Youngstown, Warren expect same overall low marks on ‘09 Ohio report cards

By Harold Gwin

Two districts that achieved the highest ranking last year — Howland and Columbiana — expect to retain that level.

YOUNGSTOWN — The only two local school districts rated as being in “academic watch” on their 2007-08 state local report cards don’t expect to advance up the rating system when the 2008-09 report cards are released Tuesday.

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been academic advances in the Youngstown and Warren city schools, administrators in both districts said.

Wendy Webb, Youngstown superintendent, said she didn’t expect Youngstown to advance, though she does anticipate that some individual schools will improve their state achievement ratings. Some that were in academic watch last year should rise to the continuous improvement category this year, she said, a clear indication that academic progress is being made.

Webb has said in the past that the school district’s rebuilding program, which has been shifting children and teachers from building to building over the last several years, and the district’s necessity to cut spending to overcome a budget deficit have affected the ability to focus on academics.

One of the problems with the test results shown on the report cards is that they compare one group of students with a different group of students the next year, rather than following each group’s on-going performance, said Kathryn Hellweg, Warren superintendent.

“I’ve seen some spectacular growth occur,” she said, referring to the district’s review of individual student progress.

The district is looking at data to compare the 2009 performance to the 2008 report card to determine the effectiveness of its intervention efforts and map out plans for this school year, Hellweg said.

Warren’s report card won’t yet be where the district wants it to be eventually, but, as the school academic plan progresses, so will the level of report card achievement, she predicted.

The state report card measures the performance of individual schools and districts based on student performance on tests in grades three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10 and 11 as well as graduation and attendance rates.

There are six rating levels: Excellent with distinction, excellent, effective, continuous improvement, academic watch and academic emergency.

Read the full story Monday, and review the complete results for districts in the Valley later this week in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.