The 2014-15 state report cards went home to all school disticts in late Feburary. For the 10th consecutive year Bluffton passed all of the state achievement indicator assessments.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW BLUFFTON'S REPORT CARD

Commenting on Bluffton’s report card, Greg Denecker, superintendent said:

The 2014-2015 report card marks the 10^th year in a row where our district passed all of the state achievement indicator assessments. These indicators included 32 assessments this year at various grade levels and subjects in grades 3-11. 

The biggest difference from this report card to the past is that it includes ratings on the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests, which were given for the first time in 2014-2015. 

However, these tests are one-time-only, as the state legislature defunded PARCC last spring. This means that school districts will no longer be using PARCC.  Despite this fact, the Ohio Department of Education was still charged with comparing the PARCC scores with the scores from the 2013-2014 Ohio assessments, in order to come up with a value-added measure. 

In addition, the PARCC assessments were taken online; this was a first for our students and may have some impact on results, especially at the younger grade levels. 

As a result of the online testing as well as the PARCC scores being compared to scores from a different assessment than the PARCC, we believe the value-added component to this year’s report card is not an accurate reflection of our students’ knowledge. 

State Senator Randy Gardner comments
State Senator Randy Gardner from Bowling Green recently issued a statement about this year’s report cards that corroborates our belief that the value-added scores are flawed.
 
According to Gardner, “Ohio’s report cards this year do not fairly reflect what is going on in many of our schools and classrooms.  In many cases they do not measure the positive work being done by our teachers and other education professionals.  The public deserves better information and our schools deserve a more accurate public report on how they are serving our communities and our children.” 

Senator Gardner added: “Future report cards will do a better job of more accurately reporting relevant information to the public.  Numerous factors impacted this year’s report cards, including new and already abolished tests, changing standards, federal mandates, inconsistent technology, and varied participation rates of students involved in taking tests.  Some of that will change, and it is imperative for legislators and the state board of education to help develop better report cards.”

Therefore, while we did very well overall on the report card, there are obviously issues with the results from this past year on a macro-level.  What we do know is that we have an excellent school district with excellent students, staff, and community members that make our district a great place to live and learn.