The Ohio Department of Education released its report cards for districts around the state, and while several in our area are Excellent, only four in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties were rated Excellent with Distinction: Canfield, Springfield, Champion and Howland.
"Which means that within each of those categories our students achieved very well, and had gained a year of growth," says Debra Mettee, Superintendent of Springfield Local Schools.
Tracking students yearly growth falls under the value-added measure. It helped Springfield jump from Effective to Excellent with Distinction, but Youngstown City Schools went the other way, falling from Academic Watch a year ago, into Academic Emergency.
"This was the first year that the value added would cause a district to be knocked down a designation, if they did not meet it," says Dr. Wendy Webb, Superintendent of Youngstown City Schools.
In Springfield, Mettee says they focused on areas where they needed to improve, and the passage of a five-year renewal levy in May was a huge weight off their shoulders. Mettee says, "Really once your school levy is passed for your operating money, the stress of that and the focus of that is put aside, and then we focused on academics."
Doctor Webb says some Youngstown schools showed improvement, and would have had higher ratings if not for the value-added measure, but they're not making any excuses. She says even Academic Watch isn't where they want to be, and improvement has to start in the classroom.
"You don't teach to the test but at the same time, you can't test kids on what you haven't taught, and if you haven't taught certain benchmarks and standards by the fourth grade, then those kids are going to come up short," says Dr. Webb.
Youngstown City Schools are the first district to get the state's lowest ranking since the 2004-2005 school year. A special "Academic Distress Commission" will be coming from Columbus to Youngstown, to work with administrators and school leaders on ways to pull the district out of Academic Emergency.
Doctor Webb says they've cut more than 500 staff members, and more than three-fourths of their teachers have changed the subjects or grade levels they teach. The district is also looking forward to $9-million in stimulus funds, which will let them continue academic programs which appear to be working.
