“Tecumseh earned a strong rating in progress, with four stars, indicating that students are making substantial year-to-year academic progress,” Crew said. “The district took on a great deal of professional learning in the Science of Reading, English Learners, and writing across all contents while piloting or selecting new curricula in several subject areas. This was a huge undertaking that will benefit students and scores in the future.”
The district matched its previous year’s scores with 3 stars in achievement, gap closing and early literacy, and 2 stars in graduation.
Crew said chronic absenteeism was a major focus for the district, and results “improved greatly” as they went from a 27.5% chronic absenteeism rate in 2022-23 down to an 18.7% rate in 2023-24. A student is considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of the school year — the equivalent of 18 school days, or two per month.
“Every building in the district met (the state’s chronic absentee) indicator. In fact, we went from 0 of 5 stars the previous year to 5 of 5 stars last year,” Crew said. “This is a very important achievement because we need our students here on a consistent basis for growth and learning to take place to the maximum amount possible.”
Other scores that improved from the previous year included five-year graduation rate (up from 88% to 91.4%) and the college-career readiness score that most schools improved on (up from 16.2% to 50.5%).
Crew also pointed out highlights by some individual schools, as Park Layne Elementary went from 1 star to 3.5 stars, and Donnelsville Elementary scored 4.5 stars.
As for decreases, Tecumseh’s four-year graduation rate fell from 89.3% to 85.8%, early literacy percentage fell from 72.7% to 70%, and the district’s gap closing score fell from 44.1% to 39.7%. Among other things, gap closing shows performance by various groups of students by race, income, disability, etc. The district’s performance index across all state tests was down just a hair, from 73.1% to 72.7%.
“Each graduation class differs and comes with its unique makeup of students,” Crew said. Tecumseh High School has already brought the graduation rate up to 93.3% which will show up on next year’s report card,” Crew said. “(We) are committed to seeing that students graduate even if it takes five years.”
Although there were some declines, Crew said they still remained in the 3-star ranking, but that the “expectation increases each year.”
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s “high-level” data report for each school district’s report card includes 16 different metrics related to test score performance, year-over-year progress, early literacy and other factors. Tecumseh’s report card this year showed improvement on three of those markers, no change on seven measures, and declines on six of them.
“Through targeted professional development initiatives, the addition of new curriculum, course offerings, interventions, and the reduction of chronic absenteeism, I anticipate that we will continue to see an elevation in our performance, achievement, gap closing and early literacy each year as measured by the State Report Card,” Crew said.
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