September 15, 2022

Dear New Albany Parents, Families, Staff & Community Members,

Today, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) released the 2021-22 Ohio School Report Cards for districts and schools, showing how each performed during the 2021-22 school year.  Ohio continues to raise expectations for how its schools perform with the goal to have students better prepared to complete post-high school education and to meet the ever-increasing skill demands of today’s employers.

Districts and schools are being rated on five components for the 2021-22 school year in addition to other non-rated measures.  The five components are Achievement (how well students performed on state tests), Progress (the growth all students make based on their past performance), Gap Closing (how well schools are doing in closing the achievement gap between students based on income, race, ethnicity or disability), Graduation Rate, and K-3 Literacy.  A revised measure for College, Career, Military and Workforce readiness (a measurement of how well-prepared students are for college, military service, careers and technical training) will begin to be rated in 2025 by the State.

The 2022 Local Report Cards issued by the State now include “Star Ratings” instead of letter grades or rankings based upon changes by State Legislators.  Additionally, overall star ratings for each school district and school building in Ohio will not be issued until September, 2023 with the phase-in of changes to the local report cards.  

The New Albany-Plain Local Schools 2021-22 Local Report Card Results illustrate that we have earned “5 Star Ratings”, the highest rating possible, for “significantly exceeding state standards” on ALL five of the components measured at the District level, as published by the ODE today:

The New Albany-Plain Local School District is 1 of 12 school districts in the entire State of Ohio to receive “5 star ratings” on ALL components measured by ODE.  

Achievement levels are increasing while learning gaps caused by the pandemic are decreasing! Student learning progressed during the 2021-22 school year thanks to the incredible hard work and perseverance of our students, teachers, administrators, staff and families!

Much like other school districts across Franklin County and the State of Ohio, we clearly have strengths and opportunities for continuous improvement, but the increases earned during unprecedented times must be celebrated.  We publicly presented more detailed information for our district and building level preliminary report card data at our August 22, 2022 Board of Education meeting.  The presentation may be accessed here or you may find additional information on the ODE website here if you are interested in a deeper dive into our 2021-22 results.

We expect students to achieve at high levels on assessments, and these results are just one benchmark that we will use to guide our improvement in order to provide the quality and rigor that our students deserve and our community expects. Together, we have the ability to create a culture of accountability that achieves the best academic and developmental outcomes for students.  Thank you for your continued support, partnership, and commitment to support high learning standards for our students as a learning community.

Sincerely,

Michael Sawyers
Superintendent
New Albany-Plain Local Schools