CH-UH superintendent delivers 2010 State of the Schools address
Douglas Heuer, superitendent of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, delivered the State of the Schools Address on Thursday, Feb. 4, at Cleveland Heights High School.
He made the following major points in his speech:
- CH-UH teachers and staff are working hard to improve academic achievement. This work includes enhancing teacher effectiveness and instruction, as well as increasing instructional time.
- The district needs to reshape its infrastructure in order to truly meet the needs of a 21st-century education.
- The cities of Cleveland Heights, University Heights and South Euclid need to partner with the district so it can improve community outreach and continue to attract and retain good students and families.
2010 State of the Schools Address:
Thank you Jim Posh, and the PTA, for hosting this annual State of the Schools address.
And thank you very much to the Heights High Barbershoppers. It’s no wonder you were chosen as one of only three high school groups to perform at this year’s Ohio Music Education Association Convention in Cincinnati. You’re truly remarkable.
I’d also like to thank and acknowledge those board members and officials who were able to join us tonight.
Lastly, I’d like to express my gratitude to all of you for attending this event. The dedication and commitment shown by this community to our schools is never less than amazing, and as someone with a lot of experience in districts across the state, I can tell you that this is a very special place because of you.
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It is with great pride that I stand here as the superintendent of the Cleveland Heights–University Heights City School District. I have now been in this position for a little more than six months and I can tell you that every day here is an education and an honor.
I’ve learned a great deal already, about this community, about our students, and about the challenges we can and must overcome.
I know, and see everyday, that there is much more for me to learn, but I can tell you, after just six amazing months in this community, that the state of our schools is strong and getting stronger every day.
Make no mistake, we face huge hurdles, some common to similar districts, some unique to us. But the day-in, day-out work being done by our students, teachers and staff members is constantly moving us in the right direction.
This State of the Schools address allows me to share our story, and tell you exactly how we are progressing, what we hope to accomplish in the future, and how we are going to go about achieving our goals.
We are all here tonight for the same reason. We’re here because we are all interested in the most important issue facing our community...the future growth and success of our students, all of them.
That is a greater and greater challenge every year, but it is one we are committed to meeting.
The fact is that many of our students are among the highest-excelling students in the region. They take the most challenging courses, have the engaged support of their parents, and realistically apply to some of the most selective colleges in the country.
But also true is the fact that more and more of our students are among the most challenged students in the region. Their desire for learning and accomplishment is no less real, but they face social, economic, familial, and educational deficits that make every day an uphill battle.
As the economy continues its slow recovery, we have a large and growing number of students on free and reduced lunch. We have more students entering our high school who will be the first in their families to attend college.
We recognize our students come from a variety of experiences and backgrounds, and far too often, aren’t getting the support they need outside of school.
The social and emotional needs of students can be staggering at times. And sometimes there are behavioral issues as well.
When there are, we seek ways to help our children cope and also to identify and assist when students’ behavior interferes with learning.
Every one of our students deserves the chance to succeed to the best of his or her natural abilities, regardless of the challenges they pose to an educator.
I mention all this so that we all remember that there are many worlds within our schools, and the reality faced by many of our students may be very very different than the ones we faced as children. We have an obligation–all of us –to support every student in our schools and help them find their best path in life.
Our teachers and staff members are committed to doing exactly that, and the results show that they are meeting the challenge. The hard work is paying off, and people around the state and country are taking notice.
In a recent independent Teacher Quality Study in Ohio, submitted by the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights (CCCR), our district was cited for our success at serving and educating our student population, a majority of which is African American and economically disadvantaged.
This is just more proof of what we already know; that we have high teacher quality and student achievement.
Our buildings are full of top notch teachers.
Teachers such as Natalie Wester, a third grade teacher at Gearity Professional Development School in University Heights, who is the 2010 Ohio Teacher of the Year. Congratulations once again Natalie.
Although our 2008-2009 District rating remains in Continuous Improvement, three schools-Roxboro and Canterbury elementary schools and Cleveland Heights High School-were rated Effective.
It is clear that while there is improvement in many areas, there are also several causes for concern on which we are focusing a great deal of our attention.
Specifically, we are disappointed in the results from Boulevard Elementary and Monticello Middle Schools, both of which were rated in Academic Watch, and Wiley Middle School, which was rated in Academic Emergency.
Wiley Middle actually performed similarly to last year, but because it has not shown enough individual improvement among students, it was lowered one rating level.
Why do some schools thrive while others struggle? That’s a question that many in this district and around the country are trying to answer. Here in CH-UH, we all know about the socio-economic challenges I spoke of earlier. But there are other factors that compound those already-massive obstacles.
For instance, our district has the fourth highest transient population in the area, so we are consistently faced with challenges posed by students who haven’t had the background and diligence instilled by continuous contact with our teachers.
While this is a difficult issue that we face every day, it also provides a ray of hope. Because the longer a student is in our district, the better he or she performs. After three years in our district, that student usually performs up to 20 percent better.
Heights High School remains a bright spot for our district.
Looking back, in 2002, the high school was rated in Academic Watch by the Ohio Department of Education.
By 2006, the high school moved to an Effective Rating, with a performance index rating of 96.4.
And on this latest state report card, the performance index rating bumped up to 96.7.
Our high school is only 3.3 points away from an Excellent designation, I expect it to get there very soon.
The graduation rate and attendance rate remain very high (both above 90 percent) and 13 students at Heights High were recognized by the National Merit and National Achievement Scholarship programs.
In the last few years, since the implementation of the Small Schools initiative, Heights High School has seen an 18 percent increase in student performance.
Most impressively, the students at Heights aren’t just getting by; they are thriving.
Nearly 50 percent of our 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students are performing at an Advanced or Accelerated level in reading and math on the Ohio Graduation Test.
I repeat, almost one out of two of our 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students are performing at an advanced or accelerated level.
80 percent of CHHS students are successful in college compared to a national average of 45 percent.
While the socioeconomic challenges and transience of our population are real, we remain committed to working to overcome these issues.
Our realization now is that improvement will likely not be as rapid as we would like, but will rather produce gains on the timeframe similar programs have shown in other districts.
While we have an overall plan for raising district achievement, Boulevard, Monticello and Wiley each have a targeted plan, designed specifically for their students and teachers, in order to raise their achievement.
Further, there are some issues which a school district cannot control, but which we must deal with nevertheless.
Test scores for students with serious disabilities are one such area.
In our district, the tests from more than 2 percent of our total student population were not counted in the state calculation and were instead treated as failures.
That’s because federal guidelines only allow districts to designate 1 percent of their students as significantly disabled, regardless of the actual number.
Anything above 1 percent is counted as a failed test. As you can imagine, this depresses our rating and scores, but we remain committed to doing the right thing for each student no matter what.
We remain convinced that this district is moving in the right direction and that we will continue to see steady, measured improvement in the years to come.
One way we plan on improving academic achievement is by increasing instructional time.
A study of sixteen area school districts shows that our elementary schools have the least amount of instructional time.
Currently, a committee of administrators and teachers is working on a plan that will not only increase instructional time, but will be scheduled to make that additional teacher/student time most impactful.
The plan will be presented to the CH-UH Board of Education in April for adoption next school year.
For the Middle Schools, we are finding more time for targeted remediation and enrichment, specifically in math and English.
The High School day is going to be expanded from its current seven full periods with an optional 35 minute help, to a full eight periods.
Within the eight-period day, 9th and 10th graders in need of additional academic support will receive 50 minutes of scheduled academic assistance by their teachers.
11th and 12th graders will have opportunities to take additional courses or receive scheduled academic assistance.
These measures will take effect for the next school year.
As you can see, we are constantly seeking new ways to enhance our educational quality, and the educational experience of our students.
For those of you who struggle to make ends meet so you can live here, and send your children to our schools, we are working hard to serve your children.
Yes, it’s true; there are a significant number of children in this district who are attending private and parochial schools. It is clear from census data and school enrollment records that this has been characteristic of the district for four decades or longer.
Now we are working to figure out why, and learn what perceptions are out there impacting parent decision-making, so we can do a better job with community outreach.
But our major work has been on high quality instruction in the classroom.
We are implementing the proven Harvard Instructional Rounds model to improve teacher effectiveness.
Like doctors, our teachers learn from each other and work to improve their practice.
We know from much research (and intuitively as parents) that if a student trusts a teacher and feels that the teacher knows and likes them, that student or child will be more open to learning.
Because of these teacher/student connections and specific teaching practices –and our intervention and enrichment programs, we are already seeing great student improvement.
CH-UH is committed to innovation and good teaching, and because of that, we believe we are right in line with the Federal government’s Race To the Top education reform plan.
Race To the Top is an attempt to implement research-based improvement strategies on a large scale; state legislatures have changed laws to meet these strategies, and common national standards are being developed.
We are not digging in our heels and saying no to this reform. In fact, this is what our administrators and teachers have been collaboratively working on already.
Race To the Top will enhance many of our improvement efforts, rather than forcing the district to implement a new direction, and in the end, our district could possibly be awarded more than 1-million dollars for our work.
We are also seeking partners to apply for a Federal Innovation Grant which could result in up to $30 million in funding.
This grant will provide the resources to establish a district wide Wi-Fi network that will have the capacity to provide educational programs and support 24-7 learning for every student we serve.
Additionally, we are in the process of establishing partnerships with organizations like the Music Settlement, the Cleveland Clinic and Cuyahoga Community College to provide extended programs and services not just to our students, but the entire community.
We are also thinking and working globally for our students and it’s paying off.
We have already initiated and will continue to grow a magnet Mandarin Chinese language program at the Roxboro Elementary and Roxboro Middle School Campus.
Heights High students will soon be able to take Business Chinese, a new course that focuses on Chinese and American economic principles.
The Mandarin Chinese program is a partnership between the district, the Confucius Institute of Cleveland State, and Capitol University of Beijing.
CH-UH schools can compete with the best anywhere; in academics surely, but also in drama, music, art, and athletic competition.
Think about the recent production of the "King and I."
About 550 students from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district made up the two casts for the four performances.
High school, middle, and elementary students participated. They served as great ambassadors for out district and blew our communities away with their phenomenal performances.
On the athletic side,
· Our boy’s basketball team won the LEL championship
· Our baseball and softball teams both won the LEL championship
· 4 coaches were named Coach of the Year in boy’s basketball, baseball, softball and ice hockey
· 21 senior student-athletes accepted athletic scholarships last winter and spring to colleges to continue their academic and athletic careers, and nine more signed national letters of intent yesterday.
· Our ice hockey team is currently in a tie for first place in the conference this season
· Our girl’s basketball team is in a tie for first place in the conference
· And Monticello Middle School won the LEL girl’s basketball championship
Those are just a few of the highlights!
Academically, just think about the $ 8.5 million in college scholarship offers to the class of 2009.
Or the fact that the average number of Advanced Placement courses in U.S. schools is eight, while there are 16 offered at Heights High.
As we seek partnerships and new initiatives to improve academic programming, its worth recognizing that, regardless of how good our programming is, our school facilities are compromising the quality of our academic programs.
Many, possibly most, of our classrooms don’t meet today’s basic state standards for a classroom environment. They lack necessary space, technological supports, laboratory facilities, and basic environmental controls.
Our buildings simply weren’t built for the demands of a 21st-century education, and that is becoming more and more apparent every year. Moreover, they are inefficient and are costing far too much to maintain.
The district is partnering with the Ohio School Facilities Commission to conduct a comprehensive audit of the educational capacity of all school buildings in the district.
The audit, which will be completed by March, will serve as the cornerstone for the formulation of a 10-year facilities plan for the district.
With community support, this plan will ultimately result in the reshaping of the district infrastructure in order to truly meet the needs of a 21st-century education.
Even with facility limitations we are clearly ahead of the curve on technology and programming and we’re getting national recognition for our innovative work.
The Cleveland Heights–University Heights City School District was recently recognized as a model for providing students with 21st-century skills.
The Hanover Research Council in Washington, D.C. released a report profiling CH-UH as one of 15 public school districts from across the country and two independent high schools in Ohio, all identified as providing students with 21st-century skills.
CH-UH and the other districts stood out for their traditionally high graduation rates, assessment scores, and attendance rates.
Specifically, CH-UH was selected as a district that shows how an improving school system can use 21st-century skills to boost its performance.
The Hanover Report highlighted some of the district’s programs that exemplified 21st-century learning…
Including our One-to-One Teaching and Learning with Technology initiative and Infinite Campus.
For us to truly achieve our vision of PASSAGE, preparing all students for success in a global economy, instruction must be grounded in rigor, relevance, and relationships tied to 21st-century skills.
When teachers understand how to effectively use digital tools, within a wireless environment, and receive support, guidance, and help in evolving their instructional practice, all students’ learning will significantly increase.
Each one of our middle school teachers and all of our 1,500 middle school students received a new Apple laptop this school year.
In the Spring, all of our high school teachers will be given their own laptop, and sometime in the first semester of the next school year, all of our high school students will receive their laptops.
We are using technology to improve our communications with parents.
Recently we opened up Infinite Campus, the district’s official and electronic grade book to parents.
Through its Internet connection it allows teachers, and parents, to better and more regularly monitor student performance.
Parents now have immediate access, to grades, assignments, and attendance records.
As we are seeking new ways to find additional dollars, we are also finding more ways to save dollars. Much of the credit for that goes to our exceptional CFO and Treasurer Scott Gainer. I’ve worked all over the state, and I can tell you that Scott is the envy of districts throughout Ohio. We’re very lucky to have him.
He’s ensured that our finances are sound and transparent and helped as we’ve cut more than 3-million dollars from the 2009-2010 operating budget.
We not only reached our goal of $2.4 million in cuts, but also managed to cut about another $1 million from the budget. That was accomplished by reducing budgets across the board and eliminating two vacant positions.
The board’s intention has been to return to the ballot no earlier than November 2010 with a levy of 7 mills or less.
Keep in mind, there are at least 12 districts nearby going on the ballot in May and some of them exceed 10 mills. Our neighbor, Shaker Heights, is asking for 9.9 mills, and we face many similar challenges.
However, we won’t have to go on the ballot in May, and when we do, our operating request will be as low as we can make it!
Because of our aggressive budget reductions early in the levy cycle and on-going cost savings measures, there is a possibility of delaying the levy until 2011.
We will do everything we can to stretch our last levy as far as we can. But the uncertain revenue landscape prevents us from knowing for certain yet whether we will need an operating levy in November of this year or whether we can wait until next year.
There are over 2,000 empty homes in the communities we serve. Those are local tax dollars we are not receiving. And as property values decrease, so does our school support.
Every time a student leaves our public schools, they take state funding with them.
The district will continue to closely monitor all of these shifts in funding and revenue. We will act accordingly and inform the community at the earliest possible time.
We are very fortunate, for many reasons, to live in this community, but surely one of the biggest reasons is our community’s continued support of our schools at the ballot box.
2007’s winning operating issue allowed this district to continue its improvement and build on success. Without it, we would not see nearly the achievements we are witnessing throughout our schools.
In spite of this community support though, there remains too much distinction and difference between the school district and the communities we serve.
Generally speaking, school districts closely reflect their communities. However, this is not the case for our school district. This has created a point of both discussion and contention.
To explain what I mean; the Ohio School Facilities Commission completes an annual ranking of the relative wealth of all school districts in the state.
The formula includes factors like property values, median income and average educational level of adults. With these metrics our district is always listed in the top 15 percent in Ohio in the comparative wealth rankings.
At the same time though, the demographics of the district’s student population place it in the category of urban–high poverty according to Ohio Department of Education.
This incongruent situation creates an identity crisis for the school district and its communities.
With what our schools have to offer, we should NOT have the highest percentage of children choosing the nonpublic, educational option of any district in the state.
It is not economically or socially healthy in the long term for either the school district or its communities.
Whether it’s perception, poor communications on our part, religion, or racism, it’s something we must all address and find a way to remedy for the long-term welfare of our cities and schools.
And we are in the process of finding solutions.
The world is quickly changing and we are doing a better job at keeping up than many of our competitors. That’s attractive to families, but we can and must do more.
In addition to aligning ourselves internally as a district, it is also time to align all the external stakeholders and plug them into the multiple parts to help achieve these goals.
As the old African saying goes, it does take a village to raise a child.
When a child in our community does well, we ALL take pride in that child.
When a child has problems, he too belongs to all of us.
We need the cities to partner with us.
We need the cities to partner with us on how we plan to structure and use our facilities.
We need the cities to partner with us in creating district-wide Wi-Fi access.
We need the cities to partner with us in working with healthcare partners to establish a family clinic and wellness center.
We need the cities to partner with us on community outreach, this will help us continue to attract and retain good students and families.
We have to stop operating parallel to each other when we could do so much more together.
The result will be a vibrant growing community of learners for all of us.
My goal tonight has been to restore some hope and optimism for the future and to chart a clear course so that we may align the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District and this entire community around a common vision and common goals to support our community’s children.
The future growth and success of our school district is not just an educational issue; it’s an issue for the entire region, our cities, businesses, families and every homeowner.
It’s about economic development, workforce development, and improving the quality of life in our precious neighborhoods.
It’s a privilege to live and work here, and I know that we are at the beginning of an incredible time in the history of our school district.
Together we have the power and talent to continue our growth–to maintain our focus on advancing all of our students and the communities we serve.
We will continue the CH-UH tradition of offering the very best educational opportunities and preparing all students for success in a global economy.
Thank you very much.