Monroe named second highest achieving district in Butler County on 2024 Ohio State Report Card

Ohio School Report Cards were recently released by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, and Monroe Local Schools once again earned a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, which equates to “exceeds state standards.”

ODEW’s 2023-24 rating identifies Monroe as the second highest achieving school district in Butler County; a rank it shares with Lakota. Monroe’s performance index score of 94.6 places it in the top 25% of Ohio school districts.

Superintendent Robert Buskirk called Monroe’s rating an outstanding achievement and credited it to a team effort across the district. “Although we are very proud of our students and staff for this great achievement, we continue to look at our current practices and strive for growth every year. Our building leaders, teachers and staff deserve all the credit for helping our students meet the high expectations and academic goals we set forth each school year. This outcome highlights the strength of our collaboration in supporting the learning and success of every student.”

The report card evaluates and rates Ohio school districts in five categories: Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation and Early Literacy. Monroe earned between three and five stars in the various categories with three stars indicating the district “meets state standards;” four stars noting the district “exceeds state standards;” and five stars meaning the district exceeded expectations “by a larger magnitude.”

Monroe Local Schools was rated four stars in the Achievement category, which evaluates “whether student performance on state tests met established thresholds and how well students performed on tests overall.”

The second metric that the district was graded on was Progress, which “measures the academic performance of students compared to expected growth on Ohio's State Tests.” Monroe earned four stars in this category, and the State of Ohio reports that there is “significant evidence that the district exceeded student growth expectations.”

The Gap Closing component shows how well schools are meeting the performance expectations for students in English language arts, math and graduation. It also measures how schools are doing in supporting English learners to increase language proficiency, reducing chronic absenteeism for all students, and identifying gifted students and providing gifted services.

Data from the latest report card indicates that Monroe more than doubled its chronic absenteeism reduction goals for the 2023-24 school year. Monroe achieved the highest component rating possible, with five out of five stars in this category.

Monroe earned five stars for the Graduation component, which means its weighted four-year graduation rate of 96.5% “significantly exceeds state standards in graduation rates.”

"Monroe has made significant improvements, particularly in reducing chronic absenteeism from 21.4% to 19.1% over the past year,” said Curriculum Director Jody Long. “While we've improved student attendance through family engagement and communication, early literacy remains a priority. We are leveraging data and targeted interventions to tailor our instructional approaches to meet the diverse needs of our students more effectively, aiming to boost student achievement and overall academic success."