Moving from half-day to full-day pre-kindergarten programming, building up the communications department and improving students' literacy and math skills are all key parts of Akron Public Schools new strategic plan, unveiled by Superintendent C. Michael Robinson on Monday.
Robinson said there are four cornerstones of the "Blueprint for Excellence" plan that the district will focus on to support its "instructional core" and its approach to equity. They are: a culture of safety and belonging; academic achievement; operational excellence; and partnerships, family and community engagement.
Robinson said the strategic plan, developed over the last three months, intended to guide the district over the next five years, began with an assessment of where Akron is academically, also taking into consideration its "community demographics, culture, equity issues and district resources." The goal was to identify key strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for growth.
The plan, posted on Akron Public Schools' website, lists a number of concrete changes the district could seek:
- Adjust building schedules so that there is a dedicated time for "social-emotional learning, advisory, club, or non-academic/relational period(s)."
- Create new forums for students to have their voices heard.
- Create "small learning communities" inside Akron's College and Career Academies.
- Enhance staff and teacher training on many fronts, including: reading instruction, cultural competency, social-emotional learning and customer service training.
- Put in place new interventions to address problems like student chronic absences and students dropping out.
- Make the administration more efficient, which includes better tracking things like the use of physical assets and employee hours. There's also a recommendation to reduce the administration's overall budget by 4% in the next fiscal year. Robinson has already said the district will need to make about $15 million in cuts over the next two years.
- Invest in a new school-to-home communication system.
- Expand the district's communications office.
- Develop a "fully-funded communications and marketing plan" to try to recruit more students.
- Expand Akron's College and Career Academies model - where schools specialize in certain disciplines - to the elementary school level.
- Provide opportunities for students to boost their financial literacy.
However, Robinson did not identify how some of the bigger ticket items - like full-day kindergarten and expanding the communications office - could be funded.
Robinson said the livelihood of the city depends on the success of the school district in achieving is mission.
"Change is indeed a challenge," he noted. "We know that. And it takes commitment, it takes flexibility, it takes support, it takes understanding. But change can be big. It can, in our case, now allow for positive change to allow an entire community to be engaged in this process and in the success of our schools."
Robinson noted that he has set "lofty goals" for the district to strive toward. The strategic plan lists where students' performance is at on a number of fronts, and sets targets for the next year. For example, they hope to increase the percentage of students ready to enter kindergarten from 14% to 24%, the number of second-graders reading at grade level from 43% to 51% and the four-year graduation rate from 85% to 87%.
Robinson asked that the plan not be used as a "weapon" against the school district, with low scores on math and English a common theme in the stats listed in the plan.
"This is a tool to show our progress, but it is also to show where we fall short," he said, speaking directly to reporters. "I ask that you maintain balance if you report on these matters. Education across the United States of America lost momentum because of COVID. Perhaps if it were to happen again to come back, we would do things differently. But scholars nationally have felt the impact, and we must catch them up."
While the pandemic had a significant impact on students' performance, Ohio's major urban schools - and those across the country - have long struggled to catch up students who are among the most vulnerable in society, facing hunger, poverty and other challenges at home and in life. Robinson acknowledged those challenges, noting the stakes are high for the community.
"If we do not serve our scholars, families and community well, young people will leave Akron and maybe even Ohio, and they won't come back to what we call a 'desert city,'" Robinson said.
