Academic-recovery plan vote expected

By Denise Dick | February 17, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Youngstown

The city schools’ Academic Distress Commission expects to vote next week on an updated recovery plan for the district that includes extensive community engagement, increased student choice and frameworks for principal- and teacher-training.

The commission’s next meeting is 2 p.m. Thursday at P. Ross Berry Eighth and Ninth Grade Academy, 940 Bryn Mawr Ave., on the city’s East Side.

At a meeting Thursday at Choffin Career and Technical Center, commission members reviewed a draft plan but took no action.

“[The] Academic Recovery Plan sets the stage for the Youngstown City Schools to emerge as a transformed school system, not only achieving a rating of continuous improvement for two-consecutive years but also poised for every student to successfully compete in the 21st century,” the draft document says. “All barriers to student success will be removed, and the district will create a new goal that reflects the responsibility of all to reach high achievement.”

The panel previously approved a goal for the plan to begin a community-engagement process this month that focuses on increasing community expectations and aspirations for high student achievement.

Adrienne O’Neill, commission chairwoman, pointed out that though 16.8 percent of the U.S. population has less than a high-school diploma, that number is 22.6 percent in Youngstown. It’s 16.6 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively, in Ohio and Mahoning County.

Only 5.2 percent of city residents have earned bachelor’s degrees, compared with 17.7 percent in the country, 15.7 percent in Ohio and 13.4 percent in Mahoning County.

The district wants to increase the number of students who go on to some form of higher education, O’Neill said.

“That’s not an easy job, but I will tell you, it can be done,” she said.

She referred to Canton schools, where she formerly worked, where graduation rates at both high schools have increased dramatically in recent years.

Besides the community- engagement piece, the draft plan also calls for increasing student choice, the creation of credit flexibility, and teacher and principal professional development. Other goals are to be developed before next week’s vote.

O’Neill also said the district should get the students more involved in trying to turn the district around. In Canton, for example, students organized tutoring squads to help their classmates who were struggling in a particular area.

“There’s kid power,” she said, “you’re not using it.”