Twinsburg Ranks in Top 100 on New Ohio School Ranking System

Already given the "Excellent With Distinction" rating by the state earlier this year, the Twinsburg City School District was ranked in the top 100 districts by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) on Monday.

The district was ranked no. 72 on the ODE's new Performance Index Ranking scale.

"We're thrilled with the way our students perform on the assessments," said Superintendent Kathryn Powers. "To be ranked in the top seven percent of the school districts in Ohio, that's tremendous."

The ranking system is a new tool to compare academic performance among schools and districts. According to the ODE, as of September 2012, "House Bill 153 requires all school districts and school buildings to be ranked using the Performance Index (PI) score. Such rankings will provide parents and taxpayers a new way to evaluate how local schools are performing while allowing educators to compare their performance with peers."

The rankings include all city, local and exempted village school districts as well as joint vocational school districts, community schools and STEM schools.

But how does this new system differ from the state report cards earlier this year?

"Performance index is actually one component of the state report card," said Dennis Evans, Ohio Department of Education public information officer. "There are other measures on the report card as well."

The performance index scores are different than those on the last report cards because this report used updated data on state testing. Scores are based on how well each student does on all tested subjects in grades three to eight on Ohio’s Achievement Assessments and on the 10th grade Ohio Graduation Test. Students at all levels – advanced, accelerated, proficient, basic and limited – are included. The percentage of students scoring at each level is calculated and multiplied by the point value assigned to that performance level and the levels are totaled to determine overall score.

"It's a pretty simple formula," Evans said.

Evans stressed that the rankings released so far are preliminary. The final ranking released next year will also incorporate data on the amount of money devoted to classroom instruction and opportunities provided to gifted students.

"Going forward, the ranking will be based on other criteria as well. What we released last week is actually a preview," he said.

While the district ranked 72nd in the state, each building was ranked individually. Here's how each was ranked (PI score in parentheses, if applicable):

• - 63 (N/A)
• - 323 (N/A)
• - 374 (106.1)
• - 798 (103)
• - Not Ranked (N/A)