Fri Feb 10 2012
by Eric Marotta
Editor
Nordonia Hills -- For the first time, the Nordonia Hills City School District has attained the highest rating from the Ohio Department of Education's school district annual report card.
According to results released Aug. 27, Nordonia Hills City Schools ranked "Excellent with Distinction" for the 2009-10 school year.
School Board President Doug Masteller said the entire Board and school staff are "proud and excited" with the result.
"It shows all the hard work everyone has put in all these years," he said. "It's something the community should be proud of."
For the past two years, the district has earned an Excellent rating.
District Public Information Officer Patti Koslo credited the district's improvement on funding voters approved in 2004.
"This is all since the passing of the last levy," she said, outlining the district's improvement in state ratings. "We've moved from Effective, to Excellent and now Excellent with Distinction."
The Ohio Department of Education reported the district met all 26 indicators used to evaluate student performance. The indicators are based on 24 proficiency tests, attendance and graduation rates. The district also attained a performance index of 101.6 -- a measure of the percentage of students who score above or below Proficient -- and met average yearly progress objectives, according to the results.
Curriculum Director Irene Beville said the district's high performance index and an overall improvement in student achievement over time were keys to attaining Excellent with Distinction status.
"A child should grow in achievement a year's worth of growth," Beville explained. "What it [the report card] says is we take kids at whatever level they are and move them more than they're expected to grow -- gifted students as well as those who need intervention," she said.
"It means that we have really exceeded the expectations for children overall," she added.
Masteller said the community should be encouraged by the result and see it as an important reason to support the upcoming operating levy scheduled for the Nov. 2 ballot.
"We believe in doing a good job of being good stewards of the taxpayers' money and unfortunately, we need local financial support to be able to maintain the excellent results that we've achieved," he said.
Scoring the schools
According to the report card, school districts are given preliminary designations -- of which Excellent is the highest -- which may increase or decrease based on a "value added" measure of student test scores.
According to the ODE, Nordonia Hills earned a preliminary rating of Excellent by meeting all of the 26 performance indicators for the 2009-10 school year, as well as earning a performance index greater than 100 out of a possible 120.
That rating was adjusted to Excellent with Distinction based on the district's two years of better-than-expected improvement in test scores.
According to the report card, the district's performance index of 101.6 has been steadily improving. The district's performance index for the last two years were 99.8 and 99.1, respectively.
To calculate the index, the percentages of students grouped into five performance levels -- Limited, Basic, Proficient, Accelerated and Advanced -- are evaluated by giving the district more credit for higher scores.
According to the report card, nearly 87 percent of Nordonia Hills students scored "Proficient" or better on all tested subjects.
The report cards for the district's school buildings show they are also all rated "Excellent" and "Excellent with Distinction."
While Nordonia High School, Nordonia Middle School and Rushwood and Ledgeview Elementary schools were rated "Excellent," Lee Eaton and Northfield elementary schools were rated "Excellent with Distinction."
Nordonia High School had the highest performance index, scoring 105.3, followed by Northfield (103), Rushwood (102), Lee Eaton (100.8), Ledgeview (99.9) and Nordonia Middle School (98.6).
Editor's note: To download copies of the state report cards, visit www.ode.state.oh.us.
E-mail: emaro tta@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3171
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