CLEVELAND SCHOOLS' PROFICIENCY SCORES STUMBLE: As the Plain Dealer says this morning, the complete 2003-04 school district report cards won't be on line at the Ohio Department of Education site until next Tuesday. However, the data is available at http://dnet01.ode.state.oh.us/DistrictRatings/, which makes the PD's failure to report on it a little mysterious.

Here are some key 2004 numbers for the Cleveland Municipal School District that haven't yet appeared in the newspaper:

High school graduation rate: 40.8%, up just 1.3% from 2003 but topping 40% for the first time since 1997. (See chart below)

Fourth grade proficiency test (percent of students scoring at or above "proficient"): The average of all five tests was 53.5%, down 4% from last year. The declines were in citizenship (-5%), reading (-4%) and writing (-4%). Science was unchanged; math improved by 4%.

Sixth grade proficiency tests: The average pass rate for all five tests was 43.8%, down 5% from last year. Science, reading and citizenship all showed big declines (-13%, -12%, and -10% respectively). Writing was up 3% and math was up 5%.

Tenth grade proficiency tests (percent of tenth graders at or above ninth-grade prociency levels): The overall average was 77.8%, up 3% from last year. All five tests showed modestly higher pass rates than in 2003, with the biggest improvement in math, up 4%.

For those who are keeping track, here are the "official" CMSD graduation rates for the last nine years: