Auroraadvocate.com - District sees flaws in report card rating

by Brent Hovey

Reporter

Aurora -- Despite earning an "excellent" rating from the Ohio Department of Education on its annual report card, Aurora school district leaders are questioning the rating system.

The Board of Education sent the Ohio Board of Education on Aug. 28 a letter questioning the newly created report card category "Excellent with Distinction."

To be "excellent," a district must meet 28 of 30 indicators or have a performance index of 100 to 120. To earn "excellent with distinction," a district needs those, plus must show academic growth for at least two consecutive years.

"We didn't make distinction status because we didn't have above-average growth for two years," said Superintendent Russ Bennett.

"Our concern is that to be ranked 'with distinction' some districts still don't meet the level of others like ours."

In the past year, Aurora met the state standards in all 30 categories. Last year, the district went 29 for 30, falling below the standard only in the social studies portion of the eighth-grade achievement test.

The district's performance index went up from 104.2 last year to 106.8 this year.

Of the 30 categories, only five received a score below 90 percent, while one -- 11th grade writing -- came in at 100 percent.

AURORA'S scores improved in 21 of the categories. The greatest improvement came in the category the district did not meet last year -- a 19.5 percent increase in eighth-grade social studies from 67.5 percent in 2006-07 to 86 percent in 2007-08.

A greater than 10 percent increase also was seen in fifth-grade social studies (11.5 percent) and eighth-grade math (10.1 percent).

Aurora also scored some of the highest test results in the state, including first in seventh-grade math, third in sixth-grade math, 15th in eighth-grade math and 10th in eighth-grade science.

Despite all these high scores and improvement, Aurora was not awarded "distinction" honors.

Bennett and the School Board believe the "distinction" award needs to be re-evaluated.

"We feel the rating is flawed," said Bennett. "The Board is trying to shed some light on the rating system. I don't think there was anything wrong with the system before."

Bennett added schools that didn't score as high as Aurora, but improved from past low scores, got the "distinction" rating and it could lead people to believe they scored higher than top-ranked districts like Aurora.

"Nothing against the schools which earned distinction -- I applaud them for that -- but for us to have some of the highest test scores in the state, that's something that's worthy of distinction," Bennett said.

THE LETTER sent from the Aurora School Board to the state board reinforced what Bennett said.

"Due to the fact that last year the growth score alone was not in the 'above' range, our district is not awarded the 'distinction' rating this year," the letter read.

"It is highly disappointing that this one factor can overshadow significant growth in other areas and negate the outstanding overall achievement of our district with what appears to be a lower overall rating."

The letter continued, "Quite frankly, the new report card formula is highly flawed, if higher performing districts can be ranked beneath lower performing schools with such ambiguity.

"The value-added factor, AYP status, performance index scores and performance on the 30 indicators are actually good measures of district success; however, the manner in which schools are being divided has proven to be not only inappropriate, but harmful."

Bennett said all the local district hopes to do about the matter is shed light on what local officials see as a problem.

"We're just trying to get a clear picture of school districts' performances," he said.

The full version of the letter Aurora sent to the state is available on the school's Web site at www.aurora-schools.org.

E-mail: bhovey@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3115