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‘Excellent’ districts kick off school year

“Lumber Leader” Olivia Ireland (left) takes twins Sophie and Joe Dannin, 16-year-old incoming juniors, on a tour of the building during orientation day last week at Oakwood High School. The Dannins are new to the school district. School started Tuesday for the about 680 senior high students.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood “Lumber Leader” Olivia Ireland (left) takes twins Sophie and Joe Dannin, 16-year-old incoming juniors, on a tour of the building during orientation day last week at Oakwood High School. The Dannins are new to the school district. School started Tuesday for the about 680 senior high students.

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By By Jill Kelley, Staff Writer 12:17 PM Friday, August 26, 2011

The state report card ratings for the 2010-11 school year were released last week, with Oakwood City Schools again achieving the highest ranking of “Excellent with Distinction,” and Kettering City Schools moving a step down from that pinnacle to “Excellent.”

Both districts went back to school Tuesday, Aug. 23.

On its report card, Oakwood earned 26 out of 26 standards, met the Adequate Yearly Progress marker, exceeded the value-added measure and scored a performance index of 110.2 — the second highest of the 74 area school districts.

The district came in just 0.1 behind Mason City Schools on this measure, which gauges how students performed overall on tests.

Superintendent Mary Jo Scalzo said the performance index is tied to students who score at accelerated and advanced levels.

“We want to make sure our value-added is good, but what we really pay attention to is performance index,” she said. “Our responsibility is to continue to improve and get better. We’re definitely targeting our content standards.”

AYP is based on reading and math tests for students in subgroups, such as students with disabilities and those learning English as second language.

The state also breaks down the ratings per individual school. In Oakwood, each school earned “Excellent with Distinction” ratings except the high school, which was rated as “Excellent.”

For high schools to achieve the value-added standard, which is based on expected growth on fourth- through eighth-grade tests, it has to improve its performance index by three points. Oakwood High School went from 112.5 last year to 114.1 this year.

The district’s high-schoolers scored extremely well on several Ohio Graduation Test standards, and Scalzo said sophomores taking the tests in the spring tied for the highest OGT results in the state.

In Kettering, the district improved its performance index from 101 to 102.1, met 26 out of 26 standards, did not make the AYP measure and did not exceed the value-added component.

“Our scores improved across the board this year; we did even better this year than we did last year when we were rated ‘Excellent with Distinction,’ ” Kettering Superintendent James Schoenlein said.

“Due to changes in the state value-added formula, we are rated ‘Excellent’ this year. I am as proud as I can be of our teachers and kids. They did great.”

Southdale Elementary School, which last year merged with Moraine Meadows Elementary School, was the lone Kettering school to achieve an “Excellent with Distinction” rating, and was the only one to exceed the value-added component.

Oakview and Greenmont elementaries were rated as “Effective,” while the remainder of Kettering schools were “Excellent.”

Greenmont was the only Kettering school that did not meet the value-added measure.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7325 or jikelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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