Public Testifies to Save Their Pittsburgh Schools

Hill District Education Council demands better schools

Friday, July 27, 2012

By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Hill District Education Council today said it is putting Pittsburgh Public Schools on notice that the district must do better for Hill District students or the council will seek the ouster of school board members, administrators and teachers.

At the Pittsburgh Public School District (PPSD) Public Hearing on Monday, July 23, 2012, Rev. Dr. Johnnie Monroe co-chair of the Hill District Education Council voiced his concern for the future of the Hill District schools.  He asked the Board of Directors,

How many of you would enroll your child/ren in one of the Hill District schools considering where those schools are academically?

The three PPSD schools located in the Hill District - Pittsburgh University Prep 6-12, also known as Milliiones, Pittsburgh Miller PreK-5, and Pittsburgh Weil PreK-5 - are all on the PA Department of Education's list of low-achieving schools.  


It is highly unlikely any Board member would send their children to any one of these schools.


Eric Ewell, similarly testified and presented a statement at the hearing on behalf of the Hill District Education Council with signatures from 96 members of the community.  The statement listed concerns for the schools in the Hill including: high teacher turnover, low academic scores, leadership turnover, and constant feeder pattern changes.  


Rev. Dr. Johnnie Monroe, co-chair of the Hill District Education Council, told the Board, "Enough is enough" and asked for a plan for the 3 Hill District schools to be submitted to the Hill District Education Council by September 1, 2012, with positive results by 2013.    

In contrast to these testimonies, the public hearing testimony given by Derrick Hardy, principal at one of the Hill schools in question (University Prep), referred to a plan to work with Success Schools beginning this school year to advance "school culture and student achievement".  

Derrick Hardy also thanked the Board for approving his plan to implement a Success Schools program at University Prep and declared this commitment to his students.

We will continue to implement systems of success for moving all of our children in to college and beyond!

I have to wonder what "systems of success' Mr. Hardy can name.  

Data for Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12 (University Prep) from the A+Schools 2011 Report to the Community show the following 2011 PSSA test results:

• 36.5% of eighth grade students tested proficient/advanced in math compared to 66.4% for the District

• 50% of eighth 
grade students tested proficient/advanced in reading compared to 73.4% for the District

• 25.3% of eleventh grade 
students tested proficient/advanced in math compared to 47.5% for the District

• 34% 
of eleventh grade students tested proficient/advanced in reading compared to 59% for the District

Other testimonies from the Hill community on Monday stressed a concern for the implementation of the Success Schools program, yet another initiative for Hill District schools.  

Success Schools, according to a contract approved by the Board in May 2012 totaling $513,000, will implement a positive behavior program in 3 PPSD schools.  

Marilyn Barnett Waters, Ph.D. and Education Chair of the Pittsburgh Branch of the NAACP, asked the Board to listen to students and parents.  She cautioned that the implementation of a Success Schools program would send a message that students are the problem.  Dr. Waters ended her testimony with this statement:

This evening members of the NAACP are going on record to oppose your plan to institute the "success model" at UNIVERSITY PREP, FAISON and any other school in the district.  Our children can be successful with carefully thought out programs and the kind of supports that yell out to them that YOU care about them and that you are willing to surround them with the appropriate academics interventions that are culturally relevant and researched based.  

Tywanda Zeigler, a parent of a PPSD student, expressed her frustration at the lack of information from the District regarding the new Success Schools initiative.  She pointed out that waiting until the new school year starts to inform parents of new programs is too late.

Typically, new initiatives are presented to the Board of Directors in a public Education Committee meeting.  Several Board members asked for such a presentation for the Success Schools program but nothing has been presented publicly to date.

 

You can read more about Success Schools here.

 

Best Information on Common Core Standards

This article by the internationally known scholar, Dr. Yong Zhao, provides a thoughtful analysis of the Common Core.

Common Sense Vs. Common Core: How to Minimize the Damages of the Common Core

The comments are worth reading as well.

Are African-American Students Left Behind?

President Barack Obama launched a new initiative on Thursday to address the need to improve educational outcomes for African-American Students.

Education Week Published Online: July 27, 2012

White House Initiative Targets Education for African-Americans

By Lesli A. Maxwell

AP/The Huffington Post  |  Posted: 07/26/2012 12:04 am Updated: 07/26/2012 12:12 am

African-American Education Office: Obama Announces White House Initiative On Educational Excellence

Read the press release from the White House: Executive Order -- White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans

PA Scholarship for Children in Low Performing Schools

PA Department of Education released the list of PA's lowest performing schools today.

The more than 242,000 students (in the 414 school buildings in 74 school districts across Pennsylvania) may be eligible to apply for a scholarship through the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program funded by tax credits from the expansion of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC 2.0).

This program signed into law by Governor Tom Corbett last month is intended to give low- and moderate-income students in low-achieving schools the option to obtain a scholarship to attend a participating public or nonpublic school.

What does this mean for public school students in Pennsylvania?

On this blog, I will try to provide families with information about eligibility requirements and how to apply for the scholarship.  

The PA Department of Community and Economic Development’s website at www.newpa.com, has provided the following information: 

To be eligible, a student’s family income could not exceed:

• Through June 30, 2013 - $60,000, plus $12,000 for each dependent member of the household.

• After June 30, 2013 - $75,000, plus $12,000 for each dependent member of the household.

• An additional amount, to be determined by a formula, would be added to the income limit for students receiving special education services.

The PA Department of Education would annually publish a list of the bottom 15 percent of elementary schools and the bottom 15 percent of secondary schools, based on combined math and reading PSSA scores.

School districts in which a low-achieving school is located would be required to notify parents of the scholarship program with instructions about how to apply.

Eligible students could receive up to $8,500 for a regular education program or up to $15,000 for a special education program.
More details are coming soon. 

When can families expect to be notified by their school district?


According to the Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC):

 

The Department of Education is required by law to notify school districts that have schools identified as low-achieving by Aug. 1, 2012.  In 2013 and each subsequent year, school notification will be made by Feb. 1.

Within 15 days of notification by the department, school districts are required to notify parents and post on its website, a description of the opportunity scholarship tax credit program, as well as instructions on how families may apply.

Which PA schools are on the list?

I will not list all 414 school buildings but you may find the full list here: Pennsylvania Department of Education List of Low Achieving Schools.

Below I've listed the Pittsburgh Public School District (PPSD) schools (the district where my children attend) and will pay particular attention to these schools in the implementation of this program.

It is interesting to note that 7 of these PPSD schools have closed and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that you remain eligible for the scholarship if your child's new school is also on the list.  

Fort Pitt Elementary, Langley High, Murray Elementary, Northview Elementary, Oliver High, Schaeffer Elementary, and Stevens Elementary

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/state-list-of-failing-schools-has-53-in-county-646260/#ixzz21klHHS2Y

Here is the list of Pittsburgh Public School District schools that made the list of the lowest 15% performing schools in the state.  Next to the schools that have closed, I've indicated the new assigned school (from the PPSD website) and if the new school is also on the eligibility list.  

ALLEGHENY TRAD MS ACAD

Regular Elementary/Secondary

ARLINGTON EL SCH

Regular Elementary/Secondary

ARSENAL EL SCHOOL

ARSENAL MS

Regular Elementary/Secondary

BRASHEAR HS

Regular Secondary

CARRICK HS

Regular Secondary

FORT PITT EL SCH

Closed, assigned to Arsenal PreK-5 (eligible), Woolslair K-5 (eligible) and Fulton Pre-K-5

Regular Elementary

GRANDVIEW EL SCH

Regular Elementary

HELEN S FAISON ARTS ACADEMY

Regular Elementary/Secondary

KING M L EL SCH

Regular Elementary/Secondary

LANGLEY HS

Closed, assigned to Pittsburgh Brashear (eligible)

Regular Secondary

LINCOLN EL TECH ACADEMY

Regular Elementary

MANCHESTER EL SCH

Regular Elementary/Secondary

MURRAY EL SCH

Closed, assigned to Arlington Pre-K-8 (eligible)

Regular Elementary/Secondary

NORTHVIEW EL

Closed, assigned to Pittsburgh King Pre-K-8 (eligible) and Pittsburgh Morrow PreK-8

Regular Elementary

OLIVER HS

Closed, assigned to Pittsburgh Perry Traditional Academy (eligible)

Regular Secondary

PERRY TRADITIONAL ACAD HS

Regular Secondary

PITTSBURGH MILLER PRE K-5

Regular Elementary

PITTSBURGH UNIVERSITY PREP

Regular Elementary/Secondary

SCHAEFFER EL SCH

Closed, assigned to Langley K-8 (new school)

Regular Elementary/Secondary

SCHILLER CLASSICAL A

Regular Elementary/Secondary

SOUTH BROOK MIDDLE SCH

Regular Elementary/Secondary

SPRING HILL EL SCH

Regular Elementary

STEVENS EL SCH

Closed, assigned to Langley K-8 (new school), Pittsburgh Westwood K-5, Pittsburgh South Hills 6-8

Regular Elementary/Secondary

SUNNYSIDE EL SCH

Regular Elementary/Secondary

WEIL TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE

Regular Elementary

WOOLSLAIR ELEM SCHL

Regular Elementary

Will the scholarships be available in time for students to start the school year in a new school?  

The answer to this question is unclear.  In an article by Peter L. DeCoursey, Bureau Chief at Capitolwire, it is noted:

There is going to be a concerted effort to make this work this year to help kids.

The Post-Gazette adds,

The new scholarships are scheduled to be available for the upcoming school year, though with districts welcoming students back beginning in late August, several administrative hurdles still must be cleared.

So, I have more questions that I hope to have answered in the coming weeks.  Here is my list, let me know if you have any others.

Which private schools will accept the scholarships (from low income students that went to low performing schools?

What are public schools districts doing to prepare for the potential loss of students?  

Are private schools required to accept children with special education needs?

When a Student's Test Performance Doesn't Matter

My son is a terrific test taker.  He received all A's and some B's on all of his Kindergarten through 3rd grade report cards and scores above average in all of his Pittsburgh Public School assessments. 

My son also has an extraordinary vocabulary and can read much higher than his current grade level. He is extremely compliant and never causes trouble.  

Sounds like a teachers dream, huh?  Maybe, until my son is in your classroom.  

Then you notice that he doesn't seem to be paying attention (he hardly ever looks at the person speaking), he is easily distracted (by anything and everything), he has difficulty staying on task and attending (you have to prompt him repeatedly), he can't seem to explain his ideas to others (talks in circles) and has difficulty making friends.  

But, he is "smart" and a "good kid" so most teachers and school systems will conclude that he is "fine".  

In reality, my son has a learning disability in the form of social thinking, a disability that can't identified through standardized testing.  If this disability is not addressed, my son will eventually produce poor test results as the content gets more difficult for him and requires more complex skills.  

My child is the perfect example of a child who "falls through the cracks" because the assessments give a false sense of his ability.  

Social Thinking, most likely, is a term you never heard.  It was coined by Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP, in the late 1990's.  

This article written by Ms. Winner for the Autism Support Network gives a really good explanation of social thinking challenges in the classroom.  I hope you read it then check out Ms. Winner's Social Thinking website.  

What are social thinking challenges?

Michelle Garcia Winner

A classic example of a person with a social thinking challenge is that of my friend Ian who is entering into 4th grade. He has excellent language skills and has amazing abilities to learn information about topics of his interest, such as American History. He enjoys learning topics that are factual in nature and in fact excels in these academic tasks. Regardless of his strong academic abilities in most areas of math and language he struggles considerably focusing his attention in his mainstream classroom, participating as part of a group, explaining his ideas to others in writing and making friends during recess and lunch. He prefers talking to adults, rather than his peers, since adults will discuss with him his areas of interest. When adults are not available to talk to, he goes to the library to read a book. While his teacher enjoys his knowledge, she is mystified by his difficulties at school given that he scores in the fine to superior on academic testing. It is difficult for his teacher to understand that he does not have a behavior problem; instead he has social thinking challenges, which makes it difficult for him to deal with all aspects of the expectations across his school and home day. His mother describes him as “bright but clueless”

Simply put, social thinking is our innate ability to think through and apply information to succeed in situations that require social knowledge. Social thinking is a form of intelligence that is key to learning concepts and integrating information across a variety of settings; academic, social, home and community. Limited abilities for learning and/or applying socially relevant information can be considered a social thinking learning disability.

The great difficulty encountered when trying to determine if a child has social thinking challenges is that standardized tests available through educational, psychological and/or speech and language evaluations fail to reveal problems in this area. Thus a child’s ability to do well on testing in no way proves or disproves the possibility that he or she may have a significant learning disability in the form of social thinking. The reason that standardized tests lack in their ability to illuminate deficits in this area is that testing needs to be highly structured in order to cleanly measure the very specific skills that the test or subtest was designed to evaluate, however social cognition requires the complex integration of multiple skills. Thus, standardized test formats, as we currently know them today, are often counter to the evaluation process for exploring social thinking skills.

Social thinking challenges represent a social executive function problem. The ability to socially process and respond to information requires more than factual knowledge of the rules of social interaction, it also requires the ability to consider the perspective of the person you are talking to. Perspective taking can be defined as considering the emotions, thoughts, beliefs, prior knowledge, motives and intentions of the person with whom one is communicating as well as one's self. This ability then allows one to not only better determine the actual meaning behind the message being communicated but also how best to respond to that message. Thus applying social knowledge and related social skills successfully during social interactions requires the complex synchronicity of perspective taking along with language processing, visual interpretation and the ability to formulate a related response (verbal or non-verbal) in a very short period of time (1-3 seconds).

Finally, social cognitive deficits do not only reveal themselves during social interactions, but instead they are present during many academic tasks that require highly flexible abstract thinking such as written expression, reading comprehension of literature, organization and planning of assignments and some students have tremendous difficulty learning math skills. Thus persons with significant difficulties relating to others interpersonally often have related academic struggles in the classroom particularly as they get older. Typically, we start to require more creative thinking, flexibility and organizational skills to succeed in the classroom curriculum starting in 3rd/4th grade. Some students begin to show struggles at that time, while others students manage to hold it together until middle school. It is very common for students to develop academic problems only when they got older even when it is determined that this person is “quite bright” according to psycho-educational measures.Unfortunately, our academic system is set up mostly for the “early intervention” model of specialized education. This means that traditionally we have understood that many students have difficulty getting their structured learning started, thus we have a number of specialists who work with younger children to help them learn the more traditional academic skills of reading and writing. Students with social cognitive deficits often have the reverse problem of learning in that they acquire the more factually based academic skills with relative ease and then only begin to struggle once they are required to use complex critical and social thinking skills to interpret the information presented in the classroom. Given that most educational systems do not account for this type of learning disability, few have developed an educational plan for educating these children with regard to their abstract/social cognitive learning needs as they get older.

It is vitally important that we explore how best to provide social cognitive educational lessons to children across all of their school years!

Courtesy of SocialThinking

Source URL: http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/what-are-social-thinking-challenges-autism-22736273

Berliner on Education, Inequality and Poverty

Just read this article by David Berliner via the Diane Ravitch Blog.  

Sorting out the effects of inequality and poverty, teachers and schooling, on America's youth by David C. Berliner, Arizona State University

Want to read more by David Berliner?  The National Education Policy Center has more papers and articles here.

More Police, Less Social Workers in Schools

In the Pittsburgh Public School District, where my children attend, the 2012 budget for security personnel includes 25.9 more employees than the total budget for social workers and counselors.  

Hmmmmm……more security personnel than counselors and social workers combined?  

Here are the numbers for 59 Pittsburgh Public Schools: 

Counselor and Social Worker = 64.1 Employees35.4 Total Counselors (12.3 Elementary, 4.5 Middle, 18.6 Secondary)28.7 Total Social Workers (19.8 Elementary, 2 Middle, 6.9 Secondary)

Security Personnel = 90 Employees

The Pittsburgh Public School District, in their pursuit of safe environments for students and teachers, has allocated more personnel to police our children and less personnel to provide our children crucial social services and support.  

Pittsburgh is not alone.  

Kristin Schwam, in an article for the Dignity in Schools Campaign Students Aren't Criminals, They're Here to Learn writes,

Yet by keeping large numbers of police in school, and arresting students for typical childhood and adolescent behavior instead of addressing the issues that cause the behavior through counseling and other positive discipline practices, aren’t we telling them that they are criminals and therefore inherently bad?

The information I found on the Pittsburgh Public School website makes a connection between "safe schools" and the process for managing "offenders".   

In pursuit of safe schools, the School Safety Office investigates, apprehends and pursues the criminal prosecution of offenders both through the court system and through School District action. (emphasis mine)

Remember, these offenders are children…….

PA Charters Seek More Funding from Traditional Public Schools

According to an article in today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Pittsburgh Public School District received identical letters from 5 Pittsburgh Charter Schools seeking to change what is counted under the existing funding formula for school districts across the state -- a change that could affect districts throughout the state.

The five charter schools -- Urban Pathways 6-12, Urban Pathways K-5, Environmental Charter School at Frick Park, Manchester Academic and Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School -- wrote that "improper" deductions cost them a combined more than $2 million for 2011-12 from the city district alone.  (emphasis mine)


Pittsburgh Public Schools has plans to furlough over 250 teachers next month due to its current fiscal challenges.  Pittsburgh Public Schools projects remarkable funding deficits through 2015.

Pittsburgh Public Schools, like districts across the Commonwealth and the country, is facing daunting financial challenges. When the District adopted the budget for calendar year 2011, the problem was smaller but still there – and showed an $8.7 million deficit for 2011 and a $53.6 million deficit for 2012.With the announcement of the Governor's proposed funding cuts in March 2011, the District's projected budget deficit grew to $68 million for 2012 and nearly $100 million in 2015. 

Charter schools are public schools for which students do not pay tuition, but home districts pay a fee set by the state.

In 2011-12, Pittsburgh was required to pay $13,047 for each regular education student who lives in the city and $28,555 for each special education student at a charter school.

That figure is based on the district's per pupil cost, modified to exclude certain expenditures such as nonpublic school programs, student transportation and facilities construction.

In a letter to state Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis, Jon McCann, principal and chief executive officer of the Environmental Charter School at Frick Park, maintained the form used for the calculation contains "flaws."

The letter contends the charter school law lists seven deductions but the deduction form "as drafted by previous administrations, improperly allows additional deductions," citing 14 categories of federal funds that are deducted.

Without the 14 deductions, the letter states, Pittsburgh would owe Frick Park an additional $2,301 for each regular education student and $5,400 for each special education student -- or an additional $683,601 for 2011-12.

In an interview, Mr. McCann said the issue has been discussed for a long time, but now, "money is tight ... we do a lot for less than the school districts. We want as many dollars in front of our students as we possibly can."

Propel Charter coming to Sto-Rox, Good News or Not?

The Sto-Rox school board Thursday postponed its vote on a revised application from Propel charter schools to start a K-12 school in McKees Rocks and instead created a committee to explore how the district could work cooperatively with Propel.

Once again, sides have formed.  

Some expect the addition of a Propel Charter School will bankrupt the Sto-Rox District.  Diane Ravitch asks the readers of her blog: Will Sto-Rox go the way of Chester-Upland, where a charter school absorbed most of their funding and drove the local schools into bankruptcy?

Jeremy Resnick, executive director and Propel founder, stated that the demand for another charter school is there at a public hearing last month where he referred to a petition with 251 signatures indicating interest.

Thoughts?

Common Sense Says Education is more than Academics

"We are at a crossroads in this nation regarding the direction that public education will take in the coming decades. Do we focus on a curriculum that concentrates on a few core subjects or do we gain an appreciation for how public education can develop all aspects of the child to the benefit of each of them as well as society in general?"


In Support of the Whole Child, Huffington Post Posted: 07/03/2012 4:02 pm

 This is a joint posting by 13 Huffington Post Education, Parenting and Health bloggers: Martin J. Blank, Sam Chaltain, Peter DeWitt, John M. Eger, Larry Ferlazzo, Jenifer Fox, Shaun Johnson, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Jennifer Peck, Kate Quarfordt, Sean Slade, Dr. Jim Taylor, & Jill Vialet.