Post-pandemic academic progress mixed in Summit County in Ohio school report cards
Schools in Summit County made uneven academic progress toward recovering pandemic losses last school year. Everyone's scores went up, but that was expected as last year was closer to normal following a tumultuous 2020-21 school year when many schools had at least some time in remote learning, and all schools experienced high absences and other pandemic-related challenges.
No districts in the county outpaced their pre-pandemic test scores, but a handful, including Stow-Munroe Falls and Barberton, have recovered the majority of what they lost during the pandemic. Others still have a ways to go, although some districts had lost more ground and therefore had more to make up.
The Ohio Department of Education on Thursday released the state report card for the 2021-22 school year, providing data on last year's test scores and other measures of student success.
Road to recovery: Akron Public Schools students regain about 70% of lost test score points
This is the first year the state is using a rating system of five stars, moving away from an A-F letter grade system. Three stars is considered meeting state standards, with one and two stars indicating need for significant or some help toward meeting the standards, and four and five stars exceeding expectations.
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Twinsburg City Schools earned four stars in achievement and progress, and made up more than half of the points lost during the pandemic. The district is still about four points below where it was in 2019.
"We are very pleased with our school district's results, especially given the manner in which we operated because of the pandemic," Superintendent Kathryn Powers said. She noted the district also received five stars for closing the achievement gap.
"This component shows how well schools are meeting performance expectations for our most vulnerable students in English language arts, math and graduation," she said.
Powers said she was also happy with the graduation ranking."Although one would think that this rating pertains solely to Twinsburg High School, we know that every Twinsburg City School District educator and support staff member plays important roles in preparing our students for graduation from high school," Powers said. "This path to success begins with our youngest students at Wilcox Primary School and proceeds through the other four schools in our district."
Because of the pandemic, this year's report card will not be held against struggling districts and is for information purposes only. Districts also did not receive overall ratings this year but did receive ratings in five areas: achievement, growth, graduating rate, early literacy and gap closing. A future sixth category that measures students' readiness for life after high school will be added next year.
This year's report card highlights the successes and struggles of catching students up following months or even a full year of remote learning due to the pandemic.
A high star rating but low progress score, for example, would indicate a district had high test scores but did not improve significantly over the previous year. A high progress score but low achievement would indicate a struggling district is making significant year-to-year gains. The stars for achievement are based on a district's performance index, which has long been linked to socioeconomics, and which combines the individual test scores of all students across a number of different subjects.
Here are the ratings Summit County districts received for achievement and progress.
See school district report card data for every Ohio district
You can access the full report card here.
Akron
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Achievement: ★★
Progress: ★★
Barberton
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Achievement: ★★★
Progress: ★★★
Copley-Fairlawn
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Achievement: ★★★★★
Progress: ★★
Coventry
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Achievement: ★★★
Progress: ★
Cuyahoga Falls
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Achievement: ★★★
Progress: ★.
Green
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Achievement: ★★★★★
Progress: ★★★★
Hudson
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Achievement: ★★★★★
Progress: ★★★★★
Manchester
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Achievement: ★★★★
Progress: ★
Mogadore
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Achievement: ★★★★
Progress: ★★★★★
Nordonia
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Achievement: ★★★★★
Progress: ★★★★★
Norton
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Achievement: ★★★★
Progress: ★★★
Revere
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Achievement: ★★★★★
Progress: ★★★
Springfield
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Achievement: ★★★
Progress: ★★★
Stow-Munroe Falls
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Achievement: ★★★★
Progress: ★★★★
Tallmadge
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Achievement: ★★★★
Progress: ★★★★★
Twinsburg
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Achievement: ★★★★
Progress: ★★★★
Woodridge
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Achievement: ★★★
Progress: ★★★★★
Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio report cards show Summit County schools a mixed bag
