Anonymous wrote:
"When was the last time they painted uprep? Obviously not this summer. Every hallway and stairwell has streaks of chipped paint. I saw holes in some walls. All 3 bathroom stalls by the cafeteria did not close completely let alone lock. The cafeteria looks and feels like a pod at the Allegheny County jail. The library area above cafeteria has no books. Its the worse school I've been in and I was shocked it was a PPS building. It looks and feels like I imagine a scary school in the Bronx."
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16 comments:
Six years ago questions were raised about the lack of books in the U Prep library and the response was, books are being ordered and also, there is a movement toward everything online.
Looks like the orders never went through, and as for relying on online, see the CP article about how the computers for every student didn't work out as planned. Apparent result? Lack of books. Way to go flagship school.
African American leaders, are you there? Do you care?
before U-Prep opened its door parents attended an EFA meeting there and the then-director gave us all a tour. college banners hung everywhere.
seriously, the roll out for the UPrep building and the sci-tech building had almost equal fanfare. we need to hear from the kids who attend.
It had a great rollout and everything seemed good, but concerns expressed at the time were- that the school would need the continued flow of special resources, and that tucked away up on a hill it would be forgotten and overlooked.
both good points. sci-tech must also have benefited from the Frick reputation and, Location!? wow, in the heart of Oakland just gives the place a different energy level.
MR certainly chose the best assets and location for his creation (even though it meant displacing a successful school already at that location). But, it is strange that there are only 68 in the senior class; it was supposed to have classes of 100.
why should they keep the building up when the "students" I use the term loosely destroy/have no respect for themselves nevermind other peoples property. I wonder if they do not have books as a safety precaution. "students" may use them as weapons during the fights that occur in the building.
SOME students may have no respect for property, but without a doubt the majority of students are not destroying property, fighting, etc.
They don't allow high-school transfers into SciTech after 9th grade due to the structure of the program. So the senior class is going to be smaller than the max of 100 just due to natural attrition.
Add to that the magnet lottery. It's not like CAPA where it is merit-based and you have to audition. For SciTech its all lottery and the weights in the lottery are pretty easy to get, so the results are pretty random (you do have to write an "essay" to apply to SciTech, but the essay is ungraded and has no impact on the lottery result, so it doesn't really matter what you write). The result of this is that you get some kids at SciTech who are not as interested in math and science as you might expect and may transfer out during high school.
All that is fine if resources are unlimited... but when finances are so tight does it make sense to structure a program in a way that will leave it so underenrolled, when other schools are struggling with large class sizes. Or to set up a program at great expense that will be underutilized?
The IB school accepts new students for grades 10 and 11, and that program is even more structured and specialized; seems like sci tech should be able to do the same.
All of this was expected and pointed out to administration when the program was created.
Keep in mind that no student at UPrep/ Milliones passed the Keystone Biology exam- this district does not have science teaching resources to waste. Equity?
I wouldn't call SciTech "so underenrolled/underutilized" ... it wouldn't surprise me if grades 6-9 were at or close to 100% full. I think maybe they do allow transfer in for 10th grade (since that is the point where the students pick their concentration)? The school is only on their second graduating class (last year was the first), so they are still making adjustments and improving efficiency as they see what works and what does not work.
I don't think you can place the blame for the poor performance of UPrep students on the Keystone Bio exam on the existence of SciTech.
This is the third senior class at sci tech. And the existence of sci tech is certainly not the cause of poor performance at U Prep (although the need to staff sci tech may make scarce good science teachers less available elsewhere). The issue is that these strong science teachers are standing in front of underenrolled classrooms, while many other science classrooms are jam packed.
Also, please remember that during the time we were growing these hs students- our elementary schools only testes reading and math-- and those scores were all that mattered. Many schools with contained classrooms never mentioned science or social studies or anything else that wasn't on a test. Think about how RTI is done with EVERY teacher being a part of reading-- not blaming PPS-- that attitude has existed since NCLB-- but now these kids are in hs. NOW reading is becoming non-fiction-- therefore some science might sneak in.
True... NCLB did tend to crowd out anything that wasn't reading or math...
It is a misconception, widely accepted, that NCLB is responsible for a lack of focus in science, social studies, or anything else that requires reading.
Reading instruction can and must be a part of any subject that has a book with words in it. The refusal of such content teachers to teach vocabulary, comprehension or any other skill related to reading the text is incomprehensible and and in absolute defiance of any "best practice".
Similarly, now with the Common Core, the focus in Reading/Literature classes has turned to emphasizing Informational Text. So, instead of Informational Text being taught as "reading" should be in all Science, Social Studies, etc., Literature/Fiction/Poetry/Drama are being removed from Reading & Literature classes to make room for more informational reading (which should/could/would be taken care of in other classes if other content teachers knew how to provide support for reading! Makes no sense at all! All teachers should be teachers of reading!
Upreps scores have gone down. This year their scores are even lower than Duquesne school district!
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