The Observation Deck

The new school rating system from the state of Ohio premiered today. No longer will the state use Academic Emergency, Continuous Improvement, Effective and Excellent. In fact right now they won't give an individual district one grade. While individual districts get used to this new system, the State will use the collected group of ratings.

In today's PD, state officials are quoted as saying that the old system was hiding some poor performances in certain areas and that a better, more detailed rating system was needed.

The article features a full breakdown of every district in the state.

Lakewood City Schools get 3 A's, a B, 2 C's, 2 D's, and an F.

They also have a breakdown of test scores on the state achievement tests.

What does it all mean?

It's complicated:

The D's are in "Grade gifted value added"--- not quite clear on the meaning of that, and in "4 year grad rate grade" which is "based on graduating within four years of entering ninth grade."

The F is in the cloudiest category yet, "AMO" which is described as the "Gap-closing category" though all of the value-added categories are also "gap closing categories." "Annual Measurable Objectives measure the academic performance of specific groups of students such as racial and demographic groups. Each of these groups is compared against the collective performance of all students in Ohio." Rocky River got a D in this also.

The C's are in "Grade Disabled Value Added" and "5-year grad rate grade."

The B is on "Grade Performance Index."

Our A's are in important categories: "Grade standards met," "Grade value added," and "Growth in lowest 20 percent met."

This is a picture of a very hardworking school district.

More soon.

Betsy Voinovich

More definitions to make sense of these ratings.

The B is on "Grade Performance Index": Performance index measures the achievement of every student, not just whether they reach "proficient."

The A in "Grade standards met": Performance indicators show if enough students have a proficient level of knowledge.

Here is a link to the PD's full rundown of every district.

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/in ... cart_river

I tried to find the front page article--that I read in today's printed newspaper-- online but was not able to.

Betsy Voinovich

Betsy Voinovich wrote:More definitions to make sense of these ratings.

I tried to find the front page article--that I read in today's printed newspaper-- online but was not able to.

Betsy Voinovich

Just for the sake of argument...

I don't think the grading system makes sense.

Cleveland Heights met 7 of 24 standards

Got and F in Annual Measurable Standards

Had a lower performance index in 2013 than in 2011,

95% of its 11th grade students failed the reading graduation test

Yet received 4 A's, acing all the value added categories.

Just what value is added with a 95% failure rate?

I'm just asking questions and not making any judgments about the test or the district.

PS The Plain Dealer on line edition is unusable. If they intend to compete they are going to need a product people can use.

PPS I am making a judgment on the new PD. It's just awful.

Betsy Voinovich wrote:
Our A's are in important categories: "Grade standards met," "Grade value added," and "Growth in lowest 20 percent met."

I don't know, I think 4 year graduation rate is just as, if not more, important and we got a terrible grade in that.

I also think it's abominably bad that Lakewood, which always touts its diversity, got an F in AMO. And don't give me that "other schools did badly too". There is no excuse for a poor performance in that category in this day and age from any district.

And it's also sad that since we have such an equally touted gifted program that score was low as well.

Looks like Ohio schools have their work cut out for them.

Is the state report card formula in fact proprietary? I am not a fan of the state just handing me a letter grade and saying "trust me". Are we in danger of an Indiana style manipulation scandal? I would really like to know just how these are calculated. What are the ingredients? What are their weightings? Perhaps what's included or how it's handled is less or more important to me than the formula. Having some statistical experience and from some of the analyses I've read thus far, it sounds very easy/possible for small sample sizes and a complicated formula to generate some wacky results.

the new metrics are probably worthless.

but, as more new Cleveland families trickle in, any metrics will also fall.

if a school was full of hillbillies, they'd have to say, "Hey! you've got to stop acting like hillbilies!". if a school was full of Hosers, they'd have to say, "Hey! you've got to stop acting like Hosers!". and so on. This is not something that can be legislated for.

ryan costa wrote:the new metrics are probably worthless.

but, as more new Cleveland families trickle in, any metrics will also fall.

if a school was full of hillbillies, they'd have to say, "Hey! you've got to stop acting like hillbilies!". if a school was full of Hosers, they'd have to say, "Hey! you've got to stop acting like Hosers!". and so on. This is not something that can be legislated for.

Hi Ryan,

Not sure what you mean about "hillbillies" and "hosers" or even "people from Cleveland" being the reason our metrics fall. (I'm from Cleveland.)

In the first week that my family entered the Lakewood school district I had a conversation with the principal of my Kindergardener's school. One thing he said I'll always remember. He said, "I'm not going to look at a kid who comes in through these doors and say, 'Oh great, there go the test scores.' If he's in my district, he's my kid, it's our job to educate him and we've got what we he needs here."

Lakewood is as you've noticed, an "inner-ring suburb." If you want an education, look at the chart of how most of the other inner ring suburbs did. "A" in Grade Standards met is rare. All of our students reach a "proficient" level of education. ALL of them. That's an "A."

Other A's around here? Bay Village, Beachwood, Berea, Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga Heights, Fairview Park, North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls, Orange, Rocky River, Shaker Heights, Westlake.

That's the company we're in.

Grade Performance Index measures the achievement of every student, not just whether they reach "proficient." Lakewood got a B. When you average the level of achievement of EVERY student, high and low, in terms of achievement, we got a B.

Other districts with B's in Grade Performance Index?

Bay Village, Berea, Chagrin Falls, Fairview Park, North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls, Orange, Shaker Heights, Westlake.

Now look at another of our A's--- "Lowest 20 percent growth."

That means that the LOWEST were targeted. You know, the people from Cleveland let's say.

Let's look around at those same schools for how they are serving their students that are most in need, let's see which districts know how to TEACH and instill good study habits and values in the classroom for the "lowest 20 percent."

Bay Village? C, Beachwood? C, Chagrin Falls? C, Fairview Park? C, Westlake? D.

Lakewood ROCKS. They are on it, as my beloved principal told me.

When you start out with a lot of resources, it's easy to get high test scores. An "A" in this category tells the true tale of Lakewood meeting each child as he walks in the door, and helping him become a student, and then a citizen, that Lakewood can be proud of, no matter where he's from.

Betsy Voinovich