When the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) releases the 2016 Local Report Card (LRC) in mid-September we will see a few changes that have been planned for several years. The biggest change will be that the 2016 LRC will assign A-F letter grades to the six (6) major components of the report card: ACHIEVEMENT, GAP CLOSING, K-3 LITERACY, PROGRESS, GRADUATION RATE AND PREPARED FOR SUCCESS. In this blog, I will break down how each of these letter grades are determined for each component. The ODE recently conducted a webinar to explain these changes and a copy of the PowerPoint from that presentation is below.
PowerPoint of ODE webinar on 2016 LRC changes.
ACHIEVEMENT
The Achievement component is comprised of two measures the “Performance Index” and “Indicators Met”. The Performance Index (PI) is a measure of “how well” kids performed on state tests. The more students in the advanced and accelerated ranges on state tests the higher the PI. Indicators Met looks at how many kids “passed” state tests. This year, there are 32 possible indicators (21 tests grades 4-8, up to 10 high school end of course exams and 1 gifted achievement indicator). The PI will comprise 75% of the Achievement letter grade and Indicators Met will make up 25%.
GAP CLOSING
Gap Closing shows how well students are performing in math, reading and graduation rates. This component looks at subgroups including socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, disability and English proficiency. These subgroups are compared on the three measures with the collective performance of kids across Ohio. Districts obtain a higher A-F grade if there are no “Gaps” between subgroup performance compared to state performance. There will be one grade for this measure which will also be the component grade.
K-3 LITERACY
The K-3 Literacy component of the LRC looks at how many kids a district moves to “on track” in reading who were “not on track” the previous year. The measure focuses only on the kids who were “not on track” in reading in kindergarten and grades 1 ,2, and 3. “On track” indicates that by the end of third grade, the student would be reading at grade level. The higher the percentage of students who moved from “not on track” to “on track” the better the letter grade.
PROGRESS
Progress is the “Value-Added” evaluation for math and reading in grades 4-8. This is a determination of whether each student experienced a “year’s worth of growth” in these two disciplines during the previous academic year. The Progress component looks at four (4) subgroups that include “All Students”, “Gifted Students”, “Students with Disabilities” and “Students whose academic performance is in the lowest 20% of students statewide”. The “All Students” measure will comprise 55% of the Progress letter grade and each of the other three measures will contribute 15% to the final letter grade calculation.
GRADUATION RATE
The Graduation component is made up of the Four-Year Graduation Rate and the Five-Year Graduation Rate. 60% of the letter grade in this component will come from the Four-Year Graduation Rate and 40% will come from the Five-Year Rate.
PREPARED FOR SUCCESS
Prepared for Success looks at the “College and Career Readiness” level of each graduate. The measures considered in this component include Advance Placement Tests, International Baccalaureate Tests, remedial free scores on college entrance exams, Honors Diplomas awarded, College Credit Plus courses completed and Industry Recognized Credentials earned. Essentially, the higher the percentage of kids who obtain these levels the better the letter grade on the Prepared for Success component.
These changes have been planned for a number of years as the ODE has been “reporting” these scores for some time. The change for this year is the assignment of a letter grade for each component. Moving forward, I will intently watch how the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act at the federal level will bring more changes to Ohio’s LRC. For more information about the Ohio Report Card click on the link below.