SHELBY — With graduation only weeks away, the test scores of Shelby’s senior class were discussed at length at the district’s Board of Education meeting on Monday.
Shelby High School principal John Gies explained the complicated nature of the test scores, noting high school testing is an ever-evolving science.
“There’s a joke that goes around Ohio schools that basically says testing in Ohio is kind of like building the plane as you’re flying it,” Gies said. “There are a lot of changes that take place in testing during the school year. It’s frustrating, but we’re used to it.”
Currently there are approximately 164 seniors set to graduate on Sunday, May 20, though Gies noted it was a “sliding scale.” A handful of seniors are on the fence for graduation due to credit issues.
“However, right now we will have no seniors fail to graduate because of not hitting the testing requirement,” Gies said. “They either hit the testing number or they hit an alternate pathway.”
Under new state requirements, high school students need to earn 18 points on seven end-of-course tests to graduate. Students can earn one point if they score as Limited on a state end-of-course exam, two for Basic, three for Proficient, four for Accelerated and five for Advanced.
The end-of-course tests include: Algebra 1 or Integrated Math 1; Geometry or Integrated Math 2, American Government, American History, English 1, English 2, and Biology. Students must have a minimum of four points in math, four points in English and six points across science and social studies.
State graduation requirements also specify that students can receive credit towards graduation by earning State Board of Education-approved, industry recognized credits in a single career field and scoring high on a work-readiness test.
The class of 2018 is the first class to take the end-of-course tests. On Monday, Gies shared the group’s test scores on the end-of-course exams from freshman to senior year, watching requirements and test scores change dramatically over the four years.
“We changed from the OGT to the PARCC to the AIR test in a three-year span; it became difficult to figure out what is it we’re supposed to be doing,” Gies said.
Currently the senior class reached the state’s 80 percent passing rate for four of the seven classes – Algebra 1, English 1, Biology and American History. The numbers are a drastic change from the year prior, where no classes reached the 80 percent passing rate goal.
“This was not a happy staff meeting showing these scores,” Gies said. “Nobody liked them, but we wanted to know how to make improvements.”
Gies also noted the percentages were more optimistic upon further dissecting the numbers.
“Only four students did not pass Algebra 1 the first time; only one did not pass American History,” he explained. “Our kids and our teachers have worked extremely hard to get to this place here.
“We have made some amazing strides. I like where we are so far.”
The statistics also changed thanks to new indicators created by the state, where first-time test takers are measured separately from retakes. Of the retakes group, 25 percent of those students must move up one level after retaking the exams.
Moving forward, the biggest challenge Shelby hopes to tackle is helping those students who do not pass the end-of-course tests the first time around.
“It’s difficult because even though they may score low on the end-of-course exam, if they pass the class they’re moving on,” Gies said. “So how do we remediate them for English 2 stuff when they’re taking other classes?”
However, Gies is optimistic.
“We continue to keep plugging away at it,” he said. “It’s difficult as they continue to make changes and we have to adapt on the fly, but we’re used to that.”
