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Goshen board highlights instructional priorities, literacy push and new pre‑apprenticeships
Summary
At its Sept. 8 meeting the Goshen Board of Education heard a central‑office overview of district "target areas," a review of preliminary progress scores that keep the district at a 4.5‑star rating, and plans to expand literacy supports and pre‑apprenticeship programs in construction, IT, health care and manufacturing.
Goshen Board of Education members on Sept. 8 heard an overview of the district’s “target areas,” and were told preliminary progress scores maintain the district’s 4.5‑star rating while the district earned a 3‑star rating for student growth, officials said.
“That's all we're waiting for for our report card, and so our district maintains that 4.5 star rating,” said Missus Scherzinger, who gave the board a high‑quality instruction update and described the district’s approach to interventions, coaching and a new K–2 English‑language arts series. She said the district is emphasizing classroom instruction this year after expanding tutoring and targeted intervention in recent years.
The instruction presentation described several specific steps: deployment of classroom coaches who co‑teach and run coaching cycles; a new K–2 textbook adoption with external support for teacher implementation; targeted tutoring at Mark Hook and Spalding; and weekly leadership meetings to monitor action steps. Scherzinger noted research and local data showing it can take two to three years for teachers to be fully comfortable with newly adopted instructional materials.
“We have a new K‑2 textbook adoption, and it research says it takes about 3 years for a teacher to be completely comfortable with the new material,” Scherzinger said. She also described a new assessment purchased for ninth‑grade English so the district can monitor growth where state testing no longer provides a direct measure.
The board also heard about literacy supports delivered by district specialists and county partners. Scherzinger credited district literacy specialists and two named coaches—Danielle Styles and Kelsey Ryback—with classroom coaching and walkthroughs that the district said have helped sustain instructional gains.
District staff framed the literacy work as one of several interconnected target areas that together influence report‑card results and longer‑term outcomes such as graduation and college/career readiness. The central‑office presentation emphasized data use (an RTI process) to identify students who need tiered interventions and to measure progress over time.
Career‑readiness initiatives were highlighted as a key strategy for postsecondary success. The board heard that the state has reopened approvals for pre‑apprenticeships, and Goshen plans to offer pre‑apprenticeship pathways this year in construction, information technology, health care, advanced manufacturing and robotics.
“We are having pre apprenticeships that are open, and we're really excited,” said the district’s college‑and‑career readiness lead, noting the programs include hands‑on experiences, employer networking and embedded professional skills training designed to improve students’ readiness for both work and further training.
The presentation tied pre‑apprenticeships to the district’s broader college‑and‑career work and to regional efforts with the Greater Cincinnati Business Advisory Council (BAC). Staff said the board will be kept informed as businesses and community partners are recruited and as program approvals are finalized.
What’s next: Board members asked staff to continue reporting on early implementation of the ELA adoption and the rollout of pre‑apprenticeships and to return with data showing the impact of coaching and intervention strategies on student growth.
