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EDWorks still wants to help Youngstown Schools
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
An education think tank that was rebuffed when it offered in 2012 to help transform the city schools still wants to help.
“We want to expand the [Youngstown] Early College format to all of the schools,” said Chuck Pollington, director of business development for EDWorks.
EDWorks, based in Cincinnati, is a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks, an education think tank that has spearheaded education reform efforts across the country.
Pollington said he hasn’t contacted academic distress commission members but his calls to the school district haven’t been returned.
Brian Benyo, chairman of the new Youngstown City School District Academic Distress Commission, said he would defer to the district’s chief executive officer to evaluate offers of assistance as he or she develops a new academic recovery plan for the city schools.
The new commission, established as part of the Youngstown Plan legislation, is expected to select a state-paid CEO by early June. Wednesday is the application deadline, and a forum to gather public input on the qualities and characteristics desired in a CEO is set for 5 p.m. Wednesday at Choffin Career and Technical Center.
In 2012, the EDWorks organization presented a plan to the then-academic distress commission for Youngstown schools. That plan, which was presented the day the commission was approving a district academic improvement plan, fell flat.
Recommendations at that time carried a $450,000 per-school price tag for professional development over four years. The group also offered to work to bring in outside money, if its plan was implemented.
At the time, commission and school district officials were concerned about cost and about allowing the plan authored by the commission to proceed and have sufficient time to work.
A key element of EDWorks’ strategy is instilling in students – and people who work in the schools – that every student can go to college and every student can secure a good job.
“That expectation is set when they walk into their first class,” Pollington said.
Professional development would be provided for staff to begin that work. Teachers would either embrace it or likely leave the district, he said.
The price tag would be about the same as it was four years ago, and the EDWorks official said the district could use funding it already has, including federal Title I dollars, to cover it. Title I is a federal program to aid economically disadvantaged students.
KnowledgeWorks helped establish Youngstown Early College, which allows students to secure college credit, up to an associate degree, by the time they graduate from high school. It’s a partnership among the city schools, Youngstown State University and Eastern Gateway Community College and is housed in Fedor Hall at YSU.
It’s consistently earned high marks on state tests, the best scores among the city’s schools.