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Closer look at data shows progress on "value added"

CMSD NEWS BUREAU
10/10/2014

When it comes to the important “value added” measure, CMSD performed better last school year than the District’s latest report card shows.

The District received an F on the report card for value added, a measure of whether students in fourth through eighth grades achieved the amount of progress expected in a year. But the letter grade was an average based on three years of data.

While there remains room for improvement, CMSD would have received a C if the grade had been based solely on data from 2013-14, the first full year under The Cleveland Plan, a state-approved blueprint for reform. In fact, the 2012-13 grade also would have been a C, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

Gains in math scores helped lift the District’s 2013-14 value-added data, said Julie Snipes-Rea, the District’s interim deputy chief of organizational accountability.

This is the first year that the District has publicly shared one-year value-added data by linking to the information on the state report cards.

The Department of Education bases the report card’s value-added grade on a three-year average of scores to avoid “peaks and valleys,” spokesman John Charlton said.