Brunswick City Schools goes in-depth on its recent Ohio School Report Card

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick City Schools Director of Instruction and Innovation Pat Geschke went into more detail on the district's recent Ohio School Report Card, where Brunswick received 20 out of 25 stars, during the Board of Education meeting Monday. There are five categories — achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation and early literacy — and each can earn up to five stars. Five stars means state standards where significantly exceeded while three stars means the district met the standards. Brunswick received four stars in achievement, which measures student performance on state tests through a performance index. For the 2022 report card, Brunswick had 89.5 points, which is about six points higher than the year prior. Students are also put into groups based on test performance from advanced to limited. Geschke said more students are moving into the groups at proficient and above and less in the basic and limited sections compared to the previous year. "To see some of these jumps and accomplishments is a really, really good sign that again, our kids are moving back to achieving at pretty high levels," he said. Progress is measured on growth based on past student performance. The expectation of growth is rooted in how the students in the group performed on average compared to other students across the state. The district earned three stars in progress. Students made more progress than expected with significant evidence in high school English II, geometry and biology as well as fifth grade science and science for all grades tested. Students made less progress than expected with significant evidence in high school algebra, seventh grade English language arts, eighth grade math and seventh grade tests overall. Gap closing measures the reduction of educational gaps for subgroups made up of different types of students. It consists of a variety of factors such as achievement by subgroup in English language arts and math as well as growth in these subjects. It also factors in graduation rate by subgroup, language proficiency for English learners and gifted performance. Brunswick received four stars in gap closing. Chronic absenteeism is not counted in this year's gap closing category, Geschke said. It occurs when a student misses 10 percent or more of the school year through excused and unexcused absences. "Last year if a kid has COVID and has to stay home for a week or is quarantined, all of those count against the student even if there are doctor's notes, and it's excused," he said. "Our chronic absenteeism jumped dramatically, just like everyone in the state." Brunswick significantly exceeds state standards in graduation rates and gained five stars in the category. Nearly 98 percent of students who started ninth grade in the fall of 2017 graduated within four years. About 97 percent of students who started ninth grade in fall of 2016 graduated within five years. "One of our most important jobs is to graduate kids," Geschke said. "I think this speaks to the entire district, pre-K (through) 12, that we're able to accomplish this." The final category determines reading improvement and proficiency in students in kindergarten through third grade. The district was given four stars. All third graders in the district met the third grade reading requirements to move on to fourth grade. About 72 percent of third graders scored proficient on the reading section of the state test. In the future, the state will include a college, career, workforce and military readiness category after accumulating more data, Geschke said. The report card is important, but it does not demonstrate everything that the district and students accomplish, he said. "We're committed to learning from the report card, celebrating what we're doing well (and) addressing areas that need to be addressed, but it's just one part of our story," Geschke said. "There are other elements that are just as important in our district that I don't think you'll ever find on a report card." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.