City schools face a reckoning
There is a reckoning coming in Pittsburgh Public Schools and we are not adequately prepared for it. The lack of consistent schooling over the past 18 months combined with the rising levels of racial consciousness in our youth will bring unprecedented challenges to the public school system. We now have a choice: Be proactive and anticipate these issues or be reactive and do damage control when a crisis hits.
The American Education Research Journal estimates that students lose between 17% and 34% of the previous school year’s learning during the summer. COVID’s disruption, the equivalent of four consecutive summer breaks, means that many students will be entering the fall with significant learning loss.
A student who received six months of kindergarten in 2019-20 will now be starting as a secondgrader in September. That is a great deal of social and academic skill lost. We know that students who struggle academically often act out with problematic behavior and, in turn, get suspended. Suspension is the most common indicator of dropping out of school and has been definitely linked to unemployment and imprisonment later in life. This pattern is one that local schools need to plan for and be prepared to accommodate.
I have spent the past 20 years in public education and I’ve seen the social, emotional and academic impact of learning disruptions on students. These effects are amplified for students who already suffer disproportionately from school disciplinary policies.
According to ProPublica’s Miseducation Project, non-white students in Pennsylvania public schools are suspended 2.9 times more frequently than their white peers. Likewise, ProPublica reports that Pittsburgh Public Schools made nearly 1,300 referrals to law enforcement during the last full school year. How will schools handle student/police contact now that people of color are raising important concerns about racial profiling and violence? What is our schools’ plan to support students who struggle to reacclimate to the school environment? Are teachers being trained to respond to an almost certain uptick in disruptive behavior? How have schools prepared to address students’ concerns of racism?
Food for thought for city, state and school officials as they consider the use of the substantial COVID rescue fund. The longstanding issues of educational inequality in Pittsburgh Public Schools are overdue for consideration. COVID’s disruption and the national conversation about racism all but guarantee new challenges for students returning to school this fall. School and government officials cannot plead ignorance to what is coming.
We owe it to our young people to welcome them back to school with open arms, open minds and strategic plans to support their success.
Kevin Brezler has worked in public schools in New Orleans, St. Paul, Minn., and Portland, Ore., as well as in Pennsylvania where he was the executive director of Summerbridge Pittsburgh from 2002-2007. Focusing primarily on racial equity and summer learning, he has a background in restorative practices. He resides in Murrysville.