How We Rate (2)

This marks the eighth year we've presented our rating of Northeast Ohio's suburbs. In "Rating the Suburbs, " wepresent you with up-to-date, essential information on the 65 larger communities that surround the city of Cleveland. Our goal is to provide you with solid information on the crucial issues that face our residents: the safety of the community, the value of the housing stock, the quality of the school systems and other quantifiable factors: diversity, environmental safety, fire safety, property taxes and more.

If this issue gives people basic information about our region, if it prompts conversations between residents and public officials, parents and administrators about the quality of life in our area, we've done our job. We thought we'd take a pre-emptive strike at answering your frequently asked questions about "Rating the Suburbs."

How do you decide which suburbs are in the top 15?
In the years that we've rated the suburbs, three major factors have been evaluated: safety, education and housing. We've added others — such as environmental infractions, public services and diversity — that make a suburb "desirable." Our standards are limited, to a degree, by what is quantifiable. Scores are assigned to each suburb for each category used in the rankings. Those scores are based on this year's available numbers for all of the communities. We then add up the category scores, weighting certain categories more than others. Safety and education, for example, are given more weight than property tax, which is given more weight than environmental infractions. The top 15 are those suburbs with the highest combined scores — in other words, the suburbs that perform best in all of the categories combined.

How can one suburb move up or down in the rankings compared to previous years?
We can't emphasize enough how close the competition is in all of these categories. There may be a very small degree of differentiation in the numbers that, when the various categories are tallied, puts one suburb above another. That's good news for Northeast Ohio — the high scores across the board translate into a high number of top communities from which to choose.

Also, the ratings system used over the years has been refined to make the data as relevant, accurate and detailed as possible. So while this year's rating system is almost identical to last year's, a number of new categories were added last year (such as the fire-safety ratings and detailed proficiency-test scoring) that subtly altered the rankings from previous years.

Of course, if one suburb moves down, it is more likely due to another suburb moving up in the rankings than any actual downturn of its own.

Why are there ties?
In the education category, a number of schools received identical scores and therefore, identical rankings. This year, the scores were identical down to the third level of our tie-breaking criteria. Those photo finishes are reported as ties.

How We Did It

Overall rankings were determined using raw data that were converted into points calculated from the average in each category. Rankings for crime and education were awarded based on a curve derived from the total scores in each category.

Safety

Sources: Statistics for calendar year 2000 were provided by each suburb (with the exception of Medina, whose statistics came from the Medina Police Department 2000 Annual Report).

Education

Sources: Individual school districts (with the exception of Chardon, East Cleveland and Lorain, which declined to participate) and the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) 2001 School Report Card district data files.

On its school report cards, the ODE bases 25 of the 27 standards on proficiency tests administered in five grades: fourth, sixth, ninth, 10th and 12th. There are five proficiency tests in each grade: reading, writing, citizenship, science and mathematics. The ODE indicates a testing standard has been met if the percentage of students passing each subject meets the state's performance standard (which varies at each testing level), resulting in a Yes or No valuation on that district's report card.

We have chosen to give points based on the actual percentages of students who pass each subject of each year's test. Therefore, a total of 500 points is possible in each grade (100 points for each subject). This point system allows us to offer greater differentiation between communities, giving credit for the full percentage of students passing the test.

For more detailed reports on school district proficiency performance, visit www.ode.state.oh.us.

Median home-sale value

Sources: Cuyahoga County Auditors Office, Royster Realty in Hudson and Pam Stephenson and Mike Brothers at Sweda, Sweda and Associates GMAC in Vermilion.

Property tax

Sources: 2000 rates of taxation are from county auditors' offices.

Population

Sources: 2000 population estimates are from the Ohio Department of Development, Office of Strategic Research and the Northern Ohio Data and Information Service (NODIS) at Cleveland State University, designated by the State of Ohio and the U.S. Bureau of the Census as the Regional Data Center for northern Ohio.

Environmental infractions

Source: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's database of reported polluted sites, which is continuously updated and includes reports of polluted sites that the EPA has not fully investigated.

ISO Fire Suppression Ratings

Source: State of Ohio Department of Insurance, Insurance Services Offices Inc. Fire Ratings.

Insurance Services Office Inc. provides fire ratings for each community based on three factors: fire department facilities, water (i.e. hydrant availability) and communications/dispatching. ISO fire ratings are used by property insurance companies to set premiums.

Ratings are given on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being a perfect fire-safety rating. A split score indicates that certain areas within a community have substantially different services, such as varying hydrant availability or proximity to a fire station. For example, a split score of 4/9 indicates that part of the community gets class 4 service, while the rest is at a class 9.

Community services

Individual suburbs were contacted to determine which of the following services are available to all residents: tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball/softball diamonds, indoor or outdoor ice rink, indoor swimming pool, outdoor swimming pool, recreation center, senior services and recycling programs.

Poverty and Diversity

Sources: 2000 U.S. Census, Cleveland State University

Diversity points are awarded based on the suburbs' percentage of minority residents (as defined by the Census), with the most points given to those suburbs closest to a 50 percent balance.