Mark Roosevelt, superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, talked to a group of Parents at the Excellence for All meeting last week.
I'm a big fan of the public schools. More like a booster than 'brainwashed fan.' And Mark Roosevelt gets three cheers from me today for following my suggestion last week to call for a two hour delay and do it early, so families could plan ahead.
Here is some insights into the school district.
Comments welcomed, of course.
Clip #1:
Spending at Pittsburgh Public Schools. This is the big pledge.
No new taxes. 
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Excellence for All Steering Committee recap
January 27, 2009
Source: Pure Reform.
44 people were in attendance at Frick ISA. The meeting started with Mark Connors’ review of Parent Engagement (PE) activities for this month. PE Tuesdays will be discussing the new African American History course. (see PPS website http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/14311072515345507/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=57543 for times and places of these three meetings).
The members of the Executive Committee for the EFA Steering Committee decided that for this meeting with Superintendent Mark Roosevelt will cover accountability and PPS finances.
I. Accountability-MR states that this is the most complicated piece of the reform process
i. Principals-started the PELA program, funded federally through the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) and through grants from the Broad Foundation. PELA is a program that will recruit, train and evaluate principles for the PPS.
1. PELA has a rigorous application process
2. 8 of 9 graduates from this first class are in schools now
3. Based on the relatively new concept that principals should be “instructional leaders”
4. Principals are tasked with creating a collective educational community. Each school has an “instructional cabinet” made up of teachers, asst. principals, counselors.
5. Principals will be evaluated through PULSE (the Pittsburgh Urban Leadership System for Excellence), a rubric that assesses performance requirements.
a. Four executive directors oversee this process in the schools. Spending at least 60% of their time in schools
b. Principals have a minimum requirement (about 25% of the time) for time spent in the classroom. MR encouraged parents to ask their principals how much time they are spending and what they are doing in the classroom.
6. Misc.-mentor principals must be high performing principals
7. Principals required to create a welcoming school environment where parents will be:
a. greeted warmly
b. given the tools to help parents be partners in their child’s education. PURE Reform asked how this will be done and MR responded that the district is developing these tools
8. Parent from the meeting mentioned the Beginning with Books program that is in 10 schools at this time.
ii. Teachers-the next step will be to start to retool evaluations of teachers
1. Will employ Charlotte Davidson Framework-http://charlottedanielson.com/theframeteach.htm
2. the district is in talks with the PFT
3. Pennsylvania DOE advocates for this model (aside: MR states that they 520 applications for 30 positions at the sci-tech school. Applicants were from private, charter and suburban schools)
4. consequences for unsatisfactory rating: dismissal
a. professional or “vested” teachers-must receive 2 consecutive unsatisfactory ratings after reasonable time given to improve
b. Temporary (first 3 years)-1 unsatisfactory rating
c. Must be supported with evidence (aside: mentioned excitement over Pres. Obama’s stimulus package and money for education)
iii. Parents-
1. as accountable as teachers for child’s education
2. parents are accountable to the people that they care the most about-their children
Questions-
1. Can we get to the point when cuts are based on effectiveness and not seniority?
a. We are not at that point yet, but teachers will be evaluated and dismissed/retained based on performance. He stated that PVAAS (Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System-measures growth in one years time) will assist in evaluating teachers. *NOTE-PURE Reform attended the PVAAS training held by A+ School and the officials stated specifically that PVAAS WILL NOT be used to evaluate individual teachers.
2. Can the “eligibility” criteria be changed so that not so much is given for applicants that grew up in Pittsburgh?
a. They will be looking at “eligibility criteria”. It was discovered recently that the district has more power then they thought to define eligibility criteria. A parent argued that it is a good thing to have teachers from the area that knows Pittsburgh and its people.
3. Is PVAAS data available to parents?
a. Yes on the PA Department of Ed’s website.
4. Can we get parents/students involved in teacher/principal evaluations?
a. This is something worth exploring, but it will never happen in the current system (PFT contract has 2 more years and state law does not allow this parent evaluation).MR posed the question “What if the teacher is not liked by parents, but by all other criteria is succeeding?” This will be a be a strike issue.
5. Pam Little from “Beginning with Books” (BWB) stated that it is easy to get the engaged parents to meeting like this and to attend workshops like the one in our schools with BWB. It is the truly unengaged parents that don’t understand the value of education that present the challenge for PE. What is the district doing for these parents?
a. PSCC meetings and PTA meetings are often off putting to some parents. We need to change the processes at these meetings. The district is going to create structures in schools to create effective parent groups. They are also going to undergo a massive recruiting effort for PE.
6. Why does everything have to be “a meeting”? Why not podcast meetings so that all parents can participate? What about one on one parent mentoring?
a. Good points.
II. Finances
a. District will not raise taxes
b. Budget is holding steady at around $530 million for last three years after $80 million increase for 2 years before MR”S arrival.
c. District has reduced central office positions by $1.6 million
d. The district is utilizing $45 million dollars of outside funding for programs
e. Any district employee that comes up with idea/program that costs money, he/she must come up with another idea that cuts costs
f. Deficit projection three years ago was $70 million but we have only a $12 million deficit.
Re:
e. Any district employee that comes up with idea/program that costs money, he/she must come up with another idea that cuts costs
- Is this really true? This year all costs will be paid for Westinghouse students to attend the prom. Nothing has been said about another idea to cut costs by this amount.
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