LIMA — The Ohio Department of Education has released the second set of grades for the 2014-15 Ohio School Report Cards, and local superintendents are once again questioning how they can use data based largely on test results from an exam the ODE itself has since dropped.
On Thursday, the ODE released data for the final three areas that are assessed each year — achievement, progress and gap closing. This data uses state assessments to measure overall achievement, how much a student learns in a year and how well students are performing in reading and math, regardless of income, race or disability. Graduation rates, college- and career-preparedness and a metric that assesses literacy improvement in kindergarten trough third-grade students were released Jan. 14.
In all three areas, Lima schools stayed the same from 2013-14 to 2014-15, receiving D and F grades in overall achievement, which measures how many students passed the state test and how well they did, an F in gap closing and an F in progress.
Jill Ackerman, superintendent of Lima schools, said part of the reason achievement scores are so low is because two buildings — Liberty Arts Magnet and Lima Senior High School — did not have enough students participating in the assessments.
“Many parents decided to have their kids opt out of the test, so it ultimately lowered those buildings (scores) by a full letter grade,” Ackerman said. “We can only assume that if the kids who opted out had tested, the results would be different. I can’t say that for a fact, but the whole idea that we’re getting dinged on people opting out, that’s totally unfair to us.”
Last year, the ODE administered exams through the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, an organization that prepared exams based on Common Core standards the state has adopted.
An outcry from parents, teachers and school administrators who believed the tests were too complex and time consuming led Gov. John Kasich to eliminate funding to these exams as part of the state budget he signed in July.
This year, Ohio public schools will use American Institute Research tests, which is the same company that had previously developed the state’s science and social studies exams.
The 2015-16 school year marks the third year in a row with new assessments.
Ackerman said that while the overall report card numbers have room for improvement, she pointed to specific examples of schools that did well in certain portions of the grade card.
South Science and Technology Magnet, for example, received an A in progress.
“At South, we’re going to be looking to them to see what they’re doing differently than say at Liberty,” Ackerman said. “Sometimes it’s comparing apples to oranges, but I think it’s important to look at things like that.”
Ackerman pointed to another progress data point — the success of students in the lowest 20 percent in achievement — as an example of improvement. South received a B grade in this category, and Independence Elementary and West Middle schools received C grades.
“Whatever interventions we are putting in place must be making a difference, but we still have to close that gap even further,” she said.
At Pandora-Gilboa schools, the district did well in closing achievement gaps. P-G went from an F grade in 2013-14 to an A grade in 2014-15. For P-G Superintendent Todd Schmutz, however, the increase isn’t as significant as one might think.
“Honestly, we didn’t do anything different,” Schmutz said. “We always maintain high expectations for our students, and frankly, the students in this subgroup could have taken this test on a different day and we may have totally different results.”
In fact, Schmutz doesn’t think grade cards or the standardized tests they’re measured by matter much overall.
“I don’t see a benefit because I think the best way a parent can gauge how their child is doing is to be involved in their child’s education and communicate with their teacher,” Schmutz said. “The teacher is the one who works with the child every day and evaluates them every day.”
Like Ackerman and Schmutz, Waynesfield-Goshen Superintendent Chris Pfister doesn’t see much value in grade cards. His district went from a B to an F in progress within the last two years, but he believes this data is essentially meaningless.
“There’s so many ways to measure what a school is, but what they (ODE) do is come out with a test a student takes one day out of the year, and not only that, they constantly change the tests,” Pfister said. “It does nothing to advance better teaching and student learning.”
Though Ackerman questions the validity of state report cards, she said the district will continue working to improve.
“There’s a ton of initiatives we have put into place to be even better, and we’re never going to stop because there’s always work that needs to be done,” she said, “but does this (report card) system fairly evaluate what we’re doing? Absolutely not.”
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