Some school districts may slip in ratings

The Ohio Department of Education released much of the report card data for the 2011-12 school year Wednesday. Included in that data were districts’ scores on the Ohio Achievement Assessments, taken by grades 3-8, and the Ohio Graduation Test, taken by grades 10-11. The state requirement for proficiency on these tests is 75 percent for the OAAs and the 10th grade OGTs, and 85 percent for the 11th grade OGTs. There are 14 OAAs and 10 OGTs. For each test in which a district demonstrates proficiency, it gains a state indicator. This chart shows how many indicators each district earned via state testing; whether these districts met the Adequate Yearly Progress component; if they scored above, met or were below the Value-added aspect that measures student growth; and what the graduate rate was for that district in 2011-12.

A Dayton Daily News analysis of the incomplete 2011-12 state report cards released Wednesday shows several school districts rated “Excellent with Distinction” last year did not exceed the crucial value-added measure.

That could cause Oakwood, Beavercreek, Northmont and Troy school districts to slip a notch to “Excellent.”

“At first blush, our results look to be what we would expect,” said Mary Jo Scalzo, Oakwood City Schools superintendent. “And the fact that we have met our value-added measure is positive. I anticipate that our rating will be the same going forward, but we certainly will wait until we have all the data.”

Oakwood has earned the “Excellent with Distinction” rating every year since its implementation on the 2007-08 report card.

Beavercreek and Northmont could not be reached for comment.

Other districts, such as Kettering, Miamisburg, Brookville, Lebanon and Wayne Local — all rated “Excellent” and which met the value-added measure last year — may be elevated to that top tier because they exceeded value-added for 2011-12.

Each of these nine districts scored proficient or better on all of the Ohio Achievement Assessments and the Ohio Graduation Tests, and had a graduation rate above the state requirement of 90 percent. The data from most area districts did not clearly indicate what their final ratings will be for 2011-12.

“I am as pleased as I could possibly be,” Kettering City Schools Superintendent Jim Schoenlein said, going as far as to say the district is now “Excellent with Distinction” despite not having final data. “It was a team effort, and I hope our community is proud of us.”

The Ohio Department of Education released a slimmed-down version of the annual report cards because of the ongoing statewide investigation into whether some school districts manipulated attendance data to improve their ratings.

The preliminary data does not include attendance rates, Performance Index score or overall district ratings from “Excellent with Distinction” to “Academic Emergency,” the equivalent of an A-plus to F letter grade.

Final report cards containing that information won’t be released until the state auditor’s office investigation is complete.

The preliminary report cards included 25 state indicators showing the results of how students performed on the OAAs and OGTs, the graduation rate, value-added and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Value-added shows whether fourth- through eighth-grade students have made a year’s worth of progress. Although the ODE noted that it is just one factor in a district’s rating, last year none of the Miami Valley districts earned the state’s top rating without exceeding that measure.

Brookville Local Schools Superintendent Tim Hopkins said he hopes his district will get a positive bump in the ratings, but he’s still not certain until he sees how not meeting AYP on reading and math tests will impact that.

AYP is a federally required component that measures achievement of each student subgroup, including racial, economic and ethnic demographics.

Hopkins called it frustrating to still not have final data, though he realizes the decision is “out of our hands” because of the ongoing investigation.

“At this stage of the game, at the end of September, would I like to have complete information? Absolutely,” he said. “It’s difficult to assess what building interventions need to take place and how you need to be reacting because you don’t have that data in front of you.”

Miamisburg Superintendent David Vail was cautiously optimistic about the impending rating of his district, based on the data released Wednesday. Miamisburg has never earned the “Excellent with Distinction” designation.

“We’ll hang our hat on ‘Excellent’ for now, and celebrate even more if we are ‘Excellent with Distinction,’” said Vail, who is in his first year at Miamisburg. “It would be a wonderful accomplishment for the district if it works out.”

The State Board of Education initially postponed the release of this year’s Ohio school report cards until questions could be answered about the accuracy of the data, but on Sept. 11 the board voted unanimously to release the preliminary data.

Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Lori Ward, whose district last year rose from “Academic Watch” to “Continuous Improvement,” acknowledge the district may slip back.

“That’s quite possible,” she said.

The district — the largest in the region with about 15,000 students — met three of 10 state indicators based on the OGT results but none of the 14 indicators on the OAAs given to students in third- through eighth-grade. While it met one more indicator than last year’s two, the district did not meet AYP and was below value-added.

While the final rating still isn’t known, Ward said the latest preliminary data gives them “the most important information,” which she identified as performance by grade level and graduation rate.

Most area school districts saw a drop in their high school graduation rates under the new formula which redefines “on-time” as any student who graduates within four years of their high school start year.

The U.S. Department of Education required states to adopt a uniform four-year graduation rate that officials say doesn’t undercount dropouts and produce inflated results.

Dayton Public’s high school graduation rate plummeted from 84.4 percent on last year’s report card to 65.5 percent this year.

Ward said she’s not proud of that but it’s higher than the sneak-peak look districts received last year, which pegged the district’s graduation rate at 59.6 percent.

She is optimistic that blended learning and other fresh options for the ninth-graders “to keep them in school” will pay off in raising the graduation rate further.

Dayton Public had the lowest graduation rate of the districts in the nine-county region of Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Preble, Warren, Butler, Clark, Darke and Champaign counties.

The best graduation rate in the region was achieved by West Liberty-Salem Local at 99 percent. Bellbrook-Sugarcreek was second at 98.5 percent and Wayne Local in Waynesville third at 98.3 percent.