Other Measures of District Performance

Test Scores

The proportion of students judged proficient on Ohio’s accountability tests is an important indicator of district performance. For the purpose of this case study, the percentage of overall proficiency is calculated by averaging all of the district’s available proficiency rates (i.e., percent proficient) on accountability tests. As in other states, Ohio accountability tests are changed periodically, and these changes can affect proficiency rates. This phenomenon affected Ohio districts, including Massillon, during the five-year period of interest to this case study.

Paralleling the general trend in Ohio’s public schools, Massillon’s overall accountability test scores declined over the five-year period between 2012-13 and 2016-17, from 81% proficient in 2012-13 to 57% proficient in 2016-17. During that time period, however, grade 4 and grade 6 showed overall gains. The district received a “D” on achievement and an “F” on achievement gap-closing from the Ohio Department of Education in 2016-17.

Graduation Rates

Graduation rates are another indicator of schooling outcomes. One accepted method for calculating this statistic is to determine the proportion of entering ninth-grade students who graduate four years later. For the five school years from 2011-12 through 2015-16 the rates remained relatively constant at about 89%. For the most part, Black, Multiracial, and White students graduated in proportion to their enrollment. (This cannot be determined for Hispanic students due to a lack of available data.)

Subsequent Outcomes

Positive developments in the last year or two show signs of improvement in district performance, and Massillon’s leaders are using these gains to galvanize teachers, administrators, and other district stakeholders toward additional improvements. Among the gains that district leaders see as notable are scores on 2017-18 state accountability tests indicating that overall proficiency in the district increased by one percentage point to 58%, and that all subgroups have shown improvement in English Language Arts. The gap-closing “grades” from ODE for 2017-2018 have gone up significantly at almost all of Massillon’s schools (and remained at an “A” for one of them).

Reflective Questions

Like leaders in many districts, those in Massillon want to find useful indicators for measuring school and district progress. But Ohio, like other states, periodically introduces changes in the accountability tests it uses and the metrics it calculates. This situation makes it difficult for districts to trust apparent indicators of improvement and apparent indicators of decline. What might a district like Massillon do to create a stable method for measuring progress? How could district leaders help parents and community members understand that a stable district accountability approach would actually be more reliable than a changing statewide approach?