“According to the superintendent’s report I received from the state, we scored higher than the state requirement in all testing areas and higher than our similar districts,” said New Richmond superintendent of schools Adam Bird. “And we have a district wide performance index of 101, the first time we’ve been over 100.”
Superintendent Adam Bird expects to hang a fourth Excellent banner on the wall of the Central Office when the final state school report card is released in August.All five New Richmond schools – Locust Corner Elementary, Monroe Elementary, New Richmond Elementary, Middle School and High School – exceeded the state requirements in all testing areas to qualify for an Excellent rating.
School and district performance reports are issued annually by the Ohio Department of Education, detailing students’ performance on standardized statewide tests, rates of improvement on those tests, student attendance and graduation rates.
The only state performance measure not met by the district in the preliminary report was Adequate Yearly Progress in the area of special education math.
“I believe we have a chance for Excellent with Distinction,” said Bird. “We’re still waiting for the value-added results which will be released on Aug. 16.”
The value-added component of Ohio’s school report-card system measures growth or improvement to determine the "value" gained by a student during a time period. Districts meeting the value-added component are moved up one step in the state ratings.
The minimum requirement by the state is a passing rate of 75 percent in each testing area. New Richmond exceeded 90 percent in six of the 23 testing areas and was over 80 percent in all but one area – 10th grade math (78.6 percent).
“I am very pleased with the efforts of our students and staff,” said Bird,.“However, we are concerned with the 5 to 10 percent of our students not passing the state tests and we will be focusing more attention on those students.”
