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System would require more testing
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN
Students will take more tests, and it will be more difficult for school districts to earn As on state report cards under a new system proposed for Ohio.
Changes on the state report card proposed for next year will give each school and district a letter grade from A to F. Before, the elements figured into that calculation — performance indicators met, performance index, value added and meeting adequate yearly progress — were weighted differently with value-added, for example, counting for less of the overall score.
With the change, though, all of those elements will be weighted equally, said Barbara Williams, director of teaching and learning at the Mahoning County Educational Service Center.
Fewer schools will earn As.
On the most recent report card, 86 districts across the state were designated excellent with distinction, and 266 were designated excellent. Those districts would be graded A on the most recent report card. But under the new, more rigorous system, only 17 districts would earn an A — none of them in Mahoning Valley.
“That doesn’t mean that districts aren’t doing as well,” said Ron Iarussi, MCESC superintendent.
Just because a district scored “excellent” or “excellent with distinction” on the 2010-11 report card and then gets a B on the 2011-12 report card doesn’t mean the district dropped, he said.
Just like most districts succeeded under the former report-card system, they’ll do the same as they grow accustomed to the new one, Iarussi and Williams said.
The changes are part of the state’s application to the U.S. Department of Education for a waiver from No Child Left Behind requirements. NCLB requires states to develop assessments in basic skills. States must give these assessments to all students at select grade levels in order to receive federal school funding.
Other changes on the way for the 2014 to 2015 school year, as part of the state’s involvement with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, calls for tests aimed more at college and career readiness to replace the Ohio Achievement Assessment and the Ohio Graduation Test, Williams said.
Those tests also would be completed on a computer rather than the traditional pencil and paper exams, she said.
A performance-based assessment will replace the OAA, and end-of-year and end-of-course assessments will replace the OGT.
When a student finishes a course, for example, they’ll take an assessment.
“That’s about five times as many tests as now,” Iarussi said.