New School Report Card System Raises Concerns
Just like students, the school districts in Ohio get report cards for its schools and districts to determine how well they are doing and if students are meeting standard set by the state.
Starting for the academic year 2012 – 2013, Ohio Department of Education created a new standard on how school districts are being graded on the report cards.
Compared to the academic year 2011 – 2012, the new report card system have added “Gap Closing,” “K-3 Literacy,” and created sub categories for progress reports such as “gifted students” under it’s achievement and progress sections.
John Charlton, associate director of media relations for the Ohio Department of Education said the school report is a transparent way for the state to tell how the schools are performing. Charlton mentioned that one of the reasons why the new report card system is because the previous system was not as in depth in regards to students with special needs or gifted students.
“It’s a very good way for parents, tax-payers and even educators in that school to see how their districts are performing,” Charlton said. “It’s going into the second year of this format where we have a very interactive report card that allows parents to drill down deeper to see specific areas.”
Charlton said that Ohio Department of Education added additional data points, provided Value-Added for gifted students, value-added special needs students and will continue to change and add new information until next year report card.
Charlton also mentioned the addition of financial data. Even financial data has been added to the interactive report card, all 11 school districts in Portage County could not be accessed on the interactive report card page. The records of money for all school districts in Ohio can be found on the Ohio Department of Education site under “Classroom Expenditures,” that measures total expenditures based on enrollment.
“It’s a part of the Department wanting to be transparent in getting that information to parents, tax-payers and educators,” Charlton said.
Released by the Ohio Department of Education is a list on how each section is measured and how it’s scored for the new system. Four of the six sections are measured on an A through F scale, but the actual scoring varies per section.
Achievement section is scored: A- 100 to 90 percent, B- 89.9 to 80 percent, C- 79.9 to 70 percent, D- 69.9 to 50 percent and F- below 50 percent.
The graduation rate and gap closing section are scored in a similar fashion in matter of percentages, but it varies to what is the cut off for an A and below.
(Information from Ohio Department of Education, Aug. 20 2014)
Achievement:
Measures: Performance Indicators and Performance Index
What this means: Performance Indicators: show how many students have minimum or proficient, level of knowledge. Based on a series of 24 tests that measure the level of achievement for each student. Performance Index: measures the achievement of every student, not just whether they reach ‘proficient.’ Schools receive points for every student’s level of achievement.
Other information: A-F grade on the report card is determined by the number of indicators ‘met’ out of the total possible indicators.
Scale : A- 100 to 90 percent, B- 89.9 to 80 percent, C- 79.9 to 70 percent, D- 69.9 to 50 percent and F- below 50 percent.
Progress:
Measures: All students, gifted students, students with disabilities, student in the lowest 20 percent of achievement statewide.
What this means: The data from state tests over multiple years are examined through a series of calculations to produce a Value Added designation for each school and district.
Other information: Value Added grades are based on a scale that measures a “Value-Added index.”
Scale: A- +2 and higher, B- greater or equal to +1 but less than +2, C- greater or equal to -1 but less than +1, D- greater or equal to -2 but less than -1, F- less than -2
Graduation Rate:
Measures: Four-year and fiver-year graduation rates
What this means: Those who earn their degree since entering the ninth grade for the first time.
Other information:
Scales: Four-Year: A- 100 to 93 percent, B- 92.9 to 89 percent, C- 88.9 to 84 percent, D- 83.9 to 79 percent, F- Less than 79 percent
Five-Year: A- 100 to 95 percent, B- 94.9 to 90 percent, C- 89.9 to 85 percent, D- 84.9 to 80 percent, F- Less than 80 percent
Gap Closing
Measures: Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs)
What this means: The measurement of academic performance in demographic and racial groups.
Other information: ODE reports that schools or districts cannot get an “A” if one group is not reaching its goal.
Scale: A- 100 to 90 percent, B- 89.9 to 80 percent, C- 79.9 to 70 percent, D- 69.9 to 60 percent and F- Less than 60 percent
K-3 Literacy:
Measures: K-3 literacy
What this means: Assess any reading issues for students as early as possible.
Other information: Any school or district that scores below five percent of kindergarten reading level will not receive a letter grade.
Scale: None. Will be graded in 2014 report card.
Prepared for Success:
Measures: College admission test, dual enrollment credits, industry credentials, honors diploma awarded, advanced placement and international baccalaureate program
What this means: Based on four- and five-year graduation rates that determine whether the student is college ready.
Other information: Will be measured on 2014 and 2015 report cards, but grades will be released in 2016
Scale: None
Charlton said that the new format has won a national award for being helpful to parents, but it still concerns people like Gerald Kohanski, board of education president for Aurora City School District and Dennis Honkala, Ravenna City School’s superintendent.
Honkala said the purpose of school report card that the Ohio legislature and the government wanted to have accountability.
“In their attempt to make things easier, they made actually things a little more difficult and tougher to understand,” Honkala said. “For example if you look at the the index performance It’s really disproportionate of what an A through F should be. People are used to a 100 point scale, but the performance index is based on a 120 point scale.”
Honkala says that (Ravenna City Schools) continue to improve, but it does not necessarily reflect on the letter grade.
“To me it’s a little bit misleading to our public and tougher to understand,” Honkala said.
In order to get some of these scores, Ohio Department of Education had to add more testing to the curriculum. Honkala said that teachers will now have to teach to the test.
“We have good systems and processes in place, I think you have be consistent,” Honkala said. “I know ‘teach to the test’ has a bad connotation, but ‘teaching to the test’ means: here’s what they expect you to know for standards. You need to teach the kids on how to be successful on the test.”
Kohanski said the danger in the report card with all these measures that administrators will become more focused on that than the total education of the students.
“We’re trying to avoid that in Aurora,” Kohanski said. “Because don’t only focus on our high achieving students, we try be very inclusive. We have strong special services for our special needs students.”
The process of the school report card takes one full year and are reported by each school district then the state complies that data, according to Charlton. They are typically released in August or September of the following year.
Aurora City School district is ranked number 15 out of 881 Ohio school districts according to district ranking data for performance. The data accounts for the 2013 – 2014 academic year that is provided by Ohio Department of Education.
However Kohanski still mentions his concerns about performance and how they will improve, even though the district has received mostly A’s in each category in the new system.
“I worry that our educators, who feel that they are being measured at report card school districts feel that they have to perform at a high level in order to pass school levies to the general public,” Kohanksi said.
In comparison, other Portage County school districts ranked below the top 100 districts for performance. Both Rootstown and James A Garfield districts rank just below 150 of Ohio school districts, while Crestwood, Field and Kent City fall under the 200 rankings. Southeast, Streetsboro and Waterloo fall under the 300 rankings with Windham and Ravenna fall under the 500 ranking.
Ravenna City Schools rank 579 in performance, just 29 places below Windham Exempted Village district one of Portage County’s poorest school districts compared to Aurora.
The Ohio Department of Education also changed the way schools are ranked in each district – Honkala says that schools receive ratings. Now, schools are ranked one through 881.
“In my opinion, it’s kind of defeating the purpose for what you what to accomplish in you school district,” Honkala said. “When you have a ranking system obviously you’re creating a ranking of winners and losers, but I can understand other purposes in being successful, but there that goes into the success of students, the report card grades and the grades themselves.”
“They’re in the process of changing the test and are changed what they’re measure. One year,for example they strictly measures the academics and last year they added what gifted students are achieving,” Honkala said. “It seems like a constant challenge of what they want to measure.”
