Administrators from all four schools within the Federal Hocking Local School District discussed Local Report Card results and how their respective schools are working to improve the scores at last night's board meeting.
Local Report Card ratings are issued at the state level each year and are based on the level of students scoring at or above average on state proficiency tests. Three out of the four schools scored the lowest rating of academic emergency on the 2002-03 report card, and only Coolville Elementary School scored a continuous improvement rating, which is a middle-range score, according to results downloaded from the Ohio Department of Education Web site.
Middle school Principal Sonya White said the school has been put on a continual improvement rating because of scores obtained from the reading portion of the proficiency tests. Students were scoring particularly low in the area of nonfiction comprehension, so the tutors in the after school program have focused on teaching an understanding of nonfiction.
Students also were individually tested to determine each student's strengths and weaknesses in reading, White said.
High school 10th-graders are gearing up to take the new Ohio Graduation Test next month, which replaces the ninth-grade Proficiencies and will be required for graduation starting next year. Sophomores this year will take the reading and math portion of the test although they are not required to pass the test before their graduation, said George Wood, Federal Hocking High School principal.
Schools do not know how well students must perform on the test in order to pass because the passing scores will not be determined until June. The results may not reflect students actual abilities because they realize the test does not count toward graduation, Wood said.
Amesville Elementary School Principal Kim Chadwell said proficiency-like tests create stress and anxiety, which may or may not be causing lower than average test scores.
Overall, each school's staff has been working to continually improve, Superintendent Jim Patsey said.
We finally got the proficiencies figured and then the rules changed
he said, referring to the new graduation tests. So it all starts over again. 17
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