By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
None of Wood County’s school districts brought home grades worth posting on the refrigerator in the latest round of state testing. But one difference is that while other districts were scrambling to explain their grades when they were released Friday, Bowling Green had already prepared its residents for the bad news.
When Bowling Green City School District got word of the less than stellar grades in July, Superintendent Francis Scruci decided to rip off the bandaid. The district announced early the scores wouldn’t get them on any honor roll.
The district scored C on overall achievement and post high school readiness; A in annual progress and graduation rates; and F in literacy gains in K-3 and closing the achievement gap.
The scores were lower than customary across the state, possibly because of the new testing system. In the area of overall achievement, scores for other Wood County school districts were: B for Perrysburg; C for Eastwood; and D for Elmwood, Lake, North Baltimore, Northwood, Otsego and Rossford.
On Friday, Scruci repeated his distrust in the state testing being an accurate measure of student achievement and teacher performance.
“We’re going to own what we got,” he said of the grades. But he cautioned that a one-day assessment is not fair to schools or students. “It cannot be confused with the good things going on in our district. It’s not a true assessment of what kids know and how teachers are doing.”
Scruci pointed out that 85 percent of the school districts in the state are dealing with lower than desirable grades. “So is it a school problem, or is it a testing problem?”
“It would be wrong to judge us based on this report card. Most superintendents would say it’s a flawed system,” he said. “A lot of school districts are in the same boat. We’re not in this boat rowing alone.”
Scruci also questioned the calculations used by the state to grade districts. “You can make data look the way you want it to look,” he said. “The Bowling Green City School District is not accurately reflected by that report card.”
That’s not to say that Bowling Green schools aren’t going to make changes to bring up their grades. “We’ve got areas to improve on. Every district does,” he said.
In July, when the district first broke the news of the low grades, Ann McCarty, executive director of teaching and learning for BG City Schools, did not make excuses, but did try to explain how the low scores could have happened.
First, the English and math tests were new. “You will see scores drop,” when the tests change, she said. Second, the state rubrics were released after the school year had started, making it tougher on teachers. Third, the district did not have a comprehensive assessment process to monitor programs. And finally, the district didn’t find out two of its school were in the Ohio Improvement Process until later in the year.
The new tests could greatly affect scores, Scruci said. “When you change the test, there is an understanding that there would be some sort of regression.” But it’s highly unlikely that students and teachers would slip so greatly in their grades. “The amount of regression is hard to accept.”
To bring up the scores – and more importantly, improve the learning, the district is taking steps to:
- Identify instructional trends for at-risk groups of students.
- Create a viable curriculum for all students.
- Create Google sites as resources for teachers.
- Implement assessments for reading and math.
- Hold weekly teacher team meetings to discuss data and instruction.
The state testing does not take into consideration the programs that add quality to students’ lives, such as art, music, theater, athletics, and other academic activities. “You have to look at your district in the total picture,” Scruci said. “Students, to us, are more than a single data point.”
Following is description of some of the grade categories along with Bowling Green’s scores:
- Achievement: The Achievement component represents the number of students who passed the state tests and how well they performed on them. C
- Progress: The Progress component looks closely at the growth that all students are making based on their past performances. A
- Gap Closing:The Gap Closing component shows how well schools are meeting the performance expectations for our most vulnerable populations of students in English language arts, math and graduation. F
- Graduation Rate:The Graduation Rate component looks at the percent of students who are successfully finishing high school with a diploma in four or five years. A
- K-3 Literacy:The K-3 Literacy component looks at how successful the school is at getting struggling readers on track to proficiency in third grade and beyond. F
- Prepared for Success:Whether training in a technical field or preparing for work or college, the Prepared for Success component looks at how well prepared Ohio’s students are for all future opportunities. C
