December 21, 2015
Contact: Jill Moberley, Public Information Officer
Jmoberle@dps.k12.oh.us
For Immediate Release

Recent headlines about our performance on a test taken last school year are disheartening, but headlines do not tell the whole story. In the ten months since the test was given, Dayton Public Schools has made progress on an improvement plan that was commended by the Ohio Department of Education at our November board meeting.

The PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test, which was scrapped after its first administration last spring, will not count for any Ohio district, including Dayton Public Schools. Our three-year timeline to make the improvements recommended by the ODE will begin with the 2015-16 year.

We would like our stakeholders to take away the following facts (some of which were mentioned in the article):

• We are already moving forward to prepare for the new state test, which will be developed by AIR (the American Institute of Research) and administered later this school year.
• We have made progress in the area of K-3 literacy in the 2013-14 school year (2014-15 scores not available) and continue to make it a priority.
• We have adopted new English language arts (reading) materials, which offer online resources for teachers, students and parents to enrich teaching and learning beyond the classroom, and we are closely monitoring implementation.
• We continue to focus on teacher recruitment, ensuring that our teachers have deep subject knowledge and a passion for our students. Our teacher ranks are beginning to stabilize after three years of record retirements to avoid a penalizing change in the state retirement system. Vacancies, however, remain in critical areas.
• The stability of leadership under a chief academic officer is a factor in many districts’ success; we are pursuing a highly qualified candidate to provide that leadership in DPS.
• We continue to make student attendance a priority by working to improve attendance and eliminate chronic absenteeism. Our best investments in instruction and curriculum won’t matter much if students aren’t in class to benefit from them. If we’re serious about improving our schools, we need to ensure that all students are in class regularly so they have an equal opportunity to learn.
• We continue to work with our parents through our Parent Advisory Council, Dayton Education Council, parent meetings and school programs to update them on our progress, hear their concerns, and give them the information they need to support their children academically.

We can look in the rear view mirror, or we can continue to chart our course for improvement. Our improvement plan, which focuses on thorough and coordinated implementation of programs and initiatives, ensuring we have the most qualified people in positions throughout the district, and a unified district-wide professional development program for all employees, is underway.

As we move forward, we must acknowledge the successes our teachers, administrators and so many of our parents and stakeholders already experience. Our students and teachers see daily what tests will never measure, whether it’s a student gaining the confidence to participate in a speech competition, an immigrant family learning to navigate the school system to help their children succeed, or a special needs child mastering a simple task that will move him closer to independence. For other successes, check out our 101+ Reasons to be Proud of Dayton Public Schools. We will continue to do the hard work without excuses, and we will keep our focus on moving forward with lessons learned.

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