Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Tonight- "African American Educators Address PPS Eastend HS Reform Plan"

Tonight, Wednesday December 1, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm at the Kingsley Association (6435 Frankstown Ave), First Floor Conference Room.

6 comments:

Randall Taylor said...

I attended. This was an excellent program. The presenters were Bob Burley, Johnson Martin, Sarah Martin, and Vern Phillips. The presenters spoke specifically to the Westinghouse plan and expressed reservations. No one spoke against single gender or 6-12 specifically, yet expressed reservations in several important areas What would be the class sizes in the school Johnson Martin stated that a 15-18 limit was neccesary for students the students of new school, Sarah Martin stated that the plan is not a real gender-specific program because the District does not have the teachers identified nor trained, they should do a national search for an educator experienced in separate gender education. Serious questions about the lack of a curriculum, what happens if parents do not return magnet application, and the lack of community and parental support for the plan.

Although I believe this plan should be scrapped altogether, at the very least it is critical that this plan be postponed till at least September 2012.

The Plan for the East End contains all the usual elements of a Mark Roosevelt"reform": Disorganized, not researched based, no community support, inexperienced school leadership, and parents fleeing.

Good job by the Westinghouse Alumni Association.

Questioner said...

Re:

"Disorganized, not researched based, no community support, inexperienced school leadership, and parents fleeing."- sad but true.

Due in part, most likely, to a rush to try show quick results when real long term progress will be incremental.

Questioner said...

Also, while 15-18 students per class may be very doable if enrollment is low and science and math academy students are separated out, students with similar characteristics at U Prep will be in classrooms with much higher numbers.

Anonymous said...

Today, December 3, 2010 was Superintendent Mark Roosevelt’s last day at the Pittsburgh Board of Education-this came from a parent that works for the Board of Education.

He is finished-and I guess he will be using his days till the end-uncertain if he cleaned out his desk.

Above should be a seperate blog entry.

Sorry to place this under this heading-but Mr. Taylor your summation again retiterates my concerns of the lack of consistent data analysis.

Anonymous said...

Randall, this district needs clear thinkers like yourself for the sake of the kids. Politics, the glee in accepting what amounts to payola, well, it has doomed all of our kids, no matter their color.

Anonymous said...

Randall Taylor was, and continues to be the clearest thinker current and former School Board Member we have or have had. He always appeared to have a good relationship with DR.Linda Lane. My hope is that she reaches out to him and takes advantage of the vast expeience he has.