This is the blog section of the PURE Reform website. Please leave your thoughts and comments here.
PURE Reform has created this blog as a forum for parents, teachers and community members to share information and voice concerns regrading the reform process in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Although we would like to foster constructive dialogue, PURE Reform does not edit content. The views expressed by bloggers in this forum are not necessarily views held by PURE Reform.
To comment on an existing topic, go to the line at the bottom of the post for that topic that begins "Posted by..." That line will list "1 comment," "2 comments," etc. Click on "comments," then leave your comment in the box provided. To post as Anonymous, no registration is required, OR you can choose an identity.
To suggest a new topic, go to this month's post labeled "Start a New Post" and add your comment (as described above) about the new suggested topic. PURE Reform will use these comments to start new posts.
"The city's population has vacillated since 2010, seeing a net gain of 139 residents for a total of 305,841 residents. Chris Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, said the figures suggest stability.
“There's not big growth, but at the same time, the city of Pittsburgh hasn't lost population, either,” Briem said. “Even stability is a positive story.”
Read more: http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/6140440-74/population-pittsburgh-county#ixzz3G7lcf1dc Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
From the article, "Mrs. Lane said the district will examine birth rates to see whether that is part of the picture."
- It takes a quick call to the library to find this information. This year's kindergarten students would have been born in 2008 (about 1/3 of them) and 2009 (about 2/3 of them). The data shows that the number of babies born in Pittsburgh during the relevant time frame dropped by about 1.3% (remember there was a recession around that time, which does tend to affect birth rates).
So, we need to look elsewhere for an explanation for the 11% drop in kindergarten enrollment.
A thought-- PPS is holding population on the "Promise ready" crowd-- and doing a super job of reminding kids that indeed the $$ will be there for them. But as a parent, if told-- you only get NINETY PERCENT of the promise Money if you are PPS from 3rd grade on-- I am going to think twice about putting a fragile five year old into what we are reading online and hearing from community. Notice the Minadeo vs Colfax numbers-
By the way, the number of births in the city of Pittsburgh actually increased between 2006 and 2010- from 3493 in 2006 to 3639 in 2010- a 4% increase.
So if enrollment is in line with the birth rate, there should be about 4% more kindergarten students enrolling next September than enrolled in September 2011.
Minadeo has become THE model of what our district wants to see. Administrators who simply nod their heads and say "yes" while staff are barely hanging on by a thread. Everything is put on the backs of teachers and there's no accountability for anyone other than the rank and file. Parents have realized this over the last three years and left. This year Minadeo lost 100 students. It's sad.
How bad is this district? Parents are forced to send their children to other schools that require tuition, especially at a time when bills exceed net income. The only students who want to continue their education in this district are the ones who attend CAPA, Alderdice, and Obama, ones whose parents do not care what happens to their children, ones who are on a waiting list for charter schools, ones whose parents actually think that their children are going to a real school, and ones who get thrown out of a real school. Birth rate? Wow, any more excuses out there, Dr. Lane? Here are a bunch for you- safety, competent, strong administration, excessive testing, well-coached athletic teams, safe buses, consequences for students, and how about not being given 50% as soon as the doors open?
Re: Today's P-G article about Minadeo's leveling of the 3 first-grade classes.
This speaks to what is wrong with PPS. There were 3 first-grade classes of 19, 19, and 16. Now there are 2 classes of 27. One first-grade teacher was moved to the third-grade class and the third-grade teacher was moved out of the building. And this is being done this far into the school year.
Lane said that Minadeo's enrollment fell below the level for an assistant principal, BUT that person is remaining.
Smaller class sizes benefit the students. Once again though, Lane keeps an administrator at the expense of the students (and teachers because of their upheaval). Is it any wonder that our enrollment is dropping? Move the V-P and keep the smaller classes if you REALLY care about the students getting an education.
The embedded chart shows only 21 students entering grade 6 of University Prep 6-12 (compared to last year when 48 entered). And this was before recent incidents. How small is too small?
Back in the old days, there was a form PS-1. We were to use attendance figures for a certain day early in October. The form was filled out for each teachers schedule. The cards were filled out for each period by class, grade level, students present that day. Federal funding was based on enrollment numbers of that day. Teacher staffing for the following year was also based on those numbers. Your third grade numbers determined your fourth grade staffing needed for next year. This model was scrapped around Dale Fredricks days. Why not bring it back? It was not difficult, costly or politically motivated. This was also backed up with the OVT-1 form that used data by grade level, gender and race. Since the federal money for vocational education was based on those numbers, every student was counted. When both were combined, staffing and budgeting was set at the correct level across the district. Right sizing was not necessary the way it is used now. Kind of looks like they threw the baby out with the bath water.
Over the last 9 to 10 years a lot of babies have been thrown out with the bath water. Sometimes it seems like more babies are thrown out than bath water.
We sold our house last year, it was 2 blocks from Minadeo. It was in great shape and sold quickly. The current owners just sold it for 15k less than they paid for it and it was on the market for 4-6 months.
Looks like housing prices in S. Squirrel Hill are taking a hit.
Additional administrators are always needed to help pick up the slack while the principal is busy focusing teachers. I'll give it to Linda Lane-she knows how to talk out of both sides of her mouth. When asked about the leveling at Minadeo, she said that leveling is disruptive, there's no doubt about it, almost as if she had nothing to do with it. Almost, as if, she is not the ONE who gave the directive for this to happen.
While PPS Early Childhood programs are thought to be excellent, parents who want to be sure that their children get into certain schools or charter schools will put their kids in feeders or programs that will have a better likelihood of moving from one level to another.
PPS MUST create programs that educate from many streams.
15 comments:
From the PG earlier this year-
"The city's population has vacillated since 2010, seeing a net gain of 139 residents for a total of 305,841 residents. Chris Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, said the figures suggest stability.
“There's not big growth, but at the same time, the city of Pittsburgh hasn't lost population, either,” Briem said. “Even stability is a positive story.”
Read more: http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/6140440-74/population-pittsburgh-county#ixzz3G7lcf1dc
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
From the article, "Mrs. Lane said the district will examine birth rates to see whether that is part of the picture."
- It takes a quick call to the library to find this information. This year's kindergarten students would have been born in 2008 (about 1/3 of them) and 2009 (about 2/3 of them). The data shows that the number of babies born in Pittsburgh during the relevant time frame dropped by about 1.3% (remember there was a recession around that time, which does tend to affect birth rates).
So, we need to look elsewhere for an explanation for the 11% drop in kindergarten enrollment.
A thought-- PPS is holding population on the "Promise ready" crowd-- and doing a super job of reminding kids that indeed the $$ will be there for them. But as a parent, if told-- you only get NINETY PERCENT of the promise Money if you are PPS from 3rd grade on-- I am going to think twice about putting a fragile five year old into what we are reading online and hearing from community. Notice the Minadeo vs Colfax numbers-
By the way, the number of births in the city of Pittsburgh actually increased between 2006 and 2010- from 3493 in 2006 to 3639 in 2010- a 4% increase.
So if enrollment is in line with the birth rate, there should be about 4% more kindergarten students enrolling next September than enrolled in September 2011.
Re: "Pittsburgh Perry High School also sustained a substantial loss. Its enrollment of 627 was 162 fewer, or 20.5 percent, than last fall."
- Even more noteworthy is the drop in incoming 9th graders- a 35% decrease compared to the 9th grade class of 2013.
Minadeo has become THE model of what our district wants to see. Administrators who simply nod their heads and say "yes" while staff are barely hanging on by a thread. Everything is put on the backs of teachers and there's no accountability for anyone other than the rank and file. Parents have realized this over the last three years and left. This year Minadeo lost 100 students. It's sad.
What's the point anymore? Get out while you can.
How bad is this district? Parents are forced to send their children to other schools that require tuition, especially at a time when bills exceed net income. The only students who want to continue their education in this district are the ones who attend CAPA, Alderdice, and Obama, ones whose parents do not care what happens to their children, ones who are on a waiting list for charter schools, ones whose parents actually think that their children are going to a real school, and ones who get thrown out of a real school. Birth rate? Wow, any more excuses out there, Dr. Lane? Here are a bunch for you- safety, competent, strong administration, excessive testing, well-coached athletic teams, safe buses, consequences for students, and how about not being given 50% as soon as the doors open?
Re: Today's P-G article about Minadeo's leveling of the 3 first-grade classes.
This speaks to what is wrong with PPS. There were 3 first-grade classes of 19, 19, and 16. Now there are 2 classes of 27. One first-grade teacher was moved to the third-grade class and the third-grade teacher was moved out of the building. And this is being done this far into the school year.
Lane said that Minadeo's enrollment fell below the level for an assistant principal, BUT that person is remaining.
Smaller class sizes benefit the students. Once again though, Lane keeps an administrator at the expense of the students (and teachers because of their upheaval). Is it any wonder that our enrollment is dropping? Move the V-P and keep the smaller classes if you REALLY care about the students getting an education.
The embedded chart shows only 21 students entering grade 6 of University Prep 6-12 (compared to last year when 48 entered). And this was before recent incidents.
How small is too small?
Back in the old days, there was a form PS-1. We were to use attendance figures for a certain day early in October. The form was filled out for each teachers schedule. The cards were filled out for each period by class, grade level, students present that day.
Federal funding was based on enrollment numbers of that day. Teacher staffing for the following year was also based on those numbers. Your third grade numbers determined your fourth grade staffing needed for next year. This model was scrapped around Dale Fredricks days. Why not bring it back? It was not difficult, costly or politically motivated.
This was also backed up with the OVT-1 form that used data by grade level, gender and race. Since the federal money for vocational education was based on those numbers, every student was counted. When both were combined, staffing and budgeting was set at the correct level across the district. Right sizing was not necessary the way it is used now.
Kind of looks like they threw the baby out with the bath water.
Over the last 9 to 10 years a lot of babies have been thrown out with the bath water. Sometimes it seems like more babies are thrown out than bath water.
We sold our house last year, it was 2 blocks from Minadeo. It was in great shape and sold quickly. The current owners just sold it for 15k less than they paid for it and it was on the market for 4-6 months.
Looks like housing prices in S. Squirrel Hill are taking a hit.
Additional administrators are always needed to help pick up the slack while the principal is busy focusing teachers. I'll give it to Linda Lane-she knows how to talk out of both sides of her mouth. When asked about the leveling at Minadeo, she said that leveling is disruptive, there's no doubt about it, almost as if she had nothing to do with it. Almost, as if, she is not the ONE who gave the directive for this to happen.
I got an email from Minadeo because they were cutting & splitting a 1st grade class LAST week, on a Thursday.
That would not fly at Cofax, nor should it at any school.
PPS gave up on Minadeo.
While PPS Early Childhood programs are thought to be excellent, parents who want to be sure that their children get into certain schools or charter schools will put their kids in feeders or programs that will have a better likelihood of moving from one level to another.
PPS MUST create programs that educate from many streams.
Post a Comment