DPS schools plan next steps; scores low compared to Ohio’s big cities, charters

“I think it almost gives us a license to say OK, we know what’s not working,” Lawrence said.

Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Youngstown and Canton — the other school districts in the group known as the “Ohio 8″ — all performed better than DPS on the latest round of report cards, using the “overall rating points” measure. Those school districts work together and are often compared to each other because of their size, bigger-city location and concentration of low-resource families.

Overall, Dayton Public received a 2-star rating on the report card, matching Cincinnati, Columbus and Canton, while the rest of the Ohio 8 got 2.5 stars. This was the first year that districts received an overall star rating from the state. A five-star rating is the highest a district can receive; three stars means meeting expectations and below three stars does not meet state expectations.

Among the Ohio 8, Dayton was tied for the lowest in the group for year-over-year progress, at 2 stars. But Dayton was the very lowest of the group in performance index on state tests, early literacy percentage, academic gap closing percentage and four-year graduation rate.

Dayton Public’s performance index on state tests slipped just slightly from last year’s 47.0 to 46.7, and their four-year graduation rate slid from 71.4 to 70.8.

Charter schools

The 21 charter schools in the Dayton area that were graded on the report card made a fairly neat bell curve from 1 star to 3.5 stars overall, while one outlier, the Dayton Early College Academy (DECA), earned 4.5 stars.

With the exception of DECA, that’s close to the same bell curve as the 26 individual schools at DPS, which ranged from 1 star (The International School) to 3.5 stars (Stivers).

The local charter schools’ median overall score was 2.5 stars, just above the DPS buildings’ median of 2 stars. DPS’ overall performance index on state tests (46.7) was just above the median among local charter schools (46.4). And the median progress score for charters was 3 stars, compared to 2 stars for DPS schools.

Among elementary schools, charter schools Emerson Academy and Klepinger Community School were at the top with 3.5 stars. Dayton Public’s top elementaries were Horace Mann, River’s Edge and Cleveland, each with 3 stars.

Klepinger and the DECA high school were the only schools in the city of Dayton (DPS or charter) to earn 5 stars in the year-over-year progress category.

DECA Prep, the elementary school for DECA High School, received a three-star rating, a rise from their last report card. DECA officials said they had been working with high-dosage tutoring, and pushing to make sure all the students who need extra support are getting it.

“It’s super hard work, but our teachers are making progress every day, and we see that reflected in student learning,” said Lane Current, DECA director of curriculum and instruction.

There’s also been a focus on supporting teachers, through development and training, resources and curriculum available. The school has also been transparent to teachers with data, Current said.

Current said the school is moving forward with a reading curriculum focused on the best practices of reading, meant to give students the best way to learn to read, and for students found not on-track for reading, the school has implemented interventions.

STEM school: The Dayton Regional STEM School, which is in its own category as neither a district nor a charter school, received 4.5 stars overall. The school near the Kettering-Dayton border, which serves grades 6-12, earned 3 stars in year-over-year progress, and had a 100% four-year graduation rate.

Improvements at DPS

One of Lawrence’s stated goals for Dayton Public Schools is to bring students back from charter and private schools to the district. Around half the students who live in the DPS geography do not attend Dayton Public, instead choosing a private school or charter school.

Lawrence said he anticipates the changes to the curriculum and teaching environments, which are based on bodies of research on how kids learn, will help the district see academic improvement.

He said DPS gets support from the community, from organizations like Omega Community Development Corporation, Miami Valley Child Development Centers and many others, which is also a key to success.

Lawrence said he wants to get everyone in the same room, to compare notes about what they do and what resources they have.

Lawrence said the district is working to increase preschool enrollment in the city, which would help improve early literacy. But he said there are some gaps that still needed to be filled, which the district is working on with Preschool Promise, a local nonprofit focused on getting kids ready for kindergarten.

“That report card piece, we can change it through consistently implementing things that we know work, and I mean, consistently implementing,” Lawrence said.