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<\/a>While all three county school superintendents said there were positives and negatives incorporated in their districts\u2019 state report card ratings, they also said more research was needed to ensure that their schools improve their scores.<\/p>\n
Van Wert Superintendent Ken Amstutz evinced no surprise at the scores released on Thursday by the Ohio Department of Education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of surprises there,\u201d Amstutz said. \u201cIt was pretty similar to what we expected it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Van Wert received good marks on the traditional educational areas of the state report card, with three As and two Bs, the district did less well with the \u201cvalue-added\u201d portion of the rankings \u2013 something that also didn\u2019t surprise Amstutz.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest concern Van Wert City Schools has — and everybody has — is the value-added,\u201d the superintendent said. \u201cWe have a lot of ways to go with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amstutz noted that value-added was an ongoing concern with the former state report card system, and said that district educational teams have been working on that component for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy piece to get our arms wrapped around, but we\u2019ll get there,\u201d the superintendent said.<\/p>\n
Currently, VWCS staff is working on figuring out just what the data released on Thursday actually means for the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all new to us, but we\u2019ll work hard to figure it out,\u201d Amstutz said.<\/p>\n
Crestview Superintendent Mike Estes was pleased, overall, with the state report card rankings, although he said there were some value-added components the district needs to work on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we met 23 of 24 indicators and graduation rates were up there and our overall value-added indicates that we\u2019re doing a great job of teaching to those kids in the middle,\u201d Estes said, noting that the district needs to work on increasing Crestview\u2019s value-added scores for gifted students and students with disabilities, as well as those in the lowest 20 percent economically.<\/p>\n
The Crestview superintendent said the district\u2019s administrative team met Friday morning to evaluate the new state report card data and to set some priorities for moving forward. Estes said administrators have scheduled three meetings in September to further analyze the data and provide direction to the district\u2019s teachers on how to proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is that we\u2019re going to do what the state wants us to do: look for ways to improve,\u201d Estes added, although he did note that he felt the data released could be confusing for people in general.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep a positive mindset here, and look it as, okay, what positive steps can we take now, what ways can we improve that\u2019s going to make it better for our kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lincolnview Superintendent Jeffrey Snyder was also optimistic about his district\u2019s test scores, although he also noted that the district will have to do further research on the data.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, as a district, we are in a good starting place from the nine grades that we earned form the 2012-2013 grade card,\u201d Snyder said, adding, \u201cAs with each new academic measure enacted by the State of Ohio, we will take this school year to analyze, evaluate, explore, interpret and dissect each of the nine graded scores, and then make the necessary changes to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then new Lincolnview superintendent said that, even before the new state report cards came out, district educators have been working proactively to improve district students\u2019 academic growth, implementing a new junior high-high school schedule with more common planning time for teachers, a new grade book program, a new interactive math textbook series and the hiring of a new curriculum specialist through the Western Buckeye Educational Service Center.<\/p>\n
Snyder said Lincolnview is also focusing on the future, when the state will add nine more academic indicators to the state report card scoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also realize that the nine measures this year will increase to grades and reports on 16 measures next year, and, by the year 2016, there will be 18 measures,\u201d he said. \u201cThis year we look forward to understanding this new model of student measures and will work very hard to improve in all areas, with a goal of growth in each of the graded areas for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Sometimes educators need to be educated, and that\u2019s the case with the new state report cards released Thursday. While all three county school superintendents said there were positives and negatives incorporated in their districts\u2019 state report card ratings, they also said more research was needed to ensure that their schools improve their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 18:02:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}