COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — For the first time since Ohio released the state’s school report card, the Columbus Board of Education met to discuss the report.

This comes as CCS failed to meet the state’s standards in any category for the 2022-2023 school year. In the meeting Tuesday, the district acknowledged there is a long way to go to bring the district up to snuff.

“With a two-star rating, overall two-star rating for our district, we recognize that there is significant work that needs to be done and we know that our district, our team members are committed to making that happen,” CCS Superintendent Angela Chapman said.

The report grades the state’s districts on a five-star rating system.

The early literacy rating had a less than 1% overall increase from last year, which kept the rating at one star. The graduation rating also stayed at one star.

“The state report card clearly demonstrates that we do have improvement, which is really no surprise,” Columbus Board of Education President Jennifer Adair said. “That is exactly why the board set the goals and guardrails that it did, but it also shows us that our schools and our students are improving.”

In the achievement category, which shows performance on state assessment tests, there is a long way to go to move from two to three stars; it would have to be an almost 20 percent increase.

“It’s going to take us a while, again, sustained effort to be able to get to where we need to be,” CCS Chief of Strategy and Performance Russell Brown said.

Two categories lost a star: progress and gap closing.

“That progress component, particularly in mathematics, where we’re focusing now, was one that costs us there and then also costs us on gap,” Brown said. “So those two are not really independent on one another. When one goes down, it’s likely the other ones go down with it.”

District leaders emphasized the ratings won’t all be fixed in a year and that it’s a long process.

“The state and the district still haven’t recovered completely from the pandemic, and so we still need to invest time and energy to close those gaps as we move forward,” Brown said. “But I think we’re moving in the right direction. And again, that focus on growth, growth is going to be our leading indicator to be able to close achievement gaps.”

“We want to make sure that all of our students are steadily making progress each year in each grade and in each subject, and so, as a district, we are focusing on acceleration,” Chapman said. “We cannot afford to focus on remediation. When we talk about, when we think about acceleration, we want to make sure that all of our students are provided with access to grade-level content and instruction that ensures that they have access to grade-level content exposure that prepares them to meet the standards of their assessments.”

To see the state’s full report of all the districts across Ohio, click here.