OREGON, Ohio — Since the Ohio Department of Education's (ODE) annual school district report card was released Thursday, Oregon City Schools (OCS) Superintendent Hal Gregory and the district have been celebrating.
The report card rates schools between one and five stars, for students' growth and achievements. On last year's report card for 2022-2023, OCS averaged 2.8 stars. But this year, OCS received 4 stars.
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Here in Lucas County, among the highest star ratings for some of the biggest districts are Perrysburg and Ottawa Hills. Oregon earned the title of most improved area school district, which is something George said they're all proud of.
"We've really taken on a challenge in the last probably three to four years to really work with our kids to help them understand how important it is to have a culture and to work hard and to discipline in what they do," Gregory said.
ODE annual school district report card measures how well students in grades 3 through 12 perform on a variety of subjects in state testing. Then rank those, and various other results, using a 1-to-5 scale, with five stars being the highest.
Five stars mean the district significantly exceeds state standards, four exceeds state standards, three meets state standards, and two needs support to meet standards. With last year's average of 2.8, the district was teetering between needing support to meet standards and meeting them.
"We've been taking very detailed deep dives into our curriculum," Gregory said. "We spent the better part of the last two to three years, literally going down and focusing on the groups of one and two and three teachers in small groups. Looking at data, talking about kids and being, I guess, as specific and strategic as you could possibly be. So, that one kid at a time, succeeds."
He explained how they noticed their students' reading, writing and math skills have been evolving for years.
"To be honest with you, those types of skills have been lacking in kids over the past decade, or so. Things have changed a little bit. Social media definitely changed how people interact and how people learn, and how kids want to act and how kids want to learn," Gregory said.
He said by altering how they taught their students while stressing the importance of determination and work ethic, which applied not only to the faculty and staff but also the students, the district saw true change.
Gregory said they're not done yet; the goal is to keep up the hard work, thanks to the students, parents, and the district as whole.