We must transform Pittsburgh’s public schools

‘Slight gains’ will not do. All who turned Pittsburgh into a model of urban reinvention must help

The superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools recently made public 2017-2018 student test results. The headline on his report was “Slight Gains in Reading, but We Still Have Work To Do.”

Focusing on “slight gains,” however, distracted from the district’s longstanding academic achievement gap between black and white students.

We do not know with certainty the cause of either increases or decreases in the gap from year to year, from school to school, from class to class. But we do know that, consistently over the past 10 years, Pittsburgh Public Schools has failed to close the racial achievement gap. The gap has increased to 30 percentage points during this period, with 30 percent of white students and 60 percent of black students performing “below proficient” in reading, math and science.

The Council of Great City Schools thoroughly examined our school district’s systems and operations, resulting in 137 pointed and helpful recommendations that informed the PPS Strategic Plan for 2017-2022. But one major shortcoming of the review was that it did not address the racial achievement gap. What is the point of being well-structured and operated if we are not advancing our core mission of providing all students with a world-class education that prepares them to compete with graduates from China, India, Africa, Europe and other parts of the world?

The Pennsylvania Department of Education recently published PSSA test results for all commonwealth schools. Schools in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 2017-2018 showed overall proficiency scores in reading, math and science of 10 percent at Miller African Centered Academy, 16 percent at Milliones University Preparatory School and 30 percent at Weil Elementary School. I focus on the Hill District because that is the district I represent on the school board, but this failure of black student achievement runs throughout our public schools — including magnet schools, special-focus schools and charter schools (with a few notable exceptions).

As a member of the school board, I hesitate to publicize these failures, but we will not be able to fix our problems unless we admit them and enlist help from the community at large.

The PPS administration has focused public attention on “slight improvements” since the current superintendent has been at the helm. But this is not a question of how well the superintendent is doing; it’s a question of how well our children are doing. And our children are not doing well.

Worse, Great City’s report and the PPS strategic plan seem more directed to accomplish only “slight improvements.” I have been asking for a transformative plan for the entire year I have been on the school board, but I don’t see transformation. I see continued failure with “slight improvements” that puts us on course to close the racial achievement gap in about a century.

I do not absolve myself or the board. We, too, must take our share of responsibility for high failure rates among black children. We engage with vigor on issues such as guns for school police and suspension rates, Chick-Fil-A Marathon sponsorship and charter schools, as we should, but when PSSA scores are released that should be cause for alarm, there is silence. When our attention is redirected away from failure rates toward “slight improvements,” there is silence. The school board must take its head out of the sand and ensure a firstrate education to all children in Pittsburgh Public Schools.

When I was first elected to Pittsburgh City Council nearly 25 years ago, the city sought to transform its economy and social fabric, and to move away from dependence on steel manufacturing and coal mining instead of managing decline. Since then, the development of eds, meds and high-tech through the collaboration of elected officials, foundations, universities, labor unions and corporations have turned Pittsburgh into a model of urban reinvention that sometimes is referred to as the “mini-Silicon Valley of the East.”

But what has our school district been doing during this transformation? It seems mired in the past, which will hinder Pittsburgh’s ability to keep up with the future.

The school district cannot transform on its own. It needs cooperation, collaboration and buyin from all those forces that turned Pittsburgh around — political and foundation leaders, corporations, labor unions and universities.

Equally important partners are parents and students themselves. Parents and guardians want the best for their children and know that a bright future for them depends on a high-quality education. But many work two or three jobs and find it difficult to be involved in the schooling of their children. Nevertheless, they must insist that their children go to school prepared to learn, respect their teachers and administrators, and work hard, spending more time studying after school and completing their homework.

Students, please forgive my lecturing, but if you want to have a well-paying job, a nice car, a nice home and a healthy family, you must invest in your education now. It will take work and sacrifice, but that is the price of a happy life as adults. It will not just show up at your door. You are not entitled to a happy life; you must earn it.

One thing our society guarantees young black men and women is that if you are not educated and well prepared for the future, your future will consist of a life of poverty, crime, prison and premature death.

I am certain that, with the commitment of the city of Pittsburgh and its citizens, with the hard work of the school superintendent, school board, administrators and teachers, and with the help of parents and all the professionals available to us, we can create a high-performing public school system in Pittsburgh.

In fact, we must.