State school officials dig for details on weeklong visit to Trotwood

The Ohio Department of Education’s district review team is spending this week in Trotwood-Madison City Schools, checking the effectiveness of the school district’s daily efforts.

Three years ago, in February 2015, an ODE team did a similar review, eventually producing a report identifying Trotwood schools’ strengths and weaknesses. That report said Trotwood did not consistently follow its school improvement plans and had significant problems with implementation of classroom teaching and teacher training strategies. The review team will produce another report this year.

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Trotwood-Madison is at risk of state takeover this fall, because of poor performance on state tests the past two years. The district must improve on the tests that students are taking this spring to avoid that takeover.

Interim Superintendent Tyrone Olverson, who just joined the Trotwood district last week, said the state team will talk to a wide variety of community stakeholders – teachers, parents, students, business leaders, clergy – to get a sense of where the district stands.

“The biggest question about what are the things we may have missed is accountability,” Olverson said. “We’ve done things (to shoot for improvement), but there are no accountability measures to measure progress along the way. That’s probably the biggest challenge that I’ve heard of from the senior leadership so far.”

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The state’s district review team looks at six standards: leadership governance and communication; curriculum and instruction; assessment and effective use of data; human resources and professional development; student support; and fiscal management.

State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria also will be visiting Trotwood schools this week, but ODE officials said neither DeMaria not the review team will speak to the media during this week’s process.

Staff Writer Caroline Reinwald contributed to this report.

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