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Open enrollment school districts not harmed by policy
Photo
Iarussi
By Denise Dick
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, a study says.
“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,” according to the study, which was conducted by the Mahoning County Educational Service Center superintendent and a Youngstown State University professor.
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.
“Analysis reveals no difference in average student achievement scores for those who participate in” open enrollment “relevant to students who remain in their home district,” the study says.
Of Mahoning County’s 15 school districts, only Boardman, Campbell, Canfield, Poland and Springfield don’t have open enrollment.
“Economically, open enrollment is a good idea,” Larwin said.
Many districts that opted to adopt it haven’t had to return to voters seeking new levies.
The two researchers also undertook the study because there isn’t a lot of research on the topic.
Reasons people choose open enrollment go beyond seeking better academics. Larwin said the reasons could be because of after-school programs that provide child care, or because of convenience — parents may live in one district but send their children instead to the district where they work. Others may want their children to attend the same school they did.
Lowellville was the first Mahoning County district to use open enrollment.
The study also found no difference in performance of socioeconomically disadvantaged students who attend open-enrollment districts versus those who remain in the home district.
The study also looked at how scores of students attending their home district compare to open-enrollment participants from the same district.
“Results indicate differences do not exist across the two groups with the exception of one struggling district in Mahoning County,” it says.
That district is Youngs-town city schools.
“While 11 of the 16 districts reveal slightly higher achievement scores for students who are not attending their home district ... the differences for 10 of the 11 districts did not present statistically or practically significant differences,” it found.
The researchers plan to expand their examination into Trumbull and Columbiana counties and hope to have the document published in an academic journal.