Fredericktown Local Schools recently brought home a great report card from the state of Ohio.
The school system significantly exceeded state standards and closed educational gaps after the pandemic, with annual performance goals of 82.1%. Students reached 93.7% on a performance index for English/language arts, against a goal of 78.6%. The students exceeded the state goal of 71.1% by a large margin, reporting 89.1% for achievement in math.
"There are some impressive ratings on all of the components of the report card," Gary Chapman, Fredericktown superintendent, told Mount Vernon News. "You always go back and give a lot of credit to your teachers and to our students. Those expectations have been set for many years. And when you have the partnership with families and the work our teachers are doing and our students, those are some of the results."
Chapman stressed that the school system will not rest on its laurels, despite the glowing report card.
"There are always areas to improve on," he said. "We have to dig into those and continue to work."
This is Chapman's first year as Fredericktown superintendent. He praised the system for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its focus on keeping students in the classroom as much as possible.
"That produced some dividends," he said. "Many schools went to a hybrid model or closed down and went completely to remote learning. I think it's a credit to Fredericktown that they were dedicated to keeping their doors open as much as possible."
Chapman said that made a difference academically.
"When you have access to direct instruction in the classroom rather than all online, the impact is obvious," he said.
There are other lessons to be learned from the pandemic, he said.
"We need to learn from the things that worked and the things that didn't work," Chapman said. "We should capitalize on what we learned and make it better."
The pandemic illustrated the power of parents to be partners in educating children, he said.
"When you have parents, teachers, the school district, [and] the board all working in the same direction for kids, that made a huge difference," he said.
