YOUNGSTOWN Schools struggle to make strides

The superintendent said he is confident that goals in the improvement plan will be met.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A year after implementing a districtwide improvement plan for the city schools, Superintendent Ben McGee said progress has been minimal, but he expects that to change.
"My belief is that this plan represents our best chance for improving student outcomes," McGee said.
"This plan is targeted, more focused and it has a stronger implementation structure, a stronger monitoring structure and a stronger accountability structure than any plan we've had."
Reports to community: McGee and other school officials outlined the district's continuous improvement plan this morning at a 90-minute meeting at Choffin Career and Technical Center attended by about 200 people.
A second community meeting will be 6:30 p.m. today at Choffin.
The 277-page plan, approved by the school board and Ohio Department of Education a year ago, sets goals and strategies to boost the academic standing of the Mahoning Valley's largest school system.
"What is at stake is a decent, safe and productive life for our students that they can pass on to their children," said Tim Batton, president of Schools 2000+, a citizens' group.
Batton is a member of the district's Urban Congress, a group of business, labor, media, religious and educational leaders that is overseeing implementation of the plan.
Julie Michael, govenor Bob Taft's local representative and Urban Congress chairwoman, said the group's top priority is sharing the school district's vision with the community.
"We're working with the district to remove barriers so they can achieve sucess," Michael said at this morning's meeting.
"We want to be part of the action towards finding a solution instead of always just talking about the problem," said Wendy Webb, assistant superintendent.
The plan says the 10,631-student district will quadruple the number of state academic standards it meets and emerge from academic emergency by 2006.
McGee said he thinks the district remains on target to meet those goals, noting increases in recently released 12th-grade proficiency test scores.
He said student attendance is up, more teachers are participating in staff development and there has been a significant increase in teachers' use of research-based instructional methods in their classrooms.
"Those are the things that are indicative that we are moving along the right path," he said.
Local report cards: The improvement plan is an outgrowth of Ohio's new local report cards, which rank the state's 616 school districts based on 27 minimum performance standards.
Youngstown met four standards on both the 2000 and 2001 report cards, was placed in academic emergency and required to develop an improvement plan. Districts have five years to move out of academic emergency or be subject to state oversight.
Youngstown's improvement plan calls for the city schools to meet 16 of the 27 report card standards by 2006, including a 90 percent graduation rate.
The district's graduation rate was 59 percent on the 2001 report card, down from 68.2 percent in 2000. "I still believe that's doable," McGee said about the 90-percent goal.
The improvement plan also calls for programs to make schools safer and improve school-community partnerships.
"If we don't have safe and disciplined schools that our children can learn in, then the rest is useless," said Penny Senyak, executive director of On Tasc.
Community partnerships: Suzanne Barbati, coordinator of the district's Family Readiness Centers, leads a committee focusing on community partnerships. She said the improvement plan is essential.
"It's so easy in the public educational arena to be focused on the crises every single day because there's always somebody who needs something and always some sort of issue that needs to be addressed immediately," she said.
"We need an overall plan, and we need to stay focused on that plan."