7 of 10 Lakewood Schools Rated Excellent or Higher | News

LAKEWOOD, OH - Preliminary state Report Card results from the Ohio Department of Education for the 2011-2012 school year indicate that seven out of 10 Lakewood Schools have earned a rating of Excellent or Excellent with Distinction, the highest number of buildings ever to earn the top two ratings on the Report Card.

“Although the data is still preliminary, the building ratings are evidence that the work we are doing in our teacher-based teams is making a difference ,” said Superintendent Jeffrey W. Patterson.

The district met 23 of 26, or 88.5%, of the state indicators and its Performance Index Rating, which measures how well all students did on all the tests, improved to 99.1 from  97.9 (on a scale of 120). The district’s performance rating continues to rise each year.

Two buildings – Lincoln Elementary and Harding Middle School - earned the top rating of Excellent With Distinction and five buildings were rated Excellent. The five Excellent schools are Lakewood High School, Garfield Middle School, Grant, Hayes and Roosevelt elementary schools. No school was rated below Effective, a rating earned by  Emerson, Harrison and Horace Mann elementaries. Lakewood City Academy, which is rated separately from the district’s other buildings, earned a Continuous Improvement designation.

Despite the good news regarding the buildings, the district overall earned a Continuous Improvement rating, down from Excellent, due to the failure to meet the federal AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks required by the No Child Left Behind Act for the third consecutive year.

Especially heartening news from the state is that the district rated Above in its “Value-Added” component measure, for the fifth straight year. The Value-Added component measures how much progress a student has made versus the previous school year.

“This shows that our students are receiving more than one academic year’s worth of learning during a school year,” Patterson said. “It also indicates that the longer students stay with us in the system, the better they do.”

Although Lakewood City Schools has many hurdles to clear when it comes to educating a student population that speaks nearly 40 languages and comes from all socioeconomic levels, the latest state data confirms that our district is offering a quality public school education full of enriching opportunities for each student who comes through its school doors.