NAACP reviews of Youngstown City Schools show overall improvement

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The NAACP Youngstown Branch gave a first look at its three-month reviews of Youngstown City Schools which show overall improvement.

The reasoning, said Jimma McWilson, NAACP vice president, was to have the reviews better resemble report cards which the district hands out every nine weeks.

“We are making a major switch in terms of how we evaluate progress,” he explained. “It’s better than waiting until the end of the year to see what is going on with our children’s academics.”

The NAACP will be evaluating the “integrity” of students’ grade-point averages, McWilson continued.

“We will be evaluating GPAs as they relate to the curriculum of the district, and even the integrity of the teachers,” he said. “The reviews are no longer about the CEO, but about the instructional system he has in place.”

GPAs presented at the NAACP’s Thursday morning meeting showed an overall district improvement from 2015 to 2016 and a projected improvement from 2016 to 2017 in Youngstown Early College, Chaney High and East High.

A perfect GPA would be 4.0.

From academic years 2015-16 to 2016-17, YEC’s, Chaney’s and East’s GPAs went from 3.3 to 3.4, 2.52 to 2.55 and 1.81 to 2.01, respectively.

Projected GPAs for 2017-18 for YEC, Chaney and East are 3.77 or 3.72, 2.85 or 2.76 and 2.71 or 2.48.

Charts provided by the NAACP further broke down GPAs contributing to district averages by race:

Black students’ GPAs from 2015-16 to 2016-17 at YEC, Chaney and East went from 3.23 to 3.35, 2.45 to 2.5 and 1.73 to 1.92, respectively. Projected GPAs for 2017-18 for black students at YEC, Chaney and East are 3.73 or 3.72, 2.85 or 2.74 and 2.71 or 2.47.

Hispanic students’ GPAs from 2015-16 to 2016-17 at YEC, Chaney and East went from 3.64 to 3.59, 2.62 to 2.7 and 2.03 to 2.26, respectively. Projected GPAs for 2017-18 for Hispanic students at YEC, Chaney and East are 3.93 or 3.77, 2.91 or 2.84 and 2.7 or 2.43.

White students’ GPAs from 2015-16 to 2016-17 at YEC, Chaney and East went from 3.52 to 3.52, 2.79 to 2.71 and 2.09 to 2.23, respectively. Projected GPAs for 2017-18 for white students at YEC, Chaney and East are 3.87 or 3.81, 2.87 or 2.79 and 2.71 or 2.51.

Multiracial students’ GPAs from 2015-16 to 2016-17 at YEC, Chaney and East went from 3.33 to 3.42, 2.5 to 2.4 and 1.81 to 2.09, respectively. Projected GPAs for 2017-18 for multiracial students at YEC, Chaney and East are 3.53 or 3.23, 2.7 or 2.75 and 2.69 or 2.75.

“This [is a] very important change in how we are attempting to hold the community, family, student, teachers and system accountable for the success of our community schools,” McWilson said.