MIAMI COUNTY — Report cards for school districts across Ohio were released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Education for the 2021-22 academic school year.

Each district received a number rating for five components on the grade card.

The Ohio Department of Education rated each district on:

• Achievement — which represents whether student performance on state tests met established thresholds and how well they performed on tests overall.

• Progress — which looks closely at the growth all students are making based on their past performances.

• Gap-closing — which measures the reduction in educational gaps for student subgroups.

• Graduation rate — which looks at the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and the five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.

• Early literacy — which measures reading improvement and proficiency in students in kindergarten through third grade.

In the achievement category, Miami East, Newton and Tipp City received a rating of five stars. Bethel, Covington and Troy all received a four star rating. Milton-Union and Piqua City schools both earned three star ratings. Bradford received a two star rating.

In the progress category, Miami East and Troy received five star ratings. Bethel and Tipp City schools earned four star ratings. Two star ratings were earned by Covington and Milton-Union and Piqua City Schools received a two star rating. Newton and Bradford received ratings of one star.

In the category of gap-closing, Bethel, Covington, Miami East, Milton-Union, Tipp City and Troy City Schools all earned five star ratings. Newton earned a four star rating, Piqua received a three star rating and Bradford earned a two star rating.

In the graduation rate category, five star ratings were awarded to Covington, Miami East and Tipp City. Bethel, Bradford, Newton and Troy all received four star ratings. Three star ratings were given to Milton-Union and Piqua City Schools.

Newton Local was the only district to receive a five star rating in the early literacy category. A four star rating was given to Tipp City. Three star ratings were received by Bethel, Bradford, Covington, Miami East, Milton-Union and Troy. Piqua received a two star rating.

Area superintendents or assistant superintendents were given the opportunity to review their district’s ratings.

“Based on last year’s test results, we have strengths and areas for improvement. Each year, state testing and our local report card results provide one piece of information across the broad student experience. We use results to improve and also maintain our strengths. However, we consider many other pieces of information beyond state test results to describe student readiness and academic achievement from year-to-year,” said Milton-Union Exempted Village Schools Superintendent Brad Ritchey.

With the release of district report cards, Miami East Local Schools Superintendent Dr. Todd Rappold is pleased with the scores Miami East Local School District received.

“This ranking is a credit to our students, our parents, our educational partners, community and all of the employees of the Miami East Local School District. At Miami East we believe the staff, students and parents strive toward the TEAM philosophy of ‘Together, Everyone, Achieves, More.’ We are appreciative of the efforts by everyone in the district to ensure that students are successful,” said Rappold.

Piqua City School District is taking some time to evaluate the reported data to make informed decisions regarding instruction and dristrict plans to meet student needs.

“We are pleased that the district met the state standards for achievement, gap closing and graduation. We will look closer at the report card data in the coming weeks along with the many other data points we reference daily as we work to advance our academic progress and the many great programs we have for our students,” said Thompson.

“We’re very encouraged by the results we see. It’s due to the hard work of our staff. We still have work to do but we’re particularly pleased with our student growth scores. Overall, very pleased and excited and glad that the hard work of the teachers showed up,” said Chris Piper, superintendent of Troy City Schools.

Covington Exempted Village Schools Superintendent Joseph Hoelzle reached out to comment on the sores for his district.

“We have seen an increase in the performance component since the pandemic. We’re almost back to pre-pandemic numbers and we are very proud of the scores received in the gap closing and graduation rate components,” said Hoelzle.

Tipp City Schools Superintendent Mark Stefanik also commented on the districts report card from the state.

“We are appreciative of the annual data provided by the Ohio Department of Education. We are pleased with this year’s results and applaud our students and staff for their hard work. We will analyze the data and use it in our school improvement efforts,” said Stefanik.