Sixth Year in a Row OLSD Earns Highest Possible Rating on ODE Report Card
Olentangy Among Top Seven Percent of all Ohio School Districts
Olentangy Local Schools earned the state’s highest rating possible of “Excellent with Distinction” on the 2008-09 local report card. This is the sixth year in a row that Olentangy has earned the highest rating possible on the ODE report card. In addition, all 19 schools included on the report card earned a rating of “Excellent” or higher. Earning this designation and achieving specific benchmarks on other key areas of the report card places Olentangy Local Schools among the top seven percent of all school districts in Ohio.
“The Olentangy community expects high academic achievement,” said Superintendent, Wade Lucas, Ed.D. “Our students, parents and staff members work together to turn this expectation into a reality. This report card is a validation of these efforts and a reflection of the district’s mission ‘to facilitate maximum learning for every student.’”
ODE rates every district in Ohio based on four key measurements including State Indicators, Performance Index (PI), Value-added and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The 2008-09 report card includes 30 indicators and Olentangy met all 30 of these indicators for the first time.
The PI is a weighted average of all tested subjects in grades three through eight and 10 that reflects the achievement of every tested student. The tests are broken down into five performance levels including from lowest to highest: limited, basic, proficient, accelerated and advanced. The most weight is given to the advanced students (1.2) then the weights decrease for each performance level. Olentangy’s PI increased by 1.6 points for an all-time high score of 105.1.
Value-added looks at districts and schools that are making significant academic improvements even if the students have not met the standard for student achievement. Achievement scores look at a student’s level of proficiency at a single point in time, whereas value-added measures how much progress was made since the year prior. Olentangy’s value-added information indicates that students are receiving more than one year of expected growth in student achievement over one year of instruction time. In fact, Olentangy’s value-added composite scores show that the district is facilitating above typical growth for the last three years.
AYP is a requirement under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that sets goals each year for student achievement in the areas of reading and math proficiency, test participation, attendance rate and graduation rate. The AYP goals increase over time with the target of 100 percent of students meeting 100 percent of the standards by the 2013-14 school year. AYP is also broken down by 10 subgroups based on factors such as ethnicity, socio-economic levels and students with disabilities. As a district, Olentangy met AYP in all nine subgroups tested and all 19 schools on the report card also met all AYP subgroups for their schools.
To earn the “Excellent with Distinction” honor, districts must meet at least 94 percent of the indicators or have a PI score of at least 100 and have above expected growth for at least two consecutive years on the value-added calculation. Only 41 out of the 610 Ohio districts (6.7 percent) earned an “Excellent with Distinction” designation and met all 30 standards on the report card.
“The ODE report card once again demonstrates the excellent quality education that Olentangy students receive on a daily basis,” said Lucas. “However I am most proud of the improvements made by the district this year. For the first time, the district met all 30 indicators, the PI increased by 1.6 points, the district and every school met AYP and all of our schools are rated ‘Excellent’ or higher. At Olentangy Local Schools we not only achieve already high levels of academic success, but we continue to strive for even further levels of student achievement. We will celebrate this accomplishment then work to reach new goals in the future.”
Community members may view the district and building report cards through the district’s Web site at www.olentangy.k12.oh.us/district/dra/.