The back-to-school season always provides an important time for students and educators to reflect and recharge before the next academic year. This is also a good time for RFA to review and reflect on our work as we enter another year of conducting the Allegheny County Education Research (ACER) project. To better understand priorities in the county’s education community, we recently reviewed several key data sources from August 2023 to August 2024, including more than 200 local news reports, a sample of school board minutes from 10 county districts, and the websites and publications of approximately 30 local educational organizations. Our ACER team is using the findings from this research to inform our work in the coming year, but we wanted to publicly share some high-level takeaways and invite you to contribute.
Few need reminding that the past several years have been a roller coaster in public education—from pandemic school closures, remote and hybrid learning, constantly changing guidelines, and new understanding of just how much damage the pandemic caused to students’ academic and social progress. Our review, however, found that the most pressing issues garnering public attention had very little to do with COVID-19 or the pandemic’s aftermath. What once monopolized public attention has moved away and made room for headlines that feel familiar to pre-pandemic times.
In this post, we share several of the most common topics that came up in the local education discourse this past year.
- Money (still) matters. At the district level, one of the most pressing finance issues is the approaching end to ESSER relief funds and the concern this is causing districts like Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) and Sto-Rox. On a more positive note, a few districts have made positive strides with school finances, including Woodland Hills School District’s budgetary increase and Penn Hills School District’s exit from the state’s financial recovery program. At the state level, the increase in the state education budget will help many Allegheny County districts, even though some are still millions of dollars below adequate funding as calculated by the state. The state budget also includes a new reimbursement for cyber charter school expansion and is expected to bring some relief as negative fiscal impacts continue to hit school districts from charter and cyber charter school expansion, specifically from charter school special education tuition.Another pressing money matters issue is that funding for the Pittsburgh Promise, a scholarship program for Pittsburgh Public School students, will end in 2028.
- Educator workforce development and teacher diversity continue to be a priority for LEAs and advocates. The number of teacher certifications increased for PA between 21-22 and 22-23, but the 370 teacher certifications issued in Allegheny County last year was a 36% decrease from a decade ago. And, while data identified moderate teacher shortages and high teacher qualification ratings for the county last fall, Allegheny County students, including those attending Pittsburgh Public Schools, continue to experience inequitable access to diverse and experienced teachers. Efforts to build a strong pipeline of highly qualified and diverse educators continue in the region, with organizations such as Teach Plus PA and the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium (PEDC) leading initiatives that are taking a systemic approach to improving efforts to recruit and retain teachers of color. RFA’s recent qualitative study, “Small but Mighty: Lessons from Black Teachers’ Experiences in Allegheny County,” centered Black teacher voices and experiences in action-oriented conversations around diversifying the teacher pipeline in Allegheny County. The county admittingly has a long way to go in improving our school systems to better support teachers of color, but the commitment to do so continues to be a priority for many school communities in the region.
- Curriculum and technology issues are evolving and often spark debate. Curriculum changes catching media attention included PPS’s new reading curriculum following the Science of Reading approach, the new ethnic studies course at PPS, and the cooking and technology education classes at Allegheny Valley School District. In addition, the state will require districts to offer a semester-long financial literacy course by 2026-27. In Allegheny County, Fox Chapel Area School District already offers this as an elective. A bill has also been proposed that would require PA districts to teach cursive. Districts such as Bethel Park, PPS, South Fayette and Upper St. Clair still teach or recently reintroduced cursive.In contrast to curricular requirements, Pine-Richland School District has proposed a book ban for books containing what it describes as sexually explicit content. Many of the books being considered contain LGBTQ+ characters and/or were written by authors of color, causing debate and opposition from some parents and students.
In addition, technology is rapidly changing, and school policies need to keep up. Some state lawmakers are proposing to ban cell phones from schools, a proposal grounded in research on the impact cell phones can have on adolescents, but that also sparks great debate among parents and students. Sto-Rox School District took matters into their own hands and banned cell phones for all grades this past school year.
In other technology news, state tests will soon be administered online. And AI has entered the chat and the Allegheny Intermediate Unit is providing free professional development on leveraging AI in classrooms for county teachers and administrators.
- English is still not (and will never be) the only language spoken by the region’s students. The number of English Language Learners (ELLs) is increasing steadily in the county, and some districts are offering new biliteracy programs. Baldwin-Whitehall, Chartiers Valley, Moon Area, and PPS are among districts who saw spikes in the total number of students receiving ELL services over the past year.
- Some district footprints are changing, and these changes may involve school closures. PPS is currently determining how school buildings are being used and conducting several months of analysis and community outreach before finalizing any plans for district reconfigurations. While potential closures presented in the district’s “Facilities Utilization Plan” have dominated headlines regarding K-12 buildings in the county, districts including Moon Area SD and Elizabeth Forward SD have also made headlines for considering or deciding to close and/or consolidate schools. In contrast, Steel Valley is building a new elementary school. A recent report from RFA’s PACER project revisited recent literature on school closings, including persistent trends of disproportionate impacts on students, teachers, and communities.
Beyond the news, advocacy organizations across the county still care about long-standing issues impacting school-aged children across the county. These priority areas include educational equity, high-quality early childhood education, rigorous standards and curriculum, a high-quality and diverse educator workforce, and protecting the rights of students with disabilities and other underserved students. The sample of school board minutes reviewed focused on curriculum changes, building renovations, ESSER fund usage and upcoming cessation, school safety, and early childhood offerings.
So, what’s next? RFA would love to hear from Allegheny County community members invested in education. What topics do you think will emerge or continue to be top priority in 2024-25? What research could help guide key decisions that need to be made? Please reach out to us directly by contacting Mary Eddins, or let us know what you think here.