District aims to raise its grade

By Harold Gwin

The leadership team has laid out a plan that all schools must follow.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school district is embarking on a program designed to improve student academic performance by concentrating on reading, mathematics, attendance and graduation rates.

It’s part of the Ohio Improvement Process, a state system of support for school districts focusing on improving the academic performance of all students, said Superintendent Wendy Webb.

It will become part of the district’s academic strategic plan, she said.

Youngstown’s involvement is part of an ongoing effort to raise overall district performance on its state local report card, which grades schools on the academic performance of their students. The district was rated in academic emergency this year, the only public school district in Ohio with that lowest report-card rating.

Youngstown launched the process last November, said Anthony DiRenzo, a former Youngstown school administrator and now an OIP facilitator for the Ohio Department of Education.

He outlined the effort Tuesday for the city school board, explaining that it will be a three-year plan, building on current strengths and cleaning up weaknesses.

Youngstown’s district leadership team — made up of administrators, teachers and staff — are involved in the four-step process, DiRenzo said.

First, the team had to identify the district’s critical needs. They then had to develop a focused plan with measurable, attainable goals.

The team set three specific goals and devised strategies with specific action steps to achieve those goals over the three-year span, he said.

The focus will be primarily on reading and mathematics, he told the board.

Youngstown’s three goals are:

UBy 2012, improve the percentage of K-12 students achieving proficiency on the Ohio Achievement and Ohio graduation tests by reducing the number of students rated as nonproficient by 12 percent annually. Youngstown’s nonproficiency level in reading on the 2008-09 report card ranged from 68.4 percent in the fifth grade to 16.1 percent in the 11th grade.

UBy 2012, annually improve the percentage of proficient K-12 students achieving proficiency in math by reducing the number of students rated as nonproficient by 12 percent annually. Youngstown’s nonproficiency level in math on the 2008-09 report card ranged from 77.7 in the eighth grade to 32.3 percent in the 11th grade.

UBy 2012, increase the graduation rate by reducing the number of nongraduates by 10 percent, increase attendance by 2 percent and decrease the number of discipline referrals by 10 percent annually. The 2008-09 report card showed Youngstown with a graduation rate of 72.8 percent and attendance at 91.8 percent. Discipline referrals are not a part of the report card.

Next will come the implementation and monitoring of those strategies, DiRenzo said, pointing out that everyone must be involved. The final step will be an evaluation of the process and making any changes needed to continue the academic performance improvement.

“Everybody’s going to be on the same page,” he said, explaining that the details will now be taken to the individual school teams.

Those teams will have no input as to the goals or the strategies laid out to reach them. They will, however, be able to fine-tune the action steps to fit for their particular buildings, DiRenzo said.

gwin@vindy.com