Cleveland Urban Education Case Study

Before World War II, the public schooling system realized that it was not producing the results that it should be and too many high school students were dropping out. The students who did stay in school were scoring below average. Another issue was that with suburbanization of middle class white Clevelanders, enrollment in public schools was only black and minority Clevelanders, leaving the public schooling system struggling to maintain enrollment. At this point, however, there were enough African American Clevelanders present to influence the voting scale. They managed to get Harry Davis elected to the City Service Commission and Mary Brown Martin to the city’s Board of Education with hopes of resolving discrimination in social and economic

(01 June 1998, para. 1) In the 1970s and 80s, desegregation became federally enforced and the importance of having an educated community became a main priority. Unfortunately, according to Miggins, “The majority of students were not able to pass Ohio's new proficiency test for 9th grade students. Many graduates couldn't qualify for entry level jobs” (para. 22 Cleveland Public Schools). In 1997, all decisions regarding public education in Cleveland were passed to the mayor from the Ohio state government, a move many which many opposed. Superintendent Sammie Campbell Parrish, supported by Mayor Michael White, initiated a plan entitled Vision 21 and expressed his hope for the future of the public education system. Unfortunately, he had a lot working against him as many of the problems with inner city schools stemmed from the home. Single parent homes and homes there were receiving some sort of financial assistance were where many of the African American students were coming from and despite integration being the policy, many inner city schools remained a majority African American. With the adult population being highly uneducated itself, and the newest graduates very unqualified for entry level job opportunities, the mayor

Despite improvements in the educational system being made, the scores of the fourth and eighth grade students did not match up to the national average. Even more frustrating for the School Board was that the gap between the performances of their white students and their black students remained greater than the national average. In an attempt to turn around these shocking scores, according to Catherine Candisky of The Columbus Dispatch, “In addition to new reading requirements, Ohio is implementing new and more-rigorous curriculum standards, state assessments, teacher evaluations aimed at improving instructional practices, and graduation requirements, all designed to improve student learning” (Candisky, 8 Nov 2013, para. 1-7) According to statisticals found on reportcard.education.ohio.gov, the 2015-2016 Report Card for Cleveland Municipal School District reports component grades of F for every assessment, including achievement, which measures the percentage of students who pass the state tests, gap closing, which measures how well schools are meeting the performance expectations of the most vulnerable populations in math, English, and graduation, and the graduation rate, which measures the percentage of high schools graduating with a diploma in four or five years. If Cleveland continues to perform poorly on tests and continues to fail in comparison to national standards, then something new has to be tried.