Friday, February 14, 2014

$40M from Gates but students don't have books

From the Pittsburgh Courier:

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2014/02/13/alarm-over-no-textbooks-at-perry-high-school/

6 comments:

Questioner said...

Broad superintendents have shown a surprising disregard for books. Long after u prep milliones opened the library was largely devoid of books. A staff member said books were " on order" but then talked about how everything is available online. It would be interesting to check back at the milliones library. For all the talk about early childhood education there was little Pps support for the wonderful and very cost effective Beginning with Books program, and more recently there is news of cutting librarians.

Anonymous said...

Of course Broad doesn't promote books-- that would differ from the script. Also, notice the article about Broad taking over summer reading-- promoting non-fiction. Who knows where the mind can wander when reading fiction, or better yet really discussing books. Remember when you went to a library- school or public and.. chose a book freely?
Didn't think THAT would be nostalgic did you!

Anonymous said...

Why did this situation require a story in the Courier? In my time as a pps parent there were many issues that required airing in public and that was accomplished via the EFA meetings and before that Key Communicators' meetings. Could it be that those critical meetings are now structured to allow for only the delivery of the administration's message and there is no time for sharing concerns or lodging complaints? Are those meetings pep rallies or what?

Very glad that the Courier shed light on this story.

Anonymous said...

Clearly, the Courier has the freedom to report, to investigate, independent of CO influence. The conditions in most, not all, schools are recipes for the "failure" to educate.

Anonymous said...

Yes, anon 8:34 this s the only way to get the message out--even without the supposed grass roots groups you mentioned, as they were founded the PSCC in each school would have been balistic...in September of the year it happened. Principals ,departments, and teachers were held accountable. If disruptive behaviors happened-- again questions were asked. Notice that when "right-sizing happened in 2006, no protocol was established to combine PSCCs. Some schools may have, but in most the "receiving school of new students and staff" were made to feel that any questioning equaled complaining about the new. It was a very simple divide and conquer maneuver-- and it worked! Pscc became a place where principals showed...scores, and talked of plans for better scores. That way, no one would bring up school climate.

Questioner said...

Student article about proposed cuts to school library funding:

http://www.obamaeagle.org/top-stories/2014/01/14/budget-cuts-lane-proposes-to-cut-libraries/

Someone get this student a job w/ the PG!