CENTERBURG — The Ohio Department of Education has released the 2009-10 school report cards, and Centerburg did well.
The report cards use four main sets of data to evaluate schools: State indicators, which are based on state assessments, attendance and graduation rates; the performance index, which reflects the achievement of every student enrolled for the full academic year; adequate yearly progress for all subgroups, a federal requirement; and the value-added measure.
Value-added measures are how well each student progressed through the year and whether each student progressed one year’s worth of growth in the subject area through the year.
“Before value-added, a student was measured as to their performance on the test,” explained Centerburg Secondary School Principal Mike Hebenthal, “The concern is that if a student is accelerated one year and proficient the next, that student was seen as passing the test but did not score as high as the year before. What value-added rates is how well students did compared to their performance the year before. The student who is accelerated one year and then proficient is given a negative value-added measure. If the student has the same performance, then they are neutral and if they score higher they are positive. All students are then added together to give a school a rating of negative, neutral or positive. A positive shows that the majority of students are attaining more than one year of growth in a given year.”
Centerburg Middle School earned an “excellent with distinction” designation on the 2009-10 school year report card. Students met 8 of 8 state indicators, met the federal adequate yearly progress requirement and were above expectations in the value-added measure.
Centerburg High School was excellent, meeting 12 out of 12 indicators and making adequate yearly progress.
“I can’t seem to find the words to express how proud I am of the students and staff of the middle school and high school,” said Hebenthal. “The middle school attaining the status of ‘excellent with distinction’ is the highest rating that is possible for a school. This past year the students and staff hit the ball way out of the park. The high school continues to achieve an excellent rating and achieved a 100 percent graduation rate this past year. We truly are proud of our academic standing. In some ways it causes a little pressure that we continue to perform at such a high standard but I think we are up to it. We will continue to look at our programs and help each student as best we can.”
Centerburg Elementary met six of eight indicators, met adequate yearly progress, and received a “continuous improvement” designation.
“There are two very striking numbers for us to be proud of,” said Principal Chuck Davis, “the third- and fourth- grade reading achievement scores, 95.5 percent and 97.5 percent, respectively. All the K-4 teachers need to celebrate. Every one of them contributed to this success.”
“None of us at the elementary are content with the math scores,” continued Davis. “Our challenge for the new year is twofold: Maintain the excellence in our reading program; and step up to the challenge and continue to make necessary changes in math and science instruction. We will start by drilling into the data looking for any common weaknesses in any one part of the curriculum. Then we will go from there.
“The fourth measure of the report card, value-added,” Davis said, “is what moved the elementary off the preliminary designation of ‘effective’ to ‘continuous improvement.’ If we focus on the students and their needs, we will be fine.”
The Centerburg district as a whole received an effective rating. It met 24 of 26 state indicators, earned 99.1 points on the performance index, met adequate yearly progress and met value-added expectations.