In the latest state report cards on graduation rates, Toledo Public Schools got an F, all suburban districts received either an A or a B, while Washington Local received a C.

The graduation rate data, which was released on Thursday, lag behind test scores, so graduation results are for the 2013 and 2014 school years.

The 63.9 percent four-year graduation rate for TPS — in line with past data — is a disappointment, district leaders said, but there’s reason for optimism in the future.

“We can, and will, do better,” TPS Chief Academic Officer Jim Gault said.

Mr. Gault and TPS Superintendent Romules Durant said the district’s focus for many years was reforming its K-8 grades, with a new initiative focused on high school students only beginning last year.

The “freshman cluster” program assigns teachers almost exclusively to freshman classes, has built in advisory time for students, and teachers get extra planning time to meet with fellow cluster teachers.

That program has increased the passage rates of freshmen by about 20 percent, Mr. Gault said, giving hope that big graduation rate increases will follow.

“We’re excited for what next year’s data will provide,” Mr. Durant said.

Results for Toledo charter schools were unsurprising.

While Toledo School for the Arts received an A grade for its 94.9 percent graduation rate, relatively new Nexus Academy of Toledo was only 23.1 percent. Maritime Academy of Toledo (65.2) and Horizon Science Academy (67.6) of Toledo had graduation rates in line with those of similar TPS high schools.

Perrysburg steady

Perrysburg’s graduation rates stayed about the same, with 95.6 percent receiving their high school diploma in four years, and 97.7 percent in five years.

“Fortunately we’re in a community with high expectations to graduate,” Superintendent Tom Hosler said.

This year, the results do not use a letter grade to rate the “prepared for success” metric, which includes such data as ACT and SAT scores. Ottawa Hills’ class of 2014 had the highest ACT mean score of Toledo-area districts at 28, followed by Perrysburg at 24 and Sylvania at 23.

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“We are pleased with the report card results released [Thursday],” said Adam Fineske, executive director of teaching and learning. “As a district, we view these results as very important, but truly only one of the many components that measure the success of our students.”

The K-3 literacy metric doesn’t show scores for many suburban Toledo districts. That’s either because they had too few students in the category to report, or because fewer than 5 percent of kindergartners read below grade level last year.

To calculate the category, kindergarten, first, and second-grade students take a test in the beginning of the year. The state measures how many of those are not on track to read at grade level by third grade. It then compares how many of those students are on track by the time they take the same test the next year.

For third-graders, the state compares how many pass the test in the fall compared to the spring.

Reporting error

Meanwhile, TPS got zero percent in the category, but district officials indicated that this was because of a reporting error, and officials are appealing the score. The district’s employee in charge of reporting data to the state died in July, and the employee hired to replace him accidentally sent the data file to the wrong location, officials said.

The state tests and subsequent report cards were especially controversial this time. Last year, the state administered the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests, exams that were part of a national consortium of states and were tied to the Common Core State Standards.

The Common Core and related tests were often criticized as usurping local education control. Also, some parents complained the tests were too complex and teachers said it was unfair to tie their evaluations to a new testing system.

The backlash led to language in the state budget signed by Gov. John Kasich in July that eliminated funding for the tests. This year will be the third in a row with new assessments, which makes apples-to-apples comparisons of results difficult.

The 2014-2015 school report card data by the Ohio Department of Education is only half of an already complicated story, made more so by incomplete reports and metrics that aren’t comparable to those in previous years.

Results show district and school graduation rates, college-preparedness data and a new metric, which attempts to measure how well districts are helping struggling readers. Other metrics, including test scores, won’t be released for another month.

Nearly 80 districts across the state are appealing some part of the report for various reasons, according to an ODE spokesman. Toledo Public Schools is one of them, because of the reporting error.

The initial results for local districts are unsurprising, but also incomplete. The four-year graduation rates remained mostly steady compared to last year.

For now, the test scores won’t be used in teacher evaluations, and charter schools will have a temporary reprieve from rules that automatically force them to close if they perform poorly. Release of the report cards was pushed back months because of the tests’ vendors, and also split in two. Another set of data will be released Feb. 25.

Mr. Hosler, like other superintendents, is eager to see how the performance index is scored when those grades are released by the state, because many Perrysburg students opted out of state testing. The controversy over the test led many parents to make similar decisions.

Staff writers Vanessa McCray, Matt Thompson, and Kyle Rowland contributed to this report.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086, or on Twitter @NolanRosenkrans.

First Published January 15, 2016, 5:03 a.m.