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Ailing school districts seek a cure
Wednesday, August 29, 2001 By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Education Writer
Duquesne City second-grade teacher Rita Greer cried when she heard kindergarten teacher DeAnne Solomon Massung talk about her.
Solomon Massung, who has taught in Duquesne for 12 years, was recalling when Greer, who has taught for 32 years, taught her. Greer even has a paper written by Solomon Massung in elementary school, about how she wanted to be a teacher and grow up to be "nice and fun like Mrs. Greer."
"Mrs. Greer encouraged everyone that they could be anything they wanted," said Solomon Massung.
Her recollection was part of a recent weeklong training session for 38 Duquesne teachers. Aside from learning new classroom management techniques, the teachers also increasingly bonded as a group, something that will be important as they help each other face the challenges of the coming year.
Teachers in Duquesne, like those in the other so-called "empowerment districts," are under intense pressure to boost student performance.
A year ago, 12 districts statewide -- including Duquesne, Clairton, Sto-Rox and Wilkinsburg in Allegheny County and Aliquippa in Beaver County -- were named empowerment districts because of poor test scores on state math and reading tests in grades five, eight and 11. And Duquesne is under even more pressure because the state declared it financially distressed last fall, resulting in an appointed board of control running the district.
The districts were given up to three years to improve or face takeover by the state. Each had to devise a school improvement plan to get extra state money, annual allotments as high as $601,028 per district in Western Pennsylvania.
Most received their money so late in the year that they couldn't spend much of it during the last school year, so the state permitted them to carry it over to this school year.
Each improvement plan has its own flavor, but common ingredients include more teacher training, new teaching methods or materials and hiring a professional to focus on curriculum.
In Wilkinsburg, for example, teachers spent time this summer studying new block scheduling, in which periods are about twice as long as usual, two new math programs called Everyday Math and Connected Math, and other topics.
"The teachers have been willing to dig in and to work," said Leah McCord, Wilkinsburg's new director of curriculum and instruction, a position funded by empowerment and grant money.
In Clairton, Superintendent Peter Zonca is confident the groundwork laid this summer will make a difference. It included teacher training in a highly scripted instructional approach called SRA Direct Instruction.
Here are other details on how the region's lowest-performing schools plan to improve this school year:
Aliquippa
A main focus for Aliquippa, where school opens today, is textbooks.
The district has spent $285,000 on about 5,000 textbooks, said Pete Carbone, middle school principal and empowerment team member. That includes new math books for all grades and new science and English books in some grades.
Carbone said some of the district's old books had copyrights dating to 1984. Some were in such short supply that students had to share them in class and couldn't take them home.
He said the district also is using empowerment money to add some staff, including special education, high school reading specialist and high school math teacher.
The district also is hiring a consultant, Irene Conrad, a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh, to help it redesign its curriculum.
Clairton
Clairton, which last year received $530,330 and will receive a similar amount this year, is investing more than $300,000 to start the Direct Instruction program.
"I do believe we're going to see in one year's time significant improvement. This is what our research has told us and showed us," said Zonca.
While Direct Instruction will be provided for everyone in kindergarten through eighth grade, the approach also will be used to provide remedial reading help for some students in 11th grade, one of the years in which state standardized tests are given.
In addition, the district is hiring a a full-time Direct Instruction facilitator to oversee the program.
Duquesne
Duquesne, which received $526,019 last year and will receive a similar amount this year, has a school improvement plan that calls for the district to consider becoming an "independent school."
While that idea is being discussed, however, the board of control has not moved ahead with hiring a director of curriculum and instruction called for in its empowerment plan.
The district has expanded course offerings at the high school, created a middle school "team" approach and is continuing an alternative school that began last year.
Earlier this week, the board of control hired a social worker and a school/community liaison using empowerment money.
Sto-Rox
Sto-Rox, which received $583,398 last year and will receive a similar amount this year, is making some of its biggest empowerment expenditures for more staff members.
The list includes a director of curriculum and instruction, community involvement coordinator, special education coordinator, elementary math specialist, elementary language arts specialist, a math specialist and a reading specialist for the middle school, two deans of students and three emotional support teachers.
The empowerment effort comes at the same time the district is embarking on a building program. During the summer, renovations were done on the high school, with more scheduled for next summer. A new middle school, scheduled to open in a year, is being built.
Wilkinsburg
Top priorities in Wilkinsburg, which received $601,028 last year and will receive a similar amount this year, include ensuring the curriculum is "consistent and cohesive," said Jean Dexheimer, school board president.
She said one of the most important steps was hiring Leah McCord, former principal of Fairless Elementary School in Woodland Hills , as director of curriculum and instruction, a new position.
The board adopted two sets of nationally bench-marked academic standards: New Standards and Primary Literacy Standards.
New math programs include Connected Math for middle school students, which emphasizes a hands-on, conceptual approach.
Block scheduling in the high school will enable students to have longer science labs and do projects in other courses.
Tomorrow: Arts education gets what educators believe is a long-overdue sign of respect.
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