State rates three county school systems effective

Students at area school district received their end-of-the-year marks in June. But each year the Ohio Department of Education gives a report card of its own to every school system in the state, and the five school districts in Athens County have now received their grades.

Athens County has three districts with an "œeffective" designation and two systems that are in "œcontinuous improvement." While Alexander Local School District dropped from "œexcellent" to "œeffective" since last year's report cards, Nelsonville-York was bumped up from "œcontinuous improvement" to "œeffective."

The report cards have a performance index score (PIS) from 0 to 120, and are based on a number of factors such as attendance, graduation rates and state test scores.

ALEXANDER LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT received an "effective" designation with a PIS of 93.3, meeting 20 out of 30 state indicators, compared to 24 last year, causing its designation to drop. The district did not meet the state's "adequate" yearly progress assessment.

The state requirement is 75 percent on tests in reading, mathematics, science, writing and social studies for 10th grade and 85 percent for 11th grade. Alexander passed all five categories in the Ohio Graduation Tests taken at the 10th-grade level, but came up short in science at the 11th-grade level with an 84.7 percent. Writing came in with the highest scores at 86.1 percent for 10th grade and 96 percent for 11th grade. The lowest score for 10th graders was science coming in at 79.2 percent, which is up from 70.3 percent last year. In 11th grade, the lowest was the science score. Across all grade levels and subjects, the highest score was 96 percent in 11th grade writing, and the lowest was 62.9 percent in 5th grade mathematics.

The district showed a 97 percent graduation rate for 2007-08 graduates, with a 95.6 percent attendance rate and a mean ACT score of 21. The percentage of graduates graduating with honors stood at 11.3 percent.

ATHENS CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT received an "effective" designation with a PIS of 94.8 and meeting 22 out of 30 state indicators, up from 20 last year. Athens did not meet the state's "adequate" yearly progress assessment.

Athens students passed all five categories in the Ohio Graduation Tests for both 10th and 11th grade. Writing came in with the highest score in 10th grade at 90.8 percent, and 11th grade had its highest score also in writing at 90.8 percent showing proficiency. The lowest score for 10th graders was mathematics at 84 percent. In 11th grade, the lowest score was science at 87.3 percent. At all levels, the highest score were the 90.8 percent scores in 10th and 11th grade writing, with the lowest being 61 percent in 8th grade social studies.

The district showed a 99.5 percent graduation rate for 2007-08 seniors, with a 94.7 percent attendance rate and a mean ACT score of 24. The percent of graduates graduating with honors was 31.9 percent.

NELSONVILLE-YORK CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT was bumped up to an "effective" rating this year, with a PIS of 91.0 and meeting 15 out of 30 state indicators, compared to 14 out of 30 last year. Nelsonville-York did meet the state's adequate yearly progress assessment.

Nelsonville-York students passed two of five categories of the Ohio Graduation Test at the 10th and 11th grade level. Writing came in with the highest score at 84 percent at the 10th grade level, with reading at 75.5 percent and no other subject meeting the 75 percent threshold. In 11th grade, writing had the highest score at 90.5 percent. The lowest score for 10th grade was 62.4 percent in science, and in 11th grade was 79.8 percent in science. At all levels, the highest score was 4th grade reading at 91.9 percent, while the lowest score was 8th grade social studies at 47.5, up from 38.7 percent last year.

The district showed a 92.1 percent graduation rate for 2007-08 seniors, with a 94.2 percent attendance rate and a mean ACT score of 19. The percent of graduates graduating with honors was 8.5 percent.

FEDERAL HOCKING LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT received a "continuous improvement" designation with a PIS of 85.2 and meeting 12 out of 30 state indicators, up from 10 last year. Federal Hocking did not meet the state's "adequate" yearly progress assessment.

Federal Hocking passed all five categories of the Ohio Graduation Test at the 11th grade level and three at the 10th grade level. Writing came in with the highest scores, with 94.3 percent in 11th grade and 80.2 in 10th grade. The lowest 10th grade score was 71.6 percent in mathematics, while the lowest in 11th grade was 85.1 percent in science. At all levels, the highest score was 11th grade writing at 94.3 percent and the lowest was 8th grade social studies at 35.8 percent.

The district showed a 98.8 graduation rate for 2007-08 seniors, with a 94.7 percent attendance rate and a mean ACT score of 19. The percent of graduates graduating with honors was 22.6 percent.

TRIMBLE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT received a "continuous improvement" designation with a PIS of 85.2 and meeting 8 out of 30 state indicators, down from 11 last year. Trimble did not meet the state's "adequate" yearly progress assessment.

Trimble passed one of the five categories of the Ohio Graduation Test at the 11th grade level and two at the 10th grade level. In 11th grade, the district passed writing with 85.5 percent, while failing to meet the 85 percent threshold in all other subjects. In 10th grade, the district passed the 75 percent threshold with 77.8 percent in mathematics and 82.2 percent in writing. At all levels, the highest score was 11th grade writing at 85.5 percent and the lowest was 5th grade social studies at 34.4 percent.

The district showed a 83.8 percent graduation rate for 2007-08 seniors, with a 93.5 percent attendance rate and a mean ACT score of 20. The percent of graduates graduating with honors was 11.3 percent.