CEO Eugene T.W. Sanders outlines
Cleveland Metropolitan School District Transformation Plan
by Joe Narkin

(Plain Press, March 2010) “We do not need any more committees, any more studies, any more efforts to define what is wrong with the educational system in the City of Cleveland,” said Cleveland Metropolitan School District Chief Executive Officer Dr. Eugene T.W. Sanders in presenting the Academic Transformation Plan, the newest reform strategy for the historically troubled Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), to over 100 concerned residents in attendance at the Safe16 Winter Safety Conference on February 2, 2010 at the West Side Community House.

“We are in a defining moment in CMSD history and bold and aggressive strategies are required to push overall educational objectives,” said Sanders. “Dramatic improvement must take place and take place now,” he said, adding that the Academic Transformation Plan represented “a dramatic step to position the district for dramatic growth.”

“The reality is, while we have some pockets of excellence, we are not meeting our overall annual academic objectives,” said Sanders. “The overall academic performance of the district is lacking,” he said, noting that 75% of schools in the district are in a state of academic emergency or academic watch according to the most recent report card issued by the Ohio Department of Education.

In the school district, there are 9 high schools and 68 elementary schools that are underperforming and have been rated as operating at a level of less than continuous academic improvement, according to the CMSD Academic Transformation Plan.

“Some students can spend their entire K-8 (kindergarten through 8th grade) years in schools that have not met academic standards even one time,” said Sanders. “In some cases, you actually have to leave your neighborhood to select a school that is in a state of academic improvement,” he said.

After a decade of steady gains, the most recent high school graduation rate in the district was 54%, down 8% from the 62% graduation rate of the year prior, according to Sanders. The low water mark for graduation rates in the district was 33.3% for the 1998-99 academic year.

The days in which the local manufacturing base provided jobs for high school drop-outs and allowed them to “lead a pretty good life are gone to a large extent,” said Sanders. Due to technological advancements and a competitive global business environment, “post-secondary (school) training is necessary for students to be competitive with other workers,” he said.

Manufacturing jobs have declined 37% in the Great Lakes region during the decade leading up to 2006, according to U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. The decline nationwide for the same period was at 22%.

“The context of what we are seeing is crippling” and “over one-half of our student population is being relegated to a life that is substandard,” said Sanders. “Education is the most important product that our community produces and we must embrace the challenges that lie ahead,” he said.

“We must aggressively turn chronically underperforming schools around” and the goals of the CMSD Academic Transformation Plan are intentionally ambitious, said Sanders. By the 2014-15 school year, the plan calls for every schools in the district to be rated at the level of continuous improvement or above, with 50% of schools rated as effective or excellent on the Ohio Report Card.

“There is no school that has been excused or unexamined within our transformation plan” and “the plan is very data driven and backed up by data,” said CEO Sanders.

And, according to Sanders, the data indicates that there are too many school buildings and too many teachers in the district based upon the school population, and too many schools and too many teachers are not performing at acceptable standards.

CMSD must eliminate $52 million in costs by July 2010 in order to achieve a balanced budget. The transformation plan is projected to cost $20-$25 million per year to implement.

Due to population loss in the City of Cleveland and the creation of “other forms of educational delivery systems such as charter schools, CMSD has lost over 20,000 students in a ten-year period, but we have not reduced the number of facilities serving the student population,” said Sanders.

The transformation plan calls for eliminating excess facility capacity by closing or merging 18 schools based upon population statistics, facility condition, and environmental health factors, while still maintaining adequate school choice and neighborhood-based schools for students and their families.

The plan also calls for high schools to be reconfigured by “breaking down struggling comprehensive high schools into proven academies serving 400-600 students.” East High School is scheduled for closure under the plan. At East High, the average daily attendance is 450 students in a school with a capacity for 1,500 students and the graduation rate is at 52%, according to Sanders.

CMSD hopes to be able to announce new school assignments by early spring for students and families affected by school closings and mergers.

Additionally, “we have not reduced our faculty stock to correlate to the population change” and, “in collaboration with the Cleveland Teacher’s Union, we must find a way to hold everybody accountable for their performance,” said Sanders.

“I believe in teachers and their core mission, but the adults have to find a way to get along in the best interests of students,” said CEO Sanders. “But I also believe in results and data,” he said, adding, “It is possible for schools to get along, but to have 75% of schools in academic emergency.”

Recognizing that previous plans for reforming the Cleveland School District have come and gone without producing appreciable results, Sanders pledged to “embrace the significant challenges ahead” and to find a way to commit the financial and staff resources necessary for the transformation plan to be successful. “Two of the main reasons that plans do not work is that they do not identify (specifically assigned) staff who are accountable for progress and that the administration does not see itself as a part of the plan.”

“The community and schools go hand in hand; what occurs in the community comes in to the schools and what comes into the schools comes into the community,” said Jay Westbrook, Ward 16 councilperson, in a statement of recognition that the future of the City of Cleveland is dependant upon the success of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

News & Articles | Archives