River Valley tops Marion County school districts on state report card results
Under the new system, which was implemented by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) during the 2021-2022 academic year, the report card evaluates the following categories: achievement, progress, early literacy, gap closing, graduation, and readiness (college, career, workforce, military). Readiness does not not contribute to the overall rating on the 2023 Ohio School Report Cards. Districts can earn up to five stars in each category and half-star ratings are possible.
Following is the ratings scale with definitions of what each number of stars signifies:
5 stars — Significantly exceeds state standards
4 or 4.5 stars — Exceeds state standards
3 or 3.5 stars — Meets state standards
2 or 2.5 stars — Needs support to meet state standards
1 or 1.5 stars — Needs significant support to meet state standards
Marion County school report card results
River Valley Local Schools recorded an overall rating of 4.5 stars, according to the report from ODE. Following are River Valley's ratings for each of the categories measured: Achievement, 4 stars; Progress, 4 stars; Early Literacy, 3 stars; Gap Closing, 5 stars; Graduation, 5 stars.
"We were pleased with the overall results of the state report card, 4.5 out of 5 stars shows our staff is doing a great job," River Valley Local Schools Superintendent Adam Wickham said. "It also reinforces that River Valley is able to secure effective results with far fewer resources than many districts throughout the state. We also have identified areas for improvement, especially with K-3 literacy and college and career readiness.
"We have a focus this year on our teachers in our primary grades (K-2) focusing on adopting more components of the science of reading, including phonics instruction," Wickham added. "As far as the college and career readiness focus, we want to continue expanding pathways for students, work-based learning options, and more College Credit Plus courses taught by our own teachers."
Elgin Local Schools received an overall rating of 4 stars. Following are Elgin's ratings for each of the categories measured: Achievement, 3 stars; Progress, 4 stars; Early Literacy, 2 stars; Gap Closing, 4 stars; Graduation, 4 stars.
"Overall, there are a lot of things to be happy about regarding our district report card," Elgin Local Superintendent Lane Warner said. "In the area of Achievement, Elgin had the highest proficient percentage in Marion County on 7 of the 20 tested areas, which was the highest among all schools in the county. We continue to see great results from our students on the science assessments, with the highest proficient percentages in the county at the fifth and eighth grade levels as well as on the high school biology assessment. The Progress indicator shows that overall, our students are making good movement from one year to the next in most areas."
Warner said early literacy will continue to be a focus area during this academic year.
"During this year we are planning to explore and adopt new reading materials for the elementary that include the science of reading standards and curriculum," Warner said. "We are also beginning the first year of a five-year 21st Century Learning Center grant that will completely fund before and after-school learning and tutoring opportunities for elementary students and allow for additional time to develop reading skills."
Pleasant Local Schools also recorded an overall rating of 4 stars. Following are Pleasant's ratings for each of the categories measured: Achievement, 4 stars; Progress, 3 stars; Early Literacy, 3 stars; Gap Closing, 5 stars; Graduation, 5 stars.
"We are very proud of continuing to not only graduate our students at the highest level possible, but to also help them find their most appropriate career pathway before they graduate," Pleasant Local Superintendent Tom McDonnell said. "We want all students to earn their high school diploma and also be prepared for their life after graduation by encouraging students to focus on an 'E' (employment, enlistment, or enrollment). Seeing the progress in each of the other areas of our district report card shows the growth mindset and commitment to our students that our staff clearly has here at Pleasant."
McDonnell identified several areas that Pleasant Local will continue to emphasize and hopefully improve in this academic year and moving forward.
"Our new ELA (English Language Arts) curriculum aligns to the Science of Reading, which is a recent state mandate, and we believe our practices in structured literacy will help us continue to see growth in this area," McDonnell said. "We also believe that it is important to look at our progress and value-added (indicators). This indicator measures the impact of our district, schools and teachers on the academic growth of groups of students from year to year."
Ridgedale Local Schools received an overall rating of 3.5 stars. Following are Ridgedale's ratings for each of the categories measured: Achievement, 3 stars; Progress, 3 stars; Early Literacy, 3 stars; Gap Closing, 3 stars; Graduation, 5 stars.
"We are continuing to dig into the report card data, and we will continue to use this data as one data point among others in order to reflect on areas of strength and areas where we can continue to improve," Ridgedale Local Superintendent Erika Bower said. "Because we are still in a time of transition with the report cards, we know we need to do some comparisons over the course of several years to really get a big picture of what may or may not have changed.
"One of our core areas of focus has been early literacy. We are continuing our work on our literacy plan that aligns our work with Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement that was released in 2020 along with the Science of Reading," Bower added. "We are especially proud of our graduation rate. Our mission at Ridgedale is to empower students to meet their full potential and prepare them to be productive citizens in our community. It is necessary for our students to have a diploma in hand to start their journey beyond K-12 education."
Marion City Schools recorded an overall rating of 2.5 stars. Following are Marion City's ratings for each of the categories measured: Achievement, 2 stars; Progress, 2 stars; Early Literacy, 1 stars; Gap Closing, 3 stars; Graduation, 3 stars.
"The local report card can give us useful information, but it doesn't tell the entire story of our district and what our students can do because it doesn't measure everything," Marion City Superintendent Olympia Della Flora said. "It provides data to help us understand how our students and district compare to others across the state. We will use the data to identify academic focus areas to improve on during the 2023-2024 school year."
Della Flora noted that four of the district's eight schools "achieved an overall 3-star rating which meets state standards."
"As a district, we met the state standard of 3 stars in gap closing and graduation rate," Della Flora said. "We decreased chronic absenteeism by 14.2 percent from the 2021-2022 to 2022-2023 school year. In gap closing, we received 5 out of 5 points for English Learner (EL) Progress and Gifted Progress. This does not show on the report card, but digging into the SDC (Secure Data Center) we got 3 stars for the overall composite value added of students with disabilities (SWD)."
Della Flora said Marion City Schools officials gleaned the following information about value added indicators from the Secure Data Center on the ODE website:
Math Overall: 3 stars
Math Gifted: 5 stars
Math SWD: 5 stars
Science Gifted: 3 stars
Science SWD: 3 stars
Social Studies Overall: 3 stars
Social Studies SWD: 3 stars
Email: ecarter@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion County schools state report card results
