Colfax School -- Reputation? (Pittsburgh: best neighborhood, neighborhood, school district)

[mimideede]

We are moving from out of town with two girls who have been in pretty progressive, suburban public schools. Though we can afford private school (barely), we'd love to use public schools if we can. We are the Colfax district and would love to hear anything -- good and bad -- from parents. I know there is a new principal (but don't know anything about him) and I also know that there have been cutbacks. The one person I know there likes it but said the only real negative was that the curriculum tended to be too traditional. Thanks for any thoughts.

[Hopes]

There are a few Colfax schools in the region. Which school district?

[eschaton]

Presuming you mean the Colfax feeder within PPS, it is considered the best neighborhood school inside of the Pittsburgh school district by a large margin. In aggregate, it doesn't score quite as well as the top suburban schools, but this is entirely due to taking in some lower-income black areas, along with the national gap in white and black test scores. Comparing students of the same demographic, Colfax is the equal or superior to the suburban K-8 schools.

[Hopes]

I recall some PPS Colfax parents being unhappy with the middle school feeder.

Since private school gets more expensive for the upper grades, that's something to take into consideration.

I'm trying to wrap my mind around why someone would decide to move to a neighborhood without taking schools into consideration first.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I recall some PPS Colfax parents being unhappy with the middle school feeder.

It's a K-8 school, and the feeder pattern is identical on the middle school level (goes to Allderdice 9-12 of course). A few kids might move to the magnet system when they hit 6th grade though, which might make the aggregate class seem a bit less rigorous from 6-8.

[Hopes]

I only remembered they were upset with the middle school grades. Now that I read your post, I recall they were upset that the best students left for the magnet programs, which watered down Colfax for the upper grades. Since the magnet programs are a lottery, it wasn't a gamble they had anticipated having to make when they entered Colfax in the earlier years.

[EveKendall]

A lot of my colleagues who are Pitt and CMU faculty have children in Colfax. The consensus among them is that it is a great school if your child is really bright, but if the child is struggling or have learning problems, it is not the best option.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

A lot of my colleagues who are Pitt and CMU faculty have children in Colfax. The consensus among them is that it is a great school if your child is really bright, but if the child is struggling or have learning problems, it is not the best option.

This question usually doesn't get the best answers. However, I do like your answer a lot.

[scrapp]

Originally Posted by mimideede

We are moving from out of town with two girls who have been in pretty progressive, suburban public schools. Though we can afford private school (barely), we'd love to use public schools if we can. We are the Colfax district and would love to hear anything -- good and bad -- from parents. I know there is a new principal (but don't know anything about him) and I also know that there have been cutbacks. The one person I know there likes it but said the only real negative was that the curriculum tended to be too traditional. Thanks for any thoughts.

We've had kids at Pittsburgh Colfax since fall 2007 and currently have two there. It is not a perfect school (no such thing), but it is pretty reasonable and our kids are happy there.

We really like the new principal, though he is not that new anymore since this is his third year in the building if I counted correctly (he was a PELA resident under the old principal for a year before stepping up). He is responsive and brings alot of enthusiasm to the school. I think he also does a good job of running the monthly PSCC meetings (e.g. addressing parents' concerns and answering random questions). We've also had good luck with the teaching staff for the most part.

The curriculum content is set at the district level. I think a lot of districts have moved toward a more centrally managed curriculum in response to pressure to get test scores up. I'm not sure exactly what "too traditional" means. For example, in math the district uses "Everyday Math" which I would not call traditional, but that's a national trend (read the "Math wars" article on wikipedia for more details). My main concern with the managed curriculum is how it keeps the more advanced students challenged. What do you do with a kid who pre-tests out of a unit of math or communications? At Colfax they try and provide additional enrichment work to fill that gap. If that is not enough, it is also possible to skip a grade of a subject (but the parent has to push for that).

The cutbacks from last year were across the whole district. The main impact at Colfax was the loss of the parent engagement specialist (the district eliminated this position at all schools), instrumental music program pushed back to 5th grade, and some adjustment to library service (librarian has to teach a communications class now, I think?). There may have been some impact on class sizes, but I don't think it was much because Colfax class sizes were already pretty efficient last year. (The district target average classroom sizes are 25 for K-2 and 28 for 3-8 ... Colfax is at or below those for all grades except 2nd which has an average size of 26).

Colfax has an active PTO. They helped convince the district to build an addition to the school a few years ago (turning Colfax from a K-5 to a K-8). The PTO also funded the playground (PPS district policy is to not provide playground equipment). PTO also added a parent handbook this year with some general info on the school:

http://www.colfaxpto.org/handbook/handbook-20120815.pdf

[scrapp]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I only remembered they were upset with the middle school grades. Now that I read your post, I recall they were upset that the best students left for the magnet programs, which watered down Colfax for the upper grades. Since the magnet programs are a lottery, it wasn't a gamble they had anticipated having to make when they entered Colfax in the earlier years.

I don't think there is a large enough magnet intake to wipe out the middle level. The odds of getting into a magnet are not that great (e.g. 1 in 3 for scitech 6th grade, don't know about CAPA though).

The real middle level problem was in the old days when Colfax was a K-5 and fed into Reizenstein which had a bad rep. Parents successfully lobbied the district to add an addition to the building and turn it from a K-5 to a K-8.