Category Archives: Pittsburgh Public Schools



Issue Summary (Updated May 2012)Pittsburgh Public SchoolsThe Issue:
 
The Pittsburgh Public School system is too expensive, continues to suffer from declining enrollment despite the creation of the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program, and academic performance is not commensurate with expenditures.   
 
What We Know:
 
Based on audited data for the 2010-11 school year, the Pittsburgh Public School District spent $20,686 per pupil.  That’s climbed significantly from where the per student spending was in 2000-01 when enrollment stood at 37,000.  Now the District has 27,000 students.
 
What is interesting to note is that teacher-to-student ratio has stayed relatively the same in recent years.  There has been a significant uptick in the number of “non-teachers” in the District’s headcount and the District has much more administrative space and square footage than it did before.
 
 
 
Recommendations:
 

The District is currently contemplating another round of school closures and layoffs to adjust to the falling enrollment.  It needs to take a close look at all employment classifications to see why the headcount in non-teaching categories has grown as fast as it has.  Above all, it needs to come to grips with its level of spending and determine why results are less than stellar based on the money spent. 

GreatSchools Ranking of Schools Flawed and Misleading

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education

GreatSchools, a San Francisco non-profit organization, recently ranked cities according to school performance and city affordability. According to GreatSchools the rankings were done to assist parents who might be looking for a new city for their kids’ education.  Among cities with more than 300,000 people Pittsburgh ranked seventh.  As usual, a more in-depth look at the city school rankings shows Pittsburgh’s high ranking reflects deep flaws in the GreatSchools methodology.

 

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Things Are Not Great in Pittsburgh Promise Land

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education

In late December the Pittsburgh Promise Program secured a corporate grant from BNY Mellon.  The $500,000 gift is the Program’s second largest corporate donation, trailing only UPMC’s pledge of $100 million.  While corporations are certainly allowed to donate money as they see fit, we question whether they are doing a lot of good with the Pittsburgh Promise contribution-especially when compared to other worthy education grant opportunities.

 

 

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Pittsburgh Enrollment Decline Forecast to Continue

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education

An independent consultant hired by Pittsburgh Public Schools to study facility usage recommended closing 16 buildings and reconfiguring another 19 of the District’s 70 facilities. The recommendations are based on a projected further 4,500 drop in enrollment by school year 2018-2019.  

 

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LEES TEST ARTICLE

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Article printed from SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com
HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html
11 Things Every Successful Website Needs
By Merle (c) 2009 (http://MerlesWorld.com) 
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So you've put together a spectacular website, and you're ready to go live on the Internet for the whole world
to see. Not so fast there Bucky. In case you didn't know, there are a few essential requirements that every site
needs to include in order to be successful.

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Pittsburgh Public Schools

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Issue Summary (Updated January 2009)
Pittsburgh Public Schools


The Issue:

The Pittsburgh Public School system is too expensive, with general fund expenditures of nearly $20,000 per pupil. For these outlays, taxpayers are not getting a decent return as the district’s pupils continue to rank near the bottom of academic achievement across the state. As a result of high taxes and poor academic performance, the district continues to lose students with enrollment falling below 27,000, from 38,500 in 2001. In order to reverse this trend, the City and the School District have embraced a college scholarship program called the Pittsburgh Promise.

 

What We Know:

Despite spending lots of money on a per student basis, only 53 percent of 11th graders scored proficient on state reading exams and 44 percent scored proficient on math exams. At some high schools the proficiency level is less than 20 percent.

 

The district is hemorrhaging enrollment at a greater rate than the continuing declines of the City of Pittsburgh. Parents of school age children are moving to other school districts or looking for private, religious, or charter school options for educating their children.

 

Now the City, the School District and the foundation community has launched the Pittsburgh Promise, a program that would guarantee college aid to City public school students who maintain a minimum grade point average and attend a pre-approved post- secondary institution. The program amounts to little less than a bribe and is a poor substitute for a quality education.

 

Recommendations:

There is a better way. Pittsburgh could make a bold statement by offering families in the District a $10,000 voucher (1/2 of what they are currently spending per student) to send children to the school of their choice. Parents opting to take the vouchers would obviously forgo any Promise scholarship funds for their child, so those who choose the $10,000 would clearly value education quality now above the Promise scholarship money that requires keeping their kids in Pittsburgh schools for many years. Does the District have the courage to try that experiment? Doubtful if the past is any guide.

 

More simply, they could also simply reduce per student outlays by $5,000 to a far more reasonable, but still high, $15,000. Based on an enrollment of 26,000, that reduction would free up $130 million for scholarships, vouchers, or an assortment of other programs without the unseemly necessity of going to foundations and corporations for additional money for education in a City that already spends far too much for far too little return.

 

Allegheny Institute References:

 

Adding Up the Costs of Pittsburgh School District’s Failures

 

Promises, Promises

 

A Pittsburgh Education Success Story

 

School Lessons from Milwaukee

 

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

 

The Ongoing Abandonment of Pittsburgh Public Schools