GV-PV reflect on report cards
Sep. 27—Administrators from Grand Valley and Pymatuning Valley school districts are evaluating their state report cards and hoping to use the information to improve the schools in the years to come.
The schools are evaluated by the Ohio Department of Education yearly with a one-to-five star system in five different categories. The areas of evaluation are achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation and early literacy, with one star the lowest and five stars the highest.
Pymatuning Valley Local Schools Superintendent Chris Edison said the state uses a system to evaluate data and provide a picture for the community and the school districts to review.
Pymatuning Valley received three stars in achievement; two stars in progress; two stars in gap closing, four stars in graduation and two stars in early literacy.
"I didn't feel too bad about it. There is room for improvement, as there always is," Edison said.
Edison said he was very happy with the four star rating in graduation. He credits the work of PVHS principal Dan Jackson and guidance counselor Scott Brown.
The two administrators work hard to make sure the students are on the path to graduation, Edison said.
"We use this as one tool for data collected, but it is not the end-all and be-all," Edison said.
The four star rating in gap closing indicates students that were struggling in a particular area have made significant process in making up that deficiency.
The progress area was less successful, as the district only received a two star rating."It is definitely an area that needs some improvement," he said.
The early literacy category was also a two star rating, and the district has put a literacy curriculum together to increase overall literacy rates and are focusing intently on the junior high school.
The program is in its second year with a literacy specialist working with teachers in all three buildings to improve the reading of all students.
Edison said students that stay on a reading plan over a period of time hurt the district's scores in that category. "We need to do what's right for the kids, and if they need to stay on the plan, they need to stay on the plan," he said.
The Grand Valley Local Schools report card included evaluations of three stars in achievement; one star in progress; four stars in gap closing; four stars in graduation and five stars in early literacy.
Grand Valley Local Schools Superintendent William Nye also said the report card results are one way to evaluate the district but not the only tool used.
"I think we are one of the better [report cards] in the county, but that is not good enough," Nye said.
"We did really good with closing gaps," Nye said. He said the district did not do too well in the progress category.
Nye said he felt the gap closing scores were helped by the work done by the district to help students that may have fallen through the cracks during the coronavirus pandemic.
"We did a lot of remediation. We had a lot of tutors in the building," he said.
