It's testing season again in Toledo.

Thousands of students in grades three through eight will immerse themselves in test booklets starting Tuesday, as Toledo Public Schools administers the state mandated Ohio Achievement Assessments. The math, reading, science, and social studies exams provide the bulk of data used to rate schools on the state's report cards and under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The high-stakes tests rate students skills on a scale from limited to advanced. The Ohio Graduation Tests, given to high school students, were administered in March.

Toledo's test scores have risen in recent years, albeit slowly. Last year, all schools showed some growth, a few schools even clawed their way out of academic emergency.

"Of course we want to see improvement," said TPS chief academic officer Jim Gault. "We want to see progress."

Progress may be especially important for TPS this year. Faced with declines in state aid and shrinking enrollment as students leave to attend school in charter and private institutions or other area districts, TPS will likely go to taxpayers this year with a request for more money. That bid would be hindered if the district can't prove recent initiatives are effective and that TPS is on the right track.

The district's expansive transformation plan is, according to administrators, an attempt to get on track. Middle schools and elementary schools were dropped, and K-8 neighborhood schools adopted. Additional funds were pumped into the lowest performing schools. Special-education students left self-contained classrooms and joined their peers in traditional settings.

To offer some motivation, the district held a pep rally Friday at Old West End Academy in advance of testing, with students dancing to music by the Scott High School Pep Band.

"We are trying to remind the students they can do this," Mr. Gault said, "to let students know that we believe in them."

This year's results have an added twist. TPS will pilot next year a new teacher evaluation system that includes student test results into a teacher's appraisal. The system to be used hasn't been determined, and how the scores will be used is still being negotiated between TPS and its teachers' union. What is clear is that at least part of a teacher's evaluation will be based on their value-added score. The metric measures how much students' test scores grew year over year compared to their expected growth, and attempts to measure the impact that individual teachers have on student academic achievement.

By 2014, all teachers will be at least partly judged by value-added scores. Evaluations of principals will also use the metric.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086.

First Published April 21, 2012, 4:00 a.m.