COLUMBUS — It’s that time of year again. The leaves are changing. The pumpkin spice lattes are brewing. High school football is back. And the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce has released its annual School Report Cards.
In Richland County, eight of nine school districts received an overall three star rating or higher, indicating that they are meeting state standards. Five school districts received four stars.
Clear Fork Valley Local Schools
Clear Fork Valley Local Schools received an overall rating of 3.5 stars, including:
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 2 stars
- Gap Closing: 4 stars
- Graduation: 4 stars
- Early Literacy: 4 stars
Crestview Local Schools
Crestview Local Schools received an overall rating of 3.5 stars, including:
- Achievement: 3 stars
- Progress: 1 star
- Gap Closing: 4 stars
- Graduation: 4 stars
- Early Literacy: 3 stars
“Looking at the report card broadly, our Performance Index and Achievement rating are inching upward. This is a positive movement that we are glad to see,” Supt. Jim Grubbs said.
“We began intensive work toward our Progress metric during the 23-24 school year with some curriculum alignment efforts. This is a number that will take some time to turn around.”
Lexington Local Schools
Lexington Local Schools received an overall rating of 4 stars, with two stars in progress, four stars in achievement and early literacy and five stars in graduation and gap closing.
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 2 stars
- Gap Closing: 5 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 4 stars
According to Supt. Jeremy Secrist, Lexington’s student performance has increased more than 15 percent over the past four years. He also highlighted the district’s continued growth in the progress metric, four star rating in early literacy and five star rating for graduation.
Lucas Local Schools
Lucas Local Schools received an overall rating of 4 stars, including
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 3 stars
- Gap Closing: 4 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 5 stars
Lucas Supt. Brad Herman said he was pleased with the four-star rating.
“We also are excited to receive five stars on multiple indicators and will continue to work towards improving the other indicators in the future,” Herman said.
“While the report card system isn’t perfect, it’s nice to see the hard-work of our staff and students validated. We take great pride in our continued academic success at Lucas. Thanks in part to our great staff, students, families, and community!”
Madison Local Schools
Madison Local Schools received an overall rating of 3.5 stars, including
- Achievement: 3 stars
- Progress: 3 stars
- Gap Closing: 3 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 3 stars
“While we are not satisfied with the results of our report card and will pursue continuous improvement, we are excited to highlight our improvement in Early Literacy to a 3-Star Rating and meeting the state standards,” Supt. Rob Peterson said.
Peterson commended elementary staff and administration as well as central office staff with working to implement new curriculum and new instructional technologies over the last two years.
“It is nice to see those efforts rewarded through improvement on the report card,” Peterson said. “And of course our students and their families are to be credited with their efforts to improve their reading skills.”
Robertson mentioned Madison’s graduation rate and the career tech report card as other highlights. Both maintained five star ratings.
“Both of these ratings reflect excellent collaboration and effort from our students and their families, our K-12 staff, administration, and central office staff,” he said.
Mansfield City Schools
Mansfield City Schools received an overall rating of 2.5 stars, including
- Achievement: 2 stars
- Progress: 2 stars
- Gap Closing: 3 stars
- Graduation: 2 stars
- Early Literacy: 2 stars
During a school board meeting Tuesday, chief academic officer Stephen Rizzo told board members the district was very close to scoring a three overall.
He also shared that the district is making steady progress in its achievement component, with a performance index that’s gone up more than 10 points since 2020. The early literacy metric increased from last year by one star.
“The district still does have a high rate of chronic absenteeism. However, we did meet the targets for reducing it,” Rizzo said. “Chronic absenteeism hit a peak during the pandemic, but is on its way back down.”
Rizzo also told board members that students who attend Mansfield Senior High School all four years have a higher graduation rate than reflected in the report card.
The district’s graduation rate is impacted negatively by student mobility and students with disabilities who choose to stay a fifth year.
“Sometimes students transfer and they leave the state, and if we don’t get a records request, they count as dropout, and maybe they do attend the schools,” Rizzo said.
“We also have students who are identified with a disability who can stay in their fifth year. Unfortunately, in the current calculation, they will not be counted as a graduate in the four-year (graduation rate), even though they’ve met all the requirements, they’ll count in the five-year.”
Ontario Local Schools
Ontario Local Schools received an overall rating of 4 stars, including:
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 3 stars
- Gap Closing: 5 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 4 stars
Supt. Keith Strickler said he’s proud of the district’s high academic performance and efficiency.
“Ontario scored much higher than the state average while spending nearly $3,000 less per student,” he said. “We take great pride in seeing such great results while continuing to be as efficient as possible.”
Strickler said the Ohio School Report Cards provide useful information, but the ultimate goal is academic growth for every student.
“That is far more important than the percentage that “passed” the state test,” he said.
“When you tirelessly work on the growth of the students the state test scores, take care of themselves,” he added. “The scores are not the goal, but a validation that what you are doing is working.”
Ontario scored much higher than the state average while spending nearly $3,000 less per student. We take great pride in seeing such great results while continuing to be as efficient as possible.
Shelby City Schools
Shelby City Schools received an overall rating of 4 stars, including:
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 4 stars
- Gap Closing: 5 stars
- Graduation: 4 stars
- Early Literacy: 3 stars
“We are always looking for ways to improve as a school district, but we are very happy with how our students performed and how our staff prepared the students,” Supt. Michael Browning said.
“Our Early Literacy Component increased, as did our Graduation Component. So, the bookends of the educational journey are improving, and we want to continue to improve these and all components each year.”
Plymouth-Shiloh Local Schools
Plymouth-Shiloh Local Schools received an overall rating of 4 stars, including
- Achievement: 3 stars
- Progress: 4 stars
- Gap Closing: 4 stars
- Graduation: 4 stars
- Early Literacy: 3 stars
Supt. Brad Turson said the district will continue to utilize all available data to identify areas to improve to best serve all students moving forward.
“The Plymouth-Shiloh Local School District is very proud of our staff and students for their academic achievement and growth throughout the 2023-24 school year,” Turson said.
“The improvement Shiloh Elementary School has demonstrated recently was validated with their 5 star rating. The priority given to improving literacy instruction was a major factor in earning this rating.”
