TIPP CITY — While state report cards aren’t grading districts on a letter-grade system this year, Tipp City Schools Superintendent Mark Stefanik said that the assessment data is valuable to the district.
“We are appreciative that the annual state assessment process provides data that we can use to inform our school improvement efforts. In this year’s data, we have strong areas in each building, while at the same time, there is data that indicates areas in need of improvement. We will review all of the data and formulate school improvement plans for each level,” Stefanik said.
The achievement category represents whether student performance on state tests met established thresholds and how well students performed on tests overall. The Tipp City school district scored a 92.8 out of a possible 120 for a percentage score of 77.8%.
The progress component looks closely at the growth all students are making based on their past performances.
At the high school level, the state found that students are making more progress than expected in English Language Arts Level II and Algebra, as well as similar progress to the statewide expectation in Geometry.
At the seventh grade level, the state found that students are making more progress than expected in English Language Arts and less progress than expected in mathematics. Eighth grade students are making similar progress to the statewide expectation in English Language Arts, less progress than expected in mathematics, and more progress than expected in science.
Additionally, the district has a four-year graduation rate of 98.1%.
According to Stefanik, COVID created challenges for the district last year, one of which was ensuring that remote learning students had the opportunity to participate in the testing process. Schedules and test proctors were coordinated to address that specific challenge.
“Last year, due to COVID, all educational processes and practices were impacted. We are so thankful for the efforts of our teachers, support staff, administrators, and parents,” Stefanik said.
Stefanik is viewing this years’ data as a starting point for improvement efforts moving forward. The district is implementing the Ohio Improvement process, which will focus on data analysis to drive school improvement efforts.
“We will utilize this new state data, along with our local data points, to identify improvement areas, and then we will create plans to address those areas. As the year progresses, we will track progress in our improvement areas and adjust plans as needed,” Stefanik said.
Additionally, the district plans to implement their Summer Academy for the second year in a row as a way of providing additional learning experiences for students for both intervention and enrichment activities. Stefanik added that the district will continue to use data from future state assessments and continue data analysis efforts to create new improvement plans for the district.
“With a focus on continuous improvement, we will be able to effectively address the needs of our students,” Stefanik said.
