Scores show school district has been making progress

The district's Performance Index on state standardized tests continues to rise.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown City School District just missed retaining its "academic watch" standing on the 2005 Ohio Report Card by 0.8 of a point.
Even though the school district slipped back into an "Academic Emergency" rating this year, it is still making academic progress, said Dr. Ray Hart of the Bureau of Research, Training and Services at Kent State University.
Hart, speaking at the school district's first combined Community Recognition and District Report-Out Dinner on Friday at The Maronite Center, said Youngstown's performance index as shown on the report card has grown significantly over the past five years.
Scoring system
The ultimate goal is a score of 100 on the index, but Youngstown had a score of only 53.6 in the 2000-01 school year, Hart said.
However, the district's score has increased each year since, he said.
It rose to 56.2 in 2001-02, 64.7 in 2002-03, 68.5 in 2003-04 and 69.2 last year, Hart said.
A score of 70 would have kept Youngstown in "academic watch," he said, adding that the district was also only nine points away from a "continuous improvement" ranking, a goal Youngstown has said in the past that it hoped to reach by 2006.
Although the score was higher in 2005, the district moved backward in its ranking because the state raises the bar as a district improves, requiring a higher performance index to advance in the rankings, Hart said.
"We are making progress," said Ed Cvelbar, co-chairman of the Urban Congress, a group of educators, business people, social service agencies and other community stakeholders formed by the district three years ago to help it achieve the "continuous improvement" goal.
It may not be happening as fast as some people might like, but it is happening, he said.
The Urban Congress assists the district with various projects and issues it must deal with to advance academically. It essentially oversees implementation of the district's continuous improvement plan formulated five years ago.
Youngstown is showing improvement across the board in areas like attendance, graduation rate and test scores, Cvelbar said.
Community effort
The community needs to pull together to help the schools improve, and Friday's dinner, which drew about 500 people, shows the effort is succeeding, he said.
Hart said the performance index scores show that the lives of individuals in the Youngstown schools are changing.
"The district is improving. The kids are improving," he said.
"We are a district in the process of learning how to capture kids' hearts," said Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent. Capture their hearts, and you capture their minds, she said.
Change won't happen overnight, and the district needs to move away from the blame game for past academic failures, Webb said.
"If we focus on blame, that's where we'll stay," she warned.
The district needs to create a passion for learning, a passion for teaching, a culture of achievement for all pupils, and community relationships that help set a positive atmosphere to keep kids succeeding, she said.
gwin@vindy.com