The phone rings...
What do you think we should do? I have written extensively on this topic.
Mar 07, 2014
Let's step away from Pittsburgh and look at the borough where I have lived for 34 years, Wilkinsburg, PA. We are one of the ring suburbs of Pittsburgh. We were one of the best school districts in Pennsylvania in the 1950's and ...
Let's step away from Pittsburgh and look at the borough where I have lived for 34 years, Wilkinsburg, PA. We are one of the ring suburbs of Pittsburgh. We were one of the best school districts in Pennsylvania in the 1950's and ...
Mar 14, 2014
You can visit the Schools That Can website and find over 100 schools in America that achieve great things in towns like Wilkinsburg, with poor, needy youth. In Pittsburgh, exemplary schools that successfully work with very ...
Jun 13, 2014
In two previous blogposts, I wrote about the state of education in Wilkinsburg, PA. The first was a background piece on the town and the second proposed strategies for providing our youth with a quality education. The premise ...
May 15, 2015
Wilkinsburg schools made the news recently. They are considering dissolving their Middle and High School programs and paying for their students to attend schools in neighboring districts. This harkens back to the closing of ...
The people who are calling me are responding to the current headlines about the Wilkinsburg - Pittsburgh proposal for educating Wilkinsburg students. So let's dive in one more time and try to answer the question - What should we do?
There are three key components to the proposal.
Component One. "under the plan, more than 200 secondary students from Wilkinsburg would be assigned to Westinghouse 6-12 in Homewood on a tuition basis"
This is straightforward. Wilkinsburg grade 7-12 students would attend Westinghouse 6-12. Pittsburgh is paid tuition for each student (probably between $10,000 - $15,000/student/year.) In essence, Wilkinsburg is contracting with an outside vendor (PPS) to provide middle and high school services for its students. Wilkinsburg initially reached out to the Penn Hills and Woodland Hills School Districts to consider this proposal. Both groups immediately said they were not interested. On the other hand, Pittsburgh immediately engaged with the proposal and it is under serious consideration. Both District School Boards are preparing to vote on the proposal at their October meetings.
As in any business agreement, one would assume that both sides would benefit from the partnership. In this case, Pittsburgh would get about $3 million in annual revenue and Wilkinsburg would provide its students with an education at a superior facility with many additional resources. On the surface it looks like a Win-Win. Let's dig deeper.
Here is a comparison of the two schools on their state test scores as published in the 2013-14 Pennsylvania School Performance Profile.
Only 1 out of 4 Westinghouse students are proficient or advanced in Reading, Math, Science or Writing. This is better than Wilkinsburg students where only 1 out of 10 are proficient or advanced. In either case, both schools rank in the bottom 1% of all high schools in the state. So the proposal recommends sending students who are experiencing little or no achievement to a nearby school that, in many respects, is quite similar from an academic achievement perspective.
There is an upside to sending the students to Westinghouse. They will attend a renovated building with new science labs, technology, library, gymnasium and advanced placement classes. They will attend a school with an athletic program, a marching band and a school musical. And they will attend a district with far greater resources than Wilkinsburg.
There is a downside to sending the students to Westinghouse. They will attend school in a segregated building. They will not achieve academically. And the people deeply embedded in the local communities fear the fights, the gang problems and the issues that will arise from mixing these two neighborhoods in one school.
Component 2. "Wilkinsburg students could enroll in the district's magnet schools based on availability after spots have been filled by qualifying PPS students."
Unfortunately, there is little or no availability in the District's Magnets. So basically Wilkinsburg students will be forced to attend the worst school in the District - Westinghouse. They won't get into magnets, they will not have access to Allderdice H.S., a higher achieving PPS high school that is close to Wilkinsburg, nor will they be eligible for the Pittsburgh Promise Scholarship fund. So this is an empty option. Let's be clear, we are trading Wilkinsburg Middle/High School for Westinghouse Middle/High School.
A number of individuals close to the situation (State Representative, Jake Wheatley, A+ Schools executive director Carey Harris, Board Members from both Districts) share these academic concerns - Plan to send Wilkinsburg students to Pittsburgh Public Schools gets mixed reaction (Post-Gazette, 9/8/15).
On the other hand, it should be noted that the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education and the Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools have signed onto this partnership as it is currently designed.
I believe that Superintendent Linda Lane and her cabinet have the absolute best interest and intentions as they enter this "partnership".
Pittsburgh deputy superintendent Donna Micheaux said the plan could serve as a model for struggling districts throughout the state.
“I think it’s important that we focus on the real reason for this discussion,” Ms. Micheaux said. “As educators, we have a responsibility that all children, regardless of where they live, have access to a quality education. This is more than a technical issue, this is a humane issue with children at the forefront.” (P-G, 9/16/2015)We all agree with this sentiment. The question at hand is whether the Wilkinsburg students will gain "access to a quality education."
Component 3. Also, the plan calls for the standardized test scores of Wilkinsburg students to be tracked separately from Pittsburgh students by the state board of education.
This is strange. Wilkinsburg will pay the Pittsburgh Public Schools to take its grade 7-12 students and educate them. But the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the State of Pennsylvania will not include the Wilkinsburg students' test scores in the Pittsburgh report to the state. The test scores of the Wilkinsburg students will be tracked and reported separately from those of the PPS students. From a state perspective this forces Wilkinsburg's School Board to understand that they are still legally responsible for the education of these students.
I still can 't figure this reasoning out.
Did Pittsburgh agree to this methodology because they are concerned that the test scores of the Wilkinsburg students will be low and will drag down Pittsburgh's already low scores?
Did Wilkinsburg agree to this so they maintain some pseudo-autonomy?
Are both sides concerned about how the Wilkinsburg students will do in this new setting and thus are hedging their bets?
By disaggregating the scores it calls into question exactly who is responsible for the Wilkinsburg students achievement. What if the students don't achieve at a higher level than they did at Wilkinsburg H.S.? Who is to blame?
So the deal is clear... considered a win-win. Wilkinsburg will no longer have to run a middle or high school program and their students will get access to more resources. Pittsburgh will get $3 million in revenue with little impact on their facilities or program. Dr. Lane states that the proposal is revenue neutral from Pittsburgh's perspective. Even the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette thinks its a great idea. Maybe everyone is thinking that this is just another step that is necessary for Wilkinsburg to ultimately merge with Pittsburgh. If that is the case, do the necessary leg work and merge the schools. That would at least give our students equal access to all that PPS has to offer.
They are discussing a partnership that is not a partnership, but a contractual relationship. They are moving students from bad to bad. On the School Digger website for 2013-2014, Wilkinsburg and Westinghouse are ranked 579 and 577 out of 580 respectively. The rankings are based on the students' test scores on Pennsylvania's Keystone and PSSA exams.
This is not a proposal about providing quality education for our students. It is a business deal where one town gets out of the business of education and another town takes the contract. This is the same as when Pittsburgh took over Wilkinsburg's trash removal and recycling. Wilkinsburg saves money, Pittsburgh receives money, and the trash is "removed." Only in this case our students are being removed/recycled - or should I say sold?
400 years since slavery began in the New World, 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation, 60 years since Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling and 35 years since the Pennsylvania State Human Relations Commission demanded integration of our schools - and yet in 2015 we are selling our students to the Pittsburgh Public Schools to obtain a segregated low achieving education. This is the best that these two districts and the state has to offer?
It is not acceptable. Both schools are terrible.
So here's what I suggest we do.
The Wilkinsburg School Board needs an alternative to the current PPS proposal. Without an alternative proposal they are left with no options. The options are limited because the Board chose to consider only public school districts that border Wilkinsburg. Hence, Pittsburgh, Penn Hills and Woodland Hills were the only districts approached. This makes sense from a logistical perspective, and probably from a financial perspective, but not from an educational one. It totally ignored two options that are available to the District.
The first option is to solicit proposals from quality charter schools that have a track record of excellence with students who live in poverty and are of color. This would allow the District to consider alternatives and judge them on the quality of their student achievement with a similar demographic, not on proximity.
If a quality organization with a successful track record submitted a K-12 or grade 7-12 state-of-the-art charter school proposal the Board would legally have to consider it. This would immediately force a discussion, requiring them to consider the possibilities and engage the community. And it would provide an opportunity to energize Wilkinsburg as a whole.
What charter schools might they consider approaching?
Mastery Charter Schools - Scott Gordon
Scholar Academy Charter Schools - Lars Beck
City Charter High School - Ron Sofo
These schools all have strong track records in Pennsylvania. They all could manage this project. And they all would succeed at changing the lives of our children and help our Borough. In this scenario these (and possibly other) charter school groups would be approached and asked to make a proposal to the District. Who would approach them? It could be the School District but it could also be a group of citizens who want quality education in Wilkinsburg. In this day and age it is simply wrong for the School Board to not investigate this option before moving forward. This option would provide the District with oversight, elimination of many of the barriers from moving forward and the ability to work with an organization that has a proven record of outstanding achievement with high poverty populations.
A second (more ambitious) option is to create our own model school and implement it as a charter. At the very time we dismantle our district and send our students away, there is an extraordinary opportunity to create a model school that helps put Wilkinsburg back on its feet.
Project XQ
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| New York Times, 9/14/15 |
In this scenario, a group of talented educators, elected officials, community leaders, students and parents from Wilkinsburg would enter this competition and plan a 21st Century school in the process. We would need a group of people who are doers, not talkers. We would need a group of people with expertise in education and the workforce. And, we would need a group of people who will stop at nothing to help our children thrive. And if the proposal is not chosen by Project XQ, we would still have a plan in hand for moving Wilkinsburg schools forward.
The Wilkinsburg story is compelling. Great location, great housing stock, great history and a long spiral into hard times. Here is an opportunity to address one of the most important barriers to our moving forward. And to saving our children's lives.
An initial concept is due to Project XQ by November 15th.
What I'm proposing is that it is time to put up or shut up. You know who you are. You know what you can offer. It's time to make this happen. I'm not a community organizer, but I'm an educator who helped create one of these quality schools. I know what works and I know what it takes. And I've lived in Wilkinsburg for 35 years. The question is whether there is anyone else out there who sees this as their life's work. Is there anyone who actually wants to see Wilkinsburg succeed and commit the effort to make it happen? If there is, we can make this happen... if we have a team and a commitment.
Here's what I'm willing to do. I am willing to organize a group to work on either of these options. I am also willing to host meetings, facilitate conversations and build a team. I am willing to participate in the writing of the proposal. I'm willing to help get the school off the ground. And I'm willing to take an advisory or governance role if asked and if the project comes to fruition.
What I'm not willing to do is listen to whining, nonsense or stories about the good old days. I'm not willing to discuss all the reasons why this can't be done. It's time to move forward. It's time to put up or shut up.
I have an online survey to fill out if you are interested in joining a Wilkinsburg Working Group (WWG) to find a solution to our education dilemma. The WWG will work towards finding a potential charter organization that will run a Grade 7-12 school in Wilkinsburg or it will submit a proposal for a 21st Century quality school model to Project XQ. If no one responds to the survey, or there is minimal interest in this idea, then we know where we stand. If we get a quality working group together that wants to solve this problem, we will move forward. If you are interested in joining this effort, fill out the survey and pass the word.
You have until October 5 to complete the survey and commit your energies to the project. I'll provide the readers of this blog (and the people who complete the survey) with a report on October 9. The Wilkinsburg Board is allowing public comment on their partnership agreement with Pittsburgh at their Oct. 20 Planning Meeting. They will vote on the proposal October 27th. If we decide to move forward, it would be wise to notify the district of our intent.
I Want to Help Provide Quality Education In Wilkinsburg, PA
And please... if you're not interested in getting involved on a deep level, quit calling me and asking me what to do.
