“It’s the second year in a row. This is great information,” Rhoton said. “There is a crisis. The Board of Regents report 40 percent of students need help in math or English and 14 percent need help in both.”
His report compared numbers in both areas among schools in the county and among schools of comparable size both with all schools and also just public schools. Talawanda stacks up well in all categories, he said.
“One data point does not a trend make, but I thought since it was two years in a row, it was good information to report,” Rhoton said, adding the numbers apply directly to students attending state universities in Ohio but, by extension, show good education in math and English for all graduates.
He presented a series of slides showing the comparisons with other high schools.
The first comparison he presented showed high schools in Butler County, into which was included Cincinnati Christian, which had students taking developmental math at zero percent, but Talawanda led the rest with 6 percent needing math help at the college level and was the only county school with percentage in single digits. Next behind Talawanda was Ross, at 12 percent. From there, the chart ranged up to 33 percent needing math help after graduating from Middletown High School.
“This is like golf scores,” Rhoton said. “Lower numbers are good.”
Talawanda was third in the county along with Monroe High School each with 13 percent of graduates needing development English help at the college level, just behind Lakota East and Lakota West, with 10 and 11 percent, respectively.
Talawanda was second behind only Cincinnati Christian on the combined chart showing students needing help in both areas beyond high school. CCHS was again at 0 percent while Talawanda was at 1 percent. Next was Ross at 3 percent. Lowest among Butler County schools was Middletown at 14 percent.
Rhoton also showed the same information charts but using schools from around the state of similar size.
“I like this graph a lot,” he said of the math chart.
Talawanda’s 6 percent needing help in math was the best in the state among schools with similar metrics, he said. Second was Harrison High School at 17 percent, with numbers ranging all the way up to River Valley High School with 35 percent of graduates needing math help.
Talawanda was fourth in the state among schools of similar size in English with the same group clustered together all at 18 percent or lower.
Talawanda’s 1 percent of students needing both math and English help was the best in the state among the schools of similar size and that graph ranged all the way to 11 percent for both Edgewood and Marietta high schools.
Talawanda’s math numbers stack up well when compared to all Ohio high schools, whether public or tuition institutions.
That 6 percent of Talawanda graduates who need developmental math at the college level compares well, Rhoton said. Using the top 20 schools in the state Talawanda and Cedarville High School both show up at 6 percent and they are two of only five public high schools in the top 20 in the state. Summit Country Day, with tuition of more than $18,000 a year, also checks in with that 6 percent rate.
“In some schools, parents pay as much as $32,000 a year. Some are paying to get an education that is comparable to what is available in the public schools,” he said.
Talawanda checks in at fourth place among schools with 50 or more members in the graduating class in the state, led by St. Xavier at 1 percent. The top three are tuition schools and Talawanda is the top school in the state with fewest graduates needing math help in college among public schools.
Rhoton said the report is good news for Talawanda and he praised the teachers for their work at getting students ready for what comes next.
“All the students go through the program. Using the mastery model, it shows valuable preparation for the next step,” he said.
Board President Mark Butterfield echoed that.
“That’s what we are here to do, prepare students for the marketplace right after high school, or for college,” he said.
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