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CEO expects better grades in the future
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown City Schools CEO Krish Mohip said he is expecting better state report card grades in the coming years.
Mohip, during a Tuesday afternoon Youngstown City Council Education Committee meeting, defended the district’s Ohio Department of Education’s School Report Card failing grades after committee Chairwoman Basia Adamczak, D-7th, asked him if the decrease in grades is normally followed by a spike or sharp increase.
He said it is.
“In my experience in other districts, once you have some continuous years of growth – especially growth that’s aligned to national norms – you’ll see spikes in achievement,” he said.
Mohip is in the beginning of his third year of a three-year contract to expire July 31, 2019. Also attending Wednesday’s committee meeting were city council members Julius Oliver, D-1st, Anita Davis, D-6th, and Nate Pinkard, D-3rd.
“I’m confident the work we are doing is the right work. We have a measurement, though not assessed by the state, that measures the growth of a child three times a year – the NWEA [Northwest Evaluation Association]. ... I felt like year one was really last year despite it being year two, because last year was the first year we were really digging deep into instruction.”
The district is making gains and just needs a few more years of this kind of growth, Mohip added.
“I come here after receiving an F on the state report card saying that I am excited about the direction the district is going,” Mohip said. “We are seeing progress. You have to make sure you have strong growth before you get to achievement levels. We are making strong growth.”
Mohip was put in place by House Bill 70, which enables him to lead the schools with state-appointed academic distress commission oversight. Both are now in place in the city. He refers to the elected school board as an advisory board.
“I fully expect a D in the coming years,” he said. “I’m very confident we’ll be able to start transitional out of HB 70.”
Mohip also announced a number of changes he plans to make to the strategic plan including an aligned focus on state standards.
“We want to make sure we are giving our students the appropriate amount of time for the standards they need to know for mastery,” he said.
The changes, however, will not be drastic.
“So often what happens in Youngstown is we make changes and move into a different direction, but now we are staying true to the strategic plan. We don’t want to continually change on our kids,” he said.
Mohip said there may be more revisions by today’s Youngstown Academic Distress Commission meeting.
Adamczak closed the meeting by saying as a parent of Youngstown schools students, she sees a difference.
“I feel the difference in morale when I walk into the schools,” she said.
As a parent of a child who had some academic difficulty she has seen a “huge increase in academics” and Adamczak credits and thanked Mohip.