 after helping build the baseball stadium. I have never looked back. Our city uses Dayton as a model of what not to become which is voted the number one city to become a ghost town by 2010.
By joe_mamma
September 5, 2008 11:10 AM | Link to this
Please. You are giving pols way too much credit. Husted, Taft etc…came to the forefront in 2000. Dayton in general has been in economic decline since the early 1960’s. It’s mostly due to being industry focused as the economy became service and technology focused. You should look at the hard reality as opposed to using the easy excuse of blaming a politician. If you want to blame politicians then… it’s true that virtually every major urban area is challenged for resources. It’s also true that one political party runs virtually every one of those urban areas.
By Richard
September 4, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this
No Joe Mamma, Virtually every urban community in the nation is challenged with the lack of resources. The schools systems are just a reflection of the cities. However the anti-urban and anti-poor mind set of legislators like Taft, Husted and Jacobson took their racist agenda to a higher level. Their legislative agendas victimized Dayton city citizens and children more than any other area in their house or senate districts. You talk as if you have not observed the significant differences and life quality indicators around the county. Take a drive around and see what you see.
By joe mamma
September 3, 2008 2:29 PM | Link to this
So the DPS didn’t suck before Husted, Taft etc… came around? Humph…I didn’t know that.
By Oldprof
September 2, 2008 9:59 PM | Link to this
Sorry Hater, but the problem isn’t local boards—which I (and some of those ‘defeated’ board members agree) are too provincial and need to be reconstituted at least county-wide. No, the source of the problems is at the top: John Husted, Susan Tave Zelman, Jeff Jacobson, former governor Taft, Ken Blackwell, and the chambers of commerce and biased foundations like Fordham. Look; if local boards and superintendents were the problem, then at least ONE of the urban districts in this state ought to be successful once in a while—but ALL of them are mired in mediocrity, at best making 1 step forward and 1 step back. Percy Mack pulled Dayton up to “continuous improvement” until the state’s illegal system of funding caught up with even him—not that we can trust the state report card, but it’s the only rating system we have. The system cannot thrive until the state fixes it—and if you don’t understand the source of the symptoms, you will never cure the disease. Columbus is the disease here (with an ancillary infection from D.C.). Until those pathogens are dealt with, blaming local school boards and superintendents is as foolish as blaming the nasal congestion rather than the nasoviruses.
By charterschoolhater
September 2, 2008 6:24 PM | Link to this
Because people who think like oldprof and make nothing but excuses for low performing schools and administrators, Dayton has languished as last in the state for all too long. Percy Mack never attained any of the goals that the bd ed ed set for him. Yet he continued to be employed for many years even though he was an utter failure as a superintendent. Thanks oldprof and bd members who think like you. Maybe that’s why several were defeated.
By Oldprof
September 2, 2008 7:27 AM | Link to this
Lost in this analysis: several of the lowest-performing charter schools closed in the past couple of years. And where did their sadly underprepared students wind up? Guess Terry Ryan can’t see that wrinkle in his analysis—nor will he make the correlation between average cost per student. The case could be made that it doesn’t matter if there are “choice” schools; there are few underperforming schools in smaller towns where there’s only one school per child. So many details lost when the Fordham Foundation continues to rely on Ryan’s clumsy analytical skills.
By richard
September 1, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this
It seems that the great leadership of Littlejohn, Isaacs, Mack and Brathwaithe was leading the district is the wrong direction. Lets support interim Stanic. He has a real record of success. He will need more that one year to do it though.
By sadbuttrue
August 31, 2008 4:37 PM | Link to this
It’s hardly surprising now is it? As the concerned parents try to find better alternatives for their kids, the slacker parents send their kids to DPS which is creating a concentrated district of low performing students. I have nothing against DPS; however, we can only expect low achievement when the bright kids keep leaving and the less capable and less supported congregate.
By out and about
August 31, 2008 4:26 PM | Link to this
Just ask the average DPS teacher…all the kids are special ed and need to be removed from their classrooms. If the teachers spent half as much time working with the kids as they do devising ways to get them out of their classrooms things might get better. Oh by the way, there are now laws that require academic intervention before a kid can even be suspected of being handicapped. This should be a very interesting year. Glad I’m retired!