Delaware City Schools received 4.5 stars out of 5 on its latest report card issued by the State of Ohio. The district met state standards for Early Literacy, which covers kindergarten through third grade, at all of its elementary schools, including Smith Elementary (pictured).
Glenn Battishill | The Gazette
Ohio School Report Cards were recently released by the state, and Delaware City Schools received a rating of 4.5 out of five stars, which equates to “exceeds state standards.”
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Misty Swanger said the district is “very pleased” with the rating.
“This is continued evidence of how hard our students and teachers work on a daily basis and that the curriculum enhancements the district has made over the past few years are making a positive impact on student learning,” Swanger said. “The report card is one of the many measures we use to determine our curricular and academic priorities. We use the report card data to celebrate areas where we have success and growth, but we also use it to determine areas where we need more support and/or professional learning.”
The report cards evaluate and rate districts in five categories: Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation and Early Literacy. The district earned between three and five stars in the various categories with three stars indicating the district “meets state standards;” four stars note the district “exceeds state standards;” and five stars means the district exceeded expectations “by a larger magnitude.”
Delaware City Schools was rated three stars in the Achievement category, which evaluates “whether student performance on state tests met established thresholds and how well students performed on tests overall.”
Swanger said she expects this number to rise in the future due in part to the new proficiency scales and standards-based grading curriculum that was recently implemented at Hayes High School.
“This allows the teachers to meet the students where they are and provides every student with an opportunity to improve skills to meet the learning standards,” Swanger said. “This change at the high school level has been well-received by teachers and families, and we will be starting the process at the middle school level as well.”
The district also earned three stars for the Early Literacy component, which is a “measure of reading improvement and proficiency for students in kindergarten through third grade.” Swanger said this particular area is a focus for the district, and recently implemented instruction will improve the rating.
“A few years ago we adopted new resources for K-2 literacy, and these are at full implementation this school year,” Swanger said. “We are in our second year of training our teachers in the science of reading, and with this move to evidence-based instructional practices, we are confident our early literacy results will improve.”
Gap Closing measures “the reduction in educational gaps for student subgroups,” and the state gave Delaware City Schools four stars for that component.
“The gap closing measure is important to us because it holds us accountable for all of our demographic groups,” Swanger said. “Overall, we were pleased with our gap closing data, but we also know we need to continue to focus on the needs of every student as we move forward. We are looking at how we can better support our English Language Learners as that population continues to grow in our community.”
The district and Hayes High School were rated four stars for the Graduation component that measures the four-year and five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.
“Increasing our graduation rate has been an ongoing focus in our district,” Swanger said. “While our graduation rate is significantly higher than the state average, we know there is always more work to be done. We are confident our graduation rate will continue to improve as we place more emphasis on in-demand careers and increase opportunities for career pathways.”
The final metric that the district was graded on as part of the state report cards was Progress, which “looks closely at the growth all students are making based on their past performances.” The district earned five stars in this category, and the State of Ohio reports the district exceeded expectations or exceeded them by “a larger magnitude” in 24 out of 32 areas evaluated.
“The Progress measure indicates our students are making and exceeding a year’s worth of academic growth in the school year,” Swanger said. “Our building leaders, teachers, and staff deserve all of the praise for meeting students where they are and helping them grow academically.”
The report card notes three areas where the district “fell short” of meeting student growth expectations. Those areas were fourth grade math, fifth grade English language arts, and high school government. The other five areas of the 32 did not have growth data.
“We will continue to evaluate and focus on the needs of the students,” Swanger said. “We continually examine our practices in the classroom to ensure we are using evidence-based strategies, teaching the grade-level curriculum, and utilizing the instructional resources as they are designed.”
Swanger added the district has implemented grade level collaboration across elementary buildings to address student growth in those grade levels.
“Bringing the grade levels together allows the teachers to share their expertise with each other and to share best practices and which practices are not working,” Swanger said. “Analyzing our data and results provides the opportunity to know when we fall short, to reflect and accept the challenge of continuously improving.”
Swanger said the state report card is one of several measures the district uses to evaluate itself, and there are other measures that are “equally important to track our district’s progress.”
“Our staff and community provided valuable insights to help us develop a strategic plan that is utilized to inform our practice,” Swanger said. “The three areas of our focus are teaching and learning, the whole child framework, and increasing community engagement and partnerships.”
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.
