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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > August > 15 > Entry
Lots of report card improvement
(Beach Haven, New Jersey)
I have to say, I love technology on days like today. I planned a beach vacation in New Jersey this week months before the state picked today to release state report cards. But no worries. I’ve spent the morning parked in front of a “chocolate bar” that offers a free wireless Internet connection, downloading report card data, crunching it for tomorrow’s paper and analyzing the results.
Overall I can tell you that it’s going to be a happy day in many school districts. The new state rating system, which now rewards test score growth, has pushed a lot of district’s ratings up.
Here is some of what has jumped out at me:
State rating categories
There are five rating categories — Excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.
For the first time since the ratings began eight years ago, there are no districts still rated in academic emergency in Ohio this year. In the Miami Valley, 20 of 60 districts improved their rating designation. None saw a decline.
Of the 75 worst ranked districts by “performance index score,” 68 were ranked in “continuous improvement” because of test score gains.
And how about this for an interesting ratings quirk? Hilliard in Frankin County meets all 25 state standards but ranked in “continuous improvement” and labeled “at risk” for not making “adequate yearly progress” for test score gain under No Child Left Behind. Otherwise, it would have been rated “excellent.” Meanwhile, Dayton met 1 of 25 state standards and is sitting right next to Hilliard in “continuous improvement” because of its test score gains.
AYP
(NOTE: These next two lists for AYP were mistakenly reversed when I first put up this post. They are now correct)
Local districts who didn’t meet AYP last year but did this year include Tipp City and Tri-Village.
Districts who met AYP last year but not this year include Little Miami, Kings, Carlisle, Sidney, Jackson Center, Eaton, Northridge, Northmont, New Lebanon, Miamisburg, Brookville, Miami East, Greenview, Mississinawa Valley, Ansonia.
Trotwood, Xenia, Dayton and Fairborn are in “year 3” improvement status for consistently failing to meet AYP.
Dayton
Despite Dayton’s test gains, it still ranks second worst in Ohio for performance index score, a measure of student test performance across all grades. Cleveland ranks last in the state but was just 2 points behind Dayton and met no indicators while Dayton met 1.
Dayton’s test score gain, which propelled it up two rungs on the state’s rating scale to continuous improvement, was just the sixth best gain the Miami Valley. It also looked less spectacular when compared to other gains around the state. A total of 68 school districts in Ohio saw better “performance index score” improvement than Dayton.
Five of eight largest Ohio urban school districts now are in continuous improvement, all but Youngstown, Cleveland and Columbus
Jefferson Twp
Jefferson Twp, which ranked last in the state in 2005 for performance index score, moved up to the fourth worst rated district in Ohio. Jefferson had the biggest improvement of test performance index score in the Miami Valley, a gain of 12 points. That was also the second biggest gain in the state.
Oakwood
Oakwood ranked No. 1 in Miami Valley and 4th in state for performance index score. Last year, Oakwood ranked first locally and second in the state.
Mason
Mason ranks No. 2 in the Miami Valley and 9th in state for performance index score.
Lebanon
Lebanon was the only local district that saw a slight performance index score decline, but it still met 24 state standards and earned the top “excellent” rating.
Miami County
Four of eight districts improved their state rating designation, including economically challenged Milton-Union and Piqua, now rated “excellent” and “effective” respectively. Piqua is an interesting story. They’ve been on a long upward climb for test results and state ratings.
Montgomery County
Six of 16 districts moved up a rating category, including West Carrollton, now rated “effective,” which a few years ago took a lot of criticism for its low scores.
Warren County
All eight districts are now rated at least effective.
Want to take a look at all the state data for yourself? You can download it here.
To see each district’s state rating, go here. To see Miami Valley school districts ranked by performance index score, go here.
(Image credit: vacationhomerentals.com)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Testing
Comments
By Oldprof
August 15, 2006 8:27 PM | Link to this
Yes, OK. We are fairly certain that schools are improving. How much, or how well, we can’t tell because the state keeps fudging the scoring criteria. How would anyone else like to be responsible for a test when you don’t know the basis for a passing score?By Scott Elliott
August 15, 2006 3:34 PM | Link to this
Colleen, It’s true the value-added system is not in place yet, but Ohio did begin rewarding districts for Performance Index growth only two or three years ago. And just now is that change beginning to really push districts up into higher rating categories.By Colleen
August 15, 2006 2:40 PM | Link to this
The state’s accoutability system isn’t new for the 2005-06 school year. Ohio doesn’t move to value-added as a component of the accountability system until 2007-08. The improvement in performance index scores is the result of improved test scores on achievement/OGT tests — more students scored at higher levels. It isn’t the result of any new growth calculation. Ohio phased out proficiency tests at grades 4 & 6 in favor new achievement tests and added tests at additional grade levels. We are to a certain extent comparing apples and oranges because of the massive change in tests and grade level, but kudos on theimprovement statewide. AYP is a completely different story. Two things are in play here: 1) More grade levels are involved in testing so more students and subgroups (disabled, ESL, etc.) are subject to NCLB and 2) Ohio like most states required very little progress in early years to meet AYP targets and much steeper increases in later years. (I think folks were hoping that NCLB would be gone before states had to reach the 100% proficient level.) AYP will get tougher to meet each year …