In September, Hayes scored an overall 4 out of 5 stars on the Ohio school report card and was rated in the top 200 schools out of over 900.
Hayes, and the district as a whole, had a significant improvement in several of the five categories compared to last year and scored above average in almost all of them.
“It’s great that we’re achieving at a high level, but what’s also really exciting is the amount that we’re growing.”
Last year, Hayes was ranked as the 317th best in the high school ranking, meaning that over the course of a year, it’s gone up by 138 places.
“It’s amazing for us to achieve at a higher level than some of these schools that are really highly respected academic institutions,” Shafer said. “We’ve achieved higher than Worthington Kilbourne, Dublin Scioto, Big Walnut, all the Westervilles, all the Hilliards… those are some highly respected schools, so for us to be in that category, and even ahead of them, is amazing.”
Both the district and Hayes’s highest scoring category was Gap Closing, in which it scored a perfect 5 stars.
The category is meant to show how well schools and districts are meeting the performance expectations for students in language arts, math, history, science, and graduation based on factors like race, gender and economic status.
It also measures how well schools and districts are working to reduce chronic absenteeism, identifying and equipping advanced students and supporting English learners.
“Students that struggle are getting better, [and] students that are high performing are getting better. It’s really exciting,” Shafer said.
Chronic absenteeism has also decreased significantly since last year, with an almost 5-point decrease in chronically absent students since the 2021-2022 school year.
“The amount of chronically absent students rose by a lot after Covid,” DCS Superintendent Keith Pomeroy said. “Seeing [attendance rates] this high again is a great sign for the health of our schools.”
On the other side of the spectrum, the lowest-scoring category for both Hayes and the district was the newly added CCWMR (College Career Workforce Military Readiness) category, with a rating of two stars.
The CCWMR grade provides information on how schools and districts prepare students for their future with state-recognized credentials, whether that future is college, the military, or straight to the workforce.
Pomeroy said that with the new scoring system, there’s going to be a minor adjustment period until scores stabilize once again.
“We could make it a requirement for every student to take an AP course to quickly raise our scores, but that’s not what’s best for the students,” Pomeroy said.
Although it was the school’s lowest score, the district still showed improvement in the criteria covered by CCWMR: 61.4% of the graduates met at least one of the state’s 11 readiness measures—an increase from 56.3% the year before.
The other 3 categories, in which both the school and district scored 4-stars each, also showed improvement.
The graduation category measures the percentage of students who graduate in each senior class.
For 4-year graduates, the graduation rate is 92.7 percent, 4.4 points higher than the state average.
Next is the achievement component of the report card, a component that measures the performance of students on state tests.
Hayes continues to show growth from previous years, with a 2 percent increase since last year, and a 3.8 percent improvement since 2021.
Math proficiency is also on the rise, with improvement at nearly every grade level, with statewide math achievement having reached its highest level in five years.
Finally is the Progress component, showing how students have grown in each subject area as they get older. Once again, every subject at the very least met expectations, and several, including biology, algebra, history, government and English courses, either exceeded or far exceeded the expectations set by the state.
It’s not all positive however, as several scores did drop; notably, a decrease in the graduation rate from last year’s score of 94.4.
Senior Marty Howard expressed that the school needs to work to effectively promote student participation in advanced classes.
“I didn’t ever plan on taking AP Literature until I got recommended for it… had I not been recommended for it, I probably wouldn’t have taken it,” Howard said. “There’s so many students at Hayes that are very smart and have a lot of potential, but have no motivation to go into stuff like AP and CCP. Teachers really need to find ways to motivate them to take that extra step.”
English language arts proficiency rates have also seen a slight dip statewide after the new Science of Reading program was introduced to Ohio schools.
“It’s hard to continue to grow when you’re achieving at a high level,” Shafer said. “We do some unique things academically in this building… and it’s not always easy to do something different. The fact that we’re doing that is a testament to the courage of our teachers and the work that they’ve done, the work that our students put in, and the families who believe in this school.”
