MANSFIELD — Area schools got their report cards from the Ohio Department of Education Thursday morning for the 2015-16 school year. Despite scores, good or bad, superintendents are frustrated with the system.

Mansfield City Schools got Fs across the board except in two areas that received Ds. The D scores went to the schools’ performance index and the achievement component grade.

“Overall, our initial thoughts are we’re frustrated, just like many other superintendents in the state,” Mansfield City Schools Superintendent Brian Garverick said.

Mansfield’s almost-all-Fs report card follows the district’s most recent ODE audit results in March, which showed a C grade in its Performance Index, a D in value added for students with disabilities and an F in Indicators Met, Annual Measureable Objectives.

For 2015-16, the district went from a C to a D in the performance index score, an F in value added for students with disabilities. The indicators met and annual measurable objectives kept F scores.

Garverick attributes the lower grades to a rapidly changing state-mandated testing landscape.

“It’s difficult to collect trend data and make decisions around student achievement when the rules of the game continue to change. I’m not making excuses, because they changed for everybody. But when there’s 526 (schools) who failed to close the gap… that’s significant,” he said.

ODE’s website states the 2015 report card includes six major components, with additional measures within each component.

The six components are achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation rate, K-3 literacy and prepared for success. The state assigns an A-F letter grade to each and districts and individual schools can receive up to 10 grades altogether.

Shelby City Schools received an F on its annual measurable objectives, a component that Assistant Superintendent Paul Walker said the district performed very well on last year.

“These tests are very difficult,” he said. “We have many other things that don’t get letter grades.”

Walker listed athletic teams and other extracurricular activities like music and academic clubs.

Clear Fork Valley School District received an F in the indicators met, the annual measurable objectives categories and the gap closing categories. Although receiving As on other categories, Superintendent Janice Wyckoff questioned the state’s scoring system.

“There’s one thing I know, our kids are being held accountable on a system that is absolutely deplorable — and it has been for years,” Wyckoff said. “The tests themselves have been consistent and the system is working against kids and families.

“I would be worried if anyone trusted those measures.”

In fact, ODE changed the way it grades schools.

“… new this year are letter grades on each of the six components. This will help give Ohio parents and schools an even more complete snapshot of the quality of education they are providing their children,” reads an ODE overview of the 2016 report cards.

The changes made to the state’s report cards explain the multiple Fs and Ds school districts have received on their report cards, said Wyckoff.

“The majority of the tests are giving out Ds and Fs. There’s something wrong with the system. If there’s a teacher giving just Ds and Fs, we’d have to give a strong look at that teacher and what they’re delivering kids,” she said. “It’s not the school system that is broken, it’s the test system that is broken.”

Ontario Local School District Superintendent Lisa Carmichael said she wishes the district’s grades were better, but she also finds the state’s system to be frustrating.

“The test results are in no way shape or form a representation of what happens in our classrooms,” Carmichael said.

Actually, she wants an apology from ODE representatives.

She said two Ontario students were battling cancer last school year. When they did not take state-mandated tests, the absence of their scores contributed to the state’s report card.

“They still required them to take the tests, even when they couldn’t because of being in and out of hospitals. They (ODE representatives) said maybe if they had been in a car accident …” she said.

Carmichael said the district has wonderful teachers, students and parents.

“But it’s like we’re aiming at a moving target here,” Carmichael said of ODE’s tests.