Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Who says excellent learning isn’t taking place inside today’s public schools? Certainly not those familiar with the through-the-roof academic performance at Maplewood Elementary School, Boardman’s West Boulevard Elementary, Poland’s Dobbins Elementary, Springfield Elementary and Canfield High School.
Those top five centers of learning in the Mahoning Valley float in the stratosphere of the state’s 3,000-plus schools based on their overall performance index score in the 2013-14 state report cards issued late last week. In addition, all but seven of the 45 school districts measured in the Valley received excellent — A — or good — B — grades in their performance-index totals, and none out-and-out flunked completely.
Collectively, those results put the many naysayers of public education to shame. Yes, Virginia, there are school systems in the Valley and the state that continue to fall woefully behind in adequately meeting measurements of effective performance. Nearly all schools certainly have room for improvements.
But overall, most Mahoning Valley parents and education professionals can take pride in the largely positive grades they received last week. (The most notable exceptions to that generalization, of course, remain all charter schools in the Valley and the Youngstown and Warren public schools, about which we commented Tuesday on this page. )
As noted in a chart on The Vindicator’s front page Saturday, Canfield Local Local Schools and Maplewood Local distinguished themselves as the only districts to receive the excellent grade of A on the performance-index totals, the underperforming urban districts of Youngstown and Warren both received D’s while Campbell, Liberty, East Palestine, East Liverpool, and Southern Local all received average scores of C. Several districts, including Brookfield and Niles, climbed a notch this year.
TOUGHER STANDARDS THIS YEAR
The results are made all the more impressive when one realizes that the state has raised the bar on its expectations for students and educators. Indeed some school districts that performed above average had lower overall performance index scores this year than in 2012-13. Some education leaders argue that easier questions were replaced with harder ones as the state shifts its focus to meeting the more rigorous standards of the Common Core curriculum.
There can be no argument, however, that Ohio has toughened its criteria for what constitutes proficiency. Specifically, this year, 80 percent of students must score as “proficient” in each tested grade and subject, up from 75 percent, for the district to receive the same passing grade. That commendable toughening of standards bodes well for keeping both students and teachers on their toes.
Although some may find the avalanche of information contained on their report cards a bit perplexing, the data do provide a warehouse of instructive guidance for school districts to better understand their individual strengths and weaknesses.
Beyond understanding the data, teachers, administrators and parents also must use the data in planning areas of emphasis in the new 2014-15 school year. Some districts may need to beef up curriculum for gifted and disabled students, others may want to put stronger focus on serving underperforming students, still others may need to implement programs to better retain students through graduation day.
Raising the bar on Ohio’s educational standards stands out as one of the greatest assets of Ohio’s evolving new system of grading its schools. The new and tougher evaluation procedures hold great promise toward achieving meaningful improvements in Ohio’s public schools and in producing better and brighter high school graduates. As this year’s results clearly point out, most districts in the Valley can proudly proclaim they’re well on their way toward reaching those goals.