NEW WASHINGTON — The Ohio State Board of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria recently released the 2019 School Performance Awards for high performance, outstanding progress, and momentum.
On Dec. 9, the state board members named two Schools of Promise, two High Performing Schools of Honor, and 71 High Progress Schools of Honor.
Buckeye Central Middle School earned the High Progress School of Honor designation for a second year in a row. In 2018, the school was triple winners earning the Momentum, High Progress, and Overall “A” Awards.
The High Progress School of Honor is awarded to schools who receive an “A” or “B” on the Valued Added component of the local report card issued by the state, earn an “A,” “B,” or “C” on Gap Closing, and have at least 40 percent of their students from economically disadvantaged homes yet show significant gains in state test scores over a five-year period.
In addition to earning the progress award, the middle school was one of 13 schools in Ohio asked to apply for nomination for the 2019 National ESEA Distinguished School. Based on their performance data, the schools in this select group were invited to apply for the national award and two were chosen to represent the state. Although BCMS was not one of the two Ohio finalists, the experience helped them further identify their strengths.
The most impactful choices they have made include planning targeted professional learning, making literacy a priority, developing common expectations across grade levels, frontloading lessons, prioritizing social-emotional learning, and seeing students through to mastery.
The team has built a curriculum that is expansive enough to prepare students for unimagined careers and unforeseen lives, yet intimate enough to not lose sight of individual student strengths.
The staff is driven by the maxim that students are their first priority.