Tuesday, April 06, 1999
Cincinnati schools cite gain despite low ranking
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It was with a celebratory tone that Cincinnati Public Schools officials announced the bad news Monday: Ohio education officials deemed their district to be in a state of academic emergency.
Progress, officials stressed, was the key. And although CPS got the lowest ranking on local school report cards the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) released Monday, the 47,200-student district improved from 1996-97 to 1997-98 in many areas ODE measured — attendance, discipline, dropout rates and proficiency test scores.
But some measures remain low, prompting worries that raising student achievement may be tough, especially given recent budget-trimming proposals.
For example, while CPS' graduation rate was the highest among Ohio's urban districts, that rate fell 5 percentage points from 72.5 percent in 1996-97 to 67.6 percent last year.
Only 14 percent of fourth-graders passed all sections of state proficiency tests.
While CPS students' scores on other proficiency tests also fell below state averages, the fourth-grade scores particularly prompt concern. Performance in early grades is the greatest predictor of later academic success, experts say.
“If you view education as building a foundation of knowledge, then how kids do in the early grades really does affect how they'll perform later,” said Barbara Wasik, a Johns Hopkins University research scientist who studies early education. “Without early success, kids start to fall to the wayside.”
Proposed budget cuts could reverse some hard-fought gains, others fear. Administrators plan to cut $20 million from their 1999-2000 budget — half from per-pupil spending, the other half from centrally funded services — after postponing a tax increase request from May to November.
“The chaos that's been inflicted on schools in the past few weeks is a setback,” Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney said. “There's no doubt it will have an impact on student achievement.”
Several reforms and programs CPS brags about in “Measuring Up,” an annual performance report, also may fall to the budget ax. CPS released its 1997-98 edition of Measuring Up on Monday.
Truancy court, offered in five schools to boost attendance rates, may be eliminated.
Although Superintendent Steven Adamowski declared truancy court ineffective when he announced budget cuts last month, it helped boost attendance nearly 3 percentage points at Whittier Elementary in Price Hill, according to Measuring Up. The district is investigating outside funding sources to continue the program.
To erase funding inequities between neighborhood schools and mag net programs, CPS has redirected some money from magnet programs to neighborhood schools this year. Achievement historically has been higher at magnets than neighborhood schools, so magnet supporters warn performance could suffer as funding falls. CPS offers 13 magnet programs at 28 sites.
Administrators stressed that despite the dismal scores, improvement was the key.
“The issue of student performance is one that we take very, very seriously. We have a goal to become the best city school district in America,” Mr. Adamowski said. “For all the nonbelievers and detractors, we stand solidly behind this progress.”
Ongoing reforms will lift lagging performance, Mr. Adamowski vowed.
CPS officials are mailing the state's report cards to parents this week. Community members also can inspect copies of Measuring Up at any of the district's 79 schools, at city libraries or community centers.
MEASURING UP
Cincinnati Public Schools started issuing its own report card, called “Measuring Up,” in 1995-96. Officials released the 1997-98 annual report Monday.
• Fourteen percent of fourth-graders passed all sections of state proficiency tests, down 1 percentage point from the year before; 15 percent of sixth-graders passed all sections, up 1 percentage point; 21 percent of eighth-graders passed all sections of the ninth-grade test, up 4 percentage points; and 43 percent of 12th-graders passed all sections, up 6 percentage points.
• Attendance rates were 92.9 percent in elementary grades, up 0.3 percentage points from the year before; 87.7 percent in middle grades, up 3.7 percentage points; and 84.7 percent in high school, up 0.9 percentage points.
• Nearly 68 percent of seniors gradu ated, down 5 percentage points from 72.5 percent the year before.
• Annual dropout rates in grades 9-12 fell nearly 5 percentage points from 16.7 percent in 1996-97 to 11.8 percent last year.
• Suspensions fell from 7,087 in 1996-97 to 5,893 in 1997-98. Expulsions dropped from 352 in 1996-97 to 341 in 1997-98.
• About 47,900 students enrolled in CPS schools in 1997-98, down from 48,482 the year before. Seventy percent were African-American; 26 percent, white; 4 percent, other. Sixty-four percent were considered low-income, as measured by the federal free/reduced lunch program.
Source: Measuring Up 1997-98, Cincinnati Public Schools.
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