“The reason that we got continuous improvement is we made a large jump in the last two years in the performance index score. What that means is we had kids score higher on the OGT (Ohio Graduation Tests). When you have a school that primarily works with our population that’s pretty big news for us,” he said.
The state-funded school, which teaches at risk youth in grades 9-12 who are not successful in a traditional school setting, has been designated an academic emergency school since the 2003-2004, except for the 2007-2008 school year when it was in academic watch, Hall said.
The district offers open enrollment to kids from neighboring school districts such as Carlisle, Dayton, Edgewood, Fairfield, Franklin, Hamilton, Lakota, Madison Twp., Mason, Miamisburg, Middletown, Monroe, Springboro and Preble Shawnee.
“The image of Life Skills is turning because I think the perception for years was that’s where all the troubled kids go. That’s where the kids who are academically slow or deficient go. We’ve been working real hard to change that image because that’s not the fact. Not everybody thrives in that traditional cookie-cutter mode,” he said.
According to the ODE Local Report Card data, the district met one out of 12 state indicators and 73.4 percent performance index goals. It did not meet adequate yearly progress.
These designations are an improvement over last year’s report card of zero out of 12 state indicators and 67.4 percent performance index goals. The district also did not meet adequate yearly progress last year.
Hall said the improvement is evident in the 10th grade scores, in which the district has shown improvement across the board in the past three years in reading, mathematics, writing, science and social studies.
He said the district’s goal in the next three years is to meet the state standard, not just the performance index.
Hunter Cone, a 17-year-old Madison Twp resident who recently left Carlisle High School to attend Life Skills, said the school’s atmosphere — where you get more one-on-one attention — is more conducive to her needs.
“I knew I was behind on my credits so I figured I needed something that could help me get there a lot faster. I went to Carlisle then I actually tried home schooling (before coming to Life Skills). They help me here,” she said.
Cone, who is academically supposed to be a junior, said soon she will advance to the 10th grade. Her goal is to attend Miami University Middletown and eventually become an nursing assistant.
Life Skill board President Rodney Hale praised the school’s progress.
“This is a drop out recovery school so these are individuals who have a special need that charter schools like Life Skills can provide to these students,” he said. “Over about the last two years in my involvement in the board and most recently my last year as the board president, we developed some great partnerships with not only with the management company of White Hat Management that manages these schools, but with the school administrator and the staff.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.
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