Westerville City Schools received an overall 3.5-star rating on the state report card for the 2024/25 cycle, district staff told the board Tuesday, a drop from last years four-star rating that administrators said came down to narrow margins in a few components.

Mark Cooper, a district staff member who presented the report-card findings, said the districts underlying decimal score was 3.094 and that the state places that decimal on a cut-score table that produced the 3.5-star classification. "We were just shy of that 3.125 that's required for the overall 4 star rating," Cooper said.

The state report card rates six component areas: achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation rate, early literacy and the newly rated College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness (CCWMR). Cooper said Westerville earned 4 stars in achievement and progress and a 93.9 percent four-year graduation rate. Those strong component results helped keep the district within the "meets expectations" range overall despite other weaknesses.

Cooper told the board that a key factor in the drop was the early literacy component, which the district scored at 67.5 percent against a 68 percent threshold for three stars in that measure. "We are point 5 percent off of being 3 stars in this specific area," Cooper said, adding that the districts use of the i-Ready diagnostic (reported to the state as part of the improving K3 literacy calculation) is under review and that state law will narrow the list of approved reading diagnostics beginning next school year.

Administrators also flagged the CCWMR measure, which was rated for the first time. Matt Meisner, a district staff member who joined the presentation, said the states 11 qualifying pathways for counting a student as "ready" are strict and sometimes exclude students who appear prepared by other measures. Meisner described a district example of a student with a 3.65 GPA, two business pathway courses, two AP courses and six college credits who nonetheless did not meet the CCWMR threshold because the state requires either three AP scores at qualifying levels or 12 college credits in the specific counting rules. "Because of the robust options that are for our kids, and then college career ready or CCP courses are an expectation of the state," Cooper said, "a student who takes a combination . . . actually did penalize us."

Attendance also affected the overall score. Cooper said the districts chronic absenteeism rate was 17.8 percent on the latest report card; the states moving targets for that measure mean districts can lose all points in the gap-closing component even if their rate improved slightly year to year.

Board members asked whether the district can realistically improve its star rating given shifting state metrics and funding constraints. Cooper responded that some state measures are useful for improvement but that others can penalize districts that offer diverse pathways, such as local College Credit Plus (CCP) offerings on Westerville campuses. "At the end of the day, I would still support and fully encourage that our students take the selection of courses that fit them and prepare them for the future, even though that may result in a 2 star rating for our district in this area," Cooper said.

The presentation included five-year trend data showing improvement in the performance index (now 89.7) and district officials emphasized that the report card is one snapshot amid many local measures. "We will continue to strive to improve and support our kids," Cooper said. "This district remains a strong district serving our students, families and community."