ODE School Improvement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which component is REQUIRED to be included in every Ohio Comprehensive Support and Improvement plan?
- A needs assessment based on multiple data sources (Correct answer)
- A request for school closure within two years
- A plan to convert to a charter school model
- A minimum 10% annual increase in test scores
Correct answer: A needs assessment based on multiple data sources
Ohio requires CSI plans to begin with a rigorous needs assessment examining multiple data sources to identify root causes of underperformance.
Question 2: Ohio's ESSA plan measures chronic absenteeism as a school quality indicator. A student is chronically absent when they miss at least what percentage of school days?
- 10% (Correct answer)
- 5%
- 15%
- 20%
Correct answer: 10%
Ohio defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% or more of enrolled school days, consistent with the federal definition used under ESSA.
Question 3: In an Ohio school improvement context, what does 'root cause analysis' specifically seek to identify?
- Underlying systemic factors driving poor student outcomes (Correct answer)
- The administrator responsible for declining test scores
- Which curriculum materials are outdated
- The percentage of teachers needing retraining
Correct answer: Underlying systemic factors driving poor student outcomes
Root cause analysis digs beneath surface symptoms to find the systemic instructional, leadership, or organizational factors that are causing underperformance.
Question 4: Which professional learning structure is considered most effective in Ohio's school improvement framework for building teacher capacity?
- Ongoing, job-embedded professional learning communities (Correct answer)
- Annual one-day workshops at a conference center
- Independent online coursework completed at home
- Peer observation without structured debrief
Correct answer: Ongoing, job-embedded professional learning communities
Research cited in Ohio's improvement framework supports sustained, job-embedded collaboration in professional learning communities over isolated one-time professional development.
Question 5: Which Ohio school report card component specifically measures how much academic growth students make in a single year?
- Value-Added measure (Correct answer)
- Achievement index
- Gap Closing component
- Prepared for Success indicator
Correct answer: Value-Added measure
The Value-Added measure uses statistical modeling to estimate the academic growth individual students make in a year, controlling for prior achievement.
Question 6: A school's improvement plan calls for restructuring instructional time. Which approach aligns with Ohio's evidence-based practices?
- Adding dedicated intervention blocks within the school day (Correct answer)
- Eliminating all specials to add math and reading time
- Extending school day without changing instructional strategies
- Reducing class sizes without changing teaching methods
Correct answer: Adding dedicated intervention blocks within the school day
Ohio supports creating protected intervention blocks that allow targeted, small-group instruction for students not yet meeting grade-level expectations.
Question 7: Under Ohio law, which entity must formally approve a CSI school's improvement plan before implementation?
- The local Board of Education (Correct answer)
- The Ohio State Board of Education only
- The U.S. Department of Education
- The school's parent advisory council
Correct answer: The local Board of Education
The local Board of Education must approve the school improvement plan, ensuring local governance oversight before the plan moves to ODE for review.
ODE School Improvement 3
Which component is REQUIRED to be included in every Ohio Comprehensive Support and Improvement plan?