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Brad Silvus, middle, Marietta Schools superintendent, speaks about the Ohio School Report Card results during Monday’s meeting of Marietta City Schools Board of Education. Also pictured are Sam Tuten, left, board vice president, and Eric Reed, right, board president.
(Photo by James Dobbs)
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Mark Weihl, left, community member, spoke about the Marietta City Schools Board of Education during the citizen forum at the Marietta board meeting on Monday. Also pictured is Cody Parman, right, board member.
(Photo by James Dobbs)
Brad Silvus, middle, Marietta Schools superintendent, speaks about the Ohio School Report Card results during Monday’s meeting of Marietta City Schools Board of Education. Also pictured are Sam Tuten, left, board vice president, and Eric Reed, right, board president.
(Photo by James Dobbs)
During Monday’s meeting of Marietta City Schools Board of Education, Brad Silvus, superintendent, and Tim Fleming, curriculum director, discussed the Ohio School Report Card in depth and Marietta’s results.
“Obviously, there are areas that we know we’ve still got some work to do,” said Silvus. “But in general, we’re seeing progress in most areas.”
Ohio report cards measure achievement, progress, early literacy, gap closing, graduation and readiness a graduating class has to move on to post secondary education, a career or the armed forces.
Silvus said the rating system changed this year from an A through F rating to a one through five star rating.
“In the past report cards, one of the problems and one of the things that educators and State Board members talked about was if we’re doing what we were supposed to, we would get a C,” he said. “That doesn’t seem quite right.”
Mark Weihl, left, community member, spoke about the Marietta City Schools Board of Education during the citizen forum at the Marietta board meeting on Monday. Also pictured is Cody Parman, right, board member.
(Photo by James Dobbs)
Fleming began the discussion by describing the early literacy aspect of the report card. It combines proficiency in third grade reading, promotion to fourth grade and K-3 literary improvement into a single rating. Marietta received three out of five stars.
The gap closing measurement combines a gifted performance indicator, chronic absenteeism improvement, meeting four-year graduation goals, meeting English and Mathematics goals, and English and Mathematics progress. The district received three out of five stars.
Achievement accounts for the level of achievement for every student. The district scored two out of five stars overall for achievement. Silvus said one of the issues this year was reaching 85 untested areas. This means there were 85 different occasions where students missed tests. He said they are working on how they can get kids in classrooms for when they need to be there to take a test.
“There are things like that, that we really need to tighten up,” he said.
Fleming said the district was incredibly close to receiving its third star in Achievement and graduation.
The graduation measurement calculates the rate of students who earn their diploma in both four and five year increments of entering ninth grade. The district received two out of five stars.
Progress is measured based on a term Ohio uses called “value added,” the term is used to measure the impact a district has in growth or progress rates from year to year. Current achievement gets weighed against past results. The district received two out of five stars.
Silvus said he is interested in pursuing an employee to fill a new position that targets graduation and careers for students, helping them prepare for their future. He explained that other districts like Warren have a similar position to help students. He said he plans to bring this new job to the board for review and discussion in the near future. He said it could be as early as next month.
Sam Tuten, board vice president, said it’s exciting being a part of the board even though the report card results were displeasing.
“I’m excited,” he said. “To me, the numbers aren’t acceptable, but we’re at this new leaf moving forward. We don’t want to go beyond that but all we can do is go up, so I’m excited for the opportunities that lie ahead to make ourselves better.”
Fleming discussed the first intradistrict professional development day last Friday. Staff from Warren, Fort Frye, Belpre, Marietta, Frontier and Wolf Creek gathered at Warren to develop skills. Some of the topics discussed were discipline in the classroom, creating engaging activities and math standards. Fleming said he enjoyed the day there. Silvus said he learned about how other districts are teaching Physical Education. He said Frontier is doing an outdoors unit of P.E.
During the citizen forum, Mark Weihl, community member, found the board’s conversation “extremely refreshing.” Weihl said he has attended several meetings over the years and enjoyed what the board said about the report card.
“I find it extremely refreshing to hear words like goals and metrics and achievements, and to have our curriculum director and our superintendent to do the majority of the report tonight on our report cards.”
He said in the past administrators in that position would be absent during the discussion. Weihl also commented on the decrease in enrollment and how it should be something the administrators are looking into.
Stacey Cole, district parent, addressed the board and asked if they were aware of discrimination going on in the district.
Tuten was one of the board members that responded and explained that the board takes these types of concerns seriously and expects the administration to investigate it. He also said he would give Cole his card in order to hear her story.