Community Proposal Details

Highlights:

Organize Pittsburgh into geographic regions that allow school choice and ensure equitable access

Shift from exclusive magnets to inclusive, regional schools with a specialized, community-determined themes

Design distinct pathways for achievement

Expand school functionality to serve community needs

Allow flexibility and adaptability to meet the needs and desires of the community

Regional Choice: Basics

    • Retain parent / student choice

    • Concentrate and distribute resources geographically

    • Ease transportation burden

    • Structured community engagement and partnership

    • Establish regional community liaisons

    • Flexibility to expand and respond to changing demographics

    • Guaranteed base curriculum

    • Class sizes of 25 or less

    • Thematic learning - determined by community input

    • 5 Regions created at elementary level

    • Students attend school within their region

    • Guaranteed base curriculum

    • Class sizes of 28 or less

    • Distinct pathways to achievement for HS and beyond

    • Regions expanded geographically to increase choice

    • 2 regions available at Middle School level

    • Guaranteed base curriculum

    • Class sizes of 30 or less

    • Preparation for post-graduation success

      • CTE offerings

      • AP courses

      • Academic-focused programs

    • Region encompasses entire district

    • Any High School in the district is available for ranking (excepting CAPA)

  • Buildings designated to serve as community common spaces

    • Teacher Training Centers

    • Before and After school care

    • Professional Development

    • Space for Collaborative Partners

    • Sport and Academic Teams and Clubs

    • Buildings also used to coordinate effective transportation services

    • See Regional Community Hubs page for more details

Regional Choice: Details of How

    • Weighted rank system

    • Families simply rank their choices in their region upon entry into PPS or transitioning between elementary, middle and high school

    • Ranking is honored whenever possible, but final admission is determined by PPS

    • Heaviest weights applied to historically marginalized zip codes

    • Additional weight for proximity to school

    • Sibling request automatically honored

    • See our School Choice Process page for more details.

    • Pre-K - 5 most dependent on PPS bussing, most restricted region, stay closest to home

    • Coordinated grade configurations, PreK-5, 6-8, 9-12 allows for consistent start times across Elementary, Middle, and High schools to coordinate with aligned transportation efforts

    • Youngest students start earliest, allowing for assistance from older siblings

    • Regional Community Hubs and schools serve as transportation bussing centers

    • Regional Community Hubs also can have before and after school care available to facilitate transportation efforts

    • Utilize same structure to bus Charter and private school students

    • See our Transportation page for more details

    • English Language Learners are fastest growing population in PPS

    • English Language Learners have special needs

    • One school in each region, at each grade configuration level will be designated as a ELL center to have additional resources for ELD

    • Allows more efficient use of itinerant staff by concentrating resources geographically

    • Allows gen ed teachers with experience or inclination instructing ELL students to teach at designated centers

    • Creation of Newcomer Academy (NA), available for grades 6-12

    • New comers that are older when they arrive have more acute and specialized need

    • NA allows district to interface with families who have greatest need

    • NA population includes high incidence of refugeeism and trauma

    • NA provides students and families a place to access specific resources

    • Goal of NA is to enhance English skills as quickly as possible to enter/re-enter general education

    • See ELD Services page for more details

    • Ratio of 1 paraprofessional for every 4 IEPs in general education

    • Bolster in classroom learning with professional support

    • Help to train and recruit more paraprofessionals by providing paraprofessional CTE and certification within PPS

    • See IEP Services page for more details.

    • Moving to a model of ‘opt out’ testing; meaning all students get tested for the gifted program several times in their career, unless they choose to opt out

    • Gifted Individualized Education Plans (GIEPs) are administered in home schools

    • GIEPs incorporated into daily education and Development Period

    • See Gifted Services page for more details.

    • Expanded opportunities to collaborate with community partners

    • Augmented extra-curricular programs

    • Utilize Regional Community Hubs

    • Period of time that is built into the day

    • Allows students and teachers to address individual needs

    • Examples of uses of Development Period include: English language development, General education intervention, addressing IEP and gIEP, Community-led subject exploration, Enhanced Phys Ed

    • See Development Period page for more details

Regional Choice: The Philosophy

  • Consistent grade configurations of PreK-5, 6-8 & 9-12

    Enhance both Equity and Resource Efficiency

    Transform schools into vibrant community hubs

    Develop models prioritizing literacy, math, STEM, & world language

    Develop career exploration opportunities for students

    Eliminate racial and disability disparities

    Allow for cost reduction without compromising educational quality

    Safe, modern and effective learning environments

    Infuse plan with a focus on cultivating joy

  • Create a system that will eliminate the achievement gap

    Create an environment of equity for marginalized populations

    Allow for equitable distribution of resources

    Promote pathways of achievement for all students

    Provide weights for admission to uphold historically marginalized populations

    See our Equity page for more details

  • Family/students can choose the regional school that works best for them

    Teachers can invest in thematic learning with which they identify

    Allows school district flexibility

    Embraces a growth mindset for the district

    Allows students to pursue pathways of achievement from K-12

    Creates opportunities for enriching experiences throughout educational experience

    Prepares students for post graduate success

    Helps to integrate a historically segregated city

  • Proximity to home

    Thematic learning

    Extracurricular opportunities: Band, Sports, etc

    Career and technical learning opportunities

    Proximity to work or childcare

    School demographics

  • Creates educational pathways from elementary to high school

    Allows staff to focus on a teaching style

    Educators choose themes that fit personal beliefs & teaching abilities

    Allows students to align with thematic learning that appeals to them

    Creates opportunities for community engagement within the school

    Enhances likelihood for postgraduate success

  • A building devoted to expanding school-community connection

    One community hub in each of the five regions

    Creates a specific point for community engagement

    Allows community needs to be addressed via services in the building

    See Regional Community Hubs page for more details

  • Professional development for staff during school days

    Community-district interactions

    Before and afterschool care

    Bussing transportation hub

    Partnerships with the community to help address needs

    Afterschool clubs: art, lego first, gaming

    Athletic opportunities

    Partnerships with the city to provide services

    See Regional Community Hubs page for more details

  • Performance based entry requiring an audition

    Creating additional resources to offer more admissions

    CAPA 6-8 is not audition based to allow for greater exposure

    See CAPA page for more details

This page is meant to be an easy to approach summary. Our team also did a presentation to explain the concept to the public. Please note that some of our proposal details have changed since this presentation, but the main concepts etc remain. You can review the video of that presentation in our Videos page as well as the slides:

We also have created more detailed pages about certain aspects of our proposal. Please refer to the “Plan Details” drop down menu at the top of the page to read more about a number of specific topics. If these conflict with the presentation video/slides, what you read here is the most up to date.

This site is a work in progress. More details coming soon!