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EdFocus: Programs at schools not in sync
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN
Youngstown schools offer some textbook examples of not everyone being on the same page, consultants are finding.
Several different programs are being used in various Youngstown city schools as part of the curricular and instructional program.
But the same programs were not available in every school; only some could be described by people within the schools; the programs aren’t coordinated with one another; and they aren’t consistently referenced in school-pacing guides. A pacing guide is a template followed by teachers’ outlining time to be spent on specified curriculum areas.
These are among the findings in a progress report from EdFocus Initiative. The East Palestine company was contracted by the city schools’ academic-distress commission to audit district systems, policies and processes including board policy, administrative guidelines, staffing levels, staff evaluations, building-level student codes of conduct, staff handbooks, core curriculum and instructional resources.
The report was presented at a commission meeting Monday.
It also found that although there are pacing guides in math and reading, “they are primarily a list of content standards and are not a comprehensive ‘curriculum’ as called for” in the academic- recovery plan.
EdFocus did find some good things. By the end of February, its consultants will have observed 154 reading and math classrooms in the district. So far, they’ve visited about a third of the 16 schools.
From this sampling, the consultants witnessed several successful teacher-student exchanges, the report said.
“That is, there have been several single episodes ... in which the teacher used an effective practice and students responded appropriately,” it said. “In the overall din of a district in academic peril, this may seem like only a whisper. But to us, it’s a shout of hope.”
Mosaica Turnaround Partners, an Atlanta company with offices in Columbus, was contracted to improve leadership within the district.
John Porter of that company told the commission that coaches have been spending time in the schools working with principals.
“Fourteen [principals] are truly on board with what we’re doing,” Porter said. “Three, we’re still working on.”
He didn’t identify the specific principals.
Some principals, while strong in management and discipline, struggle in instructional areas, he said.
Deborah Delisle, state superintendent of public instruction, attended Monday’s meeting. She said she’s “skeptically optimistic” about the academic-recovery plan that’s in place and the district’s ability to implement it.
Youngstown schools were placed in academic emergency — the lowest rating on the state report card and the only district in the state to rank there — and the city schools’ academic-distress commission was established in early 2010.
One goal of the recovery plan is to see the district designated no lower than continuous improvement by 2015.