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Legislation could help districts like Lebanon

The district’s report card designation dropped three levels in one year.

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By Marie Rossiter, Staff Writer 11:27 AM Friday, December 11, 2009

LEBANON — The Ohio Senate approved a bill intended to provide more accuracy and consistency in school district performance ratings.

Senate Bill 167 was passed Dec. 2 and aims to prevent a district from dropping by more than one classification solely on its Adequate Yearly Progress performance. Adequate Yearly Progress looks at academic achievement in subgroups classified along racial, ethnic, economic and other lines.

In August, Lebanon schools learned their report card designation dropped three levels from “Excellent with Distinction” to “Continuous Improvement” in one year. Lebanon’s standing fell due to low AYP performance for Hispanics and other students whose native language is not English.

Lebanon superintendent Mark North said every student’s success is a priority, but feels the current system does not accurately reflect a district’s overall performance.

“We met 29 of 30 indicators and increased our performance index score (101.6) for the fourth year in a row,” North said. “However, we’re in the same category as other districts who met only 16 of 30 indicators and have a 80.4 performance index score. It’s not consistent.”

The bill must be approved by the House and signed by the governor, who has indicated he is not in favor of the revisions. Amanda Wurst, Gov. Ted Strickland’s spokeswoman, said the governor believes AYP is important in holding schools accountable for every child.

“Accountability in our schools is a good and necessary thing,” said bill co-sponsor Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro. “But, there are community implications when a district is classified as ‘fair.’ We need to make sure that the measurement fits the district’s discrepancies in a consistent and accurate manner. This bill is a step to prevent what happened in Lebanon from happening somewhere else in the future.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or mrossiter@coxohio.com.

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