School report cards will be in Vindy and on Vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN — Find out how your home school district performed on the 2007 version of Ohio’s Report Card System.

The ratings are being released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Education, and results will be available sometime Tuesday on Vindy.com and Wednesday in the print edition of The Vindicator.

The state has raised the bar for schools this year, holding them accountable for pupil performances on 30 state standards of educational achievement as compared with just 25 standards last year.

Seventeen of the 45 public school districts in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties improved their academic standing on the report card last year with six of them advancing to the top rank of “excellent.”

Six others that had achieved that mark in 2005 secured that rank again last year, bringing the number of local districts at the top of their game to 12.

No area school district was rated in academic emergency last year.

Ohio’s rating system was implemented in 2003 in an effort to hold schools accountable for the performance of their pupils. It provides families, schools and school districts with the rating results before the start of the next school year.