City boasts diverse student body at new sci-tech school
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Pittsburgh Public Schools officials yesterday said they've assembled a racially and economically diverse student body for the new science and technology magnet -- and lured 18 students from charter and private schools to boot.
However, relatively few girls applied. While the district called that disappointing, the lack of interest reflects a nationwide concern about under-representation of women in science fields.
The district received about 600 applications for 250 total slots in grades six through nine at the school, which will open next August at the Frick building in Oakland.
Students could list multiple choices on the districtwide magnet application form, and 425 of the 600 applications named sci-tech as the student's first choice.
"We have waiting lists for every grade except seventh, where there are still two spots available," Sam Franklin, school project director, said in a memo to district officials and other school supporters.
Fifty percent of admitted students are black, 41.3 percent white and 64.2 percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
In a federal grant application it submitted two years ago, officials said 60.6 percent of students districtwide were black, 36.7 percent white and 66 percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
Only 37 percent of sci-tech applicants were girls, and only 35.8 percent of admitted students are girls.
"We are already developing a strategy to address this gender gap during next year's recruitment process," Mr. Franklin said.
District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said the district conducted a high-profile recruitment campaign for sci-tech, a linchpin of the district's efforts to improve high schools. The magnet eventually will grow into a school for 550 students in grades six through 12, with students focusing studies in one of four science-related fields.
District magnets traditionally reserved up to 50 percent of slots for black students, but a 2007 Supreme Court ruling struck down race-based enrollment practices.
The sci-tech school was the first city magnet to take a different approach to promoting diversity -- a "weighted lottery" that gave applicants additional chances at enrollment if they qualified for free or reduced-price lunches, posted above average scores on the state math and reading tests and met other criteria unrelated to race.
The district long has been losing students to charter and private schools. But sci-tech school admitted 18 students from 15 charter and private schools -- and turned others away.
First Published February 13, 2009 12:00 am
