Will schools be 'excellent'? District seeing better test scores

By BECKY BROOKS

Enterprise Editor

clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com

Although its not official, administrators for Clyde-Green Springs schools believe the district may achieve an "Excellent" rating on the 2009 Ohio School Report Card.

During a meeting Monday night, assistant superintendent Laura Kagy updated the school board members on tentative data released by the Ohio Department of Education.

Clyde-Green Springs achieve 27 of 30 indicators.

"Last year was 24 of 30...that's a nice increase for the district," Kagy commented.

She added that the district was guaranteed to reach 90 on the percentage performance index and not all the information had yet been tabulated by the state.

"Worse case scenario is we have an effective rating," Kagy commented, noting that the district could still receive points for its "value added rating". Those points could move the district to an excellent rating.

Clyde High School Principal Joe Webb was also very pleased by the results on the grade card and that over 75 percent of sophomores passed all five sections of the Ohio Graduation Test.

"Our scores came out after our last board meeting," Webb said. The high school also achieved 12 of 12 12 indicators for the grade cards school.

"Since we entered into the OGT, we struggled," Webb said before the board.

"Our sophomores are the first class to get all five of those points and passing all of those tests."

Not only did both sophomores and juniors achieve the required passage rates to achieve 10 indicators for CHS, but the high school also achieved a 95.2 attendance rate and 95.3 graduation rate - securing two more indicator points for CHS.

"Since we entered into the OGT, we struggled," Webb said before the board.

"Our sophomores are the first class to get all five of those points and passing all of those tests."

"It's an incredible feeling for the first time with these sophomores, we were able to get all those points," Webb added, noting he will be putting a banner up at the high school to congratulate the students in the future.

He pointed out that CHS added OGT Intervention classes and had four teachers working with students who tested as needing assistance as freshmen.

"We've been very aware that we need to get our kids to pass that test," he said noting the students and staff achieved the goal.

Clyde-Green Springs School District students encountered difficulties on three proficiency test areas: 5th grade Social Studies, 8th grade Reading, and 8th grade Social Studies.

McPherson Middle School principal Jon Detwiler told the board he was pleased with the other test results for seventh and eight graders, but would look into those areas. In 8th grade reading, 74.5 percent of students passed the test - missing the 75 percent passage requirement by a half point.

Vine Street Principal Peggy Stickney commented that her building would again be receiving an "Excellent" rating in the upcoming report card.

Kagy said she did not know when final 2009 Report Card information would be posted by the Ohio Department of Education. Currently, 2008 information is listed on the ODE website.