State report cards: Youngstown struggling, Canfield excels, remainder in between

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown City Schools’ latest state report card is a parent’s nightmare with all D’s and F’s, but Superintendent Connie Hathorn contends the letter grades don’t show the district’s growth.

Canfield, on the other hand, is a parent’s dream with seven A’s, a B and a C. It’s the only Mahoning County school district, and only one of two in the Mahoning Valley, to earn an A in the performance-index area, the measure of student performance on the Ohio Graduation Test and Ohio Achievement Assessment. Trumbull County’s Maplewood is the other district.

Other Mahoning Valley districts are somewhere in between.

“We continue to be an F district and I’m not happy about that,” Hathorn said. “But we’re going in the right direction.”

The district’s performance index continues to increase, rising from 76.9 last year to 77.7 this year.

“We’re going in the right direction toward being an A/B school district,” Hathorn said.

The district also saw growth in the gap-closing, or annual measurable objectives, category. This gauges proficiency of students in 10 subgroups in different subject areas. The subgroups are: all students, economically disadvantaged, Asian/Pacific Islander, African-American, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Hispanic, multiracial, white, special needs and limited English proficiency.

Districts must have at least 30 students in each subgroup to receive a score. Youngstown has sufficient population in all subgroups except American Indian/Alaskan Native and Asian/Pacific Islander.

The district saw gains in reading in most subgroups with some growth and some losses in math.

CANFIELD

Canfield Superintendent Alex Geordan said that district focused on areas that needed improvement and he’s happy with the results.

“We’ve got wonderful families sending us some great kids, and we have great teachers who delved into the data,” Geordan said.

District staff focused particularly on special-needs and gifted students to generate improvement.

STATE’S VIEW

Richard Ross, state superintendent of public instruction, said in a news release that some districts’ grades were lower in some categories “because Ohio has raised the bar.”

Read more district comments and see the complete chart of all Valley district results in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.