School Demographics
I teach at a comprehensive public high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Peabody High School is located in the east end neighborhood of the city and serves six surrounding neighborhoods. The student body is predominantly African American (95% African American, 4% Caucasian, 1% other) with an enrollment of 660 students. 90% of the students receive free or reduced lunches. Information is based on the low socio-economic community in which the students live. Our school has been identified as an at risk high school. This means that our freshman class does not meet the state standards in reading and or mathematics. The benchmark year for testing in the state of Pennsylvania is during the junior year. The large majority of students have failed the PSSA tests in math, reading, and writing, and most scored below basic. At PHS tracking is implemented for all academic subjects; therefore, I teach two levels of physics. One course is designated for students who meet the state's gifted standards. The other is for regular education students. The students in my gifted class score significantly higher on the PSSA but some still failed. My honors students (3.0 GPA) in physics are above average for the school but likely failed the Pennsylvania System of State Assessment (PSSA) in math, reading and writing. My 9 th grade general science students are representative of the school population.
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