We were delighted to learn recently that the Fairfield School District was rated “excellent” for the second straight year. It is a wonderful credit to our teachers and the employees who support them, to our students and parents, and to the whole community. It is impossible for a school district to achieve that kind of result without community support.

There is still much to do, though. There are 30 standards on the state report card, and we attained 26 of them. On a few others we reached the standard, but not by the kind of comfortable margin we would like.

We achieved the “Value Added” standard, an important measurement of the progress that individual students make from one year to the next. That helped us reach the “excellent” mark. But another way students are measured is in subgroups, such as students of different races, special needs students, limited-English-proficient students, and economically disadvantaged students. The goal is for each subgroup to make “Adequate Yearly Progress,” and we fell short in one area: special needs students’ reading scores.

I could write an entire column on the “Adequate Yearly Progress” subject, or AYP as it’s usually called. It is a measure required by the federal government, but the state then uses it to help determine a district’s rating. The way Ohio does that can make a huge difference based on a small number of students. One area school district dropped all the way from “Excellent with Distinction” to “Continuous Improvement” this year, because of AYP. I mention this because our district, along with many others, could be subject to the same kind of rating swing due to AYP.

It is important that every student subgroup, and every student, be improving every year. But I have difficulty with a rating system that allows the entire district ranking to be determined by a tiny number of students. It simply doesn’t reflect the quality of education being offered throughout an entire school district, which is what the ranking is supposed to do.

But that is the system we have. We focus our energies on working to improve where we most need to. Our District Leadership Team, using what’s known as the Ohio Improvement Process, has outlined four key goals: Improve math performance by 9 percent, improve reading performance by 9 percent, have our limited-English-proficient students reach the state goals for that subgroup, and reduce discipline occurrences by 15 percent while also eliminating disparities in discipline between subgroups.

The work to turn those goals into realities is detailed and complex. We have Building Leadership Teams in each school working extensively with student achievement data and action plans. It is a lot of committees and meetings and process evaluation, but we are a large, complex organization and making permanent, systemic change takes that kind of work.

Meanwhile, we’ve gotten off to a great start in this new school year. I want to offer my congratulations to Patty Webber, our newest Teacher of the Year. It’s really the highest employee honor our district awards each year and Patty, who teaches second grade at South Elementary, is truly deserving. I had the pleasure of teaching with her some years ago and know what an outstanding educator she is. We are very fortunate to have her in our school district.

Published in the Fairfield Echo, Sept. 3, 2009.