Bay Village school district officials happy overall with state report card results

Clint Keener, superintendent of the Bay Village City School District, said that while school officials were warned by the Ohio Department of Education that test results this year would show lower achievement scores, he is pleased overall with the performance of Bay Village Schools students.

The 2016 report card test results represent the third year in a row of different state tests and varying standards. A comparison of the Performance Index percentages in the Achievement category, which factors in every test taken by every student, shows Bay Village achieving at the 6th highest level out of 31 Cuyahoga County school districts. The district scored 8th out of 20 top-scoring Northeast Ohio districts, and 18th out of 20 top-scoring districts in the state.

“What people may have a hard time accepting is that a ‘C’ on the state report card means that a school or district actually met the state standard in that area,” he said. “Bay Village received only one component-grade C in K-3 literacy, our lowest score, which measures improvement in a group of young, struggling readers. In fact, we have met the third-grade guarantee in reading each year it has been in effect. No student needed to be held back in third-grade reading, as would be required by law for those not meeting the standard.”

Keener noted that the district received A’s and B’s in all other areas, indicating achievement higher than the state standards. “We performed especially well in the Value Added areas in the Progress category, with A’s both in Gifted and Special Education areas. Value Added measures the growth for those sub-populations, and we excelled.”

 “Gap Closing is a tough one. Clearly when 526 of the state’s 608 districts receive an F in the category, it says something. It’s a worthy goal to bring our most disadvantaged students up to par with their typical peers, but it can be a tough job. Bay received a B in the category. There were only two A's and 17 B’s in Ohio for Gap Closing.”

Bay Village Schools earned a B in the Prepared for Success component, which includes SAT, ACT, and AP scores, as well as state End-of-Course Exams. Students can also earn an Industry-Recognized Credential in a work or trade field. “We are very proud of our high participation rates in AP courses and in students taking both the SAT and ACT college entrance exams,” said Keener. “Our students score well above state and national averages on all these tests. As for the new End-of-Course exams, we are in a transition period like everyone else. Almost 88 percent of our state districts earned a C or a D in this category. We are proud of earning a B under the circumstances, and we’ll continue to see progress in this area."

"We have made many adjustments in our instructional planning, and we hope that the state standards and state tests will remain consistent so that we can make progress toward a non-moving target," said Keener. "After three different tests in three years, we are pleased with some of our results, and we will evaluate and make plans related to results we hope to improve. I am extremely proud of the work of our educators and their eagerness to use these results in a diagnostic effort toward improvement."

Karen Derby

Director of Communications for the Bay Village City School District

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Volume 8, Issue 18, Posted 9:47 AM, 09.20.2016