Legislator plans effort to dismantle state takeovers of local schools

COLUMBUS

State Rep. Joe Miller, a Democrat from Amherst, today announced he will soon introduce bipartisan legislation with Rep. Don Jones, a Republican from Freeport, to repeal portions of House bill 70, the 2015 bill that brought on state takeovers of local schools in Lorain and throughout the state.

Miller's Amherst is right next door to Lorain.

“Placing these districts under state control has been a disaster,” said Miller. “In each case, the Academic Distress Commission has been unable to work effectively alongside the district’s teachers, school leaders and community at large. After three years, we haven’t seen any evidence that state takeovers improve academic achievement. It’s time for us to restore local control and give struggling schools the support they need to succeed.”

Under Miller’s bill, Academic Distress Commissions will be dissolved, restoring local control over public schools and moving toward a building-based, bottom-up reform model. Low performing schools will be empowered to provide coordinated support services like after-school enrichment and social/health services, a model Miller believes will better help all students maximize their potential.

Miller and Jones are currently seeking co-sponsors for the bill from legislators across the state. The legislation is expected to be formally introduced next week.

On Wednesday, the Youngstown City Schools academic team will explain improvements made throughout the district over the last couple of years. The event from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, is a joint effort between the school district’s academic team and the NAACP Community Collaborative. It will be at East High School, 474 Bennington Ave.

After a presentation from the academic team at the conference, parents will be able to ask questions and principals and parent engagement coordinators from all YCSD schools will be available to answer.

“We really have made a lot of progress,” said Chief Executive Officer Krish Mohip. “The state report card only goes so far, but there’s more to student achievement than the components measured there.”

Student growth has been demonstrated, for example through test results in math and reading.

Although the district scored an F on the Gap Closing component of the most recent state report card, the district saw significant improvement on several metrics, the school district said in a news release.

Youngstown schools saw a 39 percentage point increase in the Gap Closing component compared to the 2016-17 report card, from 3.3 percent to 42.3 percent.  The Gap Closing component shows how well the district met the performance expectations for the most vulnerable students in English language arts, math, graduation and English language proficiency.

The Youngstown district also saw a dramatic improvement in closing the reading gap among black students, it said.

The reading gap is a measurement of the percentage difference between the actual performance of black students compared to the state average.  The district's reading gap for this group decreased from 54.6 percent on the 2016-17 report card to just 3.5 percent on the 2017-18 report card, a 51.1 percentage point reduction.

 “We’ve achieved a lot of growth, but the report card focuses on proficiency,” Mohip said. “Students can’t reach proficiency without first realizing growth.”