American Democracy and the Promise of Justice

Two Worlds Apart

Just outside of Pittsburgh sits a metropolitan area littered with high functioning schools that not only have substantial scores but have exposed children to a number of electives commonly found in areas with ample resources.

What do the schools outside the city have to offer? Mount Lebanon High School sits roughly nine miles from University Prep. According to the U.S. World Report, Mount Lebanon scores for students in math were as follows: 43 percent advanced, 50 percent proficient, and 7 percent basic or below. In reading, 20 percent were advanced, 76 percent were proficient, and 4 percent basic or below. (33) Their underserved population, subgroups that usually underperform in state assessment including African American, Hispanic and anyone considered economically disadvantaged, performed at a combined 84.5 percent proficiency rating, higher than the natural average. (34) Compared to their overall proficiency rating for the majority at 96 percent, the two groups are not that far apart.

Moreover, the school’s 12^th grade class has a robust Advanced Placement program. 52 percent of its senior class took the AP exams and 87 percent of test takers scoring 3+ or more (meaning they’d most likely receive college credit for that course), a pass rate that is that the national average. SAT scores were an average of 1250. (35)  The school also ranked 18^th in Pennsylvania high schools, #5 out of Metro Area high schools and 15^th out of 10,758 districts. (36)

However, the school’s population breaks down as having an 11 percent minority enrollment. Yet of that 11 percent, only 2 percent are African American, with Hispanic Americans making up another 2 percent. How could these schools stay so segregated, when there is such a large number of African American students right down the road?

While there are many reasons for this, one obvious reason is that the school has designated itself as a “walking district.” On the district’s website, it states “Mt. Lebanon School District is a walking school district. In addition to reinforcing safe walking rules with students at the beginning of the school year, the MLPD has established Safe Walking Routes for each elementary school.” (37) Why is this important? This is another impediment to prevent other places from busing in students. By making it solely a “walking district,” they assure that no student is bussed into the area that isn’t zoned for that school. Mount Lebanon’s “walking school” policy is one simple form of de facto segregation.

This is not an isolated single school district situation. Fox Chapel sits 7.6 miles from the Pittsburgh Westinghouse and the experiences are extremely different. Fox Chapel boasts a proficiency rating in mathematics of 40 percent advanced and 51 percent proficient with only 9 percent of the student body basic or below basic. (38) The reading proficiency distribution is at 26 percent advanced, 71 percent proficient and 4 percent basic or below basic. Regarding how the school aims to prepare students for college, 44 percent of its students take AP classes and 40 percent of them score 3 or higher, with 91 percent of 12th grade students having at least one passing score on an AP exam. (39) Their underserved student populations scored 84.2 percent proficient on the Keystone exam, which was not a wide gap with the privileged population who scored 94.3 percent.  17 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged, qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Of the 1,380 students, only 4 percent of students identify as being African American, 3 percent as Hispanic, and 8 percent as Asian. (40)

Similar to the Mount Lebanon, Fox Chapel has a very small African American population but is geographically extremely close to Pittsburgh Westinghouse. Of Westinghouse’s 721 students in the 6-12 school, 97 percent are African American. According to the 2018 A+ School’s Annual report, 27 percent of students are on grade level in ELA, 8 percent in math and 12 percent in science. (41) The school’s enrollment increased 3 years ago when it was combined with Wilkinsburg’s middle and high school, another predominantly African American school. Today our school is in School Improvement, meaning the school is in the bottom five percent of schools in the state. While the scores aren’t great, there is learning happening in the school, it just has to pick up momentum and it needs to happen quickly. I am of the opinion that a reintegration of schools via a two-way busing system with metropolitan schools will achieve this goal.