The Latest School District Report Cards Are In

[Kate McCarthy]

The full report which details which subgroups did not make AYP is here:

http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2009-2010/DIST/044198.pdf

[Bill Call]

AYP is a federal requirement that says all students in all groups must make a certain measure of yearly progress in their learning. Examples of groups include Students with Disabilities, Hispanic and Economically Disadvantaged. For the 2009-2010 school year, the Lakewood City Schools failed to meet AYP in three student groups. State law dictates that if a district does not meet AYP in more than one student subgroup, it can be rated no higher than Continuous Improvement, which is the rating the district earned for the 2009-2010 school year.

That helps a lot. Thanks.

State law states that even if 95% of the students get scores that would give the district an Excellent With Distinction rating the district will only receive a continuous improvment rating if certain groups do not meet the minimum standards.

There is some logic in that.

If a district is free to ignore the performance of its worst performing groups while bragging about its excellent rating that is what it will do.

There is also some unfairness to that.

Most people will look at the chart and see that Lakewood is rated the same as Cleveland and Euclid and conclude that Lakewood students perform no better than Cleveland studuents. Since that is not even close to being true then the test results give a false picture of what is really going on.

The current performance of Lakewood schools is unacceptable.

Unless we get a school board that is willing to challenge the Lakewood Teachers Association nothing will change. Chances of that happening are fat, slim and none.

If nothing changes Lakewood schools will never get more than a continuous improvement rating.

Is that acceptable?

Not to me but my guess is that it is acceptable to the people of Lakewood.