More blacks share in Pittsburgh Promise college scholarship program
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The Pittsburgh Promise is spreading the wealth.
New statistics from the group show the percentage of black students receiving the college scholarship is rising.
Saleem Ghubril, executive director of the Pittsburgh Promise, eagerly shared the new numbers in hopes of dispelling persistent "chatter" that he has heard accusing the Promise of not doing enough to help black students, particularly black males.
M. Gayle Moss, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP, previously had expressed concerns that fewer African-American students have been able to take advantage of the Pittsburgh Promise because of educational inequities in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
"I think the Promise is wonderful," Ms. Moss said. "But if you don't have good teachers, if your kids don't come out with a good education and they're not properly prepared, they're not going to be able to take advantage of that program."
The Pittsburgh Promise provides up to $20,000 over four years of college for students meeting grade point average and attendance requirements. In the three years of the program, the minimum GPA has risen from 2.0 to 2.5, and the attendance requirement has gone from none to 90 percent.
Next year's graduating seniors will be eligible for an additional $20,000 over four years if they attain qualifying scores on Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) or SAT exams.
For the Class of 2008, the first year of students eligible for the Promise, only 96 African-American male students received a scholarship award for the following school year.
"While this reflects a national trend, we're still not pleased with it," Mr. Ghubril said. "We want to see our boys be high achieving as well."
Black females fared better, with 205 using a scholarship in the first year, but those numbers are still a relatively small percentage of the 890 black students who graduated from Pittsburgh Public Schools in 2008.
Despite fewer total students and increased eligibility requirements, the Promise granted more scholarships to black male students in the Class of 2010 than the Class of 2008, Mr. Ghubril said.
First Published May 26, 2011 12:00 am
