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Linda Lane: “My goal was, and still is, to offer the students of Pittsburgh Westinghouse the best opportunities to succeed. Now my hope is that we as adults come together to do what’s best for the well-being of Westinghouse students.”
“Goals” should have been realized after five years of ‘leading.’ Also, it is not about “hope”—it is about having a plan that works, as with 90-90-90 schools, Dame Dame schools, and Charters such MACs, and select Propel schools, etc.)
Linda Lane: “In addition to the size or physical condition of a facility, we must look at what’s going on inside of the facility with our students. While we have seen incremental progress at both schools, Pittsburgh Oliver and Pittsburgh Perry are among the District’s lowest performing high schools,” Lane said.
Response: The primary responsibility of a School District is to not only KNOW “what’s going on inside of the facility with our students”—but, to be implementing an educational plan that shows more than “incremental progress” over five years, especially in schools where more than 60 to 70% of the students are not meeting PA minimum standards.
WHY are Oliver and Perry among "the lowest performing high schools"? There are those in the education community who “KNOW MORE THAN ENOUGH’ to be successful in these schools!
After analyzing these two quotes and the article carefully, please consider:
The three schools in this article are Pittsburgh Public Schools. The responsibility for what happens in these schools are the responsibility of PPS--and no one else-- not students, not parents, not communities.
When parents and communities send their children to a school, they trust that the school will educate them. When schools do not do that it is the schools problem. ALL children are educable to potential higher than we will ever know and they unequivocally deserve an equitable and high-quality education. No excuses.
If this Administration is not capable of this (and the evidence is abundant that they are not) after more than five years, then “resignation” of that Central Office Team should be non-negotiable.
The fault lies within the Administration and all of those who support it, especially the majority of the Board of Directors who have also failed in their responsibility.
As we have seen previously more than 6,500 African American students in Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 are NOT proficient in Reading. It is unconscionable and inexcusable.
(PPS students in K, 1, 2, 9, 10,and 12 are not included in this 6,000+ number since the PSSA does not assess these grades, thus the number would be substantially greater if all students were included.)
Those at 341 Bellefield Avenue have put the city “at risk” with their inability to educate our children.
One for all... Please sign electronically the Petition-show our support.URGENT
Please click open link or cut and paste in your Browser.
Let us not have another fiasco as the Peabody-Westinghouse or the horror of the haunting closing of Schenley.
After you electronically sign the Petition --check out the latest on the sale of Schenley.
PMC to take on Robin Building for apts. Bizjournals.com
The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh will vote Thursday on proposal to ... property in Oakland for $2 million from the Pittsburgh Public Schools, ...
Not likely. The PG and Trib are controlled to a degree that is unconscionable for any "news" outlet. How this happens is very odd and needs investigation; but investigative reporting is not the forte of the media outlets in our city.
What cannot be acknowledged will never be repaired, reformed, remediated! And the majority of citizens pay the price.
Please allow Pure Reform----the link or give directives Pure Reform Adm. Help all-we are still upset with the East End.
Again-give a method to rewrite the post as it should be -be able to explain to us
Petition Dr Linda Lane and the Pittsburgh School Board Keep Oliver ...
As part of the recently announced school redistricting plan, one of our North Side schools will have to close in an effort to save the district money... www.change.org/.../dr-linda-lane-and-the-pittsburgh-school-b...
One for all... Please sign electronically the Petition-show our support.
Please click open link or cut and paste in your Browser. Let us not have another fiasco as the Peabody- Westinghouse or the horror of the haunting closing of Schenley.
I'm afraid that Roosevelt's departure makes it clear that one resignation just isn't going to make a difference. Lane's resignation would bring French, or Lippert, or Otuwa, or Fischetti, to the top. More of the same insanity would ensue. The entire top echelons of central administration needs to resign. Today. Only then will the outrageous philosophy/ideology being sent packing and Pittsburgh students and families can move on. Only then. These people not only drink the kool aid, they invented it and push those around them to drink it. A complete house-cleaning is in order.
I agree that the above is a good list of who needs to go first: Lane, French, Lippert, Otuwa, and Fischetti.
Shall we add to that list? Other Broadies? Reed and _______
Department heads who need to go?
Other PELA administrators hanging around as third and fourth administrators in buildings?
This is really pretty easy!
Next, coaches and "learning environment specialists" either need to be back in classrooms, decreasing class sizes (and most of them were good or better than good teachers, but are not nearly as useful in the coach role) and not getting the salary bump for coaching. (Why is it that the less you have to do with students the more you earn?!)
Many of the things done by coaches (making sure curriculum materials are delivered, copied correctly, etc.) should be handled by people in clerical positions at far lower salaries.
I agree that Dr. Lane's resignation is not enough to fix the problems in PPS. The "business model" did not work here because this is not the same as a business. The Board needs to go in a different direction, but I don't think it will.
More glitter falling off of the heroes the Roosvelt/Lane/Fischetti/Weiss administration follow:
Columnist Pans Charlotte Merit Pay Plan. Brian Tarr, in a column in the Charlotte (NC) Observer (11/14), writes that North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg district is "hell-bent on scrapping" its current "simple, understandable and inexpensive" policy for teacher compensation in favor of one that is "bureaucratic, confusing and costly to administer." Tarr labels merit pay a "folly" and argues in favor of paying "teachers according to years of service and extra education. The theory is that experience makes teachers, like all workers, better at what they do, as does extra training. Paying a teacher more for years of service and earning a Master's degree or receiving National Board Certification is not an illogical idea."
Study: Chicago Achievement Gap Widens. The Chicago Tribune (11/14, Hood) reports that according to a recent study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, "twenty years of reform efforts and programs targeting low-income families in Chicago Public Schools has only widened the performance gap between white and African-American students, a troubling trend at odds with what has occurred nationally." The Tribune relates the surprise which local education researchers expressed at the findings, adding, "This is an important issue in Chicago, where almost half of CPS students are black, the vast majority from low-income households." The piece describes the reforms that have been implemented in recent decades, noting that Education Secretary Arne Duncan "launched reading initiatives in high-poverty neighborhoods on the South and West sides...implemented a literacy screening test in the early grades," and "closed dozens of underperforming schools and oversaw rebuilding efforts at others in predominantly poor black and Latino communities."
13 comments:
Brentley asks for Lane’s Resignation
http://www.newpittsburghcourieronline.com/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=5759:brentley-asks-lane-to-resign-school-board-faces-tough-choices&catid=38:metro&Itemid=27
Linda Lane:
“My goal was, and still is, to offer the students of Pittsburgh Westinghouse the best opportunities to succeed. Now my hope is that we as adults come together to do what’s best for the well-being of Westinghouse students.”
“Goals” should have been realized after five years of ‘leading.’ Also, it is not about “hope”—it is about having a plan that works, as with 90-90-90 schools, Dame Dame schools, and Charters such MACs, and select Propel schools, etc.)
Linda Lane:
“In addition to the size or physical condition of a facility, we must look at what’s going on inside of the facility with our students. While we have seen incremental progress at both schools, Pittsburgh Oliver and Pittsburgh Perry are among the District’s lowest performing high schools,” Lane said.
Response:
The primary responsibility of a School District is to not only KNOW “what’s going on inside of the facility with our students”—but, to be implementing an educational plan that shows more than “incremental progress” over five years, especially in schools where more than 60 to 70% of the students are not meeting PA minimum standards.
WHY are Oliver and Perry among "the lowest performing high schools"? There are those in the education community who “KNOW MORE THAN ENOUGH’ to be successful in these schools!
After analyzing these two quotes and the article carefully, please consider:
The three schools in this article are Pittsburgh Public Schools. The responsibility for what happens in these schools are the responsibility of PPS--and no one else-- not students, not parents, not communities.
When parents and communities send their children to a school, they trust that the school will educate them. When schools do not do that it is the schools problem. ALL children are educable to potential higher than we will ever know and they unequivocally deserve an equitable and high-quality education. No excuses.
If this Administration is not capable of this (and the evidence is abundant that they are not) after more than five years, then “resignation” of that Central Office Team should be non-negotiable.
The fault lies within the Administration and all of those who support it, especially the majority of the Board of Directors who have also failed in their responsibility.
As we have seen previously more than 6,500 African American students in Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 are NOT proficient in Reading. It is unconscionable and inexcusable.
(PPS students in K, 1, 2, 9, 10,and 12 are not included in this 6,000+ number since the PSSA does not assess these grades, thus the number would be substantially greater if all students were included.)
Those at 341 Bellefield Avenue have put the city “at risk” with their inability to educate our children.
This cannot be allowed to continue!
Any chance this will be a story that is reported elsewhere?
One for all... Please sign electronically the Petition-show our support.URGENT
Please click open link or cut and paste in your Browser.
Let us not have another fiasco as the Peabody-Westinghouse or the horror of the haunting closing of Schenley.
After you electronically sign the Petition --check out the latest on the sale of Schenley.
PMC to take on Robin Building for apts.
Bizjournals.com
The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh will vote Thursday on proposal to ... property in Oakland for $2 million from the Pittsburgh Public Schools, ...
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2011/11/09/pmc-to-take-on-robin-building.html
What petition?
Not likely. The PG and Trib are controlled to a degree that is unconscionable for any "news" outlet. How this happens is very odd and needs investigation; but investigative reporting is not the forte of the media outlets in our city.
What cannot be acknowledged will never be repaired, reformed, remediated! And the majority of citizens pay the price.
Please allow Pure Reform----the link or give directives Pure Reform Adm. Help all-we are still upset with the East End.
Again-give a method to rewrite the post as it should be -be able to explain to us
Petition Dr Linda Lane and the Pittsburgh School Board Keep Oliver ...
As part of the recently announced school redistricting plan, one of our North Side schools will have to close in an effort to save the district money...
www.change.org/.../dr-linda-lane-and-the-pittsburgh-school-b...
One for all... Please sign electronically the Petition-show our support.
Please click open link or cut and paste in your Browser.
Let us not have another fiasco as the Peabody- Westinghouse or the horror of the haunting closing of Schenley.
where is the link?
I'm afraid that Roosevelt's departure makes it clear that one resignation just isn't going to make a difference.
Lane's resignation would bring French, or Lippert, or Otuwa, or Fischetti, to the top.
More of the same insanity would ensue.
The entire top echelons of central administration needs to resign. Today.
Only then will the outrageous philosophy/ideology being sent packing and Pittsburgh students and families can move on.
Only then.
These people not only drink the kool aid, they invented it and push those around them to drink it.
A complete house-cleaning is in order.
12:58
AGREED! How best can this be accomplished!
I agree that the above is a good list of who needs to go first: Lane, French, Lippert, Otuwa, and Fischetti.
Shall we add to that list? Other Broadies? Reed and _______
Department heads who need to go?
Other PELA administrators hanging around as third and fourth administrators in buildings?
This is really pretty easy!
Next, coaches and "learning environment specialists" either need to be back in classrooms, decreasing class sizes (and most of them were good or better than good teachers, but are not nearly as useful in the coach role) and not getting the salary bump for coaching. (Why is it that the less you have to do with students the more you earn?!)
Many of the things done by coaches (making sure curriculum materials are delivered, copied correctly, etc.) should be handled by people in clerical positions at far lower salaries.
Add Poncelet to the group to be fired immediately.
I agree that Dr. Lane's resignation is not enough to fix the problems in PPS. The "business model" did not work here because this is not the same as a business. The Board needs to go in a different direction, but I don't think it will.
City Taxpayer
More glitter falling off of the heroes the Roosvelt/Lane/Fischetti/Weiss administration follow:
Columnist Pans Charlotte Merit Pay Plan.
Brian Tarr, in a column in the Charlotte (NC) Observer (11/14), writes that North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg district is "hell-bent on scrapping" its current "simple, understandable and inexpensive" policy for teacher compensation in favor of one that is "bureaucratic, confusing and costly to administer." Tarr labels merit pay a "folly" and argues in favor of paying "teachers according to years of service and extra education. The theory is that experience makes teachers, like all workers, better at what they do, as does extra training. Paying a teacher more for years of service and earning a Master's degree or receiving National Board Certification is not an illogical idea."
Study: Chicago Achievement Gap Widens.
The Chicago Tribune (11/14, Hood) reports that according to a recent study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, "twenty years of reform efforts and programs targeting low-income families in Chicago Public Schools has only widened the performance gap between white and African-American students, a troubling trend at odds with what has occurred nationally." The Tribune relates the surprise which local education researchers expressed at the findings, adding, "This is an important issue in Chicago, where almost half of CPS students are black, the vast majority from low-income households." The piece describes the reforms that have been implemented in recent decades, noting that Education Secretary Arne Duncan "launched reading initiatives in high-poverty neighborhoods on the South and West sides...implemented a literacy screening test in the early grades," and "closed dozens of underperforming schools and oversaw rebuilding efforts at others in predominantly poor black and Latino communities."
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