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Excellence for All Steering Committee March 24, 2009 I. Tribute Cards Rosanne Levine announced that the PPS will be selling “Tribute Cards” that can be purchased for varying amounts of money (missed this part of the meeting) and some type of card would be sent to whomever one chooses to honor (teacher, parent, student, etc). The proceeds from these cards will go towards the Pittsburgh Promise Fund. II. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Mark Roosevelt spoke regarding plans that the PPS has for spending federal stimulus money. States that $2.6 billion dollars is slated for preK-12. He stated that fortunately, we are not in the same financial crisis that some districts are in (i.e. laying off teachers) so that we can use stimulus money for programming and not for filling in budget gaps. Pittsburgh Public Schools will receive $43.2 million over 2 years: • $5.1 for general stimulus dollars for “proven academic programs for students” • $16.1 for improving reading and math instruction for children in poverty (Title I) • $13.6 million for general stimulus dollars • $7.9 million for special education programs and services (IDEA) • $500,000 for technology integration (Title II-D) PPS will target spending to maximize achievement and engagement: • We will focus on literacy • We will focus on the middle school years • We will focus on creating extended time for learning • We will innovate He stated that literacy in the 3rd grade went from 34% to 64%. QUESTION: Quality teachers are essential, but how we hire teachers is inadequate. What will be done to change this process? MR: The PPS will have a new method for hiring teachers in the near future. Stated that he chose to come in to the district and start with a cooperative approach to working with the PFT as opposed to others superintendents like Michelle Rhee in D.C. that chose to challenge the PFT from the start. He stated that if there was no change to the mechanism for hiring, he will “shut it down”. Two Point Plan will put more students on the Pathway to the Promise Intense Literacy Intervention - Expand the capacity and intensity of intervention for struggling readers every day, at every school Summer Enrichment program- All students in grades 6-8 participate in a summer program that combines literacy exercises with fun, engaging, choice-driven activities Plan is to have a 4-6 week program that will be a bridge between school years that will focus on literacy and math. This program will be a “camp-like” setting to promote engagement. QUESTION (from PURE Reform): What will be the mechanism that will ensure that the students needing the extra help will attend the summer program? MR: There was some talk of making program mandatory, but “mandatory” suggests some consequence for non-participation and that is not possible. Hoping to make the program appealing enough that students will want to participate. QUESTION: What is an example of an activity that will assist in increasing literacy? MR: We don’t have a diagnostic yet to pinpoint types of activities QUESTION: How do we ensure that we are not teaching to the PSSA test? MR: Studies have shown that the Broad program graduates (from which he came) under perform their peers for the 1st 2 years, but that after that, Broad superintendents outperform their peers by 100% because they don’t “teach to the test”. Regarding the controversy over testing, other countries that are cleaning our clocks have been testing for longer and deeper. Two Next big steps: 1) Teacher effectiveness 2) Pathway to the Promise QUESTION: Of the 6-700 6th graders, does the district have any sense of how many kids already participate in camp experience? MR: We do not have those numbers. QUESTION: There are different pots of money from the stimulus package. Where is money for summer camp coming from? MR: It will be coming form different pots. We have not always been proud of how we spend Title I money. We must report spending of stimulus money monthly to the feds. QUESTION: In reference to rewarding kids through gifts cards etc. Are we bribing our kids to do better? MR: It is a national movement to pay kids for achievement. I am against, but middle class parents reward for achievement all the time. It is dangerous turf, but we should think about it-with big problems, we shouldn’t rule anything out. QUESTION: At the end of 5th grade, it is too late. Should we start at the beginning of 4th grade? MR: It was not easy to decide what grades to participate. Problem is resources and capacity. QUESTION: I have an idea that would encompass everything that we want to achieve-building natural playground. There is a green company that does this with different programs MR: Great idea. I will look into it. MR: It makes no sense not to have Health Careers CTE in Pittsburgh. We are developing CTE curriculum now. III. PROPOSED MAGNET PROCESS [To be added]

Excellence for All Steering Committee
March 24, 2009

Rosanne Levine announced that the PPS will be selling “Tribute Cards” that can be purchased for varying amounts of money (missed this part of the meeting) and some type of card would be sent to whomever one chooses to honor (teacher, parent, student, etc). The proceeds from these cards will go towards the Pittsburgh Promise Fund.

II. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Mark Roosevelt spoke regarding plans that the PPS has for spending federal stimulus money. States that $2.6 billion dollars is slated for preK-12. He stated that fortunately, we are not in the same financial crisis that some districts are in (i.e. laying off teachers) so that we can use stimulus money for programming and not for filling in budget gaps.

• $5.1 for general stimulus dollars for “proven academic programs for students”

• $16.1 for improving reading and math instruction for children in poverty (Title I)

QUESTION: Quality teachers are essential, but how we hire teachers is inadequate. What will be done to change this process?

MR: The PPS will have a new method for hiring teachers in the near future. Stated that he chose to come in to the district and start with a cooperative approach to working with the PFT as opposed to others superintendents like Michelle Rhee in D.C. that chose to challenge the PFT from the start. He stated that if there was no change to the mechanism for hiring, he will “shut it down”.

Intense Literacy Intervention - Expand the capacity and intensity of intervention for struggling readers every day, at every school

Summer Enrichment program- All students in grades 6-8 participate in a summer program that combines literacy exercises with fun, engaging, choice-driven activities

Plan is to have a 4-6 week program that will be a bridge between school years that will focus on literacy and math. This program will be a “camp-like” setting to promote engagement.

QUESTION (from PURE Reform): What will be the mechanism that will ensure that the students needing the extra help will attend the summer program?

MR: There was some talk of making program mandatory, but “mandatory” suggests some consequence for non-participation and that is not possible. Hoping to make the program appealing enough that students will want to participate.

QUESTION: What is an example of an activity that will assist in increasing literacy?

MR: Studies have shown that the Broad program graduates (from which he came) under perform their peers for the 1st 2 years, but that after that, Broad superintendents outperform their peers by 100% because they don’t “teach to the test”. Regarding the controversy over testing, other countries that are cleaning our clocks have been testing for longer and deeper.

QUESTION: Of the 6-700 6th graders, does the district have any sense of how many kids already participate in camp experience?

QUESTION: There are different pots of money from the stimulus package. Where is money for summer camp coming from?

MR: It will be coming form different pots. We have not always been proud of how we spend Title I money. We must report spending of stimulus money monthly to the feds.

QUESTION: In reference to rewarding kids through gifts cards etc. Are we bribing our kids to do better?

MR: It is a national movement to pay kids for achievement. I am against, but middle class parents reward for achievement all the time. It is dangerous turf, but we should think about it-with big problems, we shouldn’t rule anything out.

QUESTION: At the end of 5th grade, it is too late. Should we start at the beginning of 4th grade?

MR: It was not easy to decide what grades to participate. Problem is resources and capacity.

QUESTION: I have an idea that would encompass everything that we want to achieve-building natural playground. There is a green company that does this with different programs MR: Great idea. I will look into it.

MR: It makes no sense not to have Health Careers CTE in Pittsburgh. We are developing CTE curriculum now.