Howland, Lakeview fete top education ranking
Howland High School principal Frank Thomas with a banner in the hallway of the school.
By ELISE FRANCO
Schools plan to keep up the report-card efforts using effective programming.
CORTLAND — Lakeview schools Superintendent Robert Wilson said there’s much more to his district than standardized test scores and report card grades. Still, being among the best of the best feels pretty good.
“It’s outstanding. It’s very humbling,” he said.
Out of 40 school districts in the tri-county area to earn an Ohio Department of Education report card score of effective or higher, only Lakeview and Howland local school districts in Trumbull County are designated as excellent with distinction.
Both were rated excellent on the 2006-07 state report card.
This year, they’ve exceeded the requirements for “excellent” and shown significant forward progress, earning top spot designations, along with 74 other Ohio districts.
Howland schools Superintendent John Sheets said because the district didn’t meet its “Adequate Yearly Progress” goals for the 2006-07 report card, the staff took extra care to work with all pupils in all subgroups, which are certain pupil groups where districts must show progress, equally, regardless of race, income or disability.
“A lot of people felt in a district like Howland that already had high levels of student achievement, it would be hard to show growth in one year,” he said. “We are above average with most of our kids from year to year, and we already had a lot of students scoring at a high level. It just reaffirms that we’re making progress.”
Sheets said Howland will keep up the effort as an official goal of the school district.
“Making it a district goal creates a focus of what we want to accomplish,” he said. “With continued professional development from teachers and making it a student-centered environment, we’re going to continue to get better.”
Wilson attributes Lakeview’s continued success to the staff and pupils.
“We’ve got an outstanding professional staff, and we’ve got a group of students who come to school every day ready to learn,” he said. “When you have excellent teachers in front of excellent kids, the result is usually excellent.”
Wilson said this is Lakeview’s third year in a row with the designation of excellent or above because everyone — pupils and staff alike — know what it takes to make that happen.
“The staff and the student body have become accustomed to doing the little everyday things it takes to earn that excellent award,” he said.
Although Lakeview pupils are doing well during testing, Wilson said because of financial difficulties and budget cuts, they’re not leaving high school as competitive as he’d like.
“The state report card shows that we’re doing exceptionally well with what we have,” he said. “I just wish we could offer our students more.”
Both districts have implemented programs to help pupils who may need extra attention.
Sheets said Howland continues to grow, change and provide intervention resources to give help to all the pupils who need it.
“I think we have the fundamentals in place, and we want to create or continue to maintain our environment for learning,” he said. “We’re always looking at the data and if we have to provide intervention in certain areas or teacher training, we’ll do that.”
Programs such as math tutoring for grades three through five and the Bulldog Buddy Program, where a high school student is assigned to work one-on-one or in small groups with middle school pupils, are in place in the Lakeview schools.
Wilson said these types of activities are key in the development and success of pupils.
“I don’t think anything additional was done — I think we’ve just done more of the same,” he said. “We’ve continued to do the things that have been effective for our staff.
“The administrators are facilitators. We stay out of the way and give teachers the face-to-face time with the kids that they need.”
efranco@vindy.com