Overall, Lawrence County schools did well on their state report cards.

The Ohio Department of Education released its yearly report cards for individual school districts Tuesday.

Rock Hill schools are no longer in academic watch, taking their place now in the "continuous improvement" category with Ironton City Schools

Most of the public school districts, Chesapeake, Dawson-Bryant, South Point and Symmes Valley received an "effective" rating on their report cards. Fairland was at the pinnacle of the rankings, having earned an "excellent" rating.

How they are graded

Each year, the state education officials judge the performance of each district on such factors as attendance rates at each school in the district, how well students performed on proficiency tests, the number of students graduating and the number of high school students passing the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT).

Districts must also meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals. The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires states to set goals each year for the percentage of students who must score proficient or above on state reading and mathematics tests. To meet AYP, schools and districts must also test at least 95 percent of their students in reading and mathematics and meet goals for attendance and graduation rates.

Chesapeake

Chesapeake schools met the state's standards for adequate yearly progress (AYP) and met 14 of the state's 23 performance indicators. The district's attendance rate held steady at 95 percent.

Chesapeake Superintendent Sam Hall said that while he is pleased the district has held onto its "effective" rating again this year, he is excited about changes that promise greater improvement in the years to come.

"We've evaluated our math curriculum and added personnel at the middle and high school, we have intervention," he said. "I think we can improve even more. There is a step above proficient and that's where we want to be."

Of the Chesapeake 10th graders who took the OGT this past school year, 72.5 percent scored at the proficient level or above on the social studies portion of the test, 67 percent scored at or above the desired level or better on the math part, 88 percent scored at or above proficient in writing and 48.6 percent in science.

"The OGT (preparation) has been really trying," Hall acknowledged. "We didn't know what to expect. We could only speculate what might be on it or what it was going to look like. Apparently we're on the right track."

Dawson-Bryant

Rated "effective" this year, the Coal Grove area district met 16 state indicators and met its AYP goals.

Student attendance rose slightly to 93.7 percent. Dawson-Bryant Elementary was given an individual rating of "excellent."

Dawson-Bryant 10th graders performed well on the OGT, also. On the social studies portion of the test, 61.3 percent scored at or above the proficient level. That percentage was 84.9 percent on the math area of the test; more than 92 percent of those 10th graders scored at or above desired levels in reading, 80.6 percent scored at or above proficient in writing and 54.8 percent in science.

Fairland

"This is the fourth year out of five that we have been rated "excellent," Fairland administrative assistant Ken Ratliff said.

"I don't know that there is anything magical that we have done but we are proud of it. And I give all the credit to the teachers."

Fairland met 21 state indicators and its AYP goals. Its attendance rate decreased slightly from 95 percent to 93.9.

Fairland sophomores who took the OGT this past school year performed well. More than 89 percent scored at or above the proficient level in social studies. More than 90 percent scored at or above the desired level in math. On the

reading portion of the test, the percentage rose to 97 percent; more than 90 percent scored at or above proficient in writing and more than 85 percent in science.

In a media release issued Tuesday, Fairland school officials noted that they are one of only 111 districts to receive the "excellent" rating.

Ironton

Ironton remained in the "continuous improvement" category as a whole even though two of its schools (Ironton High School and Kingsbury Elementary) were rated "effective" and Whitwell Elementary was rated "excellent."

The city district met 13 state indicators but did not meet AYP. Attendance was steady at 94.3 percent.

Seventy-five percent of Ironton 10th graders scored at or above proficient on the social studies part of the OGT. That figure was 79.5 percent in math, 80.5 percent in reading 86.3 percent in writing and 65.8 percent in science.

Rock Hill

Rock Hill kicked its last-place ranking this year by climbing out of academic watch and into the "continuous improvement" category. Since each school in the district is rated individually as well as a group, Rock Hill High School achieved an individual rating of "effective."

The district met 5 of its state indicators but did not meet its AYP goals. The district's attendance rate was inched up slightly from 93.1 percent to 93.9 percent.

On the OGT test, more than 70 percent of Rock Hill sophomores scored at or above proficient in social studies, 73 percent of Rock Hill 10th graders scored at or above the desired level in math, that figure was 85.8 percent on the reading portion of the test, more than 80 percent on the writing part and 60.1 percent on the science portion of the test.

South Point

Rated "effective" again this year, South Point met 15 state indicators but did not meet its AYP goals. Attendance was steady at just over 98 percent.

Of the South Point sophomores who took the OGT last school year, 74.5 percent scored at or above the proficient level on the social studies part of the test, 82.5 percent scored at or above the desired level on the math portion of the test. More than 90 percent scored at or above proficient in reading, nearly 84 percent scored at or above proficient in writing and more than 65 percent scored at or above proficient in science.

Symmes Valley

Rated "effective" this year, Symmes Valley met 21 of its state indicators and its AYP. Attendance rose from 96.2 percent to 97.1 percent.

Although the district as a whole was rated "effective," the elementary school achieved as "excellent" rating

Nearly 82 percent of Symmes Valley 10th graders scored at or above the proficient level on the social studies portion of the OGT test.

On the math part, 83.6 percent scored at or above the desired level. Nearly 91 percent of those students scored at or above proficient on the reading part of the test.

Nearly 82 percent of Symmes Valley 10th graders scored at or above proficient on the writing part of the test, 70.9 percent scored at or above the desired level on the science part.