A True Cleveland Success Story
One of the key findings from the original workshop that led to the creation of this TechFutures site and project was the need for a greater focus on education in the region. Not just at the graduate research level, but at all levels from pre-K through post-grad.
Around this same time, John Zitzner, founder and president of ECity Cleveland, a program that teaches inner city youth the skills they need to become entrpreneurs, began work on creating an entire school that would close the gap in science, math, and entrpreneurial education for our neediest kids.
Last year, ECity Cleveland won a NorTech Innovation Award for its innovative Entrepreneurship Preparatory School (E Prep), a new Ohio community school sponsored by the Cleveland Municipal School District. Now, just one year later, E Prep is pleased to announce its first Ohio Achievement Test results as well as the significant academic gains shown by its students in the first 8 months of the school year. The results are nothing short of stunning–
August 2006 assessment given at the beginning of the school year:
7% of students proficient or above in reading
20% of students proficient or above in basic math facts
3% of students proficient or above in math problem solving
June 15, 2007 Ohio Achievement Test preliminary results:
75.49% of students proficient or above in reading
62% of students proficient or above in math
These are outstanding results for this first-year school that admitted its founding class of sixth grade students in August. State benchmarks for sixth grade are:
75.8% proficient in reading
55.1% proficient in math
These results show tremendous growth for this class of students, and far surpass the state averages for African American students (50% proficient in reading, 31% proficient in math), as well as the 2005/2006 average scores for Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown public school districts.
“We believe this success is directly tied to the unique features of our school,” reports Head of School, Marshall Emerson III. “Our extended school day, longer school year, culture of high expectations, strict discipline, Saturday tutoring, and of course, our relentlessly committed teachers who are 100% focused on our mission to send these kids to college…all of these have helped these students make outstanding gains.”
Congratulations to John, Marshall, the staff and teachers at ECity and E Prep–but most of all congratulations to these incredible students for demonstrating so dramatically that this region has the talent it needs to succeed–so long as we give our kids the chance and the education they deserve.