Public schools in the Knox County area at least met Ohio Department of Education goals in closing the educational gap, and in several cases significantly exceeded those goals.

The state agency recently released its Ohio School Report Cards, which were designed to give parents, educators and policymakers information about the performance of districts and schools to identify success as well as areas for improvement.

Though English Language Arts and Math growth indexes were in many cases negative, the school districts as a whole all at least met goals in gap closing, which not only deals with performance but also reducing chronic absenteeism, identifying gifted students and increasing language proficiency.

Mount Vernon City Schools exceeded state standards in closing educational gaps, with English Language Arts achievements reaching 89.5 with a goal of 78.6. for Math Achievement, the student population surpassed the goal of 71.1 by hitting a performance index of 81.8.

Fredericktown Local Schools significantly exceeded state standards in closing educational gaps with its annual performance goals at 82.1%. For English Language Arts, students reached 93.7 in its performance index against a goal of 78.6. The students exceeded the state goal of 71.1 by a large margin, reporting 89.1 for math achievement.

Centerburg Local Schools also exceeded state standards in closing the gaps. For English Language Arts, the performance index of 90.1 was 11.5 higher than the goal set by the state. Similar performance results were seen in math achievement, which hit 81.3, or 10.2 above the state goal.

Utica Local Schools met state standards in closing the educational gap. The students’ performance slightly exceeded the state goal of 78.6 for English Language Arts, reaching 82.6 on the performance index. Math achievement results were similar, with a 74.1 rating, three points higher than the state goal.

Danville Local Schools also met state educational standards for gap closing. The 88.2 score for English Language Arts was almost 10 points higher than the state goal. The Math achievement score of 74 was just above the state goal of 71.1.