The Westerville City School District’s (WCSD) latest state report card indicates that students once again attained high levels of academic achievement during the 2012-13 school year. The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) yesterday released its revamped report cards for all Ohio public schools and school districts.
Several significant changes have been made to state report cards, the most noticeable of which is that schools and school districts no longer are rated with the familiar “Excellent” or “Continuous Improvement” labels, but instead receive letter grades. The state issued letter grades on nine performance measures for the 2012-13 school year:
- Performance Indicators,
- Performance Index,
- Annual Measurement Objectives (AMO),
- Four-Year Graduation Rate,
- Five-Year Graduation Rate,
- Value-Added: Overall,
- Value-Added: Gifted,
- Value-Added: Students with Disabilities, and
- Value-Added: Lowest 20% in Achievement.
WCSD earned an A for meeting all 24 Performance Indicators on the report card; a B for its Performance Index score of 102.7 out of a possible 120; a C for AMO; a B for its four-year and five-year graduation rates of 92 percent and 94.5 percent, respectively; an A for its Overall Value-Added grade; a C for its Gifted Value-Added grade; an A for its Students with Disabilities Value-Added grade; and a Value-Added grade of A for students in the lowest 20 percent of achievement.
The grades for these performance measures fall under six report card components:
- Achievement,
- Progress,
- Gap Closing,
- Graduation Rate,
- K-3 Literacy, and
- Prepared for Success.
Value-Added grades, which comprise the report card’s Progress component, are calculated using three years of student academic growth data. A grade of C means students, on average, are achieving a year’s worth of academic growth in a year’s time, while an A means students are achieving at significantly greater levels than one year’s growth in one year’s time.
Superintendent John R. Kellogg, Ed.D., noted that while the state’s transition to letter grades is intended to make it easier for people to understand a school or school district’s performance, their initial use also may result in the misinterpretation of performance levels.
“Many people may misinterpret some grades to mean that performance is slipping,” Kellogg explained. “The fact is, while performance may be steady or even improving, the state is setting the bar higher and expecting more from its schools.”
Kellogg illustrated this point by reviewing recent changes to graduation rate calculations. He explained that the ODE used to calculate graduation rates by including students who needed additional time to finish high school. A new calculation, however, includes only those students who graduate within four years. WCSD’s report card results under the new calculation reflected a slight decrease from the prior year’s reported graduation rate, but the district continued to meet the state standard. The state also began using a five-year graduation rate calculation on this year’s report card to reflect those students who need slightly more time to graduate.
Another significant change to the report cards involves the use of AMO instead of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). AMO comprise the report card’s Gap Closing component, which provides a measurement of how well schools and districts are improving student performance in reading, math, and graduation rate among 10 student subgroups.
According to Kellogg, AYP on prior report cards served as extra credit that could help a school or district improve their grades, while the new AMO is more like a graded class. Under the new reporting system, failure to meet certain standards may result in a demotion to letter grades.
“Our academic performance remains strong, despite the state’s measuring stick being different,” Kellogg said. “If a district achieved basic AYP requirements on prior report cards, it would be noted that the standard was ‘Met.’ Now, schools and districts meeting basic AMO requirements will receive a letter grade of C. What once helped boost your performance ratings is now considered to be average performance.”
Kellogg said that some WCSD’s schools initially will be challenged in AMO, but the district and its schools have shown in the past that they are able to make great strides in areas requiring more focus.
“There’s no reason to believe that we won’t be able to improve student achievement in these AMO categories,” Kellogg said. “We have several schools that have been very successful in closing student achievement gaps, so we’ll be examining their past practices, identifying the effective strategies that were used and replicating those practices elsewhere to ensure success for all students.”
Statewide gap closure data indicate that this is an area of great need for all Ohio schools. Data models projected that 38 percent of Ohio’s school districts, 48 percent of traditional schools and 77 percent of charter schools would receive a D or an F grade for gap closure this year.
The phase-in of report card changes and increasing state standards will continue over the next several years. Beginning with the current school year, schools and school districts must have 80 percent of their students pass a Performance Indicator in order to meet that indicator on future report cards. Additionally, the number of performance measures that could appear on a report card will increase to 18 by the 2015-16 school year.
The state will not issue component grades or overall grades until 2015 so schools have time to adjust to the new system and focus their efforts on being successful in all areas that are being measured.
“We welcome these higher standards and the opportunities they bring,” Kellogg said. “The bottom line is that if we keep our focus on improving student achievement, the state-issued grades will take care of themselves.”