Woodland Hills ranks in top 10 nationwide for elementary student suspensions (Pittsburgh: school district, land)

[jfds]

Originally Posted by Uptown kid

And people wonder why there are shootings at the Edgewood Towne Centre?
Woodland Hills is a great example of the school to prison pipeline that plagues already disenfranchised people.

The schools that were part of these mergers have absolutely zero chance of ever getting any better. We want our children to get a good, quality education and would also consider moving if our local school district was merged with a lower-performing district.

Parents should demand improvement and if that fails they should consider moving to a more affluent neighborhood with better schools.

[stburr91]

Originally Posted by jfds

The schools that were part of these mergers have absolutely zero chance of ever getting any better. We want our children to get a good, quality education and would also consider moving if our local school district was merged with a lower-performing district.

Parents should demand improvement and if that fails they should consider moving to a more affluent neighborhood with better schools.

The problem is that a lot of the children in the WHS district are from low income families, and moving to a more affluent neighborhood with better schools is simply not an option. Many of the families that can afford to do this, or can send their children to private schools, have already done so, only to leave the district ever worst off.

Putting all of the low income/disadvantaged children into their own districts, is that is not only hurts these children, but also hurts the property values in these low performing districts. While I'm not a big fan of mergers, at least with county wide school districts, everyone has the same schools, and pays the same tax rate.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by stburr91

The problem with Churchill or Edgewood leaving the district is that they would take a large percentage of the tax base with them. The district already has funding problems, it's unlikely it could operate without the tax dollars from Churchill and Edgewood, so I couldn't see them being allowed to ever leave. It would seem that all of the communities within the district are chained to this sinking ship until it goes down. As we can see from the Wilkinsburg district, the state is unwilling to step in and putting these lame districts down, so it could be decades before the WHS district problem will be dealt with.

If Edgewood voted simply to join Pittsburgh lock stock and barrel, I don't think there is anything Woodland Hills could do to stop the deal. Although, given Pittsburgh has higher municipal taxes than Edgewood, most of the net tax savings from PPS would be canceled out. Still, it would lower property taxes and result in better schooling options.

That said, a portion of Hays (albeit with nearly no residents) is in Baldwin-Whitehall School District, so by simply consolidating with Pittsburgh, Edgewood might not automatically go into PPS. It's possible more authoritative action would be needed.

[SuburbanPioneer]

Wouldn't residents of a county wide school district be looking for a better school feeder pattern when choosing where to live? Unless some form of affirmative action is forced?

Similar to Allderdice/Carrick HS situation in PSD.

Sorry, it just sounds like a pipe dream.

Magnet schools in Pittsburgh lose their racial balance | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SuburbanPioneer

Wouldn't residents of a county wide school district be looking for a better school feeder pattern when choosing where to live? Unless some form of affirmative action is forced?

Similar to Allderdice/Carrick HS situation in PSD.

Sorry, it just sounds like a pipe dream.

Magnet schools in Pittsburgh lose their racial balance | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In general (talking about the racial test score gap in particular) it's been found that black student performance is elevated when black students are a small minority within a school. But once it jumps above a certain percentage, it really doesn't matter in terms of performance if the school is say 20% black or 95% black - you see similar (poor) results.

The reason has been hypothesized to be in part about youth culture. If you're one of the only black students in your school, you're more or less socialized as a white child. But if you're in a school with a large number of black students, even if not a majority, racial cliques develop as you go into middle and high school. Black students who are smarter can actually face pressure to underperform from two different groups - the white students who stereotype and exclude them, and their black peers who say they're "acting white" if they try too hard in school.

FWIW, I think the whole debate around schooling is stupid. Ultimately we want equal educational outcomes (be it by race, class, or other factors) because we want to reduce inequalities in adult life. But everything which has been tried in education has been of relatively limited utility. It seems to me a better use of our national resources is trying to ensure that decent-paying jobs are available for everyone, including those who aren't prepared for college, rather than trying to shuffle everyone through a degree mill.

Regardless, as a white parent with a child attending a majority-black school, I'm confident that whatever the reason for pernicious test score gaps, my daughter won't be hurt by going to Linden K-5, and whatever 6-12 school she enrolls in (even if it's *gasp* Obama).

[steindle]

Originally Posted by eschaton

That said, a portion of Hays (albeit with nearly no residents) is in Baldwin-Whitehall School District[.]

Wait, what?

UPDATE: If you're talking about the little area off of Becks Run Road (including Susquehanna and Somerset Streets), that is -- surprisingly, technically -- part of Baldwin, even though the land north and south of it is Pittsburgh. I have no idea how or why that happened, but it's part of the Baldwin-Whitehall School District because it is actually physically part of Baldwin.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by steindle

Wait, what?

UPDATE: If you're talking about the little area off of Becks Run Road (including Susquehanna and Somerset Streets), that is -- surprisingly, technically -- part of Baldwin, even though the land north and south of it is Pittsburgh. I have no idea how or why that happened, but it's part of the Baldwin-Whitehall School District because it is actually physically part of Baldwin.

That weird, nearly uninhabited "peninsula" of Hays is in Baldwin-Whitehall.



I don't just know this from Wiki either. The state database which lets you look up tax rates makes it clear part of Pittsburgh pays school taxes to Baldwin-Whitehall, not PPS.

That said, I really don't know if there's any residents. It might be the property owners pay taxes to Baldwin-Whitehall, but no students are affected.

Edit: Looks as if there's at least one house on Glass Run which is in Baldwin-Whitehall.

[steindle]

Originally Posted by eschaton

That weird, nearly uninhabited "peninsula" of Hays is in Baldwin-Whitehall.

I'm not sure what you mean. The map you've included shows that Hays is clearly part of the City of Pittsburgh, and within Pittsburgh's school district.

I don't just know this from Wiki either. The state database which lets you look up tax rates makes it clear part of Pittsburgh pays school taxes to Baldwin-Whitehall, not PPS.

I'm not sure what site you're referring to, but I'd like to see it. I really do not think that any person whose primary residence is within the City of Pittsburgh is paying school taxes to another municipality.

Edit: Looks as if there's at least one house on Glass Run which is in Baldwin-Whitehall[/url].

Not to pursue this further, but that house is technically within Pittsburgh:

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by steindle

I'm not sure what you mean. The map you've included shows that Hays is clearly part of the City of Pittsburgh, and within Pittsburgh's school district.

Not all of Hays. Look closely. The "finger" of Hays which is mostly surrounded by Baldwin borough is in fact in Baldwin-Whitehall SD

Originally Posted by steindle

I'm not sure what site you're referring to, but I'd like to see it. I really do not think that any person whose primary residence is within the City of Pittsburgh is paying school taxes to another municipality.

Check here.

Originally Posted by steindle

Not to pursue this further, but that house is technically within Pittsburgh:

That's my point! That house is in Pittsburgh, but it's in the section of Pittsburgh which is in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District. I just checked on the website linked above.

Seems to be the only house however. The segment of Hays in Baldwin-Whitehall is otherwise uninhabited.

[steindle]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Not all of Hays. Look closely. The "finger" of Hays which is mostly surrounded by Baldwin borough is in fact in Baldwin-Whitehall SD

Ahh, I see what you mean now -- the completely wooded part, where they talked about putting a... horse racing track or something several years ago. Home of the bald eagle cam!

That's my point! That house is in Pittsburgh, but it's in the section of Pittsburgh which is in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District. I just checked on the website linked above.

Seems to be the only house however. The segment of Hays in Baldwin-Whitehall is otherwise uninhabited.

Huh. I guess you're right. That is a truly bizarre little twist -- I wonder how the heck that happened.