by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press January 2024) The December 12^th Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD0 Board of Education meeting held at the Cleveland School of the Arts in the University Circle neighborhood was a study in contrasts. The meeting was a report by Principal Michelle Perez on the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine; a public comment by a parent concerned about conditions at Garfield Elementary School; and featured reports by CMSD Chief Executive Officer Dr. Warren Morgan on the entire school district’s academic programs and goals.

Cleveland School of Science and Medicine

   Principal Michelle Perez of the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine shared some of the history and goals of the school, and some of the success stories of school graduates. Principal Perez said the school opened in 2006 in response to a need seen in the community “to better prepare students for the many opportunities we have in Northeast Ohio in the fields of medicine and science, particularly medicine.”

   Perez said some community folks came together to create a school that can prepare students for something like the rigor of becoming a doctor. She said that is how the school was born. The community members formed a Board of Directors and hired a principal. Perez, the school’s second principal, says the Board of Directors of the school meets quarterly. The Board of Directors developed a vision statement, mission statement, and statement of values.

   The school’s mission is to prepare “students for success in postsecondary education and careers in science, medicine and related fields.” Its values include offering students “an intellectually demanding school culture; innovative teaching methods delivered by highly engaged, quality faculty; direct exposure to Northeast Ohio’s world-class medical infrastructure;  experiences and mentoring with staff and professionals from northeast Ohio’s Science and medicine-based institutions and corporations; experiential learning that connects students to a broad array of future careers; pathways to post-secondary opportunities in Science and Medicine; and an inclusive, respectful and supportive environment in which students learn how to become responsible contributors to their community.”

   Perez then noted some of the accomplished alumni of the school with some success stories. She told the story of Nichelle Ruffin, a 2011 graduate of the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, who in 2020 became the first African American student to graduate from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Medical School in 30 years. She went on to do her residency at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2022 she became the first female Chief of Residency at the University of Pennsylvania and is now serving on the faculty there, said Perez.

   Perez said that is only one success story. Perez said the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine has had three additional alumni graduate from CWRU Medical School and has seven more in the pipeline to become doctors. She noted scholarships awarded to students to attend CWRU and its Medical School.

   Perez says the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine (CSSM) generally has about 400 students. She said the school’s rigorous curriculum is not for all students and the school does lose some students whom they help to find placements for in other schools. Perez noted the school’s curriculum, other than a few electives, consists of Advanced Placement courses.

   Like all the schools at the John Hay Campus, Perez said CSSM uses entrance criterion when admitting students to the school. The students selected for the school are already performing above average academically. Test scores for CSSM shown by Perez, show that the students continue to perform well. The school’s proficiency scores are higher than both the CMSD and State of Ohio averages in all academic subjects.

   Perez’s report listed some of the educational partners of the CSSM which include RPM International, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Jones Day, Cleveland Surgical Society, The Joan Edwards Charitable Foundation, Say Yes to Education Cleveland, College Now of Greater Cleveland, Minds Matter, Minds Matter, Kenyon College, Kent State University, and Renaissance Behavioral Health.

Garfield Elementary School

   Elizabeth England, parent of three CMSD scholars, spoke during the public comment period. She said she came to the Board of Education to describe the chaos at Garfield Elementary School (3800 W. 140^th Street) that she has been witness to over the past five years. Here is what she had to say:

   The building oozes disorganization. It follows that the atmosphere in the school is tense, and violence is frequent.

   I stood in the main office as the assistant principal screamed at a child for eating Cheetos in the hall, telling him that kids like him are the reason why they have rats in the school.

   I listened as my children told me about the four fights that they witnessed that week at Garfield.

   I called the office for the campus coordinator to tell me he meant to call when my kids were victims of violence during the school day.

   Humiliation, silent lunches, and group punishments are common at Garfield.

   Topping it all off, my children have been targets of bullying by members of the staff.

   While a disorganized building, packed with students, is part of the problem; there is also a severe shortage of staff.

   Enrolling more and more students without assuring the building is fully staffed is irresponsible.

   In October, I learned that my children were not receiving instruction in math, science, or social studies.

   After receiving no help from the principal on these issues, I reached out to the network leader to see if something could be done to get things back on track at Garfield.

   I attended several meetings. I sent more than a dozen emails. I called the CEO’s Office again, and nothing has been done.

   Nothing has been done to rectify the months without instruction. These students need your help. To date, the math and social studies positions are still vacant.

   On December 1^st, Mr. Bosley (Principal Jacob Bosley) merged three seventh grade sections into two homerooms and demanded that teachers take on classrooms packed with thirty-eight to forty students.

   In the case of my children’s class, the teachers are expected to deliver differentiated honors instruction and standard instruction simultaneously.

   This situation is untenable for both staff and students.

   Since much of the communication about our district is focused on numbers — like enrollment, graduation rates and test scores, I have a few more for you.

   Seventy- eight. There are 78 seventh graders at Garfield. Seventy-eight scholars are being denied an education at Garfield School.

   Zero. Zero is the number of times parents and families were contacted by school leadership about the lack of instruction in these core subjects.

   I ask you, ‘What is the number of students who should be denied an education in our district? Who is going to help them?’

   These are our kids, our schools, our communities, and our responsibility.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Warren Morgan’s report

   In his report to the Board of Education and the community CMSD Chief Executive Officer Dr. Warren Morgan presented five-year goals for college and career measures, achievement measures, culture and climate measures and equity measures.

   Dr. Morgan’s five-year targets in the category of college and career measures includes having 90% of CMSD high school graduates enrolled in college, employed, or enlisted in the military. To meet this goal, Dr. Morgan says the district will have to build up the infrastructure to track what happens to its graduates. Some of the leading indicators to track how students are preparing for their post-graduation lives include the number of students filling out Say Yes to Education applications and college applications. Dr. Morgan says the school district has a long way to go to meet the 90% goal. The data from the State of Ohio lags by two years, he said, noting the latest data CMSD has for its graduates’ performance is from the 2020-2021 school year. Data from that school year shows 39% of students enrolled in college. So far this year, Dr. Morgan says that 52% of high school seniors have completed Say Yes College Scholarship applications and 31% of high school seniors have applied to a college.

   Another goal in this category is to have 90% of high school students graduate within four or five years of when they started high school. Dr. Morgan says while the school system measures its graduation rates, it doesn’t currently have a system in place to measure if for example freshmen and sophomores are on track in getting the credits they need to graduate.

   The CMSD targets outlined by Dr. Morgan for achievement address both kindergarten to grade 8, and high school achievement. The five-year goal for kindergarten to grade 8 (K-8) achievement calls for having 65% of the scholars in the district’s K-8 schools achieve proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. Dr. Morgan says some schools are above that and some schools are below the 65% goal. He says the school district has a long way to go to achieve this goal as the average proficiency rate for K-8 schools is currently in the 30% range or slightly below.

   As part of its tracking of student achievement Dr. Morgan says CMSD will be looking at measures of student academic progress based on NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests taken each Fall and Winter. Dr. Morgan says these tests are about 80% accurate in predicting student performance of the State of Ohio Standardized tests. Currently K-8 CMSD students are predicted to be at 32% proficiency in English Language Arts and 21% proficiency in Math. Dr. Morgan says the district has a long way to go to reach its five-year goal for its K-8 student population of 65% proficiency in both English Language Arts and Math.

   Dr. Morgan said CMSD is also tracking how students perform by different subgroups, this includes racial categories as well as categories such as English Language Learners and Special Education students. The categories show white students with higher average test scores that black and Hispanic students. It also shows a decline in the test scores of English Language Learners over the past school year. Dr. Morgan promised attention to increasing expectations for performance of all students to help diminish these lags and gaps in student performance.

   The CMSD five-year goal for high school students is to have 55% of students achieve proficiency in English Language Arts and Math. Dr. Morgan noted a problem for the school district in measuring achievement for its high school students is the large percentage of students that do not take the test. He said that the state automatically puts those students in the lowest category. Thus, regardless of how the students might have scored, Dr. Morgan says that untested students being placed in the lowest category drags down CMSD’s overall proficiency scores. Dr. Morgan’s goal is to get a higher percentage of high school students to take the predictive tests early in the school year so teachers can know where students are academically, and the school district can have a better idea of how it is performing.

   Test scores on the high school level also show gaps between racial and ethnic subgroups as well as a decline in scores of the English Language Learners from their scores in previous school years. The test scores for all student groups are far below the five-year goal of 55% proficiency set by Dr. Morgan for high school students.

   In his report Dr. Morgan also addressed attendance and chronic absenteeism. He said while the district has not yet set a goal in this category, he wishes to let the Board of Education and public know what the current statistics show. Dr. Morgan says that attendance rates show how many days school district students attend school as compared to how many days they should be in school. While this gives a picture of overall attendance, it does not show whether the absenteeism is among a small group of students or a large group of students. That is why, he said, it is necessary to look at chronic absenteeism.

   Dr. Morgan noted that students that are absent for less days generally perform better on the standardized tests than students that are chronically absent. While the current attendance rate is at 85%, the chronic absentee rate (students who miss 10% or more of the school days) is at 46%.

   CEO Dr. Morgan said CMSD will also be measuring the culture and climate in its schools. The district will be tracking the number of its scholars reporting social and emotional wellness, and the number of serious safety incidents reported in schools.

    Equity measures will also be tracked by CMSD. This includes looking at proportionality of discipline rates by race and other subgroups as well as such as the percentage of English Language Learners achieving proficiency goals.

   He said discipline rates are up this year, he said that is not a good thing. Last year there were 8,500 suspensions. This year the district is on pace to be higher than last year.

   Looking at rates of discipline for different subgroups, Dr. Morgan noted that black students and special education students are being suspended at rates that are disproportionate to the percentage of the overall student enrollment that they represent. While black students represent 64% of the student population, 79.2% of students suspended were black. Special Education students represent 23.4% of the student population, but 35.8% of the suspensions involved Special Education students.

   Dr. Morgan also shared data on the school district’s enrollment. CMSD currently has an enrollment of 35,122 students for the 2023-2024 school year. This is up slightly from last school year’s enrollment of 34,928 students.

   According to Dr. Morgan’s report, the school district experienced growth in the number of Hispanic students from 6,264 students last school year to 6,610 students this year. While there is some overlap, CMSD also experienced growth in the number of English Language Learners going from 3,838 students last year to 4,348 students this school year.

   Dr. Morgan’s report indicates that the number of black, non-Hispanic students declined from 22,208 students last year to 22,125 students this year. The number of white, non-Hispanic students also declined from 4,814 last year to 4,697 this year. The number of students with disabilities also declined from 8,629 last school year to 8,218 this school year.

   School Board members offered suggestions on how to improve the data presentation and raised concern about how goals such as the goal of 90% postgraduate placement was compatible with the goal of only 55% proficiency in core subjects.