Fires, Floods, and Droughts: Impacts of Climate Change in the U.S.

School Description/Rationale

Pittsburgh Lincoln Pre-K-5- also known as Pittsburgh Lincoln Elementary or Pittsburgh Lincoln Elementary- is a small neighborhood school situated in the Lincoln-Larimer community of Pittsburgh. It is a Title I School, which is a federally funded program that provides money to schools with students who are at risk of failure or living in poverty.  The student population is currently made up of 200 students, of which 92% are “economically disadvantaged”. Of those 200 students, 178 are African American, 16 students are Multi-Racial, less than 5 students are American Indian, and less than 5 students are Caucasian.⁸

At Pittsburgh Lincoln K-5, Mathematics test scores have (in more recent history) fallen below average in comparison to state and local averages on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), which is the standardized test that is administered in the state of Pennsylvania. I student taught at Lincoln School in 2004 when it was the mission of the principal and staff to reach National Blue Ribbon status. As stated on its website, “The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes public and private elementary, middle, and high schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.”⁹  It has been anecdotally stated by numerous staff members that taught there during that time, that the school was very close to obtaining that status on many normed assessments like the PSSA and the Terra Nova. However, school closures and redistricting resulted in the school having to reconfigure to two campus buildings that could accommodate students up to 8^th grade. This new configuration would include data accountability for its newly combined age groups and students, as well as a completely different set of standards to achieve National Blue Ribbon status.  While this new configuration didn’t last very long, it was a huge upset to the goals and progress that the school was perceived to be making.  After more reconfigurations in years to come, Pittsburgh Lincoln was changed back to an elementary school. Despite all of this restructuring, for two consecutive school years (2014-2016), Pittsburgh Lincoln was awarded STAR status for placing in the top 15% for academic growth in the district. It became one of the fastest improving schools in the district. However, progress has since declined and the COVID-19 school closure only proved to further impede it. 

Prior to the COVID-19 school closure, students experienced daily complications related to respiratory allergies and asthma. Most typically, select students received daily asthma treatments with an inhaler before/after recess or on demand. Many students ask for frequent visits to the nurse, or often return from bathroom breaks with makeshift compresses made out of wet paper towels for itchy eye relief. Throughout the school year, news reports of poor air quality created instances when students cannot go outside for recess. This issue persisted after the shutdown.

Aeroallergens, like ragweed pollen are the cause of respiratory allergies and increase asthma severity. Poor outdoor air quality serves to exacerbate the effects of aeroallergens. In this sense, they both contribute to classroom and schedule disruptions, as well as absenteeism. More than 22% of children in Pittsburgh schools have asthma. The national average is a little more than 10%, so we are above that.  Approximately, 60% of students in Pittsburgh had uncontrolled asthma that caused them to miss school and visit the emergency room. ¹⁰

The district publishes yearly attendance data that tells how many students had more than a 10% absentee rate divided by the total student population. The district’s chronic absence rate is 41.7% for the 2021-22 school year. The chronic absence rate is defined by dividing the number of students with a 10% or more absence rate by the total student enrollment.  The available data does not specify how many absences are due to respiratory health issues.

In terms of Mathematics scores, the 3^rd grade PSSA for Mathematics in 2018 (before the Spring 2019 school closure), showed the scoring levels as follows: 0% Advanced, 3.7% Proficient, 44.4% Basic, and 51.9% Below Basic. For the 2021 school year, the 3^rd grade Mathematics scores showed the scoring levels as follows: 0% Advanced, 0% Proficient, 18.2% Basic, and 81.8%  Below Basic.  While sobering, the scores show a stark need for an intensive Mathematics instructional response to support all Mathematics standards. The scope of this unit is on the 3^rd Grade Pennsylvania Standard CC.2.4.3.A.4: Pennsylvania’s public schools shall teach, challenge, and support every student to realize his or her maximum potential and to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to represent and interpret data using tally charts, tables, pictographs, line plots, and bar graphs.¹¹ In this unit, students will use technology to research, track, and plot daily and historical temperatures as a daily routine. Students will use this same practice to represent daily pollen counts.  Lastly, students will use technology to track the daily Air Quality Index (AQI) using tallies that will later be transferred to pictographs showing the total amount of days for the month that had good air quality and bad air quality.