District in Academic Distress raises grade

Lorain City Schools improved from an “F” grade to a “D” on the 2019 Ohio school district report cards published Sept. 12 by the Ohio Department of Education.

The overall letter grade improvement is a cause for celebration, according to Lorain Schools CEO David Hardy Jr.

Hardy called it “a monumental step in our district’s history.”

Anyone who works for Lorain Schools is part of the change and city residents should be grateful for the work of more than 900 employees, Hardy said. “We should be very thankful for the work they’ve done to make our kids better,” he said.

In the classrooms, there were plenty of smiles to go around when teachers told their students about the improvements, Hardy said.

“The pride that they shared on those little faces just brightens my heart,” he said.

On the report card, Lorain’s gap-closing component spiked from a grade of F last year to a grade of B on the 2019 report card.

“That’s nearly unheard of,” Hardy said.

“The Gap Closing component shows how well districts and schools are meeting the performance expectations for all students, especially our most vulnerable populations of students, in English, language arts, math and graduation, and how they are doing in teaching English learners to become proficient in English,” according to the Ohio Department of Education. At 5:30 p.m., Sept. 16, Hardy will discuss the school district report card results during his State of the District Information Night at the Lorain High School Performing Arts Center, 2600 Ashland Ave.

He said it will be a celebration of hard work of faculty and staff improving education in the city.

Flawed system

Lorain Schools Board of Education President Mark Ballard said he was happy for the students, but Ohio continues to use a flawed system to measure student success.

For years, Ohio lawmakers and school leaders have altered and fiddled with the school district report cards, student tests, rubrics and methods for measuring achievement, Ballard said.

If Ohio had consistent, equitable markers for all school districts, it would be easier for schools to hit those marks, he said.

It appeared the state of Ohio also was lowering the bar for minority students so that minority school districts can avoid state takeover.

The morning of Sept. 12, Ballard shared information from Jimma McWilson of the Education, Employment & Social Justice Committee of the NAACP Youngstown Branch.

Youngstown Schools also are in the state’s academic distress rating and are governed by the law known as House Bill 70, which outlines how an appointed academic distress commission and CEO will govern struggling school districts.

In two emails, McWilson claimed the Ohio Department of Education and its leadership were adopting “inferior academic expectations/goals for black students.”

Ballard suggested “the new sliding scale of black kids” led to the “B” grade for Lorain Schools in gap closing.

He also pointed to Sandusky City Schools, a district smaller than Lorain but similar in demographics.

Across 14 measures of school district success, Sandusky earned three B’s, four C’s, four D’s and three F’s, according to the school district report cards.

But Sandusky Schools also earned an overall D grade, the same as Lorain, which had mostly F grades, Ballard said.

“The formula just never makes sense,” he said, referring to the state calculations for district grades.

More improvements

Hardy pointed to other improvements.

“We’ve had some tremendous gains,” he said.

Lorain doubled the number of schools, from two to four, receiving overall C grades.

Six of Lorain’s 14 schools improved by a letter grade.

The four-year graduation rate rose from 70.9 percent to 77.1 percent, while the five-year graduation rate increased from 75.6 percent to 79.6 percent.

An increase of 1 percent or 2 percent is noticeable, but a 7 percent jump is significant, Hardy said.

The five-year graduation rate also is the highest such rate in district history, he said.

But Lorain Schools also had a number of F grades, according to the school district report card: • Achievement component grade

• Indicators met grade • Progress component grade

• Overall value-added grade

• Gifted value-added grade

• Lowest 20 percent value-added grade

• Students With Disabilities value-added grade

• Graduation component grade

• Four- and five-year graduation grades

• Prepared for success component grade

Lorain Schools earned “D” grades for improving at-risk K-3 readers component grade and performance index score grade.

Additional reaction

After release of the school district report cards, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an educational policy think tank, published a table showing districts that received an overall “F” rating last year, were improving for the 2019 report cards.

Lorain was included on that graph with 13 other school districts.

“Parents and communities deserve an honest look at academic performance,” said Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. “Ohio’s report cards remain the backbone of a transparent education system that puts student outcomes at the center.

“Importantly, report cards include not only point-in-time snapshots of proficiency, but also measures of student progress over time,” Churchill said. “Because progress indicators don’t correlate with demographics, they allow high-performing, high-poverty schools to shine.”