The Ohio Department of Education has released information about how school districts performed during the last school year, but with changes to the way the information was presented, not all school districts are happy with the system.
"The whole report car system, and the fact that there's labels put on us, the labels are kind of useless to us. It's the data underneath that we need and sometimes quite frankly we have a hard time getting it," said Dale Lewellen, superintendent for Bath Local Schools.
This is the first year that districts are receiving letter grades in all six categories that are looked at. But as some school districts are saying, those letters can be deceiving for schools that are producing successful college students and workers.
"Typical residents look at the grades and think differently about the school then they had before - and now, for the third year in a row, we're having to try to figure out what's different about these assessments so that we can instruct our students properly," Lewellen said.
Feelings for those state grade cards isn't much different in the Lima City Schools district.
"I feel like the grade card is just a snapshot, it doesn't encompass 10% of what we're doing in this school district," said Lima City Schools superintendent Jill Ackerman. "So for people to put that out there, for people to judge us based on one day's worth of testing, or only look at K-3 at-risk readers, that is not a true picture of what is going on in this school district."
The Lima City Schools district is looking at the grades they received but not letting that particular evaluation stop them from honoring what they've accomplished on a student to student basis.
"When the value added came in, which in my opinion is the most important measure, because that's going to show the growth of the kids, we were able to say look, we really do have a lot to celebrate. We're not going to let the grade card beat us down and make us feel inferior," Ackerman said.
You can visit here to view your school district's performance grades.
