“Not one? In three years?” board member Valerie McKitrick said as the data was being presented.

Black students and students with disabilities, who make up most of the school’s population, tested in the bottom 5% in the state. As a result, the Ohio Department of Education has designated the I Promise School as an Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) School. This means the school requires targeted intervention.

The school was started as a way to help the district’s lowest-performing students, who are often subject to learning disabilities or significant trauma in their lives. On average, students coming in are two years behind. The goal was to have students catch up so that by the eighth grade, they would be ready for high school.

Only 11% of the school’s first class of eighth graders passed the state English language arts test, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. 

The LeBron James Family Foundation has responded to the news that transpired from the recent board meeting. It reasserted its determination to help students succeed in the long run.

“When we started this work to wraparound students through education, we entered this partnership with Akron Public School for the long haul,” the statement read. “Because this work requires a long-term commitment, hard work, and a lot of love and care. And that’s what we bring each and every day because the I Promise School is more than a school. We’re here for the ups and downs, and will continue to wraparound our students and their entire families so they can be successful in school and in life, no matter the challenges and obstacles that come their way.”

For Board President Derrick Hall, the recently unveiled data is disappointing.

“For me as a board member, I just think about all the resources that we’re providing,” Hall said. “And I just, I’m just disappointed that I don’t think, it doesn’t appear like we’re seeing the kind of change that we would expect to see.”

The school receives the same funding as public schools. It has also received $1.4 million per year from the LeBron James Family Foundation for additional tutors and teachers to lower class sizes.

District officials have pointed to the fast turnover of principals and teachers as one of the factors that may have hindered students’ academic progress. Two years ago, 10 teachers resigned from the school. Last year, an additional five teachers left. I Promise School has also had 5 principals, including 3 interim principals, since the school opened.

Keith Liechty-Clifford, the district’s director of school improvement, added that the pandemic hit as the school was only a year and a half old. During the time, it onboarded 10 new teachers and 120 additional students while learning was done remotely.

“I don’t want to use the pandemic as a crutch,” he said.

I Promise School recently hired a new principal, Stephanie Davis, to lead the school for the upcoming school year. She expressed optimism when it comes to the students’ future at the school.

“One of the things I’m most excited about coming into the I Promise School is the optimism and energy around getting our students to a level of achievement we know they’re capable of,” Davis said in a statement. “At the recent Board meeting, our preliminary OST data was shared, but it’s important to note that proficiency is based on mastering grade-level standards. Our students have not yet met the grade-level mastery mark but they are demonstrating growth based on iReady scores. Of our incoming 8th graders, 32% met their annual typical growth in reading while 11% met their stretch goal for the year. Despite not mastering the grade-level standards, 42% of students demonstrated growth in iReady math across their 7th grade school year.”

“When working with students who are achieving below grade level, growth is as important as a measure of progress as proficiency,” she added. “And the type of growth that is important to us is not made overnight. It takes time.”