GREENE COUNTY — A pair of Greene County school districts received high marks when the Ohio Department of Education released the first part of district report cards last week.
Both Cedarville and Greeneview high schools received an A for their 2014 graduation rates and neither district had their elementary school’s K-3 literacy graded because very few were not on track.
But Cedar Cliff Local Schools Superintendent Chad Mason isn’t “dabbing” in celebration.
“My worry continues to be that many of these report card indicator calculations have negative consequences that are exacerbated for small schools, like Cedar Cliff,” he said.
Graduation rate is Mason’s biggest concern. Cedarville’s rate of 93.6 percent was up .2 percent from the year before. But in 2012, Cedarville had a graduation rate of 96.4 percent. The drop of nearly 3 percentage points is particularly troublesome, according to Mason.
“The high school graduation rate can be greatly affected by two or three students over one or two years — when each student can equate to 2 to 3 percent,” he said. “This makes a 95 percent target very difficult, if not impossible, to make. We just have to keep educating the public so they understand there is a lot of information behind those numbers the report card does not provide.”
Greeneview High School had a 93.5 graduation rate, up from 2013’s 92.6 percent. Superintendent Isaac Seevers commended teachers for their hard work.
“Our staff has done an excellent job of identifying students who need additional support and interventions and they have been able to meet the individual needs of our student,” he said. “We are happy with the initial results released as they reflect the hard work our staff and students have put forth. In a district our size, one student can have a huge impact on percentages.”
The rest of the report card will be released later in the year and will provide grades for achievement, progress and gap closing — which shows how well all students are doing in the district in reading, math, and graduation and answers the question – is every student succeeding, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, or disability?
