The Bluffton Exempted Village School District ranked 45th of all schools in Ohio in the Performance Index Ranking for Districts and Schools, release Friday by the Ohio Department of Education. The entire list ranks 1,001 schools.

To emphasis the strength of Bluffton's ranking, only two northwestern Ohio districts scored higher than Bluffton. Those districts were St. Henry, 18th, and Ottoville, 24th.

An attachment at the bottom of this story shows the entire list.

When considering the top 300 schools in the ranking, area schools ranked below Bluffton follow:
60 - Kalida
78 - New Bremen
98 - Ottawa Glandorf
99 - Ft. Jennings
102 - Shawnee
105 - Columbus Grove
112 - Liberty Benton
131 - Pandora-Gilboa
172 - Crestview
199 - Arlington
221 - Delphos City
245 - McComb
259 - Ada
272 - Allen East
297 - Cory-Rawson

The report showed Bluffton's rank scores as follows:
2011 Preliminary List rank: 45
2011 enrollment: 1,103
2011 Performance Index score: 106.8217
2011 LRC rating: Excellent with distinction
2011 AYP status: Met
2011 Pct. Standards met: 100 percent
2011 number of standards that apply: 26
2011 value added composite: above
2011 expenditure per pupil: $8,639

The school district list includes all city, local and exempted village school districts as well as joint vocational school districts, community schools and STEM schools.

According to the Ohio Department of Education's announcement of the rankings:

Parents and communities will have new information to better understand how effectively Ohio's public schools are helping students learn with a new ranking of Ohio public school buildings' performance released by Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan W. Heffner. The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) will release a final list by September 2012 as required by state law.

"Educators, parents and communities can make informed decisions about improving their schools when they have the right information. The ranking list is a powerful tool we can use to see how local schools stack up with similar communities around the state," Heffner said. "Next year, this list will be coupled with financial data to give the public a clear way to see who is delivering the most return on the community's educational investment."

Each school building in city, local and exempted village school districts, as well as joint vocational school districts, community schools and STEM schools are ranked using a Performance Index (PI) score.

PI scores combine individual students' results on all tested subjects in grades 3-8 on Ohio's Achievement Assessments (OAAs) and on the 10th-grade Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT).

The Performance Index score has been widely used and endorsed by Ohio educators since its adoption in 2003.*

The PI scores are not new, and it has been possible to create ranking lists with them using existing interactive tools on the ODE website. Such district and county rankings have been done frequently by independent groups, but this is the first statewide ranking completed and released by ODE.

The rankings are required under House Bill 153. The final ranking list is required to be released by September 2012.

*Calculating the Performance Index
All assessments have five performance levels, which include: Advanced; Accelerated; Proficient; Basic; and Limited.

The percentage of students scoring at each performance level is calculated, and then multiplied by the point value assigned to that performance level. The points earned for each performance level are totaled to determine each school's Performance Index score, where applicable.