For Akron Schools' Curriculum Chief Ellen McWilliams, the state report card delivered both congratulations and challenges.
The Northeast Ohio district is rated in "continuous improvement" overall, for the second year in a row. According to the new projected "growth model," the state expects Akron students will continue to improve in the next two years.However, Akron fell below expected actual yearly student growth in the state's new "value added" category, and special education students lagged in adequate yearly progress in reading and math.
MCWILLIAMS: "Schools that would have made AYP last year all of a sudden have had to jump 5 to 10 points higher to meet the AYP bar."
In the other Northeast Ohio school district that is among the state's 8 largest -- the news is almost uniformly bad. Cleveland schools are in academic watch status, although graduation rates rose. But at the Cleveland charter school Citizens Academy, fourth-graders from the city's east side erased the urban achievement gap. Students beat the state average in reading and math for minority AND non minority students.
Citizens director Perry White says the report cards' new assessments are good -- but there's a catch.
WHITE: "We also need the recognition --on a moral and social level -- that we need to provide each and every student no matter where they reside, the best education."
Report cards for all schools in Ohio's 88 counties are available through a link on our web site, www.wcpn.org.
Kymberli Hagelberg 90.3