State Report Card: Focus on Core Instruction and Personalized Learning

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has released the results of the 2022-2023 school year state report card. Lakota Local Schools remained consistent with the previous year, earning 17 out of 25 possible stars. The district also earned an overall rating of 3.5 out of five stars, a new rating system replacing the letter grade used in previous years.

“As we know, the report card is one snapshot in time, related to a school district’s overall performance,” said Interim Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli. “Lakota is a great school district and offers many opportunities for our students. That isn’t going to change.” The report card shows high achievement scores for Lakota, however the progress score, which indicates overall academic growth, is low. “Our achievement scores remain high, but our progress scores are indicating that we are not growing students to their full potential,” Lolli continued. “Our focus must be on core instruction while balancing quality innovative practices.” 

Lolli and district leaders have been meeting with principals and Building Leadership Teams (BLT) to review individual school’s results and discuss ways to better support students in their learning. “Our administrators and teachers want to see our students achieve academic success. Now is the time to make adjustments so that the foundation of our core instruction is strong and unified across the district,” said Lolli.

Five components make up the state report card: Achievement, Progress, Early Literacy, Graduation Rate and Gap Closing. Lakota’s scores remained consistent from last year’s report card in each component. College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness is a new component that will factor in the 2024-2025 school year.

One area of focus this year at Lakota will be early literacy. Gov. DeWine announced that the state will release a list of approved reading materials that school districts must adopt this year. Additionally, districts must adhere to new requirements regarding identifying and supporting students with dyslexia. Last year, Lakota changed the way teachers assess students’ reading skills, focusing on one component of Map testing geared toward dyslexia screening. This change, which included not using the full Map assessment tool, played into the drop in some of Lakota’s primary schools’ early literacy scores.

“We must focus on personalizing our instruction and ensuring that we are delivering curriculum and instruction in a way that best meets each student's needs,” said Lolli. “In addition, we need to make sure that we are challenging our students and pushing them academically so that they can meet their maximum potential.” Lolli has reinstated the use of the full Map assessment program, including the dyslexia screening. This will give teachers and administrators additional data that will be used to better personalize small-group instruction.

By focusing on how core instruction is being personalized in its delivery to students, Lolli is confident that progress, or academic growth, will improve. “These report card results are not insurmountable. If we are all moving in the same direction, assessing our students’ learning throughout the year and making adjustments to meet their individual learning needs, it will make an impact.”

Lakota will release its annual Quality Profile, a companion publication to the state report card, in the coming weeks. The current report card can be viewed on the ODE website.