Medina sees improvements on state report card
Sable pleased with ‘progress’ category
Fifth-graders learn about subjects and predicates during a writing lesson in Julie Teubner’s classroom at Canavan Elementary Sept. 19. Photo by ALLISON WOOD
MEDINA – The Ohio Department of Education released its district and building report cards for the 2016-17 school year and Medina City Schools Superintendent Aaron Sable said he is is pleased to see some improvements were made.
“We try to focus on areas that we think are relevant and important,” he said. “Is the report card something we pay attention to? Absolutely. Is it our main tool? Absolutely not. This is old data. We are using real-time data where we can make immediate adjustments.”
The report, released Sept. 14, gives a series of overall districtwide grades in a range of categories, including Achievement (C), Progress (A), Gap Closing (D), Graduation Rate (A), K-3 Literacy (C) and Prepared for Success (C). Districts and schools received A-F grades on each of the six components and most of the individual measures.
The Achievement component represents the number of students who passed the state tests and how well they performed on these tests. The district received an “F” in the measurement for test passage rates, with enough students receiving passing rates on five of 12 subject tests in grades 3-6.
This year, Sable said the benchmarks were raised by the state; 80 percent of students had to pass the tests for this year instead of 75 percent previously in order to be considered proficient by the state. If this were the case, the district would have received passing marks on seven out of 12 tests.
“If you don’t dig into the numbers, it looks like the district isn’t going too well,” he said. “If you have a high school student and one year, an ‘A’ is a 90 percent and the next year, an ‘A’ a 95 percent and if they get 92 both years, it looks like they are doing worse.”
Gap Closing shows how well schools are meeting test performance expectations for minority and disadvantaged populations of students in English language arts, math and graduation.
K-3 Literacy looks at how successful a school district is at getting readers identified as not on-track, per the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, or on-track to proficiency in third grade and beyond.
The Progress component looks closely at the growth that all students are making based on their past performances. Sable said he was especially pleased at the improvements here; the district got an overall grade of an “A” in all these measures, which gives different scores for overall student achievement; gifted students; disabled students; and low-achieving students (bottom 20 percent).
Graduation Rate looks at the percent of students who are successfully finishing high school with a diploma in four or five years. Medina’s four-year graduate rate is 96.8 percent, which received an “A.”
The Prepared for Success component looks at how well prepared students are for future opportunities, including those who received honors diplomas, pass Advanced Placement courses and earn joint high school and college credit through College Credit Plus courses.
Individual buildings are also graded; for more details on the scores or to look up individual buildings, go to http://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/
Buckeye Local Schools
Superintendent Kent Morgan said he also believes Buckeye Local Schools has made improvements since last year and is happy with the “A” ranking for graduation rate and a higher score in the Gap Closing component. The district improved in 11 tested areas and the amount of students who received passing grades on AP tests doubled.
“The scores are not where we want them to be, but we’re moving in the right direction,” he said, adding improvements were made in all measured areas from last year except for two.
“We take it (report card) as one data point,” Morgan said. “Good instruction takes more than one data point ... What we do on a daily basis is more important to us.”
Overall, the district received a “C” in Achievement, a “D” in Gap Closing, a “C” in K-3 Literacy, a “D” in Progress and a “C” in prepared for success. In the Achievement component, the district’s students had a sufficient test passage rate of 33 percent; however, third- and fourth-grade students all had over 80 percent of students passing all subject tests, while fifth- and sixth-grade scores were much lower.
“We try to focus on areas that we think are relevant and important,” he said. “Is the report card something we pay attention to? Absolutely. Is it our main tool? Absolutely not. This is old data. We are using real-time data where we can make immediate adjustments.”
The report, released Sept. 14, gives a series of overall districtwide grades in a range of categories, including Achievement (C), Progress (A), Gap Closing (D), Graduation Rate (A), K-3 Literacy (C) and Prepared for Success (C). Districts and schools received A-F grades on each of the six components and most of the individual measures.
The Achievement component represents the number of students who passed the state tests and how well they performed on these tests. The district received an “F” in the measurement for test passage rates, with enough students receiving passing rates on five of 12 subject tests in grades 3-6.
This year, Sable said the benchmarks were raised by the state; 80 percent of students had to pass the tests for this year instead of 75 percent previously in order to be considered proficient by the state. If this were the case, the district would have received passing marks on seven out of 12 tests.
“If you don’t dig into the numbers, it looks like the district isn’t going too well,” he said. “If you have a high school student and one year, an ‘A’ is a 90 percent and the next year, an ‘A’ a 95 percent and if they get 92 both years, it looks like they are doing worse.”
Gap Closing shows how well schools are meeting test performance expectations for minority and disadvantaged populations of students in English language arts, math and graduation.
K-3 Literacy looks at how successful a school district is at getting readers identified as not on-track, per the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, or on-track to proficiency in third grade and beyond.
The Progress component looks closely at the growth that all students are making based on their past performances. Sable said he was especially pleased at the improvements here; the district got an overall grade of an “A” in all these measures, which gives different scores for overall student achievement; gifted students; disabled students; and low-achieving students (bottom 20 percent).
Graduation Rate looks at the percent of students who are successfully finishing high school with a diploma in four or five years. Medina’s four-year graduate rate is 96.8 percent, which received an “A.”
The Prepared for Success component looks at how well prepared students are for future opportunities, including those who received honors diplomas, pass Advanced Placement courses and earn joint high school and college credit through College Credit Plus courses.
Individual buildings are also graded; for more details on the scores or to look up individual buildings, go to http://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/
Buckeye Local Schools
Superintendent Kent Morgan said he also believes Buckeye Local Schools has made improvements since last year and is happy with the “A” ranking for graduation rate and a higher score in the Gap Closing component. The district improved in 11 tested areas and the amount of students who received passing grades on AP tests doubled.
“The scores are not where we want them to be, but we’re moving in the right direction,” he said, adding improvements were made in all measured areas from last year except for two.
“We take it (report card) as one data point,” Morgan said. “Good instruction takes more than one data point ... What we do on a daily basis is more important to us.”
Overall, the district received a “C” in Achievement, a “D” in Gap Closing, a “C” in K-3 Literacy, a “D” in Progress and a “C” in prepared for success. In the Achievement component, the district’s students had a sufficient test passage rate of 33 percent; however, third- and fourth-grade students all had over 80 percent of students passing all subject tests, while fifth- and sixth-grade scores were much lower.