By Marcia Andrew (As Originally Posted on MUSA Forum)
The state report card shows mixed results for Middletown City School District. The report card measures a number of different indicators (all based on standardized tests) and they will be discussed one by one.
Middletown City School District is disappointed to have lost grade-level indicators gained last year. Several of these we missed by just a few tenths of a percentage point. For example, 74.9% of 4th graders scored proficient in reading, and 74.8% of 6th graders scored proficient in reading. With approximately 500 students per grade, 1 student amounts to .2%. So, if one more 4th grader and one more 6th grader had scored proficient in reading, we would have had two more indicators. I do not say this as an excuse; our percentage proficient should not have gone down at all. I am just saying it to point out that the indicators are based on an arbitrary line of 75% of students scoring proficient on one exam on one day. Is a school with 75% of students proficient tangibly better than a school with 74.9% of proficient? We were close at 72.6% 3rd grade reading (difference of 14 students); 3rd grade math at 72.4% (15 students) and 10th grade math at 73% (roughly 10 students).
The number of indicators earned does not reflect improvement unless the magic 75% level of proficiency is reached. It also doesn't reflect how well a district is doing in teaching kids above the proficient level. Two other measures do--Value Added and the Performance Index.
Value Added compares results of actual students from one year to the next and determines whether the students in the district overall achieved one year of educational growth in that school year, or less than a year, or more than a year. Middletown earned "Above Growth" on Value Added for the second year in a row, meaning that students in Middletown schools (on average) made more than one year of educational growth for each of the last two years. The only other districts in Butler County to earn "Above Growth" on Value Added last year were Lakota and Ross. This measure looks at where the kids in a district start and the rate of progress made. This looks at the progress of all students, not just those working toward proficient. A district must challenge the top performers to grow as well to score "Above" on this measure.
The Performance Indicator measures the overall performance on all the grade level tests, and looks not at just proficiency, but how many students scored at each of the five levels (proficient is the third, or middle level). So a district basically gets 1 point for each proficient score. But it gets less than 1 point for each score at the level below that (Limited) and an even smaller fraction of 1 for the lowest level (Basic). A district earns more than 1 point for Advanced and Accelerated, with a slightly higher amount for the higher level. So looking at the Performance Indicator from one year to the next measures improvement across all levels, in all tested grades and subjects. Middletown's Performance Index went up to 87.2. It has gone up each of the last 4 years (2008: 80.0; 2009: 81.7; 2010: 82.3; 2011: 85.9; 2012: 87.2). (To put this in perspective, a Performance Index of 90 would earn an overall rating of Effective instead of Continuous Improvement. The district goal for this year is 91.6).
Of all the school districts in Butler County, Middletown was second in the change in the Performance Index in both the last 2 years and the last 4 years (only Madison had a larger increase for both of those time periods).
The state department of education created a list of 18 "Similar Districts" to compare ourselves to. These are districts that are most like ours in terms of a number of different factors, including district tax wealth, education level of population, racial mix, level of poverty, percentage of special ed students, percentage of English as a second language students, age of population in community, cost of housing, types of employers in community. On the Performance Index, we rank 8th out of 18 in this list. But in terms of improvement, we rank 2nd in this list for increase in the Performance Index over both the last 2 years and the last 4 years (with Mansfield number one for both time periods). This is good news that we compare favorably to districts that face similar challenges as we do. It is also a cause for hope -- two of these districts (Barberton City and Masillon City) are rated Excellent. If they can do it with similar populations, then we can too.
The 18 "Similar Districts" are as follows (listed in order of 4 year growth in Performance Index): Mansfield, Middletown, Massillon, Marion City, Newark, Whitehall, Warren City, Barberton, Elyria City, Canton, Springfield, Lima, Hamilton, Zanesville, Sandusky, Lorain, Maple Heights, and Garfield Heights.
To discuss the matter, or for more information, visit the Middletown USA Forum: Middletown Schools Continuous Improvement.
