Hundreds of students, parents and staff members cheered and whistled for Worthington schools during a bash in front of Thomas Worthington High School last weekend to celebrate "The Best Year Yet" on the state report card.

At the "Celebration of Excellence" party, held Sunday, Oct. 4, school volunteers grilled hot dogs and doled out refreshments to laud the district's state report card rating of "Excellent with Distinction."

"We have had a remarkable year and our rating is the best yet," said Jennifer Wene, director of student achievement.

The school district met 29 of 30 state standards, missing only the eighth-grade social studies indicator, which fell about three percentage points short of the 75 percent passing rate.

"We still did not pass the eighth-grade social studies test, but made some improvement," Wene said. "We're not too disappointed, though, to know that test will be going away next year."

Wene said meeting all the Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks due to the state's new value-added growth measurement caps the celebration, along with achieving a performance index score of 102.4.

"It's the fifth year in a row we've exceeded 100 on the index score and 102.4 is the highest so far," she said. "I was so happy when I saw all the AYP benchmarks were in the green passing area that I screamed."

Wene said the state is focusing more toward growth in its measurement tools, "because with growth comes achievement," she said.

The value-added component now applied by the state each year measures growth in student achievement from one year to the next, which helped the district meet all the AYP benchmarks in math and reading.

Wene said the overall district goals for the 2009-10 school year include "annual growth for all and 'catch-up' growth for those behind.

"We have tools in place to measure accelerated growth and will apply higher expectations," she said. "We will also make sure student and staff relationships are strong and help students establish their own goals, talents and interests, because that instills relevance in education for them. We have an additional focus on promoting healthy minds, bodies and characters."

District teachers are studying and implementing educational strategies such as Assessment for Learning, in which teachers determine what students already know about a topic to identify gaps or misconceptions; Literacy Across Content; and Measures of Academic Progress, which allows teachers "to measure achievement and growth within real-time data, either below proficient or above growth or any combination," Wene said.

Two individual schools in Worthington -- Liberty and Bluffsview elementary schools -- also were rated Excellent with Distinction.

Schools rated "Excellent" by the state are Evening Street, Slate Hill, Wilson Hill, Worthington Estates and Worthington Hills elementary schools; McCord and Phoenix middle schools; and Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne high schools.

Schools rated just below that designation, as "Effective," are Brookside and Colonial Hills elementary schools and Worthingway, Kilbourne and Perry middle schools.

"We are Excellent with Distinction as a district this year," Wene said, "and we expect to carry that forward and stay in the green in growth and progress."