OLIVESBURG – Crestview Local School District Supt. Jim Grubbs isn’t the biggest fan of the Ohio State Report Cards.
He is, however, dedicated to his students’ success in school and beyond.
Grubbs’ district earned 3.5 stars in the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s annual report card. It’s the same grade each of Crestview Local Schools’ three schools received.
As a district, Crestview earned the following grades in the Ohio report card’s six primary categories:
- Achievement: 3 stars
- Progress: 2 stars
- Gap Closing: 3 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 3 stars
- College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness: 5 stars
What do school report card components mean?
Achievement is a measure of how well students in grades 3 through 12 performed on state tests.
Progress measures how much growth students are making, based on state test results from prior years. For the 2025-2026 report cards, ratings are based on three consecutive years of data.
Gap Closing measures how well schools close achievement gaps for students of different races, students with disabilities and students from economically disadvantaged families. The gap closing metric is also impacted by chronic absenteeism rates and how well the district serves gifted students.
Graduation is determined by a high school’s four-year graduation rate (60 percent of the score) and its five-year graduation rate (40 percent of the score).
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, including entering the workforce, enlisting in the military or pursuing additional education. Districts get points for students who do things like pass the ACT or SAT, earn an honors diploma, complete college courses or earn industry recognized credentials.
The six categories of the report card’s grading structure depict the areas in which a school or district is meeting, failing to meet or exceeding the state’s expectations. A five-star grade is outstanding; a one-star grade may require more state funding and a three-star grade is the expectation.
Crestview’s five-star ratings in graduation and college, career, workforce and military readiness are a product of involvement, he says. Another symptom is Crestview Local’s 7.9% chronic absentee rate.
“More than 75% of our high school students are involved in something at our school,” Grubbs said. “When you get a kid who’s connected to something at school, they come to school. There’s no earth-shattering thing other than building a culture that your kids want to be part of, and getting them involved in something other than sitting in math class.
“When you can do those two things well, your kids are going to want to come to school … I have kids that go home and tell their parents, ‘Mom, don’t schedule that dentist appointment during third period because that’s when I have STEM class.'”
Crestview Middle School implemented STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses four years ago. The classes allow students to dive into something separate from their typical curriculum that interests them. It has been a tremendous success, Grubbs said.
Teaching success starts in kindergarten up through graduation for Crestview Local, the superintendent said.
The district is in the “Leader In Me” program, which teaches the principles of Stephen R. Covey’s book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
“We truly believe in it,” Grubbs said. “When you preach those habits about being successful, obviously being here is one of them. We have also started separating what we consider professional skills.
“Think about this: when you were in school, I bet some teachers took points away from you because you turned in something late, or your notebook wasn’t organized well, or you did not work well with your classmates.
“We have taken that away from the academic grade and put it on a grade card as a professional skill grade.”
There are points Grubbs wishes to improve upon as well. However, he feels parts of the grades themselves may be out of his control.
“With early literacy, you have a lot of transient people coming in and out of your district,” Grubbs said. “We’re holding school districts accountable for a kid who may have shown up in August of their third-grade year … (from a school that) did not prepare them the way we are preparing our kids who have been here for three years before going into third grade.
“At the end of the day, if you look at our early literacy, we did not do as well as we would have liked. And part of that is due to some transient students.”
Grubbs looks forward to the future of his district. In his tenure as superintendent, he’s avidly looked for new ways to increase engagement and improve the district. He may not agree with everything in the report card, but the two entities are seeking the same thing: improving the education of Ohio’s students.
