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What Schools SayNorwood City Schools Our district gained 4 indicators from last year to this year. Our performance index increased by 2 points overall in the district. Three were academic indicators at the district level:
Graduation Improvements made this year within indicators:
We have two excellent buildings--Norwood HS and Norwood MS and 3 effective elementary buildings. We are still working on making AYP for all groups and as AYP increases. Cleveland Heights-University Heights City Schools When asked how they improved their scores, they mention 4 things:
Goshen Local Schools "The great thing about PRO-Ohio is that it combines with other sources like past performance on the Ohio Achievement Assessments to provide data to allow teachers to make decisions about classroom instruction that increase student achievement." Finneytown Local Schools "I have to say, I went to this [PRO-Ohio] program today a bit skeptical. I had been thinking we could do this in house for so much cheaper, but the program does so much more than I had realized and I am so impressed by the development the organizer, Ben [Hemingway], puts into it! From going today I think I have a better handle on data driven instruction (or data assisted instruction). Full implementation of this program would be a huge change in the week by week, and most likely day to day instruction, but I think in a good way. I'm still not sure how it would look in my class, but I am very excited to give it a try." "Each core teacher would give weekly assessments in the program to track progress of the students. There are also fall and winter assessments that track the progress of all of the benchmarks. However, this is really only part of the program. I was most impressed with the way the program tracks the data, and, it looks like, provides positive motivation for kids to improve. There was quite a bit of talk today about a database that would track OAA scores and Pro-Ohio scores, and makes that information very accessable. This is being looked into for implementation into the Pro-Ohio program." "One of the big advantage as an administrator was how easily you are able to see the scores and progress of the classes. It looked to me like one spreadsheet could be accessed that would show you all average scores of assessments by teacher...." "After today, my recommendation would be to not only implement this program 7-10, but really 3-10. I would also like the students who are in my Fundamentals of Science course next year to be signed on for the program." PRO-Ohio Customer ListPRO-Ohio Assessment Systems are currently being used in over 100 schools in Ohio, including:
High Praise at the Elementary Level"The following thoughts come to mind when describing the value of your product. I can think of no other product on the market that is aligned to the standards as well as PRO-Ohio. Many products such as Success Maker claim to have a good alignment to the standards, but upon examination, the correlation is not as strong as PRO-Ohio or PRO-Web. For the purpose of monitoring instruction, I prefer the frequent data that PRO-Web provides. This year I was able to monitor the effectiveness of our math instruction on a bi-weekly basis. This objective form of an going assessment is critical for any administrator who wants to keep a finger on the pulse of academic progress in his or her building. It is important to note that the assessment alone is not enough to create improvement. The assessment results must be used to drive instructional change through conversations between the administration and teaching staff. When used consistently for progress monitoring it drives school wide as well as individual student progress." Secondary Level Uses PRO-Web Throughout the Year"Our middle school math teachers believe the PRO-Ohio short-cycle web tests are solidly aligned with the Ohio Acadmic Content Standards. It is an excellent tool for formative assessments that can be used throughout the school year." PRO-Ohio Proves to be a Great Teaching Tool"I began my relationship with PRO-Ohio after talking to Jill Kincer from Kettering at an OGT testing conference in late 2004. Jill shared with me the information that Kettering had been using this product for a number of years in their district testing preparation program. The district where I was the high school principal struggled with test scores and we had entered the 04-05 school year with a 1st year designation as missing AYP and being on the at risk list. We had made some significant gains the previous year but missed in sub groups and also had a testing population with 50%+ as being in poverty. Needless to say we were under the gun. I contacted Ben Hemingway and discussed the PRO-Ohio product. In a short period we decided to administer a relaxed version of the test in early December 2004. By relaxed, I mean we did not replicate a full testing environment but administered the test through the content area teachers. What was impressive was the turn around of the data. We received the results in less than 3 days and what we received was voluminous. What a great teaching tool! Using this data we formulated plans to redirect classroom instruction to address student deficiencies. After 7-8 weeks we retested the students with a different form of the same level test in a full test environment. We again received our data quickly, and we were able to use it in the immediate weeks up to the test to work with students. After the actual OGT was administered, many of our students commented to us about their being so well prepared. When the results came in, our math and reading scores jumped 20%+ and our students achieved at levels never seen on a first test administration dating back to the 9th grade tests. This resulted in Northridge HS being designated an "Effective" high school and being awarded the "School of Promise" designation by the ODE. I believe PRO-Ohio, in the hands of dedicated teachers, made a huge difference. At the end of 2005 I left Northridge and became the principal of Bellbrook HS. Bellbrook had been designated an "Excellent" HS for the past 3 years with a very professional and dedicated staff. Things were working well and the OGT scores were all in the 90’s from 04-05. Why PRO-Ohio? Well I am anticipating that ODE will be raising cut scores, and the HS did not really do anything to prepare students outside a very rigorous curriculum. I asked one of my assistant principals to take our building scores from the OGT and figure the passing rate at a 75% cut score. Our passage rate dropped significantly. As a staff we discussed the data and decided that we needed to look at some sort of pretest to ensure that our instruction was moving students to the accelerated and advanced levels. We used PRO-Ohio and administered the test in a relaxed fashion in December. Faculty had the data back very quickly and used it to adjust their instruction prior to the test. Our hope is that we move students to a higher achievement levels and maintain a very high passing rate." |
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