SciTech school continues to mark high achievement
IPittsburgh Post-Gazette t started as the idea of a group of Carnegie Mellon graduate students: Could Pittsburgh Public Schools be home to an academically rigorous science and technology school that welcomes students from all backgrounds, gets them up to state standards across all subjects by graduation and provides real-world career connections?
More than a decade after it was dreamed up, the school has achieved some of that vision, outperforming other district schools while, some say, not transcending other challenges that befall students of color. Ask Alexandra Borelli about her experience, though, and she will credit the school with taking her interests seriously and giving her every opportunity to explore them.
“I’ve been here since seventh grade, and I’ve loved every minute of it,” said the 17-yearold senior from Lincoln Place, who wants to be a physician assistant. “It’s made me into who I am today.”
SciTech 6-12 is among the district’s most desirable schools, a magnet among the cluster of universities in Oakland that opened in fall 2009 as part of then-Superintendent Mark Roosevelt’s plan to revamp the district’s high schools.
At the time it was then one of about 100 secondary schools specializing in science nationwide, promising a curriculum called “Dream. Discover. Design.” that would allow students to carry out research, apply knowledge and focus on one of four STEM concentrations. It even lured beloved teachers like Edwina Kinchington, a longtime cancer researcher with a doctorate in pharmacology, away from the University of Pittsburgh — with her connections and resourcefulness in tow.
Architects of the plan insisted, too, as project manager Sam Franklin put it in a document outlining his vision, “The school should be an inclusive institution with an outreach component that attracts students of all races and socioeconomic circumstances.” Of its 528 students enrolled last school year, 39 percent were black, 46 percent white and 44 percent were economically disadvantaged, making it one of the most diverse magnets in the district.
Together, Pittsburgh Public’s five 6-12 schools were 62 percent black, 29 percent white and 54 percent economically disadvantaged last year, while those figures districtwide are 52 percent, 33 percent and 63 percent, respectively, according to a recent report from education advocacy group A+ Schools.
SciTech’s 91 percent 2016 graduation rate is lower than it’s been in recent years but still higher than the 2016 district’s rate of 80 percent. Seventyseven percent of graduates were attending a college or trade school. And 79 percent were eligible for the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship, better than the 66 percent of seniors overall last year.
While there are no academic requirements to apply to SciTech in its three earliest grades, those applying to ninth and 10th grades must score basic, proficient or advanced on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment math test.
While popular and inclusive, the school has fallen short of at least one lofty goal: “Regardless of the academic level that students bring to the school,” reads a report summarizing the plan, “100 percent of students will meet state standards in math, science, and English before graduation.”
SciTech generally outperforms other district schools and claimed two major victories in recent years: It earned the overall highest score of any Pittsburgh Public high school on the state Department of Education’s School Performance Profile in the 2014-15 school year. The next year, it was one of only two district schools that scored in the 80-87 range on that state report card, which grades schools on a scale of 100 — with the chance to earn seven extra points — mostly based on standardized test scores.
But the latest state data