Only 3 of 34 Valley school districts make grade under new state measurements

YOUNGSTOWN

Three local school districts stand out as the highest-graded in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, according to the 2016-17 State Report Card released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Education.

Of the 34 public school districts in the counties, only Maplewood schools earned an A on the “Indicators Met” measure of the report card. This measure shows whether student performance on state tests met established thresholds.

The next-highest grade in that measure was a C earned by Canfield and Poland. The rest received D’s and F’s.

The report cards show districts’ and schools’ scores for six components in the 2016-17 school year. The components are Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation Rate, K-3 Literacy and Prepared for Success. Within each component, the ODE has given letter grades for many individual measures.

Indicators Met is one of the measures within the six main components.

“In a highly competitive, quickly changing global economy where employers’ expectations are higher than ever, our students must be equipped with the knowledge and skills that will make them lifelong learners,” said Paolo DeMaria, state superintendent of public instruction, in a statement. “We’re seeing increases in achievement across the state.”

Kim Davis, the director of teaching and learning at the Mahoning County Education Service Center, previously told The Vindicator that a new, more rigourous standard for scoring has been used by the state to measure school district success. 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 matter in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.