Valley’s urban schools predict no uptick in grade

By Harold Gwin

Youngstown , Warren hope to stay in academic watch on state report cards. Howland , Columbiana expect to stay excellent.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The only two Mahoning Valley school districts rated in “academic watch” on their 2007-08 state report cards don’t expect to move up the rating system when the 2008-09 report cards are released Tuesday.

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been academic advances in the Youngstown and Warren city schools, administrators in both districts said.

Wendy Webb, Youngstown superintendent, said she didn’t expect Youngstown to advance, though she does anticipate that some individual schools will improve their state achievement ratings. Some that were in academic watch last year should rise to the continuous improvement category this year, she said, a clear indication that academic progress is being made in those schools.

Webb has said in the past that the school district’s rebuilding program, which has been shifting children and teachers from building to building over the last several years, and the district’s necessity to cut spending to overcome a budget deficit have affected the ability to focus on academics.

One of the problems with the test results shown on the report cards is that they compare one group of students with a different group of students the next year, rather than following each group’s ongoing performance, said Kathryn Hellweg, Warren superintendent.

“I’ve seen some spectacular growth occur,” she said, referring to the district’s review of individual student progress.

The district is looking at data to compare the 2009 performance to the 2008 report card to determine the effectiveness of its intervention efforts and map plans for this school year, Hellweg said.

Warren’s report card won’t yet be where the district wants it to be eventually, but, as the schools’ academic plan progresses, so will the level of report-card achievement, she predicted.

The state report card measures the performance of individual schools and districts based on student performance on tests in grades three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10 and 11 as well as graduation and attendance rates.

There are six rating levels: Excellent with distinction, excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.

No public school district in Mahoning, Trumbull or Columbiana counties was in the lowest category last year, but two — Howland and Lakeview — were in the highest.

Howland will retain that rating level this year, said Superintendent John Sheets, basing his comments on state test data used in the report card process.

The state added the excellent with distinction category for the first time last year to reflect significant continued growth by districts already at the top of the ratings.

Howland has been able to demonstrate that level of growth for the last two years, Sheets said.

Lakeview hopes to retain that rating again as well, said Superintendent Robert Wilson, though he said last week that he had yet to see the final state data.

The three counties had 17 districts rated as excellent and 20 rated as effective last year.

There were three in continuous improvement. East Liverpool was one of them, and Harry Croker, the district’s test coordinator, said it appears the district will remain at that rating this year.

Lisbon and Wellsville were the other two districts in continuous improvement.

gwin@vindy.com