Mentor Public Schools Earn Highest Possible Grade From The State

What do you do for an encore when your school district has been ranked excellent for six consecutive years?

You get even better.

The state has released the rest of the state report card information. And -- while the data is still preliminary -- as of now, Mentor Public Schools was ranked "excellent with distinction" -- the highest possible ranking.

School and district report cards are usually released at the beginning of the school year, but that timeline has been pushed back while the state auditor investigates whether some districts manipulated attendance data. Some preliminary data—without the ratings—was released in late September. The final results and the PDFs of the report cards won’t be published until the state auditor’s investigation is done, according to the Ohio Department of Education’s website.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment by the students and staff of Mentor Schools and is a direct result of the hard work they put into the classroom each and every day," said Superintendent Matthew Miller in a statement on the district's web site.

"Our staff works collaboratively using data to develop lessons that meet the needs of all learners, and the results of last year's tests prove what they're doing is working. That, coupled with supportive parents and a supportive community, has our students coming to school engaged and eager to learn."

On this report card, Mentor Public Schools students exceeded the state standard for proficiency in all subjects at every grade level tested and exceeded the attendance and graduation rates required, meeting 100 percent of the State Indicators or 26 out of 26. The district also increased its performance index score for the fifth consecutive year, going to 104.5 from 103.8 last year.

The preliminary data also showed Mentor Public Schools as the only district in Lake County to both meet Adequate Yearly Progress and earn above the Value-Added Measure.

Adequate Yearly Progress measures the growth of students in subgroups, such as race or economic status. Value Added measures whether students have made a year’s progress.

In addition to the district's rating, four individual schools were also rated excellent with distinction (Bellflower, Memorial, Ridge and Shore), seven were rated excellent (Brentmoor, Fairfax, Hopkins, Mentor High, Orchard Hollow, Rice and Sterling Morton) and two were rated Effective (Lake and Garfield).

Spreadsheets on Ohio Department of Education's web site containing data for each building can be found by clicking here.