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City schools draft eight-part plan to boost academics
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
A draft plan to bolster student achievement in the city schools addresses eight components on the path to improve academics.
When Stan Heffner, state superintendent of public instruction, attended a commission meeting in September, he issued a directive that the Academic Distress Commission combine the multiple plans in place in the district — the recovery plan, revitalization plan, school-improvement plans and others — into one.
A draft plan, expected to be adopted at a commission meeting Monday, was developed. It will be sent to the state for changes and approval.
It’s divided into eight components: leadership to support student success, school climate, high school, collaborative structures, literacy, math, special education and early-childhood programming, and fiscal monitoring of state and federal funds.
The plan includes no time lines, but Debra Mettee, commission chairwoman, believes they likely will be added after a meeting with Heffner.
Patrick Gallaway, an Ohio Department of Education spokesman, said ODE representatives plan to meet with the commission late this month. No date has been finalized.
Superintendent Connie Hathorn believes the district can meet the requirements of the plan and make progress.
“We can do it,” he said.
The academic distress commission was established in 2010 after the city district was designated in academic emergency and failed to meet adequate yearly progress on state report cards. The district’s designation on the 2010-11 report card improved one notch to academic watch.
The draft plan spells out goals, strategies, indicators and action steps for each component.
Leadership to support student success, for example, lists one goal as “develop and implement feedback systems that support effective school and classroom leadership resulting in increased student achievement.”
Implementing best practices in the selection and evaluation of education staff is one of the strategies under that goal, and “increased student achievement” is the student-performance indicator.
Mettee said draft-plan development included input from teachers, principals and administrators.
“We met with at least 20 individuals,” she said. “We had representatives from every building. They all gave their input and thoughts.”