How districts fared around the county

The Ohio State Report Cards are in, showing state evaluation for how each district performed last year.

Amherst

No surprises came with the Amherst Exempted Village Schools district’s report card this year, according to Assistant Superintendent Mike Molnar.

With an overall grade of a “B” and a progress component grade of an “A,” all grades have either stayed level or improved from last year, Molnar said.

The district also is one of 40 in the state to have received four straight “A” grades in value-added grades, included overall, gift, lowest 20 percent and School Work Alliance.

It is the district’s fourth year of receiving “A’s” in those four categories, Molnar said.

“That’s our most important measure,” he said. “It shows our students making at least a year’s growth, and an ‘A’ is significant growth.”

Molnar said that although trends are difficult to predict year after year, progress is a stable component of report cards that the district focuses on.

“Progress is where we focus on,” he said. “Students come from all different places.”

As for the district’s lowest grades, they come from student performance on state tests and prepared for success grades at a “D.”

At-risk K-3 readers component grade and achievement component grade came in at a “C.”

Avon

Avon Local School District repeated its performance in 2019 with another overall grade of “A.”

Avon is among 31 districts out of 608 across the state of Ohio to earn top marks from the Ohio Department of Education.

“We are one of the highest performing school districts in the state while remaining in the bottom 9 percent in cost per student,” said Avon Local Schools Superintendent Michael Laub. “We are proud of what we do for our students while remaining financially responsible to our community.”

The district called its performance as a testament to their commitment to providing a high quality education to its students while remaining fiscally responsibly.

Avon Lake

Avon Lake City School District was rewarded for improvements in state report cards receiving an overall grade of “A” up from a “B” in the 2017-18 school year.

Superintendent Bob Scott said he was pleased with the district’s results and is appreciative of the dedication and hard work by the schools, Avon Lake families and the community that allows them to consistently perform at a high level.

“The report card gives us another view of our schools, our students and our staff,” Scott said. “We will look at the report card data and use the information in planning as appropriate.

“As always, I want to emphasize that the state report card is a snapshot of student achievement. The success of all students, concern for the whole student, is a much broader view of education and drives Avon Lake’s academic and social/ emotional process.”

While the district takes the state report card and state testing seriously, there are better measures of Avon Lake’s specific needs, Scott said.

“Avon Lake takes the state report card and the state testing seriously, but we believe that there are better measures of our specific needs,” he said. “It is important that the Avon Lake stakeholders know that learning in our schools is based on individual student needs for academic growth and success in life, not on a better standardized test score or better state report card grade.”

Elyria City Schools Superintendent Ann Schloss and new Director of Academic Services Natalie Matthews aren’t too concerned about their overall “D” score.

While the letter grades seem bleak from the outside, Schloss and Matthews said the underlying numbers are showing serious improvement.

“I don’t put all the eggs in this basket, because it is one test on one day,” Schloss said. “While there are some things from the data that I feel we can benefit from looking at.

“I really do believe that if we look at the (annual measurable objectives), that gives us the most information. Our (annual measurable objectives) show that we have sustainable growth over the last couple years and that we are meeting the needs of all of our subgroups, which is huge.”

Matthews said there has been a lot of growth with the district’s special education students, economically disadvantaged students and various ethnic groups.

Schloss added the district’s numbers on fourand five-year graduation rates are higher than those of districts with similar demographics and state demographics.

“That’s huge,” she said. “From pre-school up, all those teachers have a part in that child’s graduation.”

As for the future, Schloss said the district plans to stay the course and watch that sustainable growth continue.

North Ridgeville

The North Ridgeville City School District received an overall grade of a “C.”

David Pritt, director of curriculum and instruction for North Ridgeville Schools, said the district is pleased with the grade.

“We recognize areas we want to focus on, but we like where our district is in certain areas like ‘Value Added,’ where we see the most growth from our students,” Pritt said. “In the ‘Value Added’ sections, we had a ‘B’ for overall, an ‘A’ for the ‘gifted’ and a ‘C’ for ‘students with disabilities.”

Pritt said the report cards are useful for stopping negative trends.

“We really don’t immediately change course when we see a grade, but we do look at the grade cards from the last two to three years and see if there is a trend there,” he said. “We then use the data to see what needs to be addressed.”

Pritt said big focuses for the district this year are math and language arts.

“We have a couple of new programs being implemented to really focus on math and reading for grades K-5,” he said. “We want our students to continue to reach the state benchmarks.”

Oberlin City Schools’ overall grade took a dip from last year’s “C” to a “D” in the 2018-19 state report card.

David Hall, superintendent of the district, said the scores given by the Ohio Department of Education are just that, scores.

“We have a lot of work to do with a lot of areas,” Hall said.

While the letter grades can be discouraging, many of the policies and programs the district has are more in the interest of the students than impressing Columbus, he said.

“We’re one of the few schools that offer at the middle school algebra, geometry, algebra II, biology, college high school courses,” Hall said. “We also offer college courses at the middle school which do impact our scores. But that’s in the best interest of students.”

The district is in the process of constructing a new K-5 building, which the district has said will allow for greater collaboration between teachers and continuity in a student’s education as they pass through to new grades.

Hall said the new facility is expected to have a positive impact on the district’s grades in the future.

“I think 21st century learning styles should be able to help with more tutorial spaces for our students, we will have STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) incorporated into the curriculum,” he said. “So, it should help a lot with our scores and also with our students.”

Sheffield Village, Sheffield Lake

Sheffield-Sheffield Lake City School District got an overall grade of ‘C’ but district officials are expressing optimism.

While disappointed with the results of the ODE report card, Superintendent Michael Cook believes the quality of education in general is moving in a positive direction.

“We are not where we would like to be, we are always in BETA. I think schools get better every year,” he said. “I’m in this business. I also think kids today are better at school than ever before. They have to be because they are scored – assessed on everything they do.”

Cook stressed the district has prepared its students for success better than the ODE report card indicates, noting an overall improvement from 327th up to 268th position.

“We know we certainly have prepared our kids for success better than the report card says we did,” he said. “It would be nice to see the report card with something besides A-F. Something that actually meant what it showed. Just because we only had 50 percent of kids take the ACT we get less points than a school where 90 percent take it.”

Vermilion Local Schools administrators said they hoped for more from this year’s report card.

Although the district’s overall grade stayed at a “C” from last year, grades in achievement component “D,” progress component “D,” gap closing “C” and at-risk K-3 readers component “D” all dropped a letter grade.

“Obviously, when you look at the overall score of the district, a ‘C,’ it’s not good enough,” said Superintendent Phil Pempin, adding that seeing any “D’s” on the report card isn’t ideal either. “When you get a report card that looks like the one we got, you know you worked harder than that.

“You feel that you were more successful than what the report card says.

“But in the end, that’s your grade.”

Additionally, the district’s student performance on state tests is an “F” with its prepared for success component grade improving from an “F” to a “D” from last year.

Pempin said that although the report card is not ideal this year, he believes the administration, teachers and staff are committed to students and have a lot of positive contributions.

This, however, is not an excuse to poor grades, he said.

“Just because we got a score like that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of effort going on here,” Pempin said. “Our teachers work hard.

“Come and walk through our buildings and look. There’s so much more to us than a grade.”

Bonnie Meyer, former Vermilion Elementary School principal, will work in the district’s administrative offices to dive deeper into data to build a foundation for next steps for improvement.

This includes evaluating indicators met, literacy rates and professional development training for teachers.

“Compared to schools in Erie County and Lorain County, we’re right in the middle of the pack,” Meyer said. “We would like to be better than that, and will work every day to make that happen.”

Wellington

The Wellington Exempted Village Schools’ Board of Education issued a statement Sept. 12 saying it is was pleased that it has improved its State District Report Card in multiple components and that the district grade has improved a full letter grade, this year earning a District Grade of “C” up from last year’s district grade of a “D.”

“I am excited to see the continued growth of our students and teachers on state and national measurements and that students and teachers are benefiting from increased opportunities at the school system,” said Wellington Schools Superintendent Ed Weber.

Numerous improvements are reflected in the report card component grades including: the Performance Index Grade has improved to a “C” up from a “D”; the Progress Grade has improved to a “C” up from a “D”; the Gap Closing Grade improved to a “B” up from a “D”; 4-Year Graduation Rate improved to an “A” up from a “B”; and K-3 Literacy improved to a “C” up from an “F,” the release said.

“The Board of Education is excited about the significant improvements made to our educational standards and that these improvements illustrate the commitment of our students, teachers, support staff, administrators and our community to educational achievement,” said Dan Rosecrans, president of the Wellington Schools Board of Education.