Warren supt. has faith in school-improvement plans

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Bruce Thomas, who began work Aug. 1 as Warren superintendent, hopes to move the district forward by taking a look back.

Thomas, who worked during the 2008-09 school year as school-improvement coordinator for the Ohio Department of Education’s Ohio Improvement Process, has put his faith in that process.

The process is not new to the Warren school district. As a low-performing district, Warren was selected to receive extra assistance from the state during the first year it was offered, the 2007-08 school year.

Through the OIP, school districts can receive help to raise improve academic achievement. Warren and Youngstown, the only two districts in Mahoning, Trumbull, Ashtabula and Columbiana counties in the academic-watch category of the State Report Card, qualify for the highest amount of assistance available under the program, said Michelle DiMuzio, director of the process’s Niles-based State Support Team.

No Ohio public school system has a lower rating than academic watch, the fifth level from the top. Warren is the second-largest school district in the Mahoning Valley at 5,520 students, smaller than only Youngstown.

Thomas, DiMuzio and Loree Richardson, Warren associate superintendent for nearly a decade, say Warren schools didn’t invest a lot of energy in the Ohio Improvement Process during the first four years.

“They didn’t really engage in it fully, so we’ve re-engaged in it deeply,” Thomas said during an interview Monday at the school board offices.

During his year as school- improvement coordinator, Thomas saw the process work in places where he was assigned — the city school districts of Akron, Cuyahoga Falls and elsewhere.

He also saw its benefits during his year as administrator with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in 2009-10 and during his year as Marietta superintendent last year.

The new attention to the Ohio Improvement Process started with the beginning of this school year. Four to five members of the State Support Team are now assisting the Warren district.

The hallmark of the Ohio Improvement Process is testing.

“It really comes down to [students] and the data to see what those kids aren’t comprehending, aren’t proficient in and re-teaching those skills and then re-evaluating them so we have a measure that they’ve learned them,” Thomas said.

Melissa Watson, hired at the start of this school year as the district’s director of teaching and learning, says the testing will tell teams of administrators, teachers and state support staff whether students are reaching educational goals.

DiMuzio says she’s excited to see Warren taking this new approach.

“I think the sense of urgency the superintendent is showing in the district is wonderful,” she said. “They’re taking it so seriously, so I’d expect to see a change in student performance. There’s not another day to wait.”

Though the district’s report-card numbers have improved some — its Performance Index has risen from 76.2 to 78.5 out of a possible 120 — that’s not enough for a district on the low end of the performance scale, DiMuzio said.

The most-dramatic shift for Warren has been the use of data to change what “the adults [teachers and staff] are doing — changing instructional practices.”

Thomas said he and the president of the teachers union have jointly sent out information on the initiative to the teachers. “We have our teachers engaged in the process,” Thomas said.

“As we receive feedback from teachers about what we’re doing, we keep asking them if you lived here and your child were in these schools, what would you want to give them,” Thomas said.

“They’re quick to say what they would want to give them — more achievement, better attendance, more diverse work force. They know exactly what it is that will help these kids move to the next level. We just have to do it.”

Thomas and others have met with the Trumbull County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, a group of pastors, as well as the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber to discuss the initiative.

At tonight’s school board meeting, he plans to start talking about it. The session begins at 6 p.m. at the board offices on High Street downtown.

“What Dr. Thomas has done is create a sense of urgency,” Watson said. “We have a problem, and we need to fix it sooner rather than later. Another year of academic watch is not acceptable.”

Thomas added, “Our scores are trending downward. Our ACT scores are trending downward at the high-school level. We have [fewer] kids going to college than we did last year and the year before and the year before, so this is urgent. The families here expect more, they deserve more, and it’s our job to give them more.”

The first big test to determine whether the venture is successful will be next summer’s State Report Card, Thomas said.

“Our goal is not to be in academic watch next year. Period.”