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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 > 16 > Entry
The Miami Valley’s report card winners and losers
With the flood of data that comes with the district report card release, and the state’s ever-changing rules and terminology, it’s not always easy to figure out what the big surprises and disappointments are.
Here’s one way to judge. I looked at last year ranking of the 60 Miami Valley school districts for performance index score (the state’s measure of test performance across all grades) and compared it to this year’s ranking to see what the biggest changes were.
From that comparison, here are the Miami Valley’s biggest report card winners and losers this year:
Biggest winners
No. 1 Tipp City — Last year ranked 27, this year ranked 12
No. 2 Botkins — Last year ranked 17, this year ranked 3
No. 3 (tie) Piqua — Last year ranked 51, this year ranked 41
No. 3 (tie) Yellow Springs — Last year ranked 28, this year ranked 18
No. 5 Franklin Monroe — Last year ranked 32, this year ranked 23
Biggest losers
No. 1 Lebanon — Last year ranked 13, this year ranked 24
No. 2 (tie) Northmont — Last year ranked 6, this year ranked 14
No. 2 (tie) Miamisburg — Last year ranked 14, this year ranked 22
No. 2 (tie) Greenville — Last year ranked 43, this year ranked 51
No. 2 (tie) Mississinawa Valley — Last year ranked 45, this year ranked 53
For the complete list of Miami Valley School district performance index rankings, go here. For more highlights from district report card data release, go here. To see each district’s state rating, go here. for results from school districts near Dayton but not included in our definition of “the Miami Valley,” try here.
And check out today’s DDN stories on the report card release here and here.
(Image credit: www.mynewbeginnings.ca)
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Testing
Comments
By Mary
August 18, 2006 7:27 AM | Link to this
Scott Ward, I was not referring to your laptop. I was referring to Scott Elliott’s. He is the one on vacation.By Dayton Doug
August 17, 2006 9:29 PM | Link to this
I agree with superintendent Issacs, anytime students are achieveing at higher levels, it’s good news. But an important factor that skews the data makes it ill-advised to use it to compare districts. In a district with a large number students with low IQ’s, even a student who is deemed cognitively disabled – someone who has virtually no chance of getting an adequate score, is still counted in a district results. Districts that do a better job of meeting the personal needs of such students will have a higher percentage of these students, as their parents will move to the districts that best help their children. Generally speaking, such districts are the larger ones with more resources at their disposal. Scott’s “losers” are mostly larger schools compared to his “winners.” I think it would be hard to look a parent in eye and tell them the school that is giving their cognitively disabled child the best education possible their district is a “loser.” Particularly when their child, statistically speaking, might be part of the reason. Scott’s analysis could even term a school that improved its Performance Index Calculation, while adding students with special needs during the year, as a “loser.â€? It’s true that the data, and the ever-changing rules and terminology, make this a tough issue to comprehend. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.By Scott Elliott
August 17, 2006 4:19 PM | Link to this
Now, now people. A blog, of all places, is hardly somewhere to go complaining about people’s spelling! Let’s play nice.By Scott Ward
August 17, 2006 10:19 AM | Link to this
Mary, I don’t know what you mean. Everyone else, excuse me for mis-spelling one word. For the record, I did not go to Northmont or MiamisburgBy scott ward
August 17, 2006 8:10 AM | Link to this
in reply to MSGordon. I moved to Northmont 6 years ago for the schools, and the schools and the area have done nothing but improve. We could not be happier with the area. Any school can have a fight break out and it is a very rare occurance. Northmont has a very involved community and a lot or pride.By Mary
August 17, 2006 7:53 AM | Link to this
Scott, has your family threatened to throw your laptop in the water?By Brian
August 16, 2006 11:39 PM | Link to this
Scott Ward, my guess is that you are from Miamisburg. My source for this is your spelling. It is EXCELLENT…Dude!By Mark
August 16, 2006 10:21 PM | Link to this
You can do all this while vacationing on the Jersey shore? Good golly Miss Molly!By Oldprof
August 16, 2006 4:18 PM | Link to this
I wonder if there could be a better metaphor for education than sports or warfare? “Winners and Losers” among school systems is like saying that some MLB, NFL or NBA teams “graduated” together last season, or that our military “scored in the excellent range” in the Iraq invasion.By Tom Isaacs, Waynesville Superintendent
August 16, 2006 4:16 PM | Link to this
Scott, I think the winners are Ohio’s students, who are clearly achieving at higher levels. Ranking school districts by these scores that are so poorly understood by most people is not a good idea. I’ve seen many inaccurate statements about the Performance Index and Adequate Yearly Progress in the media and blogs. For the record, the scores reported by ODE for Wayne Local Schools in Waynesville include the aggregated scores of the Waren County Virtual Charter School, whose students have never attended school in Waynesville. All schools in Waynesville had Performance Index scores above 100 and all also met AYP. Waynesville High School has the distinction of a 100% graduation rate. I see great things happening in almost all school districts in the Miami Valley, at least as indicated on the State Report Cards. There is great news in public education!By kortney smith
August 16, 2006 3:35 PM | Link to this
I see how you judged the scores, but I think that it would have made more sense to put the numbers in the order that they ranked. I would like to see how schools compare to one another in that way, rather than how much they have improved.By geoff maloon
August 16, 2006 2:51 PM | Link to this
Scott Ward must be a recent grad of Miamisburg or Northmont as reflected in his spelling…excellent not excellant…By M. S. Gordon
August 16, 2006 2:38 PM | Link to this
Northmont is going down, I’m glad I moved my children away two years ago! You know it isn’t going to be a good school year when there are fights at the middle school in which teachers get broken arms! Northmont needs to worry less about sports and more about education!By Scott Ward
August 16, 2006 2:20 PM | Link to this
I understand what you mean. Anither point I noticed is that there only about a point difference between 5-15.By Mary
August 16, 2006 2:17 PM | Link to this
Also, the standard for an excellent rating is inflated. You could have as many as 25% of all your students failing to meet minimum standards and still be rated excellent.By Bill
August 16, 2006 2:09 PM | Link to this
Perhaps you should consider the fact that, if you were educated in either district, you were ill-equipped to handle a simple task such as spelling. Excellent, not excellant.By Scott Elliott
August 16, 2006 1:55 PM | Link to this
Scott, this is but one way to look at who won and lost. The two districts you cite indeed are highly rated but took among the biggest falls in the rankings. So yes, I agree with you that depending on how you look at it, those districts could either be viewed as winners or losers.By scott ward
August 16, 2006 10:22 AM | Link to this
How can you call Northmont and MIamisburg losers when they were ranked as “Excellant”. The may be farther down the list but that’s because a lot more schools were ranked as excellant