CENTERBURG — Centerburg Local Schools received their School Report Card from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) on Monday. The district now knows what it did well last year, and where it can improve.
Based on a one-to-five-star scale, three Knox County schools received an overall four-star rating, and two schools received a 3.5-star rating.
The Knox County Career Center (KCCC) also received a five-star rating. However, the state calculates the KCCC’s rating using a different, unique system.
These report cards score districts and individual K-12 schools using standardized test scores, attendance rates and other categories.
“This year, more than 90% of districts earned overall ratings of three stars or higher​, meaning they met or exceeded state expectations for performance,” a DEW press release states.
The DEW also evaluates schools on how they prepare their students for their next steps. The metric now factors students’ college, career, military, and workforce readiness (CCMWR) into a school or district’s overall rating.
This year marks the first time the CCMWR metric counts toward a school or district’s overall rating.
The following is a breakdown of Centerburg’s district report card and comments from Supt. Ryan Gallwitz.
last year’s report card breakdown
Knox County schools react to ODE report cards
MOUNT VERNON — The 2024 Statewide Report Card has been issued by the State Department of Education (ODE.) These report cards evaluate districts and individual schools using standardized test scores, attendance rates and other data from K-12 educational institutions. Districts and schools receive several scores, including an overall rating, on a one- to five-star scale.…
Centerburg schools by the numbers
Centerburg Local Schools received an overall rating of 3.5 stars, including:
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 2 stars
- Gap Closing: 3 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 3 stars
- College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness: 3 stars
While not part of the overall rating, the chronic absenteeism rate was 13.4%.
“Overall, for the district, we reduced chronic absenteeism by 1.1%,” Centerburg Supt. Ryan Gallwitz said. “This has been a district goal for the past couple years.”
For more information, including specific stats for the elementary, middle and high school, click here.
Gallwitz chimes in
Despite a decrease in the overall, gap closing and early literacy ratings, Gallwitz says there are still great things happening in all of Centerburg’s schools.
“Each group has its own strengths, weaknesses, backgrounds and experiences. Our staff does a great job meeting students where they are and taking them as far as they can academically in one year,” Gallwitz said.
“The state tests are just a snapshot of some of the things that are accomplished each year. A lot of factors go into the results, such as curricular changes, absenteeism, student staff illnesses, and, of course, the lessons built by our teaching staff. While our results are not what we expected or wanted, there are a lot of great things happening in all of Centerburg’s school buildings.”
According to Gallwitz, the biggest reason for the dip in the overall rating is due to the progress rating.
“The past few years students at the elementary and middle school have been scoring higher each year. Our achievement scores are strong and have been improving,” Gallwitz said.
“Progress goals are based upon previous test scores. Generally speaking, in order to make progress, you have to continue to score higher each year. On the report card, which is last year’s data, our highest performing students did not score as high, and therefore we did not make progress.”
Gallwitz said his teachers, administrators and leadership teams are looking at this metric and figuring out what adjustments need to be made.
Similar to the progress metric, Gallwitz said the lower test score from this past school year also affected the gap closing rating.
However, Gallwitz noted that some teachers had not completed their gifted professional development, and thus that data was not included in the recent report card.
“We also had a couple of teachers who had not finished their gifted professional development, even though students were being served, we couldn’t get credit for it on the report card. Those teachers finished everything over the summer,” Gallwitz said.
Graduation improvements and how the CCWMR metric affects Centerburg
Centerburg’s graduation rating went up to five stars from four. Gallwitz credits this to his district’s continued fight against chronic absenteeism.
The high school staff has been working very hard the past couple years to reduce chronic absenteeism. As it turns out, the more you attend school, the better you perform in your classes, and the higher your graduation rate will be.
Centerburg Supt. Ryan Gallwitz
As for the CCWMR metric, with Centerburg being a smaller school, there aren’t many options available, Gallwitz said.
“For example, we do not offer International Baccalaureate courses. We do offer college credit plus courses in-house, and many students take them and do well,” Gallwitz said.
“To improve in this area, we need to work closely with the students while building a graduation plan that may align with one or more of the categories offered.”