Foundation of the Month

Love it or hate it, the Pittsburgh Promise now has the support of almost every major charitable foundation in Pittsburgh. The latest donation is $9 Million over 3 years from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

In recent months, Promise gifts also have been pledged by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation ($2.5 million over five years); the Grable Foundation ($5 million over five years); The Heinz Endowments ($6 million over three years); Buhl Foundation ($3 million over 10 years); Pittsburgh Foundation ($10 million over about 10 years); and Massey Charitable Trust ($1 million).

Now that's an honor roll.

On top of that, Pittsburgh and other urban school districts nation-wide are slowly improving their "student achievement" (a nebulous term at best) relative to their suburban counterparts.

50% Is Good Enough For Me

Regarding the new Pittsburgh school policy that no student can earn less than a 50% on a test, it is NOT "mathematically sound". However, that does not mean that the program is bad. I'm excited to see administrators trying out new policies instead of just sticking to the same old policies that weren't working. Administrators have their hearts in the right place here, it just remains to be seen whether it will work. The true test will be if the nameless administrators find out it doesn't work, will they back it out? Will they adjust it? Or will they insist on following through with a bad idea?

I see 3 main scenarios in students:
1) The "good student". This student doesn't want to get an F period. They have a caring family and if a bad week happens and their grandpa and dog die in the same week and they skip a test - they get a get-out-of-jail free card. Still, if you have an A or B average and you get a 50 on a test, it will knock you down a grade. Period.

2) The "slacker". This person just wants to get out of school as quickly as possible. Maybe they have other responsibilities. Maybe they just want to loaf at the mall. Well, they still have to pass. If they do as little as possible, and skip a few tests, they could still pass. They could cheat the system. But there are all sorts of ways to cheat the system. If you want to be a "slacker", I don't think this is going to make a difference.

3) The kid who's trying and deserves a chance but their best friend got shot last week and it's thrown them for a loop and they screw up for a month straight. Now they have a chance to make up for some lost time, learn the material they missed and pass for the year.

I think this process working is dependent on a few things though.

First, tests have to be cumulative and get increasingly more difficult during the year. The kid actually has to learn something. For instance, if it's math, and the kid fails the test on long-division and never learns it because the other tests don't cover it, that kid shouldn't pass. Otherwise, you're just pushing problems along.

Second, teachers can't be scaling the grades. A 50 has to remain failing. Students must realize that a 50 is failing.

How is it being implemented? I don't know. I'm sure it varies by teacher, by school and even by student.

What do I know? This isn't "mathematically sound". It's giving a second chance to kids. It's helping kids out. It's a potentially good idea. And the administrators need to work with the teachers to come up with a compromise if it's not working. And if the majority of teachers are upset about it, it's not working as is.

But speaking of good ideas for our city school system, I just wanted to throw out a shout-out to the Pittsburgh Promise. I'm looking forward to seeing your report card in 2009.

Love in Cambria

"All I ever wanted to do was love Joann Long, she my soul mate, and now I blew it all, I love her so much I think I lose my mind. All I wanted to do was love Joann and have a normal life that will never be, I love Joann." - written by 51 year-old Mr. Philips, who stole $15,000 from his 85 year-old mother before strangling her and ditching her in some gamelands.

Someone never learned to share in kindergarten.

This reminds me of the bathroom graffiti I read this weekend:
"When there is world peace, we will be so happy."

In good news, there was a generous bump for the Pittsburgh Promise this week. Of course, it wouldn't have helped Mr Philips way out in Cambria County. Let this be a reminder you don't have to live in Pittsburgh to be faced with violence, drugs, prison sentences, and bad grammar. Old white guys in the hills do it too.

Let's Keep This Promise

Lately, it's been hard to wade through the overwhelming national news to grasp at the important local news. Today, this gem appeared hiding beneath all the fancy pictures and big text:

"From Pittsburgh Public Schools, CCAC received 258 graduates, compared with 199 the previous year when the Pittsburgh Promise wasn't available."

Simply put, Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) has higher enrollment this year and a good percentage of that is from Pittsburgh Promise kids. Sounds promising. What's an extra bonus here is that the Pittsburgh Promise could easily cover the entire $1500/ semester tuition at CCAC and not put those kids at risk of losing a chance at education because of the current credit crunch.

Some information that would have rounded out the story would be general numbers from Pittsburgh schools. Did the overall number of students enrolling at colleges increase this year? Or did just more students choose CCAC instead of other options? I think it's to be expected that every year, high schools send more students to college. I'm sure there are many factors that have led to increased attendance at CCAC like its appeal of affordability in precarious economic times and its city wide bus advertisements. Also, time will tell if these new students succeed at their new school or fall behind and drop out. However, I do not look at increases like 30% lightly. That's a pretty impressive number for the first year of the Pittsburgh Promise and if even a small percentage of the increase is directly attributed to the Promise, it's a great accomplishment.

(reference: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08277/917055-298.stm)

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

I'm having a hard time working myself into a rage about Barden today, but he still deserves mention.

I definitely can't work myself into a rage about Schenley high school, but maybe that's because I don't have kids, and I'm a newcomer to the area. I was psyched to see that someone else actually donated some money to the Pittsburgh Promise. Thanks Massey-Buick!

I'm just content and hungover. Don't worry. I'll be back in a rage shortly!

Promises, Promises

When I bought a house in Pittsburgh in August, I fully planned on penny-pinching and sending any future children to private school. After talking to some friendly folks at Penn Ave's Final Fridays and reading about the new program, the "Pittsburgh Promise," I had pretty much changed my mind. I was planning on giving the Pittsburgh Public schools a chance, largely thanks to UPMC's commitment. I know full well that this program is not going to single-handedly turn things around, but I also think that the city is headed in the right direction.

Unfortunately, our mayor, whom I generally support on the actual issues <*gasp*>, chose not to mention that UPMC wanted a promise in return that in the unlikely event that the state decides to tax non-profits, they wanted to make sure they wouldn't be required to pay us more than $10 Million per year. Did I mention that, if the unlikely event happened, UPMC would only be paying $8.3 million per year for property taxes, a nice hefty bonus of $1.7 million to the city of Pittsburgh, which currently only gets a contingent $1.5 million per year! These are big numbers, and they are real numbers, and it's important to not forget that.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Len Bodack says: "the scholarship program should be open to city children in private and parochial schools, not only those in the public schools..." if the tax credit applies to UPMC. I don't have to wonder if his kids are in private or parochial schools.
At least, I'm not the only one sick of his bullshit and happily he's out of office at the end of 2007. (http://bootbodack.com/) Where is his logic here?? My tax dollars don't currently support private schools. My tax dollars do currently support public schools. UPMC currently supports no schools. Their tax dollars (if they were created) would support public schools - just like mine.

How long have we gone without that tax collection from UPMC? Would a maximum of 10 more years without the money going directly into the city's coffers really outweigh having a viable school system. This program has done wonders for Kalamazoo, Michigan. Can we please give it a chance here?

To the naysayers, who claim that if we offer this deal to UPMC, we have to offer it to everybody who donates to the Pittsburgh Promise: I say, sure. Let's offer it to any non-profit who is not currently obligated to pay any taxes and who wants to commit to donating money to the city.

In the meantime, please skewer the mayor and his staff for not mentioning this earlier - this is a real problem and has jeopardized the start of this major program. More importantly, please realize how much this scholarship program is in jeopardy for 2008 and that it can be resolved if certain council-members can just get over themselves and work together.

(references: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07352/842538-53.stm)