Vermilion puts trust in educators, staff

VERMILION — Vermilion Schools scored an overall rank of 4.5 stars, or "exceeding state standards," in this year's state assessments. But it's not something a district leader puts much stock in. District superintendent David Hile said he does not pay much attention to school report cards, released annually by the state's education department. State assessments "are not useful to us as educators because they are not valid and reliable as assessments must be if the resultant data is to be useful to educators, nor are they timely in that most of the assessment data comes back after the students are gone for the year," Hile said. Those rankings, made on a one-to-five-star scale, looked like this for Vermilion Schools this year: four stars in achievement, four in progress, five in gap closing, five in graduation and three in early literacy. Last year, the district scored four stars in achievement, three in progress, four in gap closing, five in graduation and two in early literacy. To gather more useful data, Hile said school districts including his own turn to alternative assessments including the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress and ProCore. Measures of Academic Progress is used in grades kindergarten through seventh, and ProCore is used in eighth through 12th grades. Hile believes there is no way of knowing what factors lead to certain state report card scores. "These assessments are one snapshot in time of one cohort of students," Hile said. "Hence, your school report card can look fantastic one year and less than fantastic the next when nothing has changed but the students taking the tests." Hile praises Measures of Academic Progress for its multiple testing sessions per year. There is baseline testing at the beginning of the year, checkup data in the middle and then growth is measured at the end of the year by comparing all scores. At the end of the day, Hile said he puts his trust in his teachers, administrators and all other staff to know what is best for students rather than relying solely on test results. Rankings at a glance Here is how Vermilion Schools fared in the Ohio Department of Education's school report cards: • Achievement: 4 out of 5 stars — This category represents whether students' performance on state tests met established thresholds and how students performed overall on tests. • Progress: 4 out of 5 stars — This category represents the growth all students are making based on their past test performances. • Gap closing: 5 out of 5 stars — This category shows how well schools are meeting the performance expectations for students in English language arts, math and graduation. It also measures how schools are doing in supporting English learners to increase language proficiency, reducing chronic absenteeism for all students and identifying gifted students and providing gifted services. • Graduation: 5 out of 5 stars — This is a measure of the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and the five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate. • Early Literacy: 3 out of 5 stars — This is a measure of reading improvement and proficiency for students in kindergarten through third grade.