Test scores dipped in Pittsburgh for the first time in five years, and the graduation rate is flat.
Here are some possible reasons.
Budget cuts.
Teacher layoffs.
Budget cuts and layoffs mean larger class sizes.
Schools will be closed, and teachers are uncertain about where they will be assigned.
One thought: budget cuts and turmoil do not enhance learning.
Both cause anxiety among teachers and undoubtedly among students as well.
Time for leaders in Pittsburgh to think some more.
Newsflash! This tweet just arrived:
I forgot that Pittsburgh is one of the districts that received a big grant from the Gates Foundation ($40 million) and adopted the Gates’ approach: data-driven instruction, Gates-style teacher evaluation, etc. Pittsburgh was one of the Gates’ prize districts. We will wait to hear what Bill Gates says about this. It seems clear by now that the Gates Foundation has never reformed any district, but has no hesitation telling districts what to do so that every teacher is in the top quintile. Their constant meddling makes you long for the days when all they wanted to do was create small schools, not tell everyone what to do all day. |
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
The important thing is not whether your policies fail repeatedly, but whether anyone ever hears about it. Those listening to Arne Duncan, for example, haven’t the faintest notion what’s really going on.
Gates himself must realize his vision was just plain simplistic and wrong and at this point he has done far more harm than good. As such he needs to concentrate on righting the wrongs he sold so well that are now no more than snakeoil. He needs to start by standing up and saying “I WAS WRONG”
Gates spent $2 billion on small schools and then stopped. He never said, “I was wrong.” Why would he do that now?
It’s embarrassing to admit you’re wrong while municipalities are stuck spending millions on policies you saddled them with.
FIRE DUNCAN! Hire Ravitch!
Pittsburgh Public Schools already had these initiatives in place prior to the Gates investment. Mark Roosevelt, the Broad trained Superintendent, initiated Excellence for All and the money from Gates helped sustain the work.
Thanks Diane for posting my tweet! The Pittsburgh community needs help from you and others to stop the madness.
Don’t forget our Broad influence either — our “reforms” were begun with Mark Roosevelt being named superintendent with the backing of a foundation supported “community watchdog group.” He was replaced by his second in command and also a Broadie, Linda Lane. He said when he left that he’d “planted the garden” and all we had to do know was to tend the growth. We just got a new Broad fellow this year, too, to join our crop. Teachers have been furloughed, but administration has been doing fine.
Another possible reason for big drops was covered in the Philly papers, but not ours: http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-30/news/32924357_1_erasure-patterns-education-ronald-tomalis-pssa-results
Thank you for this insightful comment and good information. Please consider this invitation, sent out this morning to people like you:
Dear friends of public education in the Western Pennsylvania area:
On behalf of the Labor Day Parade Committee of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, I’ve been asked to invite you and your organization(s) to join the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers contingent at this year’s Labor Day parade.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, will join us as we show a community united behind our public schools and the wonderful people who work there daily on behalf of our wonderful children.
It’s time for our side to show our determination to stop the attacks on our schools, teachers, and kids
If you and/or your organization are interested in marching with us, please reply to kippmdawson@yahoo.com
Thank you for your support! We have no choice but to win this — battle, and we can only do this together.
Here’s some info. that might help you: in Rockford, IL, a group of retired teachers and parents heard the cry for help from their active teachers. They formed an organization (W.E.E.: Watchdogs for Ethics in Education), and set about doing fact-finding work: they researched, went to meetings and took notes, filed an FOIA, and then presented their facts via a fact sheet to the community. Their efforts–in large part–resulted in the departure of their reviled Broad superintendent! (The next one was better, and he also knew that W.E.E. was on the case!) So–get your retired teachers out there to work with parents and community members (don’t involve active teachers–they’re too busy teaching, and their jobs might be threatened), and have at it.
Also, while scores have “risen every year” (mostly, sort of) in Pittsburgh since our Broad/Gates influx, so have statewide test scores. We’ve basically just followed the same slightly upward trajectory as districts that haven’t spent millions.
I teach in Pittsburgh Public Schools and can attest to conditions in Pittsburgh being similar to those faced by children and teachers and parents around the country. Simultaneously, the social fabric of the lives of our children and their parents has become more and more unraveled (jobs, housing, income, public transit, cost of higher ed, etc. wrecking havoc) AND their schools are victims of radical budget cuts and huge focus on curriculum modified to get those test scores up AND teachers, as everywhere, are vilified and furloughed and humiliated and attacked. But we teachers and our union keep doing our best to hold our heads up and keep our eyes on the real only important thing, and that is trying to hold things together for our beautiful children. And we will keep doing that, because that’s who we are. There is so much more to our children and our schools and our teachers than these test scores. Of course.
Hi Diane, (and others!)
Thanks for highlighting Pittsburgh. I’m new to teaching in Pittsburgh (coming from Chicago). As I started learning about the Pittsburgh education community and the layoffs/budget issues, I was disheartened to see that the community watchdog group A+ Schools and others were trying to champion using teacher effectiveness for layoffs, (basically throwing out the contract and pitting newer teachers against older teachers).I blogged about it here. http://wp.me/p175Bt-6l