Lorain Schools still waiting on benchmark approval from state

LORAIN — Lorain Schools is still awaiting final approval of its benchmarks to be relieved from state control, district officials said. At Monday's school board meeting Superintendent Jeff Graham said the district was under the impression its benchmarks to permanently dissolve its Academic Distress Commission had been approved by the state, but they have yet to receive approval in writing. That approval was due by July 1, but Graham suspected turmoil in the agency's leadership may have caused the delay. Former state Superintendent Paolo DeMaria stepped down last fall, leaving interim Stephanie Siddens at the helm. In May, the State Board of Education selected its vice president, Steve Dackin, but he resigned less than two weeks later and Siddens was reappointed as interim. East Cleveland and Youngstown Schools are in the "same boat" awaiting final approval, he said. "I'm not sure what changed, but we were under the impression we were good but we might not be under the specifics of the benchmarks," he said. Lorain Schools has through 2025 to reach its goals, with up to two extensions available, to be permanently returned to local control. If it fails to meet those goals in time, its Academic Distress Commission will be reinstated and the School Board will again be stripped of the majority of its power, and a CEO as defined by House Bill 70 will be reinstated. The Ohio Department of Education will review the district's plans and progress annually. The district's strategic plan — now in its second year — aligns with much of its bid to get out of state control. Benchmarks discussed at Monday's meeting awaiting state approval include improving the high school graduation rate and getting more kids on track to graduate. Its baseline graduate rate for the 2020-21 school year is 76.3 percent. The school's goal is to get it to 78.67 percent by June 2025. Modified graduation, which would weight students based on how long they've been with the district, stands at 82.37 percent, with a final goal of 84.13 percent. After discussions with ODE, students in kindergarten through ninth grade count for 100 percent of the weight, while kids who join Lorain Schools as sophomores, juniors or seniors do not count as much in the data. Part of getting kids across the stage means keeping them on track to graduate by completing core classes — which May admits the district has a lot of work to do. Currently, only 63.38 percent of kids are on track with their classes to receive a diploma with the cumulative credits they'd received as of last spring. The goal under the proposed benchmark is 67.04 percent by 2025. "Our core courses, we have an even heavier lift," May said. Only 46.8 percent of students in a graduation cohort are at grade level in their core subjects, he said. The proposed goal by 2025 is 51.52 percent. But outside of the hard data-driven student outcomes, Lorain Schools is focusing on its adults as well, Assistant Superintendent for School Improvement Ross May said. That includes diversifying its staff. Over two years, more than 18 percent of its new hires are Black, 6.3 Hispanic/Latino and 73.4 percent white. By comparison in 2020, more than 85 percent of its new hires were white, only 4.8 percent were Black and 4.9 percent were Hispanic/Latino. He said staff has taken a proactive recruiting approach to fill its roles with staff from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. Lorain Schools has also started to standardize the curriculum across its buildings, helping teachers collaborate between the different middle and elementary schools, and easing transitions for students who move between buildings throughout the school year. As for its arts expansion, the district is the only one in the state to have dance classes across all grades, May said, and has had positive feedback on added visual arts, music choir and drama classes. Its Project Lead the Way science and engineering program is also in full swing, he said, giving students hands-on experience in critical thinking, problem solving and engineering across grade levels. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.