Superintendent: Job’s not done for city schools

Lauds district’s recent report card rating, says there’s more work to do

YOUNGSTOWN -- Earning a three-star rating of a possible five stars on the recently released state report card is a reason for the Youngstown City School District to celebrate, but not to rest on its academic laurels, a top official says.

"The work is not done. We're showing that we can do this work," Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said after the regular Youngstown Board of Education meeting Tuesday afternoon at Youngstown Rayen Early College High School.

The district's ranking was revealed after the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce released the report cards Sept. 15, marking the first time in 25 years that the district met state standards, Batchelor noted.

The state report card is ranked accordingly:

• 1 to 1 1/2 stars means a district needs significant support to meet state standards.

• 2 to 2 1/2 stars is given to a district that needs support to meet those standards.

• 3 to 3/12 stars means a district has met state standards.

• 4 to 4 1/2 stars denotes a district that has exceeded state standards.

• 5 stars means a district significantly exceeded such standards.

During Tuesday's session, the board heard a presentation from Matt Garchar, the district's data specialist, who broke down the six core components that appear on the report card: achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation, early literacy and college career workforce and military readiness.

Specifically, the Youngstown City Schools showed gains in five of the six areas, with early literacy being the exception with a 19.4% decrease from last year. The largest increase was in gap closing, which was 41.5%, up more than 34% from last year.

The gap closing component measures the reduction in educational gaps for student groups. The college career workforce and military readiness piece measures how prepared Ohio students are for future opportunities.

Nevertheless, even though early literacy was 53.1% last year, compared to 33.7% this year, certain sub pieces and thresholds in that category changed in the last year, so the real reduction figure is closer to 8%, Garchar explained.

When compared to schools in the region, Youngstown saw improvements in its performance and growth indices as well as its graduation component, four-year graduation rate and overall rating, Garchar noted. Those gains ranged from 0,86% to 3.71%, he said.

When compared to the rest of the region, the Youngstown City Schools' gap closing rate showed a 23.2% gain, which far outpaced the region's 5.35% improvement, Garchar's metrics showed. Part of that was attributable to a reduction in chronic absenteeism and a growth in math.

Also, Youngstown Rayen Early College High School received five stars in progress, gap closing, graduation and CCWMR, as well as a four-star rating in achievement; Rayen Early College Middle School received three stars in achievement, four in progress and five in gap closing.

Chaney High had three stars in gap closing, CCWMR and graduation, along with four stars in progress; East High's rankings were three stars each in CCWMR and graduation, as well as four in progress.

Despite the higher ratings, efforts to improve early literacy and performance levels in Chaney and East middle schools are ongoing, Garchar said.

In general, the data indicates the importance of continuing positive student growth, improving graduation rates, maintaining high school momentum and high performance at YREC, he added.

"The goal is not simply to reach three stars. It is to understand what is driving improvement, sustain those gains and focus support where the data shows the greatest need," Garchar said.

Also of note was that Chaney High posted a 2.57 overall rating on this report card, which is down slightly from last year but significantly higher than two years ago, when the rating was under 2, he continued.

Other notable achievements were Choffin Career & Technical Center and YRECHS, both of which received five stars. Also, East High earned a three-star rating, far higher than when he became its principal years ago, Batchelor said.

During the session Tuesday, board member Joseph Meranto angrily questioned why, despite the state report card gains, Youngstown remains the sole district in the state under academic distress, even though other districts that scored lower than three stars are not.

Batchelor said that since the local district has hit state standards, such a negative designation "should be a thing of the past. We have the right people in the right seats doing the right job."

Along those lines, the superintendent added that he intends to continue working with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to glean answers to that problem and regarding future steps necessary to remove the district from academic distress. In addition, Batchelor was told that releasing the district from such a designation has to be tied to its academic improvement plan, which, he said, should not be the barometer used. Instead, the work school officials have done to bring about improvements should be the yardstick for removal, Batchelor added.

"We're going to keep pushing them to get the right decision," he said.