Pittsburgh Public Schools to pilot state improvement plan

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In Pittsburgh, the state and district teams were able to use data the district had already collected in its new Instruction Review Process, a program implemented by superintendent Anthony Hamlet as part of his strategic plan for the district.

The internal process brings together the district’s central administration and school leadership to look at performance data within the lowest-performing schools in the city and collaborate on that school’s turnaround. A key part of Mr. Hamlet’s plan included the creation of a new Office of School Transformation and the hiring of a new administrator to work directly with those schools. The district announced that former Texas educator Lynett Hookfin will start this month as head of the office.

Pittsburgh’s deputy superintendent, Anthony Anderson, said Ms. Hookfin will work directly with schools identified by the district for additional support, and act as the liaison between those schools and district administration.

“It helps us be more focused on certain areas so we can do a better job moving that needle,” Mr. Anderson said.

Both he and Ms. Hughes said that through the district’s work and the state pilot program, there has been more “buy in” from teachers and the schools involved as they see that the leaders are listening to their input and trying to tailor plans to the specific needs at each school.

“We don’t want to be a system of silos,” Mr. Anderson said. “We want to be a systemof collaborators.”