State review looks at Lorain Promise, district procedures under previous CEO

Almost nine months since initial interviews, the state released its review of Lorain Schools, noting metric shortfalls of the Lorain Promise. Reviewers from the Ohio Department of Education visited the district in late April 2019, speaking with administrators, teachers and community members. The district has been reviewed by the state every year since 2014 as part of its Academic Recovery Plan, except for 2018 when former CEO David Hardy Jr. declined to have the state come in. The latest review dissects the Lorain Promise, the district's strategic plan through 2022 developed by The New Teacher Project under Hardy. Of the multitude of goals and commitments the document identifies for the district, none are considered complete by the state review and two are not yet started. But for several commitment sections, the review notes the plan lacks measurable goals, metrics or data points to track how close Lorain is to meeting the 2022 benchmarks. For example, Strategy No. 2 is to strengthen K-2 literacy and numeracy instruction. The review notes the district implements a response-to-intervention framework to help students not on track to meet third-grade reading or other academic benchmarks, but that it is not used in all of the buildings. Additionally, the schools collect data on K-2 literacy and math from the state report card and additional assessments given four times a year. Results are displayed as part of the "excellent schools dashboard," but the district does not have any plans with "clearly defined action steps, strategies and professional development" to help move students on track by third grade. The Lorain Promise includes curbing misbehavior, but again lacks a plan for developing good behavior in its students and adults. Lorain Education Association President Jay Pickering said the review isn't necessarily a glowing one. "Just in general, as you look through this whole thing, it's not a very good review of what the CEO has done," Pickering said. Equity A key point in the district's documents is equity — raising student achievement across the board and closing gaps between students based on race, socioeconomic status and disability. The state review found the commitment was "in progress" but Lorain Schools gave little support to staff and did not have any measurable steps to track its progress. "The district has not provided professional development focused on equity since the Lorain Promise was introduced," the report states. While it made strides in introducing students to its career technical programs starting in eighth grade, it has "no career program at the middle school" and did not provide reviewers with evidence of plans for at-risk students. The district also missed some marks for students with disabilities. The report states the district shifted its focus from co-teaching to improving overall instruction in spring 2018, but later notes the Lorain Way, a supplement to the strategic plan, states intervention specialists can "expect a higher emphasis on co-teaching. Co-teaching places some students with disabilities in general classrooms, pairing the regular teacher with an intervention specialist or aide to help teach the students with greater needs. There was reportedly no emphasis on co-teaching during the 2018-19 school year, and "the district does not provide adequate professional learning opportunities and coaching on serving students with disabilities in least restrictive environments. The district has not provided inclusive training for staff since 2016, according to the report. "It was poorly implemented and these people made it even worse," Pickering said of the previous CEO. The district has not started working toward culturally relevant leadership or teaching practices. Culturally relevant education includes promoting inclusivity of historically marginalized students. According to the report, the district has not defined what "culturally relevant leadership" is, nor provided professional development on teaching practices. Additionally, the Lorain Promise pledged to bring student's voices in on district decisions. Lorain has not done so, according to the review. Beyond the Lorain Promise, the review marks whether the district has lived up to the state's additional standards, the majority of which overlap with the strategic plan, except for fiscal management. Under that measure, the district has not created a capital plan committee to outline its needs for the next five years — including textbooks, equipment and maintenance. At press time, the Ohio Department of Education had not provided a reason for why the review was delayed. Three other districts were reviewed in 2019: Euclid, Ashtabula and Youngstown. From Euclid and Ashtabula's interviews to report publication was roughly three months and Youngstown's was about six months. Chief of Schools LaKimbre Brown did not respond to emails about the report. CEO Greg Ring declined to comment on the review as he was not working in the district when it took place. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com. Follow her on Twitter @CWoytach.