Yes, Virginia, success stories abound in Youngstown schools

Over the past few weeks, The Vindicator has taken a closer look inside the Youngstown City Schools and into some of the many programs that quietly — but effectively — play out inside the halls of the often-maligned urban school district.

Quite frankly, we’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen. A wide range of creative and academically inspiring programs are motivating students at all grade levels to learn, thereby enhancing the district’s public image and raising viable hopes the 5,400- student district will leapfrog onto higher performance perches on its next set of state- sponsored report cards in 2015.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS: QUAGLIA RULES

At the elementary-school level, we dropped in on an assembly of pupils from grade schools throughout the city that took place last week at William Holmes McGuffey Elementary School. There students were actively engaged in constructing paper towers while at the same time learning some valuable team-building lessons.

It is one of many skill-building activities offered by the Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to studying, promoting, and putting into practice the conditions that foster student aspirations toward academic achievement.

The school district has indeed been fortunate to have had the Maine-based institute involved in enrichment programs in its elementary schools over the past three years.

The institute’s work is based on more than 20 years of research on student aspirations. This research shows that students who believe in themselves, are actively engaged in their learning, and feel a sense of purpose and connectedness in school are more likely to develop high aspirations. Students with high aspirations are then in a position to reach their fullest potential, both in school and beyond.

MIDDLE SCHOOL MIRRORS COLLEGE

At the middle-school level, the district’s Rayen Early College Middle School expands that emphasis on building high aspirations and expectations. In fact, the 160 sixth- through eighth-grade students at the alternative middle school adopt thinking philosophies well beyond their early teen years. They take on the mindsets and workloads of university students and even visit college campuses to get a peak at what lies ahead in their academic futures.

On a visit to the award-winning school recently, we were impressed by the demeanor and positive attitudes the students exhibit.

Eighth-grader Sonya Lenoir exemplifies that demeanor: “We’re expected to learn and excel. If we came into this school, we’re the more advanced students. If we’re more advanced, more is expected of us. It is a privilege to be here.”

Youngstown district residents also are privileged to have a school system offering such promising and forward-thinking programming that has won many state and national awards.

Already, the REC Middle School has distinguished itself as a national winner in the Making Middle Grades Work initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board. Students at the inner-city intermediate school scored the highest in improved English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science curriculum and met or exceeded all middle school sites nationally on nine of 12 intensity indicators.

HIGH HONORS FOR CITY HIGH SCHOOLS

Moving up to high school, honors for the district once again easily can be spotted. The Youngstown Early College, a high school housed at Youngstown State University, expands the focus on intensified coursework and high expectations.

That focus clearly works. YEC recently was named one of America’s top high schools by Newsweek magazine as part of its 2014 “America’s Top High Schools.” In addition, it has won the Bronze Award from U.S. News and Report, and the distinguished School of Promise Award from the Ohio Department of Education three years in a row now.

Across town, at the Chaney Visual and Performing Arts High School, we sat in on a ballet performance by students who are earning college credit for the skills they’ve mastered in high school. We can’t help but agree with Bryan DePoy, dean of YSU’s College of Creative Arts, when he says, “The Chaney VPA school is really a treasure of the community.”

Collectively, these and other success stories in the Youngstown City Schools forcefully rebut claims by some in the community who irrationally view the school district as an abject failure. Yes, the district has its fair share of academic and fiscal challenges, many of which are far from being solved.

But at the same time, one cannot ignore the positive strides of Superintendent Connie Hathorn, his staff and front-line educators in landing some mighty impressive academic victories in the classroom.

The challenge facing school policymakers on the local and state levels today is to work to multiply those successes so they reach out and touch every single student in the city district. To be sure, no child should be left behind from the potential for greatness the Youngstown City Schools are clearly capable of producing.