New state grading system doesn't reflect improvement, educator warns

CANFIELD

Letter grades of Cs, Ds and Fs may be on the way for a number of Mahoning Valley schools when the Ohio Department of Education releases its state report cards Sept. 15, but local education administrators are urging parents to look beyond the grades.

Kim Davis, director of teaching and learning at the Mahoning County Education Service Center, said a new, more rigorous standard for scoring has been used by the state to measure school district success.

The report cards, in part, measure students’ proficiency in a number of topics and skills, such as social studies, reading etc. Schools are rewarded “points” toward their overall grade based on the percentage of students showing proficiency in each of the scored categories.

In 2016, the percentage of students showing proficiency needed for schools to earn a point differed from category to category.

This year, the state requires 80 percent of students to achieve proficiency in all categories, regardless of topic.

Davis said this change fails to recognize improvements in the school districts.

Read more about the situation in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.