Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools Get Low Grades From State, Make Improvements Over Last Year

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH - The school district has received low marks on report cards issued by the Ohio Department of Education. However, the district did show improvement in several categories over last year.

The Department of Education grades districts on six categories: Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation Rate, Prepared for Success, and K-3 Literacy.

The Achievement category measures the number of students who passed the state's tests and how well they performed on those tests. Progress is based on how students have developed based on their past performance. Gap Closing is based off a school district's ability to help groups of students the state has deemed to be the "most vulnerable." Graduation Rate is based on the percentage of students successfully graduating after four or five years. Prepared for Success is graded on how well students are prepared for college or a technical career. Finally, K-3 Literacy Rate is based on how successful the schools are at getting struggling readers up to speed.

Cleveland Heights-University Height's grades were:

• Achievement - D
• Progress - F
• Gap Closing - F
• Graduation Rate - C
• Prepared for Success - D
• K-3 Literacy - C

The K-3 Literacy component was only applicable to school districts that had 5% or more of their K-3 students reading below their grade level last year.

The district's graduation rate moved to 85.4 percent over four years and 88.8 percent over five years. In a statement, Superintendent Dr. Talisa Dixon said the district is trying to achieve a 90 percent graduation rate and is pleased with the improvement over last year's rate of 81.3 percent.

In the K-3 Literacy rate, the district improved to 44.6 percent, up from 28.5 percent last year.

“Our elementary teachers and staff have done an outstanding job of implementing our new literacy curriculum and focusing on the academic growth of our students,” said Dixon. “While we are happy to celebrate our accomplishments and the progress we have made, our focus still needs to be on going further to help our students succeed across all grade levels. We must provide a level of rigor that challenges our students as they grow academically.”

The state's scoring has come under criticism from some districts.

Solon Schools, which ranked as one of the best districts in Ohio, has serious concerns with the system. The district's Superintendent Joseph Regano cautioned that the state accountability system has serious flaws when so few districts and students statewide are showing improving results. Due to the continuing changes in the assessment system and dramatic ramping up of cut scores on those assessments each year, the results are losing important context, he said.

Westlake City Schools also criticized the system after receiving lower than expected grades.

"Westlake, like other school districts, has been working to adjust to an increase in the number of state tests given each year, higher cut scores, three different tests in three years, online testing issues and a lower than the required 95 percent participation rate on state tests," the district said in a statement.

Photo from the Ohio Department of Education