Academics fail to fall with open enrollment, local study finds

BOARDMAN

Mahoning County students who leave their home school district to attend another through open enrollment don’t negatively impact the open-enrollment district’s academics, according to a study by the Mahoning County Educational Service Center superintendent and a Youngstown State University professor.

“The bottom line is that districts participating in open enrollment are not being academically impacted by students from outside districts, even when students migrate from the poorest performing schools,” the report says.

That’s contrary to what some would expect.

Ron Iarussi, superintendent of the county ESC and the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, said he and Karen Larwin, assistant professor of educational foundations, research, technology and leadership in YSU’s Beeghly College of Education, conducted the study in part to determine the validity of anti-open enrollment individuals who contend that students attending a district through open enrollment perform worse than native students, harming the district academically.

It’s something superintendents can use in making decisions about open enrollment as well as in talking to residents.

Their work examined data for 2004 to 2014.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.