Heuer: CH-UH Can Motivate Students By Giving Them Choices

This is the about Cleveland Heights-University Heights Superintendent Douglas Heuer's State of the Schools speech.

Superintendent Douglas Heuer hopes that if the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District gives students more choices in their education, they’ll be more motivated and do well.

He spoke about the district’s plan Wednesday night to by 2016 to be associated with one of three "" — society, discovery and creativity.

“What will motivate one student is often very different from another,” Heuer told an audience at his third at .

The idea to restructure the schools around different academic concentrations is part of the district’s overall “PASSAGE” vision, or “Preparing All Students for Success in A Global Economy.

“The state of Ohio, along with 38 other states, adopted in March 2011 the most rigorous curriculum that has ever been developed in the history of this country in education,” Heuer said. “… Our challenge is, how do we get all students to master this new, more rigorous curriculum when we aren’t getting ?”

Though school officials are still developing the program, the “creativity” pathway will have an arts focus, the "society" path a humanities focus, and the "discovery" path a science focus. Students will be able switch Pathways as well.

And the district must continue to improve its technology and school facilities to ensure the Pathways are successful, Heuer said. He mentioned the district's work.

“Our goal is to provide each student a Pathway experience that inspires that student while requiring the full mastery of a world-class core curriculum,” he said.  

A group of three parents were chatting at a table after the speech and shared what they thought about the superintendent’s address.

“I wanted to see what he had to say about the school (Pathways) program,” said Gretchen Henninge. “I think it’s intriguing, but I don’t know if it’s logistically realistic."

Ruth D’Emilia said she’d like to see more unity in the schools, especially among the three middle schools — , and . But overall, she thinks Heuer has done much to improve the schools in his short time with CH-UH.

“We’re all in the trenches everyday with our kids. I think it’s really important to come here and hear more about what the plans are for the future,” D’Emilia said.

Heuer spoke about four extremely successful and well-rounded students at the end of his speech, but concluded that not all CH-UH students are at that high achievement level.

"This is not acceptable. Our goal, our vision, is to make certain that every student has their own unique success story," he said. "We know our students cannot realize their futures or their full potentials by themselves. ...It's up to all of us to help them. This is why we have to change. To continue to do the same thing will continue to yield the same results."