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StumbleuponMost charter schools made gains; most Dayton district schools saw losses
Monday, September 01, 2008
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DAYTON — Most of the city's charter schools made gains in test performance last year while more than two-thirds of schools within the school district saw scores decline.
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. Only two of the eight district schools that 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.
But this year, the state gave extra credit to districts that met growth targets, bumping those districts 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."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2485 or selliott@DaytonDailyNews.com.
