College & Workforce Readiness

Pittsburgh College Fund Lands Donation

By Catherine Gewertz — December 11, 2007 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The Pittsburgh school district has secured a $100 million commitment to a fund that helps the city’s high school graduates afford college.

Officials from the school district and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center announced on Dec. 5 that the medical center will give $10 million to the Pittsburgh Promise fund. The medical center will provide $2 for every $3 the district raises until the medical center’s contribution reaches $90 million.

The announcement represents a huge step for the fund, which had received only one contribution in the year since it opened: $10,000 from the local teachers’ union.

Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said he is optimistic that the new pledge and its matching mechanism will enable the district to reach its goal of amassing $250 million in the fund over 10 years and creating an endowment.

Mr. Roosevelt declined to say whether he has already lined up additional pledges that will trigger the medical center’s matching dollars. But he said he has done “a lot of work communicating with other folks, and I’m very optimistic. We will get this done.”

See Also

See other stories on education issues in Pennsylvania. See data on Pennsylvania’s public school system.

The superintendent teamed up with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl last year to establish the fund as a way to keep families in Pittsburgh and to improve the future prospects of its young people. Enrollment in the city schools has declined from 35,000 in 2002 to 28,000 this year.

Local foundations withdrew their support from the schools five years ago, citing fiscal and leadership problems. (“Freeze on Grants Roils Pittsburgh District,” Aug. 7, 2002.)

But they reinstated their backing with a new cooperative fund to support Mr. Roosevelt’s initiatives. When he took the helm two years ago, he began focusing on revitalizing the district’s financial and academic picture by closing 22 schools, kicking off a major high school improvement campaign, and installing a new curriculum in elementary and middle schools.

“It’s absolutely necessary for Pittsburgh to have this kind of program,” he said in an interview.

Standards to Meet

This year’s 2,000 graduating seniors qualify for an annual scholarship of up to $5,000 to any public college or university in Pennsylvania, and some private schools in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County, if they have attended city schools for the last four years and have at least a 2.0 grade point average in high school.

See Also

For more stories on this topic see Colleges and Careers.

Next year, the GPA requirement will be raised to 2.5, and graduates must have an 85 percent attendance rate to qualify. Graduates of the class of 2010 will have to have 90 percent attendance to qualify. Pennsylvania plans to introduce a required high school exit exam in the next few years, and when it does, students who pass it will qualify for scholarships of up to $10,000.

The Pittsburgh Promise is modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise, which pays up to 100 percent of tuition and fees for that city’s high school graduates to attend public colleges or universities in Michigan. The 2-year-old fund has paid about $3 million to about 700 students so far, said Bob Jorth, its executive administrator.

The Kalamazoo program has no high school GPA requirement, but students who use it must maintain a 2.0 GPA in college to hold onto their scholarships. Pittsburgh Promise scholarship recipients must do likewise.

Mr. Roosevelt said the secondary school GPA and attendance requirements in Pittsburgh’s program are intended to ensure that city students can afford to attend college, but are academically prepared to succeed there as well.

Events

Student Well-Being Webinar After-School Learning Top Priority: Academics or Fun?
Join our expert panel to discuss how after-school programs and schools can work together to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss.
Budget & Finance Webinar Leverage New Funding Sources with Data-Informed Practices
Address the whole child using data-informed practices, gain valuable insights, and learn strategies that can benefit your district.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Classroom Technology Webinar
ChatGPT & Education: 8 Ways AI Improves Student Outcomes
Revolutionize student success! Don't miss our expert-led webinar demonstrating practical ways AI tools will elevate learning experiences.
Content provided by Inzata

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness Everyone Earns an Industry Certification and Most Go to College in This CTE Program
Pittsburgh Public Schools' CTE students are graduating with at least one industry certification and a confirmed post-graduation plan.
10 min read
Tenth graders, TaeLyn Johnson, left, and Dilana Gray, right, practice on a dummy during their EMS class at Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022.
Tenth graders TaeLyn Johnson, left, and Dilana Gray practice EMS skills during a career and technical education class at Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh on Dec. 13, 2022.
Nate Smallwood for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness The May Internship: Can It Help Schools Cure Senioritis?
A full-time, monthlong internship is helping seniors stay engaged at a Baltimore school.
5 min read
Anna Trudeau, 18, a senior at Friends School of Baltimore, works as an intern at the calcium channels lab at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Physiology in Baltimore, Md., on May 18, 2023. Friends School of Baltimore has seniors spend their final month of high school working at an internship.
Anna Trudeau, a senior at Friends School of Baltimore, takes a break from her internship at a laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Physiology in Baltimore, Md., on May 18, 2023. Twelfth graders at her school spend their final month of high school working at full-time internships.
Matt Roth for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion The Nation Is Still at Risk: The Urgency of Workforce Preparation
The labor market needs education to evolve. Career and technical education has an important role to play, writes Anthony P. Carnevale.
Anthony P. Carnevale
5 min read
Illustration of a figure walking through a landscape of vocational iconography.
Liana Nagieva/iStock + Vanessa Solis/Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness What the Research Says Students Pay a Growing Price for Landing a Job Outside Their College Major
Researchers think better guidance in high school could lessen the cost to young people in long-term income.
3 min read
Young girl working on an electrical panel in a classroom setting.
iStock/Getty