A few things we know about the Pittsburgh public schools.
They were led by Broad-trained superintendent Mark Roosevelt. Now they are led by his deputy Linda Lane, also trained by the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy.
They received a $40 million grant from the Gates Foundation for teacher evaluation.
They have a bold plan to close the achievement gap.
Scores in 2012 in Pittsburgh dropped for the first time in five years.
Scores dropped across the state and it may have been because of heightened security.
A Pittsburgh parent posted this comment:
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. |
A reader of this blog who teaches in the Pittsburgh school posted the following comment:
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. |
$40 million more in Blood Money from Gates destrying hopes, dreams,futures and stability-and he considers this positive reform?-Time for Bill to see the product that he has sewn-admit he is wrong and reverse the damage
I’m against Bill Gates getting mixed up in the public school system. If he wants to start his own private school, that’s fine.
We also just furloughed 250 or so teachers for the upcoming school year and NOT ONE administrator or overstaffed 6 figure central office staff was let go. 700+ administrators for a school district with less than 25,000 kids in it. Not a peep in the press. Just blame the teachers!
The reason that the “radical budget cuts” happened is because the number of students enrolled in the Pittsburgh public schools has been falling rapidly for decades. But spending per-student has not fallen. Source:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/city-school-enrollment-falling-fast-413639/
The above source also says the Pittsburgh public schools have an enrollment of 26,649 students.
This next link says that the Pittsburgh public school district has an annual budget of $529.8 million.
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/city-school-board-oks-budget-that-contains-staff-reduction-223177/
That works out to $19,880 per student per year.
By comparison, the Catholic schools in Pittsburgh charge approximately $7,500 tuition per student per year. In addition, the low-income minority children who get scholarships to Catholic schools in Pittsburgh through the privately funded Extra Mile Education Foundation have much better attendance rates, graduation rates, and academic performance, than the students at the Pittsburgh public schools. Source:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/program-goes-extra-mile-for-catholic-education-469695/#ixzz1C3lZ0aJM
So, these students who get these scholarships to the Catholic schools are living in poverty, and yet they do better than the students in the public schools, and the cost per student of these Catholic schools is less than half the cost of the public schools.
There goes the bogus excuse that the public schools are underfunded.
There goes the bogus excuse that poverty is an excuse for academic failure.
Imagine that – a $7,500 Catholic school does a better job of teaching low-income minority students than a public school that costs more than twice as much.
Do these schools have to pay for busing students all over the city? What is their special education student population – that can increase per student cost pretty quickly. I’m sure it’s not as high a percentage as Pittsburgh Public. How many students attend the one school? 830? ….compared to a student population of over 26,000. No wonder they are “doing better”. How much does that school pay its teachers? Are they highly qualified? These students have support from their families. How many students living in poverty can say that and would have help applying for these scholarships? There are too many factors at play here you to boil down to just a few statistics.
We, as taxpayers, pay for the busing transportation. Not the Public School District. My children are in Catholic school and bus transportation is provided and funded with our school taxes, which we also pay, in addition to tuition.
as far as cost, the poster above is 100% accurate. For about $6,500-7,000 per student, the Catholic schools in Pittsburgh actually teach and prepare our children for the future. the students learn , including the ones in poverty neighborhoods, who would otherwise be stuck in failing, dead-end public schools.
It is beyond time to offer school vouchers and to give ALL parents the choice of where their children should be educated.
No, Catholic schools should not be supported by vouchers. To do so would open the door to sending students to every kind of religious and private school, some of which are far far inferiour to the local public schools.
Catholic schools should be supported by philanthropies. If Gates, Broad, and Walton supported Catholic schools, they would be endowed forever into the future.
Private money for private schools, public money for public schools.
Hi the PPS has many problems to be sure. But name me one Pittsburgh private school that is considered the top 1000 schools in the nation. I can name two public schools: Alderdice and Mt Lebanon. If you care a pittsburgh resident then you do pay for transport. and I pay for yours too. Ninety percent of teachers in The PPS are hardworking an dedicated. They are also certified. Few private schools can say that.
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Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> a:hover { color: red; } a { text-decoration: none; color: #0088cc; } a.primaryactionlink:link, a.primaryactionlink:visited { background-color: #2585B2; color: #fff; } a.primaryactionlink:hover, a.primaryactionlink:active { background-color: #11729E !important; color: #fff !important; } /* @media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px) { .post { min-width: 700px !important; } } */ WordPress.com dianerav commented: “No, Catholic schools should not be supported by vouchers. To do so would open the door to sending students to every kind of religious and private school, some of which are far far inferiour to the local public schools. Catholic schools should be support”
Unfortunately, certification does not guarantee content knowledge, nor does content knowledge guarantee a “teaching personality.” BOTH are needed for great teaching, knowledge + rapport. One or the other will often do for good teaching. Lacking both, a person can only be a poor teachers.
And now Pittsburgh Public Schools is pulling a Penn State. The chief of security, (he was given a promotion by Linda Lane the current superintendent) was arrested today for sexually abusing at least 4 middle school boys from 1999-2005. At least one incident was reported to the district in 1999 they handled it in house, and sent him back to work after 20 days. He has of course reoffended and just got caught. The DA is looking to press charges on PPS for coverup and hauled out tons of paperwork and records from central administration armed with a search warrant.
Icing on the cake… The man in question, Robert Lellock was Mark Roosevelt’s (2005-10) personal driver and bodyguard for Roosevelts entire tenure. Both Roosevelt and Lane are Broad graduates.
This is insane.
I forgot the URL.
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/suspended-pittsburgh-schools-police-officer-charged-with-sex-crimes-654037/
I am not a teacher but a parent. I know that there are bad apples in group: teachers parent and principals. It breaks my heart to see good teachers bullied by the principals and parents. I also see teachers who roll over on their colleagues and allow the principal to bully others. As for the kids? well we all ignore their needs.
We are starting a parent, teacher organization to prevent bullying of all types ( principal on teacher, student on teacher, parent on teacher teacher/principal on parent and kids. We want to take a community based public health approach to school based violence in Pittsburgh Public Schools. If people are interested in joining they can contact us at parentsagainstbullyinginpgh@gmail.com
I know PPS has huge problems but two public schools I this city are in the top 1000 in the nation. Alderdice and Mt Lebanon. Thanks to the dedicated qualified teachers