The South-Western City School District ranked 557 out of 936 districts statewide in a draft ranking recently released by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan W. Heffner.

The Ohio Department of Education will release a final list by September 2012 as required by state law; the rankings are required under House Bill 153.

Each school building in city, local and exempted village school districts, as well as joint vocational school districts, community schools and STEM schools, are ranked using a Performance Index score. PI scores combine individual students’ results on all tested subjects in grades 3-8 on Ohio’s Achievement Assessments and on the 10th-grade Ohio Graduation Tests.

SWCS earned a PI score of 94.

District PI scores statewide ranged from 35 to 116.

In an individual building ranking, Grove City High School was the highest-ranked building in the district and placed 801st out of 3,457 buildings statewide. It earned a PI score of 103.

Building PI scores statewide also ranged from 35 to 116.

The PI scores are not new, and it has been possible to create ranking lists with them using existing interactive tools on the ODE website, according to a written statement from the ODE. Such district and county rankings have been done frequently by independent groups, but this is the first statewide ranking completed and released by ODE.

When a study isolates just the PI score, which measures achieve-ment, it doesn’t consider other factors that would affect a student’s academic starting point, said John Kellogg, district assistant superintendent of curriculum.

“The comparisons become more difficult to rank. The rankings don’t make as much sense,” he said.

“Achievement is strongly correlated to socio-economic status,” he said. The district has a high amount of diversity among its students. The fact that GCHS has the lowest poverty rate of the four district high schools contributes to the building’s high PI score.

A study that couples growth and achievement data conveys the most accurate picture, he said.

Kellogg said the district had the fourth-highest value-added index in the state this year, which is the statistic on the state-issued report card that measures how much a student learned within a year.

“We’re doing the right things,” he said.

ssole@thisweeknews.com

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