Education in smaller bites

Education in smaller bites

There is no pretending that the Youngstown City School District does not have its problems, both academic and fiscal.

But Superintendent Wendy Webb earns high marks for not allowing those challenges to paralyze her when it comes to looking past tomorrow.

Webb has unveiled an ambitious and innovative plan that she is calling “Framing the Future.”

The most eye-catching part involves a classroom schedule for fifth through eighth grade students that would have them in school for nine weeks and then off three, rather than the old agrarian schedule of nine months in school, three months off.

The proposal is both a real and a symbolic recognition that time-honored ways of educating students are not necessarily the best ways for 21st century urban America.

Concentrating the work load

In a district where too many children are failing, the 12-week rotation would provide more opportunities for intervention. It’s easier to offer remediation for a bad semester during three off-weeks than it is to address an entire school year’s worth of failure over a summer break.

The quarter plan also provides opportunities for enrichment work for students who excel.

The proposal will have its detractors — among some students, parents and teachers. It is easier to resist change than to embrace it.

But the Youngstown school district is at a pivotal point.

Youngstown will soon have all new or nearly new school buildings. But buildings alone do not assure excellence. Excellence grows out of a shared commitment from administrators, teachers, parents and students to get the most out of what they have.

That means using the school buildings more hours per day and more days per year. It means teachers teaching more, students learning more and parents demanding more.

Webb has begun an important dialogue with Youngstown parents and teachers. If their response is that they can’t be bothered, the students will pay for their elders’ indifference.