CULTURE
OF HOME OFHOME THE CARD
#IAMEC WRITTEN BY
Tyisha Blade
State Takeover and The Road to Academic Recovery and Revitalization
A
fter a state takeover, The East Cleveland City School District is taking measures to
ILLUSTRATED BY
Erin Butkiewicz
Pettiegrew learned at an early age what it meant to
restructure education methods to better
“turn around” a school district from his father who
prepare for state assessments. According
was an administrator for decades. His father was
to education.ohio.gov, these state as-
commissioned to help schools improve education
sessments measure how students develop knowledge
standards and when he finished aiding in deficient
and skills described in Ohio’s Learning Standards. Re-
areas, he was commissioned to go to another school.
sults help rate each school’s performance reflected on
“He would come home and talk about how he interacted
its annual Ohio School Report Card. East Cleveland,
with the staff, parents, community and children...and
Youngstown and Lorain are the three local school dis-
how a sense of school spirit and culture is important,”
tricts in a state takeover controlled by the Academic
Pettiegrew said. Pettiegrew also wants children to
Distress Commission. According to publicschoolreview.
know that, even though they walk past buildings
com, in a takeover, the state department of education
and houses that are boarded up, there’s still hope
forms a committee responsible for overseeing changes
through education. Road to Academic Recovery and
the school needs to make for academic sufficiency. In
Revitalization | An East Cleveland Story
response, the East Cleveland City School District created the Road to Academic Recovery and Revitalization initiative. City leaders embrace the need for change
Dr. Pettiegrew’s First 30 Days Pettiegrew immediately introduces new methods
and work diligently to make changes. Goals include an
of teaching. He also addresses the need to find out
increase in The District Performance Index (PI) to 66.0
what the students are passionate about. Meetings
by June 2020, trauma sensitivity and engaged learn-
with community members in locations such as Mc-
ing. To reach these goals, the school district’s new-
Gregor Homes, The Salvation Army City Hall, and
est Chief Executive Officer, Henry Pettigrew II Ph.D.,
Case Western Reserve University, engage the entire
implements strategies that manufacture educational
community. “The most important measure for me in
techniques to improve state testing scores. Pettiegrew,
this entire district is instructional hours,” Pettiegrew
a Cleveland State University alumnus, has also worked
said. “It is precious. How many instructional hours
with faculty members to create better lesson plans. The
can I get into this child in this subject area. That will
Road to Academic Recovery and Revitalization also has
determine how successful that child will be.” Road
a documentary which follows the district’s progress.
to Academic Recovery and Revitalization | Dr. Henry
The documentary shows, not only strong leadership,
Pettiegrew’s first 30 days
but also a united community effort to encourage and support the students of East Cleveland. 15 | VINDICATOR
An East Cleveland Story
