School district earns five stars on state report card
by Melissa Martin
For the first time in its history, the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District has earned an overall rating of five stars in all five categories – Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation and Early Literacy – on the Ohio Department of Education report cards.
David Martin, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, told the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Board of Education that to grasp the significance of the accomplishment, they had to realize that BBHCSD is one of just 18 school districts in Ohio to earn five stars in all component areas.
He also noted that the district moved up one place from last year, making it the 15th highest-ranking district in the state.
“Our students accomplished amazing things last year. Their academic performance was through the roof,” Martin said, also crediting parents, teachers and support staff for the success of the district’s 3,636 students. “It’s a team, it’s a system and I don’t think I’ve ever seen us so together.”
Martin said BBH Elementary earned an overall rating of four stars in the 2022-2023 school year and is now rated a 5.
The school also earned an Achievement rating of five stars and moved up in the Progress component from two to three stars.
“Now don’t forget a five-star rating means [the school] significantly exceeds state standards,” he said. “[The elementary school] is still performing at state standards with three stars in [the Progress component] so that is promising.”
The school also earned five stars in both Gap Closing and Early Literacy components.
The BBH Middle School scored the same as the previous report card, earning four stars in the Progress component.
“I reviewed [the ratings of all Ohio’s 1,100] middle schools, and I believe there are only four in a school of our caliber and size that got a five-star rating in that area,” Martin said.
The high school earned five stars in all components for the second consecutive year and raised the school’s performance index.
Martin said in all three buildings math scores “are through the roof” because we get a lot of kids taking advanced math. This past school year, he said 7.3% of students were taking advanced/plus math courses.
Equally as noteworthy, he said, is that the district lowered it’s chronic absenteeism rate to 11.2% from 15% the previous year.
“We were going the wrong direction when I stood here last year, as 15% of the students in our district were marked as chronically absent,” he said. “We’re going to get this under control and get back into the single digits. Kudos to our administration, school counselors, our parents for getting our kids here and keeping them here because that is an important data point.”
Martin said there were 32 students last year who spoke English as a second language. Those students are excluded from the metrics on the student report cards. He said that is the largest number the district has ever had. It was the result of students relocating to the district from Ukraine the past two years.
“We’ve never had that many before and that’s very telling,” Martin said. “We have a lot to celebrate, but we still have places for improvement [and this is one of them.]”
Martin said that even though the district scored a 106.8 on its overall Performance Index – up nearly two points from the previous year – getting the component above pre-pandemic levels is the district’s goal moving forward.
“The Performance Index is the most fair, accurate and stable measure that the state has used over time. I think it has been in effect for going on three decades,” Martin said. “That gives the school district a really good snapshot of an assessment in time and whether our students mastered the standards.”
Martin explained that the Growth category measures the school’s performance over time, while the Performance Index component measures improvement just for the one school year.
“It’s like taking a snapshot in time,” he said.
Martin said that this year the district hopes to improve its performance with students with disabilities and in identifying gifted students. Another area that needs work, he said, is fifth-grade science.
“We’re going to have to get in there and figure out what is going on,” he said, noting that the district’s scores in that subject in recent years have been below average.
He also noted that all districts in the state will be graded on an additional component for the 2024-2025 school year – College and Military Readiness – and the district will have to find a way to present accurate data to the state.
“Overall, I’m very proud of the gains that have been made and continue to be made at all of the schools,” Martin said.
School board member Tish Kwiatkowski said she was extremely proud of the district’s performance at all levels.
“I want to express my deep appreciation for the district and the work that you’ve done,” she said. “There were a lot of concerns over the elementary school for the past couple years, but [this shows] the kids and the staff have all done the work and kudos to them.”
More information on the district’s state report cards can be found at reportcard.education.ohio.gov. ∞