Lorain test results lead to next step

Districts to make change after 5 years of academic distress

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Graham eats lunch with teachers at each of 15 buildings once a quarter in the Lorain City School District.

But he says that has nothing to do with a looming state takeover because the district failed to meet necessary education achievement benchmarks to be declassified as a district in academic distress.

Rather, Graham views the lunches as a way to build relationships and glean ideas.

“It’s something I’ve always done to get acquainted with teachers and hear from them first hand,” Graham said. “We’ve learned a lot from these meetings.”

Next month, Graham is scheduled to meet with Paolo DeMaria, superintendent of public instruction at Ohio Department of Education regarding

the appointment of a new fivemember Lorain Academic Distress Commission, who will appoint a chief executive officer to oversee the district rather than a superintendent.

At the end of this school year, the district will have been under academic distress for five years. Graham says he believes turning around academic achievement can be done.

“The path we’re on is a solid one,” he said. “At the end of the day, we will continue to follow the plan. We’re going to continue to focus on students.”

The Lorain Academic Distress Commission is chaired by Dr. William Zelei, a former superintendent for 15 years in an urban district and a former associate superintendent at the Ohio Department of Education.

Zelei does not know if new members have been selected for the Lorain Academic Distress Commission, or if a timeline for the next steps in the state takeover has been established.

DeMaria, who was appointed in May by the Ohio Board of Education, was not immediately available for comment.

State standardized tests

Not only have state standardized tests changed vendors in each of the last three years, but the test results have focused on different data, making it difficult for citizens to compare results..

For example, the Third Grade Reading Guarantee focused on reading in previous years, but now compares reading and writing, Graham said. And the grade only looks at the number of students who were not on track at the beginning of the year who moved to on track, or better, by the end of the year.

“This year ,the test is more rigorous and the expectations

are higher,” he said. “I tell people it’s like last year, saying you had to run three miles in 22 minutes and this year, it’s four miles in 20 minutes. It’s a harder test with higher expectations.”

At a Sept. 19 meeting, school board members decried students’ entering the district two or three grade levels behind. The district must compensate quickly.

Zelei said the state did not intentionally set the district up for failure with three new tests in three years.

“I think that under the current circumstance – which is very difficult and it probably feels very unfair – I don’t think anyone anticipated we would have three tests in three years,” he said. “Statewide, most schools did less well than they had previously. It’s because of state law that the next level of academic distress is implemented.

“The whole issue of three tests in three years and the difficulties that arose, is the reason why there has been an attempt to get relief from the law. No one anticipated we would have three tests in three years.”

Initiatives for improvement

The Lorain district intends to add to initiatives that seem to be improving educational outcomes.

Considered a “silver bullet of education” by some local educators, preschool is planned to grow at Lorain City Schools in numbers of students and buildings this year, Graham said, adding the details are not available yet.

And when students transfer into the district, their education is tailored to their needs, he said.

Rather than looking for a key to unlock achievement, the district focuses on sustainable growth.

“What is common is we get impatient with our current plan,” Graham said. “There are no quick fixes. Things take

time to change. Legislators supported this for a reason.

“They believed adding pressure would cause things to improve. And we are improving. The theory is adding a CEO provides more pressure.”

With the changes in the state tests rendering year-to-year comparisons impossible, say other area superintendents and district officials, the Lorain district maintained use of Northwest Evaluation Association system of Measures of Academic Progress tests for kindergarten through third grade, and ProCore Benchmark Assessments for grades four through 12.

According to district benchmark assessment results from fall 2015 through spring 2016, the district achieved average growth for the last school year, a report related to Lorain School Board.

“The NWEA and ProCore can measure from year to year,” Graham said, “which is why we chose to stick with that data, because it’s constant.”

Information needed to inform classroom instruction flows from the tests to administrators, to teacher based teams, to the classrooms, to the teams and then to administrators, continually, Graham said.

Though Raul Ramos, a member of the academic distress commission, asked at the last meeting if the commission served voluntarily for three years for nothing, Zelei said he feels mixed emotions about appointment of a replacement Lorain Academic Distress Commission.

“I’m happy that I had the opportunity to serve,” Zelei said. “And I’m proud of the work we’ve done on behalf of kids. Am I happy about the outcome? I don’t think so.

“What would make me happy is if we were leaving and the district were no longer in academic distress. If someone else takes my place on the commission in six months — while I would be pleased we made some improvements

— I wouldn’t say happy would be the emotions I would be feeling.”

Zelei began the assignment with hope.

“I did anticipate that it would take a number of years to reverse the academics that had existed in the district,” he said. “Obviously, they didn’t get there in a couple of years. I was fairly confident we couldn’t do it in less than three years. I dedicated 13 years as a superintendent in a diverse school district helping kids be successful.

“While here, we have had some success, I can’t say as a superintendent, ‘Yeah, we are where we need to be.’

“While it feels really bad and we can all look at the glass as being really empty, I think that there are opportunities for us to continue the good work (Graham) and his crew are doing.”

Test scores do not reflect what the commission hoped to see, Zelei said, but Graham placed strong social supports in place, as well as reaching out to build relationships in the community.

“So, they need to increase what they’re doing for kids, so they can be academically successful,” Zelei said.

While Graham prepares for a face-to-face meeting with DeMaria next month, he said he also does not know a timeline of changes regarding the Lorain Academic Distress Commission.

“There will be a new commission,” he said. “At least it won’t be the same five people.”

The district would like to be added to the same timeline as the rest of the districts in the state because of the test changes, Graham said.

“We will continue,” he said. “We have a solid plan. We will continue to focus on our children and the families we serve.

“There will be some things we have no control over. We are going to continue to work hard on the things we do have control over.”