CMU Students Devise a Plan for Sci-Tech High School in City

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Feb. 7–Carnegie Mellon University students last night proposed a science and technology high school for Pittsburgh that would allow students there to graduate in as few as three years and let them focus courses in one of four major fields.

The Carnegie Mellon students, all from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, told the city school board that they designed special supports for lagging students with the goal of achieving a 100 percent graduation rate.

“What we’re doing here is attempting to redefine the role of the urban high school,” said one of the graduate students, Sam Franklin, who taught middle school math and science for three years in Oakland, Calif.

Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt asked the 12 Carnegie Mellon students to design the sci-tech school as part of his plan to revamp the district’s high schools. The school board and administration now will put the proposal under a microscope.

“I think you have some good ideas we can use,” board member Floyd “Skip” McCrea told the university students.

Board member Theresa Colaizzi called the proposal “very impressive.”

The new high school would have 400 students; a school day of seven hours, 21 minutes; and a school year of 191 days. That’s a longer day and year than at most district schools.

The school would not use the traditional 9-12 grade configuration, in which students are encouraged to graduate in four years.

Rather, students would spend one year at the “associate” level; one, two or three years at the “manager” level, depending on their needs; and a year at the “executive” level. They could graduate in as few as three years or as many as five.

The district now offers science and technology programs at various high schools but has no school devoted to those fields. The Carnegie Mellon team said the new school would give students 25 percent more math, twice the science and nearly three times the career development opportunities currently provided by district high schools, and put students on career paths instead of hoping they find their way.

Students below grade level would receive tutoring during the school day; higher-performing peers could test out of basic courses and set aside time for enrichment activities. After their associate year, students would focus courses in one of four scientific areas: natural and physical, business and information, social and decision or engineering technology.

“We do not see this as an island of success in the Pittsburgh Public Schools,” Jordan Pallitto, a second-year graduate student, told the board. He said the design, if successful, could be replicated districtwide.

The Carnegie Mellon students did not say how much it would cost to equip or operate the school, estimate the size of the faculty or give a projected start-up date.

Mr. Roosevelt has said he will present a districtwide plan for high school transformation in April.

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