2022 Executive Summary
2022 Report to the Community
Executive Summary
“And how are the children?” ~ Traditional Maasai greeting
Since 2004, A+ Schools has produced this Report to the Community on Public School Progress in Pittsburgh to provide you, the caregivers, community leaders, and members of organizations that serve our children, with a picture of how they are doing. And we know our children’s success is bigger than any one of us.
Our focus with this 17th report in 18 years is to understand whether we are giving each child what they need to reach and exceed a shared standard of success (our definition of equity). This summary provides an analysis across multiple dimensions of equity to understand how current systems (both school and community) work to create the outcomes that we see for our children.
We asked if the current system:
Integrates schools racially and socioeconomically (enrollment equity)?
Provides more resources to students with greater needs (funding equity)?
Supports students with the greatest needs with a diverse and well-supported teaching force (teaching equity)?
Disciplines all students in the same way (discipline equity)?
Provides opportunities for all students to take rigorous courses and explore their passions (opportunity equity)?
We follow this discussion of system equity issues with a look at the outcomes that can predict future academic and life success. These outcomes are:
Attendance
State test proficiency
SAT proficiency
GPA as an indicator of future success in college or trade school
Graduation
College and trade school enrollment
We note that the pandemic has exacerbated issues of equity. We need to think more holistically about how community organizations like A+ Schools, our partners in the Pittsburgh Learning Collaborative, and local, state and federal governments can come together with our schools to support our children and families, not just to succeed in school but to thrive in life. We hope this report provides our community with the data needed to answer the question “And how are the children?” in a way that spurs action and collaboration for our kids.
We also highlight bright spots across the district—schools and programs that are getting better outcomes by doing something in a different way.