Portage County Schools still fight to rebuild after the pandemic

With schools across the state still fighting to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, The Ohio Department of Education decided to award stars instead of letter grades in the 2022 Ohio Schools Report Cards. The state’s report card assigned scores from one to five stars (five being the best) for each school district across the state- but provides no overall star rating.

This year, districts were evaluated based on achievement, progress, gap-closing, graduation rates, and early literacy. Details regarding the scoring process for each are laid out on The Guide to 2022 Ohio School Report Cards.

Portage county stands on an uneven slope, with some schools recovering from the pandemic losses faster than others in given areas. The new report cards are designed to act as a template to track overall progress within the school districts since the COVID-19 pandemic, and each district has a unique set of challenges that come with the long process of rebuilding.

Ravenna Local School District’s superintendent, Laura Hebert, explains that the star system does not change the overall message of this year’s reports.

“Regardless of whether or not the state uses stars or letter grades, we need to do the heavy lifting to recover the loss due to COVID,” said Hebert. “Like many districts, we are viewing things from the point of view of ‘recovering learning loss’ that all students and districts are seeing as a result of the different approaches to education during COVID-19’s high points.”

Ravenna earned a two out of five stars for its graduation rate, one of the lowest scores in Portage County. However, Hebert explained how the graduation rate of one out of five stars could be misleading.

“When a student moves out of the district and either does not enroll in another public school, enrolls in an alternative school that doesn’t report enrollment to the state (which many don’t have to), or just drop out of school altogether – those students still count in our overall graduation rate even though we can’t educate them,… The factors that influence that are out of our control.”

Hebert continued, “If you look at our 4-year graduation rate with a focus only on students that enroll with us in 9th grade and stay for four years, we’d be three students away from raising that star rating to a three out of five. The state just doesn’t calculate it in a way that conveys the actual effectiveness of the district, when the community has a lot of students that move in and out, a lot like us.”

There are also many highlights from the report that are encouraging for the district. Ravenna earned a three out of five in gap-closing, which according to the Ohio Department of Education, qualifies as “meeting the standard.” The Gap Closing measure emphasizing a district’s ability to get underperforming students up to the state standard, especially students in different subgroups such as students with disabilities, gifted, and more, said Hebert.

“You’ve heard the phrase “If you start behind, you stay behind,” but in Ravenna we emphasize catching kids up as best as we can,” she said.

Three years ago, the progress section of the Ohio School Report Cards was added as a way for districts to track the amount of academic progress made since the academic obstacles that came with the pandemic. With three years of data to compare, schools across the county are still struggling to recover, but some more than others.

Crestwood Local School District earned a one out of five stars in the progress category. Michelle Kalista, Crestwood PTO mom, acknowledges the need for improvement, but explained how the low progress score was inevitable due to outside factors.

“Since the community can’t pass a levy we can’t compete with teacher pay and have lost so many good teachers and school leaders since the pandemic and the consequences have had a devastating trickling effect,” said Kalista. “Good staff leave for better pay and good families follow suit.”

Despite the low progress scores, Crestwood earned a four out of five stars in the graduation category, which “exceeds state standards.” With a four-year graduation rate of 95 percent, Kalista explains how the support of the small town comes into play.

“Our graduation rate has improved immensely. I think it is because of the small tone feel we have here,” she said. “Everyone knows each other and feels comfortable to ask for some guidance or support.”