Six Valley districts drop in academic rating

YOUNGSTOWN — Just three of the 45 public school districts in the tri-county area improved their standing on the Ohio Department of Education’s local report card this year.

By contrast, six districts across Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties dropped in the state’s latest academic ratings, released Tuesday.

Every other district retained last year’s designations.

Boardman made the biggest jump, improving from continuous improvement to a designation of excellent.

Howland moved up from an effective designation to excellent, and Salem improved from continuous improvement to effective.

There are five possible designations, based on student performance on achievement tests and other factors such as attendance and graduation rate. They are: Excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.

Three area districts rated as excellent last year — Springfield, West Branch and Maplewood — dropped to effective this year.

Warren, in continuous improvement last year, dropped to academic watch while Struthers and Wellsville, both effective last year, dropped one spot to continuous improvement.

For more coverage and results, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com