School chief slams report cards

Educators not complaining just to complain, superintendent says

Ohio’s school district report cards do not portray an accurate picture of student achievement in Vermilion, said Superintendent Phil Pempin.

On Sept. 28, Pempin published an open letter to the community about the school district report cards published this month by the Ohio Department of Education.

Among the grades, Vermilion schools earned a D for student achievement, a C for kindergarten to third grade literacy, a B for progress and a C for “prepared for success.”

Pempin launched a volley of criticism about the state’s methods of measuring student achievement.

“The present method required by the state is a violation of everything we know about effective teaching and evaluation techniques,” he said.

His letter was sent to area news outlets and will be posted on the district’s website. Pempin also spoke to The Morning Journal about Vermilion school scores.

A draft of the letter was shared with Vermilion School Board members. They all generally agreed with his criticisms, he said.

“They see all the good things that are going on; they also see the flaws,” Pempin said about the school board members. “But they know we’re more than just that score and it’s not right the way (the state) is characterizing the

school district, the way it’s currently set up, and they’re behind us.”

Vermilion administrators and teachers union representatives also saw a copy of the letter before Pempin made it public, he said.

Pempin praised the usefulness of Measure of Academic Progress, or MAP, tests. He ripped the state’s methods for scoring and returning data for the American Institutes for Research, or AIR, and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, tests.

“The data used to create the state report card is therefore flawed and unreliable,” Pempin said. “This method of testing one subject, on a single day, defies all best practice teaching methods.”

The letter marked the first time the Vermilion’s school chief has spoken out about the issue.

Vermilion school leaders and teachers are not making excuses and they want to be accountable to parents and taxpayers, Pempin said.

The Vermilion educators and administration also are not complaining just to complain, he said. By some measures, Vermilion schools this year, outpaced some districts that on paper should be superior school systems, Pempin said.

“This isn’t sour grapes by our district,” he said. “We’re not saying, we’re at the bottom of the pile and we’re going to complain.”

But local educators “have reached a tipping point with state and federal authorities through their unreasonable demands,” Pempin wrote.

Vermilion schools are not alone, with school superintendents statewide disputing the results of the report cards, he said.

Locally, Lorain School Board members in September also criticized the state’s measurements and questioned how the grades would help.

“This method of testing one subject, on a single day, defies all best practice teaching methods.”

— Superintendent Phil Pempin.

Pempin