American Democracy and the Promise of Justice

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 19.03.09

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Demographics
  2. Rationale
  3. It Was Never Meant to Be Equal
  4. Boston and Busing
  5. Creating Roadblocks To Opportunity
  6. Busing is Just Another Word for Desegregation
  7. Two Worlds Apart
  8. We Know Better but Will We Do Better?
  9. Standards
  10. Activities
  11. Footnotes
  12. Bibliography

The Different Shades of the Yellow Bus

Sean Cameron Means

Published September 2019

Tools for this Unit:

Demographics

Pittsburgh Westinghouse is a 6-12 secondary school in Pittsburgh Public School District located in the East End of Pittsburgh. A place I call home, it currently draws from the Lincoln, Larimer, Wilkinsburg, East Hills and Homewood communities. The school is currently in School Improvement, a determination made by the state of Pennsylvania because of ranking in the bottom five percent of schools in the state in academic proficiency as measured by the state assessments. According to the 2017 A+ Schools Annual Report, the school serves 721 students. 97 percent of the student body is African American. (1) 90 percent of the students are from economically disadvantaged homes while the district’s average is 60 percent.

In the 2017-2018 school year at Westinghouse, the middle school PSSA scores showed 15 percent of African American students were proficient in English and two percent in mathematics. This is compared to African American students scoring across the district with 30 percent proficiency in ELA and 10 percent proficiency in mathematics. (2) In terms of the high school Keystone exams, 27 percent were proficient in English, 8 percent in math and 12 percent in science. (3)  In terms of readiness, 44 percent of graduates were attending a college and 8 percent graduated from college in 4-6 years. (4) Five percent of students hold a GPA of 3.0 or higher, according to the 2017 A Plus Schools Report. (5) For SAT scores, three percent of students met the average standard for math and 14 percent met it for reading. (6) The school boasts a number of Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes such as Carpentry, Culinary, Health Careers, Cosmetology, Emergency Response Technology, and Business Administration. The school has had a College in High School program in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh for three years. The school has been a pillar in the community for over one hundred years.

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