Local schools irked by state report cards

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Local school officials are again frustrated, and scratching their heads, following the release of the second batch of State Report Card results for 2015.

While the three Van Wert County school districts — Van Wert, Crestview, and Lincolnview — stress that they’re doing the same kinds of things that earned them all high marks under the old School Report Card system, results under the new letter-grade system were less than spectacular.

All three school superintendents say they feel the 2015 results are more a matter of skewed data than an indication that the districts aren’t doing a good job of educating local students. The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) apparently agrees, since it has placed all of the state’s school districts in a “safe harbor” moratorium for two years, according to Lincolnview Superintendent Jeff Snyder.

Snyder said he was unhappy that the ODE released the results at all, seeing that the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test given last year has already been scrapped by the state in favor of an assessment created by American Institutes for Research.

The lateness of the release was also an issue for Snyder, who said with new testing coming in April, anything learned from the 2015 report card cannot be implemented in time for 2016 testing.

Crestview Local Schools fared the best, earning a “C” on its Performance Index, and a “B” for indicators met. The district also earned B in the “annual measurable objectives” (gap closing) section of the test and two “C’s” and two “F’s” in the value-added portion of the report card. The district earned two “A’s” for the percentage of students who graduated in four or five years.

Van Wert also earned a “C” on the performance index, but was given a “D” in the Indicators met portion of the test. The district received a “C” on the “gap closing” portion of the report card, and four “F’s” on the value-added section. The district received an “A” for the percentage of students graduating in four years, but a “B” on the number of students graduating in five years.

Lincolnview also received a “C” on the performance index, and garnered a “B” on the number of indicators met. It earned a “D” on the annual measurable objectives portion of the report card and three “F’s” and a “C” on the value-added section. Lincolnview also earned two “A’s” for graduation percentages.

All three local superintendents are unhappy with the way the tests are administered, with Van Wert Superintendent Ken Amstutz saying he feels the state should implement a system that would involve shorter tests administered more often throughout the year, noting that the current two-hour “high-stakes” test often penalizes students who have a bad day, rather than provide valid indications of their academic progress.

Nearly all the problems experienced at county schools comes in the value-added area of the test, in the elementary schools, with the often-criticized Third Grade Reading Guarantee, or the middle school grades.

In fact, all three high schools performed well, with Crestview and Van Wert high schools earning all “A’s” and “B’s” and Lincolnview, which had its high school combined with its junior high, having all “A’s” and “B’s”, except for one “C”. That doesn’t include the value-added portion of the test, which doesn’t affect high schools.

Van Wert and Crestview high schools both received “B’s” on the performance index and indicators met, and an “A” on the gap closing portion of the test. Lincolnview received a “C” on its performance index, but an “A” on indicators met and a “B” on the “gap closing” portion of the report card.

Statewide, only six of Ohio’s 690 school districts received all “A’s” on the report card, while more than 300 of the districts (none in Van Wert County) have filed appeals contesting the report card results.

With the state now implementing its third new test in the past three years — after what educators are calling flawed results from the 2015 report card data — local superintendents say they are trying to move forward and continue making improvements in how local students are educated.

“All districts the past three years have had to deal with three different assessments from ODE, making it a challenge to really grasp the complexities of the student growth formula to break down student progress and growth in each of our districts,” Snyder said.

Crestview Superintendent Mike Estes said his district plans to do nothing different in the two months it has until the next assessments, but added he was comforted somewhat from a statement made by State Representative Randy Gardner (R-Bowling Green) at a seminar he attended.

Estes said Gardner, who has spoken out about the problems he sees with state report card testing, noted that he felt northwest Ohio schools were doing a better job of educating kids today than in the past.

Amstutz said Van Wert is looking at finding an alternative assessment program that would provide more valid information on how district students are doing, while also hoping the state listens to educators and implements a testing system that involves shorter, more frequent tests that could be averaged to provide a more realistic assessment of student performance.

“I’m not afraid of assessments,” the Van Wert superintendent said, adding, though, that he feels those assessments need to provide valid information on how students are doing.