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CMSD report card shows more improvement

CMSD NEWS BUREAU

9/12/2019

 

Listen to Eric Gordon on the Wills and Snyder in the Morning show on Friday, Sept. 13.

CMSD has been continuously improving under The Cleveland Plan, and the District’s new state report card provides further evidence.

The report card, which was released Thursday, shows:

 

  • The District’s performance index, a composite of all test scores, increased for a fourth consecutive year.
  • CMSD’s four-year graduation rate climbed 3.6 points to 78.2 percent, another in a series of record highs for the District. The rate has increased 26 percentage points since 2011.
  • The graduation rate for African-American students rose 4.6 points to 79.8 percent, while the rate for Hispanic students increased 2.7 points to 77 percent.
  • CMSD students continue to close the achievement gap separating them from their peers. The District earned a C for gap closing, up from a D last year and an F two years ago.
  • K-3 literacy scores grew 2.6 percent from the previous school year. More than 85 percent of students met the Third Grade Reading Guarantee.
  • Sixty percent of students in the third through eighth grades improved their writing scores. CMSD schools placed extra emphasis on writing skills last school year.

 

CMSD’s overall grade improved from an F to a D, but CEO Eric Gordon said that is just a beginning.

 “We are making progress and are faring well relative to our peers,” he said. “We said we would get a D, and we did. We also said that would not be good enough. It’s not. We still have a lot of work to do. Our community deserves better, and we’re going to get there.”

The District will continue to stress writing this year because writing well leads to reading well, Gordon said. He said schools also will emphasize persistence in solving difficult math problems.

In general, the CEO said, the District is seeking learning that is “joyful and adventurous” and centered on complex academic tasks appropriate for students' ages.

The Cleveland Plan, a customized blueprint for education reform, is designed to increase the number of high-performing schools in the city, shift authority from the central office to schools, create systemwide reforms that shepherd students from preschool to college and career, and ensure accountability through the Cleveland Transformation Alliance. The plan was written into state law in 2012.