MADISON TOWNSHIP — The most recent round of Ohio School Report Cards showed Madison Local Schools retained its overall rating of 3.5 stars districtwide.
Meanwhile, Madison’s career tech program retained five-star status for the third year in a row.
Every year, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce rates public schools and districts on six components, with a one-to-five star scale with half-star increments.
One star means a district needs significant support to meet state standards. Three stars means a district has met expectations. Five stars means a district has significantly exceeded expectations.
What each component means
Achievement is a measure of how well students performed on state tests.
Progress is a measure of the growth students are making based on their past performance.
Gap Closing is a measure of the reduction in educational gaps among students of different races, ones with special needs and those from economically disadvantaged families.
Graduation is a measure of the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and the five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.
Early Literacy is a measure of reading improvement and proficiency for students in kindergarten through third grade.
College, Career, Workforce, and Military Readiness is a measure of how prepared Ohio’s students are for future opportunities, whether training in a technical field or preparing for work or college.
“I would like to commend our teachers, our non-teaching staff, and our administrators for their dedicated effort in providing our Madison students with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful not only on the state tests, but most importantly in life,” Supt. Rob Peterson said.
“While we understand the importance of the Local Report Card, it is also essential to note that it is one indicator, and there is so much more that goes into educating and supporting Madison students.”
How Madison’s scores broke down
Madison’s overall district rating for the 2024-2025 broke down as follows:
- Achievement: 3 stars
- Progress: 3 stars
- Gap Closing: 3 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 2 stars
- College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness: 5 stars
Peterson said the district is especially pleased with its five star ratings in the graduation and CCWMR components and that all district buildings earned an overall rating or three or more stars.
Nevertheless, there’s still work to be done.
“As a district we are certainly not satisfied with our results and will keep working to ensure our students are growing and achieving in all academic areas and are career ready when they graduate,” Peterson said.
“We need to continue as a district to make a focused effort to improve in the area of Early Literacy as those literacy skills developed in the early grades are foundational for school success and for each student’s future after graduation.”
At the building level, Madison South Elementary and Madison High School each earned a 3.5-star overall rating.
Madison South Elementary and Mifflin Elementary each earned a 4-star overall rating.
Eastview Elementary earned a 4.5-star rating.
This year’s report cards include new post-secondary readiness metric
This is the first year report cards have a rating for the College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness (CCWMR) component. Previous versions of the report card included data, but not a rating.
The Ohio Education Association, a group representing teachers and school staff across the state, commended the use of CCWMR data, but said the report card is still too reliant on standardized testing data.
“For too long, these state report cards have been overly reliant on standardized test scores to determine ratings, ignoring the fact that these scores are a snapshot in time of a few stressful days in a student’s life rather than a measure of their ability or mastery,” OEA President Jeff Wensing said.
“Including CCWMR measures in the school ratings helps Ohioans get a more accurate view of the quality education public schools provide.”
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce also acknowledges the grade card has its limitations.
“Everyone has a role in the success of Ohio schools, and community members are encouraged to learn more about what’s happening in their local schools,” an ODEW press release stated.
“Talking with parents and neighbors, browsing school and district websites, and connecting with educators are among the ways to gain a complete understanding of students’ educational experiences.”
Madison Career Tech earns 5 stars
Career technical programs receive their own school report card, even if they are housed within a school building like Madison Comprehensive High School.
The Madison Career Technical Planning District retained its five star rating. The program served 732 students last year, according to the report card.
“This is an outstanding accomplishment that echoes the unwavering dedication, not only from our program instructors, but also from all of our teaching staff across the district, and most importantly, our students,” said Jacob Grove, Madison’s director of career technical education.
Grove also noted the important contributions of support staff, custodians, parents and guardians on the success of Madison’s CTE students.
Highlight’s from Madison’s career technical report card include:
- A 98 percent graduation rate for the class of 2024
- 95.6 percent of concentrators scoring proficient or better on their technical skill attainment tests, administered through WebXam
- 100 percent of concentrators taking a technical skill attainment test
- More than 63 percent of concentrators earned at least 12 points of industry-recognized credentials
- Nearly 87 percent of concentrators have earned the OhioMeansJobs Readiness Seal, which demonstrates a readiness to enter the workforce
Concentrators are students who have taken at least two CTE courses in the same program.
Grove said the district is proud to be within the top tier of career tech programs across the state, but there’s still work to be done.
He’d like to see every career tech student graduate with an OhioMeansJobs Readiness Seal and 12 industry recognized credentials.
One objective is raising the program’s performance index, which measures student achievement in courses like English Language Arts, mathematics and science.
The career tech program earned three stars (70.8%) for its performance index — indicating that it met state standards.
Still, Grove said the program is analyzing strategies to further boost that number.
Grove said the program is also working to meet the one federal indicator (out of nine) that it didn’t achieve in the report card: “non-traditional program enrollment.”
Students are counted as non-traditional if they enroll in a program where the workforce related to that program is primarily (75 percent or more) people of the opposite gender.
Grove said that metric is more difficult to achieve, but that Madison always aligns students’ placements with their goals, aptitudes and skills.
“We have implemented several measures to help recruit and attract non-
traditional students within those programs,” Grove said. “These include examining the lab’s appearance and ambiance, as well as the type of language and images displayed, and inviting non-traditional graduate students or professionals from the field into the lab on recruitment days.
“We recognize that reaching this indicator is challenging, and we will continue to learn and refine ideas and strategies to improve our enrollment in non-traditional programs.”