Board of Education, Staff, and USV Community,
The state report cards were released for Ohio’s schools regarding the 2013-14 school year. As we look into the performance of our children, we need to acknowledge our improvements, yet also take the required actions to improve ourselves even more.
If we create a GPA, or grade point average for Hardin County Schools, giving an equal value to each of the grade card components, we would receive a 2.44, the second highest “GPA” in the county. This is an improvement from last year’s 2.38. What makes this more of a “positive” is that Ohio required a 5% increase in student performance indicator to achieve proficiency, so nearly every school saw their “GPA” decrease, except USV.
One statistic that the state department has been stressing is the “value added” component, which attempts to show the academic growth of children from one year to the next. At USV, we emphasize the use of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills since it allows parents to see how their children grow in terms of years and months. Thankfully we see the positive correlation between the Iowa tests and Value-added.
To give an honest appraisal of how students have grown, the best performance in Hardin County in 2011-2012 was Ada, ranking 177 of 671 school districts. USV ranked 590. Over the past two years, Ada improved 11 positions (bypassing 11 other district), to 166 of 671 this past year, USV improved 278 positions (bypassing 278 other districts), to move to 312 of 671 schools.
We’ve made great strides but we have much more to do. We received a 21st Century grant, but we must focus on getting our children career and college ready, which is an area we must improve upon immediately. While we’ve made these tremendous gains overall, unless we prepare our children for the world that awaits them, we’ve not served them or our community well.
Dennis L. Recker