Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

State report card merits an 'F' due to AYP problems
By LYNDSEY TETER

Last week during an afternoon drive, applause erupted over the radio waves as Columbus Public Schools Superintendent Gene Harris announced the news:

After years on ''Academic Watch,'' the new report cards are in, and CPS is finally a C student.

As I traveled a little farther north along High Street, I listened for muffled gasps.

I had read in the Worthington News that although official results won't be released until Tuesday, Aug. 14, preliminary data showed that after a six-year stint as an A-student, Worthington Schools may also share the C-student rating.

As the ''Continuous Improvement'' label is celebrated among CPS parents, Worthington -- and likely several other suburban districts -- is preparing for some hyperventilation.

Why is an ''Excellent'' suburban school now classified in the same bracket as an inner-city district known previously for the time it spent in Academic Watch? Muffling some inappropriate emotions of my own, (I always root for the underdog) I found the culprit -- Adequate Yearly Progress.

AYP is the Ohio Department of Education's spin on a No Child Left Behind provision. AYP determines how certain subgroups within a district are learning, said Jennifer Wene, Worthington's assessment coordinator.

Subgroups break out minority students, the economically disadvantaged, limited English proficiency students and students with disabilities.

If your school district has 30 or more kids in any of the subgroups, and these students are not hitting a set of roving targets, your school will not meet AYP. (No word on whether the Invisible-29-or-less in other school districts have been left behind.)

Two strikes, and you're fine, but the third year you miss AYP -- no matter how many educational standards you meet -- the highest rating you can achieve is Continuous Improvement, or a C equivalent. Boom. Way to bring down the hammer, ODE.



By Interesting......

AYP - continued

Last year, as Hilliard's Excellent rating was stripped by AYP results, an ODE spokesman explained to a broadcast reporter why the label was not meaningless:

''A situation had developed where achievement in general looks strong, but when you look underneath the surface, you find that not all students are enjoying that success.''

Wene called it ridiculous to suggest any student is being swept under the rug.

''We have a lot of resources pointed toward these groups,'' she said. Some within the subgroups are the districts' most challenged learners, after all.

Other problems with AYP include the fact that once a student becomes proficient in English, for example, they're yanked out of the subgroup, so their progress can go unrecorded, Wene said.

Last year, according to the ODE's statewide report, 68 percent of school districts failed to meet AYP standards, up from 36 percent in 2005 report.

We'll find out next week how far the C rating has spread into wealthier suburban districts. Start seeing names like Upper Arlington, Bexley, Dublin, Delaware or Gahanna and the validity of the labels will more than likely be called into question by mobs of angry parents. This will, perhaps, get the attention of legislators, who may tell the ODE to scrap the current guidelines.

In the meantime, the ODE sticks by its standards.

''We want to reward districts that are showing great progress,'' said Karla Carruthers, spokeswoman for ODE. She'll likely have to repeat that one a few more times in the next few weeks.

The C ''reward'' for CPS should be celebrated in a district where, if you look under the surface, you'll find the good buried under media reports suggesting otherwise.

But, as Wene was quick to point out, CPS met only 4 of 30 standards while Worthington met 29 of 30. She has a point to suggest the two schools may not be performing at the same level.

Woudln't it be nice if one broad stroke could classify ''education'' within a school district? That way, naive, kidless real estate seekers like my husband and I could perform one simple Internet search to determine which school district is more likely to safeguard our property values.

It seems that despite a plethora of educational standards and ratings and labels and scores, Ohio has this far failed to develop such a test.



By Interesting.....

Hilliard vs Pickerington 05/06

Checked out Hilliard on the ODE website & in total last year that district was in ''Continuous Improvement'' yet it met 25 of 25 state indicators.

On the other hand Pickerington was ''Excellent'' and met 22 of 25 indicators.

Difference was AYP.

If you look at the building breakdown in Hilliard they have the following:

2 High Schools - both rated Excellent
4 Middle Schools - all rated Excellent
1 6th grade school - rated Excellent
13 Elementary Schools - 5 rated Excellent;8 rated Effective

It's hard to say it's a bad system.

Building breakdown in Pickerington:

2 High Schools - both rated Excellent
2 Jr High Schools - one rated Excellent, one Efficient
2 Middle Schools - one rated Excellent, one Efficient
5 Elementary Schools - 4 rated Excellent, one Efficient

Will be interesting to see what Tuesday brings...

By Still Interesting.....

I am glad it is over

All I can say is I am glad that my last child graduated this year.