No improvement for some schools as report cards loom

YOUNGSTOWN — Five of the six tri-county school districts that dropped in the ratings on the state annual report card a year ago expect to stay at those lower levels when the 2007-08 report cards come out Aug. 26.

Struthers, Wellsville, Warren, Springfield and West Branch all went down a notch in the state scoring, which looks at pupil academic performance, attendance, graduation rates and other factors.

Spokesmen for all five said preliminary indications from the Ohio Department of Education show their ratings wouldn’t change this year. Maplewood also dropped, but the schools superintendent couldn’t be reached for comment on this year’s results.

The report card offers five designations: excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.

A regional breakdown shows six Mahoning County school districts, five Trumbull County districts and one Columbiana County district were rated as excellent last year.

Five Mahoning districts, 15 Trumbull districts and six Columbiana districts were rated as effective. One Mahoning and four Columbiana districts were listed in continuous improvement and one Mahoning and one Trumbull district were rated in academic watch. No locals were in academic emergency.

For details, see Tuesday's Vindicator or www.vindy.com.