In 2014-15, Ohio will adopt more rigorous curriculum and assessments in an effort to ensure all students graduate ready for a career and/or college. To reflect these higher expectations, Ohio is going to raise its expectations for districts and schools to prepare all students. Ohio will soon use a different tool to measure the status of our schools. Instead of the current rating system (Excellent, Effective, Continuous Improvement, etc.), schools and districts will receive letter grades (A-F). Grades will add clarity for parents and community members. The timing of this change will coincide with our transition to higher standards and new assessments.
To help schools prepare for the transition to higher standard, the Ohio Department of Education simulated this new system using data from the 2010-2011 school year to see how they would score. You can find the results of these simulations below grouped by individual schools and by Local Education Authorities (LEAs). LEAs include traditional school districts and community schools.
In each table, schools and LEAs are listed alphabetically by county. It will show their actual rating received in 2011 and the five simulated grades:
Overall Grade – This letter grade would replace the current system of ratings (Excellent with Distinction, Excellent, Effective, Continuous Improvement, Academic Watch and Academic Emergency). It is computed from the four component grades such that each of the components is counted with equal weight.
Percent Indicators Met – This component is one measure school (or LEA) performance.
The grade shown is based on a 100 percent scale which measures how well the school or LEA met the 26 state indicators of student performance on tests, attendance and graduation.
Performance Index – This component measures student performance. It averages student scores on a 120 point scale using state assessments, and assigns a grade to the LEA based on a standard 90% = A, 80% = B, scale.
Value-Added – This component grades schools based on the level of improvement of its students on state assessments. It is a measure of the effect of schools on its students’ learning regardless of the level of attainment of those students. Since the measure only looks at progress from grades 4 through 8, schools that do not test students in those grades do not get a Value-Added Grade.
Gap Closing – This component is a new measure that the Ohio Department of Education has proposed to replace the current use of the federal AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) measure. Gap closing gives a grade based on how well a school or LEA is doing in narrowing gaps in achievement among students according to socio-economic, racial, ethnic or disability status.
These simulated grades do not replace the actual ratings the districts and schools received in 2011. Nor are they predictions of how well schools and districts will fare under a new rating system in the future. The tables only provide a comparison of this more rigorous measure of school and district performance with the actual results from 2011.
Simulated Letter Grades for Schools
Simulated Letter Grades for LEAs