The Ashtabula Area City School District has continued improving, and this year, the district met 16 of 30 Ohio Department of Education indicators, which earned the district a rating of “continuous improvement.”

What is extraordinary about Ashtabula schools earning 16 indicators is three years ago, the district earned only two indicators, assistant superintendent Patrick Colucci said.

“Everyone worked so hard to get to this point,” he said. “When you get to this point, you know you are on a solid foundation.”

The schools achieved the following indicators:

Third-grade, reading and math;

Fourth grade, reading, writing and math;

Sixth-grade, reading and math;

Seventh-grade writing;

Eighth-grade writing;

Tenth-grade reading, writing and math;

Eleventh-grade reading, writing and math; and

Attendance.

The district did not achieve the indicators in social studies or science.

Colucci also shared the ratings of each school: Plymouth Elementary, “excellent”; Saybrook Elementary, “effective”; Thomas Jefferson Elementary, “effective”; State Road Elementary, “effective”; Washington Elementary, “effective”; Lakeside High, “effective”; Thurgood Marshall Elementary, “continuous improvement”; Chestnut Elementary, “continuous improvement”; McKinsey Elementary, “continuous improvement”; and Lakeside Junior High, “continuous improvement.”

“Every school either maintained its rating or moved up a rating,” Colucci said. “We are very excited.”

The Conneaut Area City School District met 18 of the 30 indicators, good for an “effective” rating, according to the ODE report card.

Conneaut High School earned its fourth straight “excellent” rating from the state.

Conneaut Middle School and Lakeshore Primary School received “effective ratings,” while Gateway Elementary School was given a “continuous improvement” mark, according to the ODE Web site.

“The middle school showed very good improvement, while the high school has sustained its record of excellent ratings,” said Superintendent Kent Houston. “I’m real proud of the middle school.”

Houston said he expects better results next year.

Buckeye Local School District met 23 of 30 indicators, earning it an “effective” rating. That’s pretty much on track with last year’s scores, according to the Ohio Department of Education Web site.

“To be honest, we were hoping to be ‘excellent.’ That was our goal,” Superintendent Nancy Williams said. “But we did increase scores in third- and sixth-grade reading. … We’ll keep working.”

All six schools in the district earned “effective” ratings.

Geneva Area City Schools overall received a “continuous improvement” rating with 22 out of 30 standards having been met.

“The big news is in our high school which got an ‘excellent’ rating,” said Mary Zappitelli, superintendent of Geneva schools. “The high school got 11 out of their 12 indicators; we are very pleased.”

The progress of the other individual schools in the Geneva district varied, but overall the district made some gains, she said.

“We are going to take the results, study the data and make plans to move forward this year,” Zappitelli said.

Grand Valley School District’s Superintendent William Nye said he was elated that the district achieved 24 out of 30 ODE indicators. GV High School was given an “excellent” rating, along with the district’s elementary school.

“Our middle school was given an ‘effective’ rating. The indicators are based partly on daily attendance, test scores in all grade levels, our graduation rate and the numbers of seniors passing the Ohio Graduation Test. We have a hardworking staff at Grand Valley of which I’m proud,” Nye said.

“We want to make our school fun and educational for students. One goal I have is to get more parents involved in the school and what is happening,” Nye said.

Pymatuning Valley Local School District’s Superintendent Jake Rose said the district is making progress but will be working this year to achieve more indicators. PV achieved 19 of 30 ODE indicators, giving the district an “effective” rating.

“We’re happy with the direction we’re going and in the position to get more indicators next year,” he said.

Rose said as far as indicators are concerned, the district fared the same as last year and had an attendance rate of 97 percent. The district missed achieving the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) by one category, he said.

“We’re going to address that this year and get it back up,” he said. “As a district, you could be performing but if you miss AYP, it counts against you.”

PV High School achieved a rating of “excellent” for the second consecutive year. The middle school was rated to be in “continuous improvement,” and the primary school achieved a rating of “effective.” The primary school achieved an “excellent” rating last year, he said.

“The middle school has made a lot of improvement from last year,” Rose said. “They are so close to being ‘effective.’”

The district has developed a game-plan and will be working on reaching the state standards this year, he said.

Jefferson Area Local School District Superintendent Doug Hladek said the district is generally pleased with the schools’ performances. Jefferson received and “effective” rating, achieving 23 of 30 indicators.

“We’re very happy our high school is an ‘excellent’ high school,’” he said. “In part, that is because we separated the junior high and senior high.”

The high school achieved 11 of 12 indicators and missed achieving the 12th by only 0.6 percent, he said.

The junior high school received a rating of “continuous improvement,” achieving four of eight indicators.

“The seventh and eighth grade is a rough spot for us right now,” Hladek said.

The junior high needs to work on math, social studies and science, he said. Social studies is a problem area for the district as a whole. It was the only indicator the high school did not meet, and fifth grade did not meet it, either, he said.

Both Jefferson Elementary School and Rock Creek Elementary School received “effective” ratings, with Rock Creek achieving 11 of 12 ODE indicators, and Jefferson Elementary achieving 10 of 12 indicators, Hladek said.

“We know what we really want to do is have enough of a cushion above the indicators so we’re not worried about missing by one point,” he said.