On another post Anonymous wrote:
New Post:
Pa. Dept. of Education lists lowest rated public schools
February 2, 2013 12:10 am
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/pa-dept-of-education-lists-lowest-rated-public-schools-673060/#ixzz2JkRvjmOV
PITTSBURGH LOWEST-ACHIEVING SCHOOLS:
ACADEMY AT WESTINGHOUSE
ALLEGHENY TRAD MS ACAD
ARLINGTON EL SCH
ARSENAL EL SCHOOL
ARSENAL MS
BRASHEAR HS
CARRICK HS
CONCORD EL SCH
GRANDVIEW EL SCH
KING M L EL SCH
LINCOLN EL TECH ACADEMY
MANCHESTER EL SCH
MORROW EL SCH
PERRY TRADITIONAL ACAD HS PITTSBURGH FAISON K-5
PITTSBURGH MILLER PRE K-5
PITTSBURGH MILLIONES 6-12
SCHILLER CLASSICAL
SPRING HILL EL SCH
WEIL TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE
WOOLSLAIR ELEM SCH00L
Brashear and King are Pittsburgh's two TEACHING ACADEMIES !?!
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/pa-dept-of-education-lists-lowest-rated-public-schools-673060/
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29 comments:
Weil is on the list, but it was recently applauded as a "STAR" school:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/city-schools-rewarded-for-student-academic-growth-662848/
It is easy to see how these lists and rankings can become confusing to the public.
4 out of 6 high schools...
It feels very sad for me to say this because I believe so strongly that our schools need reform but my opinion is that the reforms the district has put in place have done more harm than good.
As they have tried to help teachers become more effective they have pushed them to feeling antagonized, belittled and anxious. My cynical side believes that teacher effectiveness was never the desired outcome but rather an easier quicker way to get rid of some teachers, not necessarily bad teachers, through harassment. My optimistic side believes that teaching is an incredibly challenging profession and that a thoughtful and supportive program that fosters reflection and growth is a positive way to go and can be a part of the solution. Unfortunately that is not how I’ve seen in play out in too many cases.
As the district has tried to focus more attention on programs, PDs and strategies for running schools that would make everything more effective and support student growth they have put systems into place that have had the opposite effect. Teachers and administrators are overworked almost to a breaking point. They are forced to spend valuable time on pointless tasks. The result is not having time for important things and effectiveness actually decreases while stress and frustration go up. Good teachers don’t have the conditions they need to be good teachers and their ability to do a good job is dimished. Administrators have pressure bearing down on them but their hands are tied in how to address problems. Discipline is crumbling and chaos is growing. Students are bored and frustrated. Those that go to school wanting to learn get overworked teachers who are losing their ability to make any decisions about how to teach them, don’t have time to help them individually and have their hands tied in regard to creating an atmosphere that’s conducive to learning. What’s worse is that the student’s role in all of this, and they play a very important role, is being pushed aside. They are being taught that they have no personal responsibility. If they are not doing well it is due to bad teaching or a bad school. There have always been students in even our worst schools who are successful and although there are myriad factors impacting that taking personal responsibility for learning and behavior is a commonality. We are doing them a huge disservice. We are teaching them the wrong lesson and increasing the struggles of our struggling students.
And then the district reforms to address financial issues. Schools are closed and students and communities who desperately need stability are uprooted. Teachers who are committed to those students and communities are told that they are the sole problem and forced out. Successful, diverse schools (schenely) are dismantled in favor of segregated (U Prep, Millions, what is it called now?) schools with substandard facilities. Obscene amounts of money are wasted in the process and the voices of students, parents, teachers and community are ignored. I really feel like that debacle should involve law suits. How does the district get away with dismantling a successful diverse school and creating U Prep? A substandard, unsafe, segregated school. Of course we won’t hear just how unsafe it is because everything has to be minimized. Well whether we hear it or not the kids and the teachers have to live it. Minimizing problems doesn’t solve them.
I guess I just don’t know enough about the law and how districts are held accountable but it all seems rotten to me.
Money is spent on consultants and software for issues that could be handled more effectively in house while teachers are laid off and class sizes increase.
All these reforms have been pushed forward for a while now. It’s time to stop and reflect. Give voice to teachers parents and communities and actually listen and respond. Not just hold a meeting and disregard everything. I know teachers feel like they can’t speak because of what is at stake. I know parents get the runaround and voices are ignored. We have got to find some way to impact this though because I just see it declining. It won’t be those few people with inflated salaries sitting at the top who pay the price. It will be our kids, our families, our teachers, our communities and ultimately our city. It’s just too important to roll over.
Lastly: CREATE SMALLER CLASSES, especially in needier schools. Give teachers more TIME not less. Hold them accountable for how they use it fine, but give them some autonomy.
If I recall correctly, a couple of years ago Mark Roosevelt said something like "test scores have to go down before they go up".
It was a nonsensical statement, but the media, the Board, and the public all fell for it.
All Lane, Lippert, etc. have to do is say something like that again. Then most people would go back to sleep.
I say "most people" because I'll bet Mark Brentley will have something to say about this.
Confusing only if you are paying attention to Pittsburgh Public Schools releases; the "STAR" schools are PPS NOT the PA Department of Education (PDE). PDE is the official source, not PPS, not A+ Schools.
The official data is available to ALL online at PDE; and, the process is VERY simple and open to PUBLIC access.
11:19 and 11:20 - Autonmy is critical, since it is impossible to hold any body accountable that does not have autonomy! Teachers have become the scapegoat for a Central Office that has no understanding at all of what works, what is needed, NOR what is required under PA Academic Standards, much less the new Common Core State Standards.
The District is destined to continue its decline (and it is decline); just look at the up and down (mostly down) data over time since 2006.
11:19 and 11:20 -
Your remarks are "dead on" if every respect. Please send it to the Superintendent. Hopefully, she will recognize a genuine, sincere, outpouring of the problems that so many Pittsburghers have voiced publicly and privately, again and again.
11:25 - Roosevelt said that 6 or 7 years ago!? How much time will it take? We are long, long past due for an increase in achievement in PPS no matter what words are said to 'cover' the administration.
"The Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit program was designed to offer families with an income of no greater than $75,000 plus $12,000 for each dependent member of the household, scholarships of up to $8,500 for a regular education student and up to $15,000 for a special education student."
"The department of education is required by law to notify school districts by Feb. 1 of each year if they have schools that identified as low-achieving. Within 15 days, school districts must notify parents and provide them with information on how to apply for opportunity scholarships."
So, the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program is open to all PPS schools listed as
PITTSBURGH LOWEST-ACHIEVING SCHOOLS:
ACADEMY AT WESTINGHOUSE
ALLEGHENY TRAD MS ACAD
ARLINGTON EL SCH
ARSENAL EL SCHOOL
ARSENAL MS
BRASHEAR HS
CARRICK HS
CONCORD EL SCH
GRANDVIEW EL SCH
KING M L EL SCH
LINCOLN EL TECH ACADEMY
MANCHESTER EL SCH
MORROW EL SCH
PERRY TRADITIONAL ACAD HS
PITTSBURGH FAISON K-5
PITTSBURGH MILLER PRE K-5
PITTSBURGH MILLIONES 6-12
SCHILLER CLASSICAL
SPRING HILL EL SCH
WEIL TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE
WOOLSLAIR ELEM SCH00L
The exodus from our schools has been Pittsburgh's referendum on the Roosevelt/Lane/Fischetti/Weiss administration.
At what point will we reach the moment when even the blue bloods from the Heinz Endowment can no longer hold those to another meaningless press release, or weak standardized test score, or contract which flat out smells funny (Xerox at twice the price of the prior business manager's bid), or consultant with no clear and measurable deliverables, etc.?
Do we really a $2.4 million contract to connect the dots?
If your flagship projects, ie teaching institutes, are not fulfilling the promise doesn't that send off warning lights? I don’t doubt that there are good teachers there. I don’t doubt that there are many good teachers in all schools. I do worry that good teachers are choosing to leave. Teachers alone cannot fix the problem. Good teachers are not the only answer and they are not the magic bullet.
Its interesting that this article was written by Mary Niederberger and not Eleanor Chute.
We need more of Mary and less of Eleanor (who doesn't do any research but just prints what PPS approves).
The last line of the PG article states:
"Within 15 days, school districts must notify parents and provide them with information on how to apply for opportunity scholarships."
Parents PAY ATTENTION! During the next two weeks you should get information from the PPS District (as required by the state) about how to apply for these scholarships out of these "lowest-achieving schools.'
PPS does NOT always send the information that they get from the state!
Many parents did not get the student PSSA profiles last summer. Did you get your child's data?
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/pa-dept-of-education-lists-lowest-rated-public-schools-673060/#ixzz2JmAkM5FR
Data, data data..
All they (Broad/Gates money) care about is getting and maintaining HUGE contracts with consulting companies. It isn't about being effective, costs or kids.
It is a game, it is manipulated. PPS: You get rid of any and all who are in charge or anyone that questions "the data". It is a shell game and a joke.
Almost every single person who has "left" central office during Roosevelt/Lane has been shoved out. One did get a 140K parting gift.
Opportunity scholarships are in limited supply. When the program took a new or expanded form under the Corbett admin I know of a few parents who thought all they had to do was show up and say they wanted their kid enrolled. It isn't that easy.
On the issue of MR saying test scores had to go down before they go up, he believed in The Tipping Point Theory. He sold lots of us parents on it too.
Anon 11:20 suggests creating smaller classes, a cry heard for many, many years at Key Communicators' and EFA meetings, through the terms of seveal superintendents. When the Gates experiment of smaller schools did not prove successful, many of us thought for sure the next experiment would be smaller classes and the foundation purse would open to support the effort. Instead we saw the focus go to making effective teachers. Catholic school teachers have admitted that the success they see is often a product of smaller class size and not a faith based program.
Kids are getting frustrated. They are doing just enough to get by and know what they should concentrate on to do just enough. If they are not getting pushed from parents to do more, chances are they won't do more than the minimum which is mostly enought to satisfy Promise requirements.
Wow, what was the $140,000 for?
The auditor general's report linked recently on this website discusses this and other severance payments.
Let's not misrepresent the facts here.
The 140K was not to any of the dozens of principals nor the
(all but one) other central office folks that left abruptly. The one other (new) who left under mysterious circumstances also had a very high severance payment. WHO, besides these two (for reasons undisclosed) left with high severance payments?
What facts are misrepresented? The auditor general report mentions payments to at least 3 individuals when they left, including the former superintendent, and in general expresses concern about evidence/ lack of evidence that this type of payment is beneficial to the district and taxpayers. The best thing to do is to read the report.
Wow, the report is indeed an eye opener. No employment contract requiring such a payment, plus it included attorney's fees and non-wage damages.
The 140k is well known and easy to figure out.
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/ex-city-school-finance-officer-to-get-140000-279823/
Chris Berdnik
The audit report indicates that the district used special counsel. I don't understand: without an employment contract and no litigation to be settled, why would there be such a payout of that magnitude, including damages and attorney's fees?
Just to be clear, without a union and without an employment contract, he would have been an at will employee.
Isn't the severance payment for Pps administrators who resign paltry, something like $50 per day for the so many first unused sick days, with a cap?
Shouldn't the district have at least tried to minimize its exposure by hiring a higher end law firm, like Buchanan Ingersol, as special counsel?
Part of it was unused vacation and sick days but one of the auditor general's complaints was that the reasoning was not fully explained. The district would have received something in return, probably an agreement by the ex employee to keep quiet. The question is, is that in the best interests of the students and taxpayers- are we ever better off not knowing whatever the employee might have said?
The cloak of confidentiality is troublesome and stinks of backroom dealmaking and makes people suspicious.
Reading the entire audit reminded me to look into where the process is or how the situation ended with the former chief of pps police. So much time has gone by that I can't recall the fella's name. Maybe that is a strategy too.
The Chief who was forced to retire is Robert Fadzen. He, Chris Berdnik and Pete Camarda are well aware of the questionable antics by the Roosevelt now Lane administration. Remember when Roosevelt came to town, the Board also paid Spampinato a going away gift for her indiscretions. Berdnik and Camarda had all of the financial information at their fingertips and Fadzen had inside knowledge of what was occurring in each PPS because he made non announced visitations on a routine basis. These three individuals knew too much and were way too ethical to have any allegiance to the administration. Getting the three of them to resign speaks volumes of those in charge and the Board Members who authorize transactions.
What is the link to the auditor general's report again?
The link is:
http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Reports/School/schSDoftheCityofPittsburgh010213.pdf
You can always find it in the news section of the Schenley petition on change.org.
Agree with everyones comments. Question is does Ms. Lane have what it takes to control the school district and all its problem or is she just a puppet on a string.
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