LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Lima City Schools is hosting members of the Ohio Mid-Sized Schools Leadership Collaborative on Thursday (11/02) to see how the district is performing and providing for their students.
The collaborative is a peer program that brings educators from other districts around the state to do “instructional rounds” in the school to observe classes. The goal is to provide feedback to the host district on how they could improve their academics.
Dr. Eugene Sanders is the Executive Director of the Ohio Mid-Size Schools Leadership Collaborative and says they have seen success in districts they have visited. “We’ve seen good growth in reading and science. We’ve seen good growth in our graduation rates. In fact, here in Lima, Ohio, we were here a few years ago and I know their graduation rate shot up about 12 to 14 points this past year. So, we believe that these strategies along with the strategies that the district is implementing on their own are the kind of things that helps us improve.”
The Academic Problem of Practice they were looking at was student engagement. Small groups went to each of the Lima City Schools and watched, listened, and took notes in the classroom. They then regrouped and debriefed to give their academic perspective of what could be done differently to help the students excel.
Lima City School Superintendent Jill Ackerman says she will take what they have learned from today back to the educators in the district. “We need to go deeper with our students. We need to go to a depth of knowledge with questioning. We need to trust our students to be able to kind of learn on their own and let them explore. As teachers and as pseudo parents we’re quick to help kids and we want to help them be successful, but we’ve got to learn to let go a little bit and let them learn on their own.”
The collaborative will head to Warren City Schools next week for “instructional rounds”.
