OxfordPress.com

Lakota Local School District officials said the mood this week at Central Office has been celebratory.

After weeks of waiting to see how the scores would add up, the district announced today, Aug. 25, that it earned an "excellent with distinction" rating from the state. Initial results reported that Lakota did not meet all the requirements for adequate yearly progress, a measure that looks at students in sub groups such as limited English proficient and students on individual education plans for various disabilities. However, due to a new feature called "value added," individual student progress was made the past two years, which earned the district a higher rating.

"Our students are growing and our teachers are adding value to those particular students," Superintendent Mike Taylor said. "It's something we're very thrilled about."

The district has received an "excellent" rating from the state seven years in a row, and Taylor stressed that Lakota is excellent in more ways than test scores alone.

"It really doesn't accurately reflect everything that goes on in a school," Taylor said. "To allow the state to define us as excellent, we need to define who we are. I think that's a conversation we need to continue to have with our community."

This year the district plans to target the sub groups of students, and will especially focus on Adena Elementary, which received an effective rating, rather than excellent.

The goal is to ensure all students succeed, and he said educators would strive to raise the bar, but parents also are crucial to accomplishing this goal.

"We need to do everything we possibly can to make sure we provide the opportunities and the programming for all students to be successful," he said.

According to the data, Lakota met 30 of 30 required test indicators. Just 73 of Ohio's 610 districts were rated "excellent with distinction," according to the Ohio Department of Education.

Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education, Lon Stettler said Lakota did not initially meet adequate yearly progress in reading for students of lower economic status and for reading and math with students on individual education plans. It had to wait four weeks for the final results of the calculations before it knew if it would be dropped to "continuous improvement."

"Kudos to our principals and staff who worked with out students this year," he said.

Board Vice President Joan Powell said this is a time to celebrate, but the district must not forget that the system the way it stands is flawed. She said that to require all students to succeed at a standardized test might not ever be possible, and all districts will fail to meet it at some point.

"It's a system that's fast becoming not really a good indicator necessarily how districts are performing," she said. "I don't think anyone wants to make excuses. 'No Child Left Behind' has not been reauthorized ... there are a lot of caveats to this law. It has a noble purpose, but as always, the devil is in the details and this is flawed. I think everyone is holding off to see what things look like in Washington in 2009."