Hathorn: KnowledgeWorks won’t work in Youngstown

By Denise Dick | May 7, 2012 at 12:05a.m.

Hathorn

Youngstown

While a Cincinnati-based education reform group believes the city schools need a complete overhaul, the superintendent says the district requires consistency.

Last February, KnowledgeWorks presented ideas for the district, which its representatives said required a whole new system. Among the organization’s plan was professional development to the tune of $450,000 per school over four years.

KnowledgeWorks, which previously worked with the city schools and Youngstown State University to create Youngstown Early College, said then that if the district committed to full-scale change, it would commit to securing funding from outside sources to help.

The district’s state-appointed Academic Distress Commission approved an updated academic- recovery plan for the district last March. Commission members didn’t adopt the KnowledgeWorks proposal, though some elements, such as community engagement and parental involvement, are common to both documents.

Meetings and interviews with parents and community members are ongoing, and a town-hall meeting is expected late next month.

“I told KnowledgeWorks I’m not interested,” Superintendent Connie Hathorn said.

The district has started so many programs over the years that now it needs to stick to a plan.

“There’s a saying that Youngstown never saw a program it didn’t like,” Hathorn said. “When the money goes away, the program goes away. There’s been no kind of consistency. We need to stay down the path to improving student achievement.”

A KnowledgeWorks spokesman would only say that the organization maintains its view.

“KnowledgeWorks stands by its original premise in February that Youngstown’s city schools’ improvement plan must be bold and audacious, and must include the involvement of parents and a caring community that believes all students can succeed,” Byron McCauley said.