Let's keep a count.
At the Mayor's task force meeting yesterday, the Superintendent claimed that the media is quick to write about problems, noting that if there's a fight it will be in the paper, but not so quick to write about the good things about our schools.
It doesn't SEEM that way but maybe it's a matter of perception- let's keep a count, good articles v. bad articles in the PG. Of course that doesn't tell us if the paper is missing more of the "good" stories than the "bad" stories, but it will at least tell us if there really are more "bad" reports.
Starting score, good/ bad, is 0/0.
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39 comments:
Pul-lease!! The PG may as well be on the payroll of PPS's PR department. They have for years published mostly anti teacher, anti union, and pro whatever the PPS flavor of the month is for school reform. Remember all those pro TFA, pro RISE, and pro Gates "editorials"
Lane is out of touch with pittsburghers, students, teachers, and apparently reality. So is Nina "our schools are safe" Eposito.
+1 positive press
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/22/Pittsburgh-Promise-aids-city-students-progress/stories/201410210200
The article features a chart showing the graduation rate going up between 2009 and 2014 and nothing negative about PPS, so it's a POSITIVE;
score 1/0, positive leads.
The whole stated purpose of the meeting with the Mayor's Committee on education was to find a "marketing" strategy that projects what's "best" about PPS.
No doubt that PPS has many good things--CAPA, Sci-Tech, Obama, the Pittsburgh Promise!
But these are for the majority white, middle-class plus students with professional parents ONLY!
This city's urban students are getting only the left-overs. Quality, choices, experienced teachers, administrators that are leaders, arts, cultural cohesion, creative programming etc. are NOT available to African-American students in the Hill and Homewood.
When PPS takes care of business in these areas, "marketing" will take care of itself!
A CAPA parent noted crowded classes such as 41 in a chemistry class and no books because there were not enough books for all.
PPS employs marketing professionals. It can make contact information available and people can be sure those folks know when good things happen, but marketing should not be the job of the city.
Clearly, the city wants to keep people in the city.
The best way to do that is to have schools that are educating all students. If they are NOT, then a marketing campaign by the city would SEEM to be a good investment. Yet, it is only a superficial solution.
you might be able to judge by the NEWS portion of the pps website. All kind of good stories logged there that appeared in the press. there is only good apparently.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/22/Pittsburgh-Obama-students-get-help-with-test-fees/stories/201410220214
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/22/WWII-veterans-honored-by-city-schools/stories/201410220212
2 more positives for PPS
3/0, positive.
+1 PPS
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/10/23/Pittsburgh-Promise-begins-developing-planned-giving-program/stories/201410230208
One more positive, although is this truly a positive?? But it is positive press.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/22/Pittsburgh-schools-get-3-million-grant-for-restorative-practices/stories/201410220213
The planned giving article above is more of a positive about the Promise, which is actually separate from PPS even though many people equate it with PPS... probably because so many PPS materials refer to the Promise... so this article is a neutral and the score is still 3/0.
The article about the research grant is also difficult to count as a positive, since it does highlight high suspension rates in schools. The news that PPS is researching alternative ways to handle the problem does not change the information about current conditions. Still 3/0.
The Woodland Hills school district has also concluded that what it needs to do is work on its image and get better news coverage:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/22/Woodland-Hills-superintendent-encouraged-by-positive-turnout-for-meeting-on-district-s-changes/stories/201410220219
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/23/Pittsburgh-Public-Schools-reaches-settlements-with-principal-teacher/stories/201410230313
Bad Press: Now we know what happened to Alexander Herring, Sr. the former principal of Westinghouse.
And the former welding teacher won a big case against the district.
Imagine how much money has been paid out over the years that we don't know about...
3/1 positive.
The PG had to file to get the details? too bad some kids did not get together to file a class action since they were denied the chance to enter into a profession that would have provided a lucrative career. how clueless are we parents? will welding be reintroduced?
Article from last week- about registration fees being paid for Obama IB students- positive about the program:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/22/Pittsburgh-Obama-students-get-help-with-test-fees/stories/201410220214
Note that the article states there are 90 seniors, but enrollment charts published last week shows 76 seniors.
4/1 positive.
Positive article about a learning project at Sci Tech:
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/10/27/Pittsburgh-area-students-to-take-part-in-video-conference-on-Ebola/stories/201410270017
5/1 positive.
Article w/ favorable leadoff about after school at PPS Lincoln, w/ a big picture (positive articles seem more likely to have photos):
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/27/County-s-after-school-programs-lead-the-way/stories/201410270013
6/1 positive.
Negative report about an incident at Oliver Citywide Academy:
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/10/29/Student-15-to-face-charges-for-knife-incident-at-Oliver-Citywide-Academy-Pittsburgh-Public-Schools/stories/201410290183
6/2 positive.
And there's the card I was waiting to see..."White middle class-plus." In reference to Obama? Have you even looked at their demographics? Way to keep riding that train.
Positive:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/10/31/Children-go-wild-for-record-setting-national-vocabulary-lesson/stories/201410310060
7/2 positive.
Positive
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/11/03/Local-initiative-to-laud-teachers-contrasts-with-national-talk-on-educators/stories/201411030013
Also positive is this op ed about sci tech:
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2014/11/01/First-Person-Sci-Tech-shines/stories/201411010018
9/2, positive.
Positive:
http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=153&ViewID=047E6BE3-6D87-4130-8424-D8E4E9ED6C2A&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=9143&PageID=1
In fact, it goes beyond positive, implying that while Pittsburgh lauds good teachers that is not the case nationally.
10/2, positive.
http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/911-dispatchers-crews-called-taylor-allderdice-aft/nh2Yk/
Boy falls out 4th floor bathroom window at Allderdice
Noting an accident isn't really bad press; it would be different if there was some kind of maintenance problem or he had been pushed out by another student. But at this point, there is really nothing that would lower a reader's opinion of PPS.
Positive:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/11/06/City-schools-poised-for-operating-surplus/stories/201411060184
11/2, positive.
Not seeing the bad press.
This may be an example of an attempt to avoid bad press:
Two teens shot and critically injured just after 3:00 near Westinghouse; the article does not mention the name of the school and, if the teens had just left school, it is not mentioned:
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/11/07/Two-young-men-shot-in-Homewood/stories/201411070202
Still 11/2.
Word is that the victims are brothers who attend Westinghouse.
Really, it is Wilkinsburg schools that gets the bad press:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/11/11/Wilkinsburg-School-District-responding-to-two-violent-incidents/stories/201411110185
As noted above, even much more serious incidents involving PPS are not reported.
Positive
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/11/13/Pittsburgh-Public-Schools-graduation-rates-show-improvement/stories/201411130336
You really have to wonder why they are reporting graduation rates only for the years 2011-2013; don't they know yet who graduated in 2014? And why not provide a number of years before this time period to put rates in perspective? Often when a particular time period is carved out it is worth asking some questions. And why are these 4 year cohort rates, whatever they are, so much better than rates reported a couple of weeks ago?
Anyway, 12/2 positive.
From the PG, positive about some schools, negative about others, highlighting some of the disparities so it will count as negative.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/11/17/A-Schools-Report-shows-wide-differences-among-Pittsburgh-public-schools/stories/201411170139?sa=X&ei=_0hqVLzrFaq_sQT-moHgDg&ved=0CA0QpwIwCQ
12/3, positive.
Positive-PPS is taking steps to train teachers to close achievement gap. This is funny because teachers have always done this/ said this, while we are forced to follow a curriculum that is not culturally relevant to our students.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/11/18/Pittsburgh-schools-asking-teachers-to-look-inward-to-close-race-gap/stories/201411100162
Somehow it is difficult to view this article as entirely positive; maybe because a good number of readers are likely to disagree with the way the training goes about seeking cultural sensitivity, or question this training is more experimental than generally recognized as effective.
Questioner,
Is it possible to move this thread to current page each month so it is easy to track, add to, and view since it is an ongoing question?
Yes, that is the plan- a monthly count with a new thread and a running total.
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