NEWARK - Five Licking County schools and two school districts were honored by the state for results on their state report cards.

Licking Valley Middle School; Etna Elementary and Watkins Memorial High School in the Southwest Licking Local Schools District; and Granville Exempted Village Schools' intermediate and high schools received the Momentum Award from the Ohio Department of Education for earning straight A's on all value-added measures of the report card.

The value-added component measures the amount of progress students achieve in a school year. Schools or districts that earned an A had students who made more than expected progress.

Licking Valley Middle School Principal Scott Berry said the recognition "affirms that we're doing the right things."

"We don't always get a lot of feedback that tells us that through the state or through data or what have you and it's just really nice to see it," he said.

The school or district must have at least two Value-Added subgroups of students, which include gifted, lowest 20 percent in achievement and students with disabilities.

Across the state, 64 districts and 214 schools received the award. 

Beery said the results on the state report card are a testament to hard work students do.

"They take it pretty serious and I'm proud of them for it," he said.

Schools can't wave a magic wand, Beery said, to get good results from students.

"We do a pretty good job in building relationships with kids and try to meet their individual needs," he said."It's kids being receptive and trusting their teachers and teachers getting to know their kids and figuring out what makes them tick and what their needs are."

This is the second year the two Southwest Licking schools and two Granville schoolsearned the award. The two districts were also honored for having straight A's district wide in the value-added measure.

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