Testimony of Kathy Fine:

Good evening PPS School Board Members, administration and welcome to our newest school board member, Dr. Ware Allen.

This evening I would like to continue to discuss the Pittsburgh Public Schools PSSA scores. We feel that it is important and necessary to look at PSSA results from many different angles in order to get a full perspective on how our students are performing. Last month, we presented a longitudinal look at the scores so that we could see the progress of a particular group of students over a four year span.

This month, as you can see from the charts that are being passed out, we are presenting a comparison between the statewide and the PPS results. When looking at these charts, there are two findings that are worth exploring.

First, it is interesting how city scores and state scores tend to follow the same trajectory, rising and falling from year to year by similar percentages. In other words, each time the scores went up or down in the PPS, these results were nearly identical in the statewide results. This pattern raises the question of whether tests are easier or more difficult in particular years. We will be following up on that question.

Second, we all know that urban school districts tend to have lower levels of proficiency than the state average. However, we were interested in how the PPS is doing in closing the gap between local and state scores. What we found is that for most grades the gap has pretty much stayed the same or grown. Out of the scores evaluated from 2004-05 to 2008-09, only four comparisons showed any decrease in the gap between PPS and statewide scores while ten comparisons showed no change or an actual increase in the gap. These findings make it clear that we have much work to do to ensure that our students are prepared to be competitive in an increasingly competitive job market.

The last point that I would like to address regards our organization, PURE Reform. While some have questioned our motivation, many others are grateful to have the opportunity to get and share information about our schools during this time of large-scale reform. Creating a world class public school system will provide our children with the education that they need to grow and thrive in the real world. This is a formidable task and it will take a lot of work, a lot of ideas and a lot of listening from everyone. Our children are our motivation. Our motives are PURE.

Testimony of Annette Werner:

Good evening, and congratulations, Dr. Ware Allen, on your appointment.

As part of our Transparency Watch, I’ll be presenting the latest asbestos information.

But first, let me just note that it is one thing to have your school close. It’s another thing to have your school close and feel that your district isn’t being straight with you.

As we all learned last year, asbestos is harmful only if it is friable, and asbestos in plaster becomes friable only if the plaster is damaged.

In the summer of 2007 two pieces of plaster fell at Schenley High School. Summer school was canceled and the building was hurriedly closed at the end of the school year. Thousands of students had their high school careers disrupted, and millions of dollars were spent on a temporary facility.

As we later learned there are other Pittsburgh school buildings with extensive asbestos plaster. Included in my materials are copies of an inspection report for three of these schools. This inspection was done in April 2009 but a report was not released to us until August.

The report shows numerous areas of plaster damage in these schools. In 30 to 40 classrooms at each school, there was an area of damaged plaster where repair was listed as a “high priority.” In these schools as well damaged plaster does sometimes fall. In one room the report noted plaster debris on the ground.

Why would one building be considered hazardous, but the others not? At one point we were told that this was because damage at Schenley was scattered throughout the building and the cause of some damage was unknown. According to this report, though, plaster damage is widely and in general randomly scattered throughout the other three buildings and includes damage by unknown agents.

We have a right to expect consistent treatment of our school buildings. For us to have any confidence that these buildings are being treated consistently we need an independent, expert opinion as to the risks and relative condition of their asbestos plaster, as requested by the petition signed by 200 city residents earlier this year.