Page Title

AchievementGap.info

Informed Citizens
(Certification process for a citizen to be considered knowledgeable about achievement gaps within their
communities.)

***This page is dedicated to the initiative through the Center for Family Excellence and partners to help
citizens of the Hill District of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to become more informed about how schools in their
communities are performing. However, if you are not from the above mentioned project, you may still find
the links and instructions on this page to be very useful.***

Become more informed about the performance of schools in your neighborhood. Follow the
instructions and click on the links below to help you be more informed about your
community's academic achievement.

Certification Criteria:

When you have completed the directions on this page, you will be able to:

(Assessment)
1. Identify and locate:

(1a) schools within the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA
(1b) any public school within your county, state and within the nation
(1c) the percent of African-American students who are proficient and above
(1d) the percent of gap in achievement between whites and blacks within chosen school
(1e) the current year's scores
(1f) previous years' scores

(Exemplification)
2. Define "Dame-Dame" schools

(3a) Award levels
(3b) Locate Dame-Dame schools locally, statewide, and nationally

3. Talk knowledgeably about "proficiency"

(2a) levels of proficiency
(2b) how it is determined

4. Identify practices consistent with higher achieving schools that have high numbers of African-
American students, high levels of low-income students and high achievement for these students in
reading or math or both.

(4a.) How do I monitor and evaluate the extent to which Hill District schools manifest attributes
typically associated with accelerated learning in African-American schools?
(4b.) What method should be used to disseminate information on the relative presence or absence
of attributes associated with accelerated learning in African-American schools?
(4c.) How can policies and strategies be developed for schools, churches and organizations that
promote student engagement and accelerate student achievement?
(4d.) How might we put the policy and practice plans into action?
(4f.) How can you measure the extent in which recommended practices and policies have been put
into place and evaluate the effects of these policies and practices on enhanced student
engagement and accelerate the achievement of African-American students?

Begin Here: (When you click a link, it will open in a new window. You will need to keep this window
open in order to continue to follow the directions. You will be able to keep the other window open at the
same time. Just click between windows as needed to continue to follow the instructions.)

1a. What are the names of the public schools within the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pa?

The public schools within the Hill District are

Miller African-Centered Academy
Vann Elementary School
Weil Technology Institute

1b. What are other public schools within your county, state or within the nation?

Click on the following link: www.schooldatadirect.org
Choose either a school or district to search. For example, if you would like to search for other
schools in the Pittsburgh School District, you would choose "district."
Then type in "Pittsburgh School District." For the city, type "Pittsburgh" and choose "Pa" for state.
Then click "Go."
Next click on "Pittsburgh School District" to view its information.
Finally, explore specific schools in the district by clicking "View schools in the district."

1c. What is the percent of African-American students in my chosen school who are proficient and
above?

Click on this link: http.paayp.emetric.net
find the search bar in the upper left part of the page. Underneath it, select "Allegheny" for your county
next select Pittsburgh School District for your district
Select Vann Elementary School
Find the "Overview" tab in the top middle of the page. To the right of it is a tab marked "Report Card."
Click "Report Card."
Read the paragraph. Then click "View 2007-08 Report Card." A PDF file will be downloaded to your
computer.
Go to the 3rd page, "Accountability." On this page, you will find the school's overall results in math.
The scores will be broken down so that you can see scores for African-Americans in this school.
You will see the percent of African-Americans who are proficient and above in math, in red, in the
middle.
On the 4th page, you will find the percent proficient in Reading.
You can browse through the rest of the document if you like.
Follow the above steps to find the percent proficient for Weil Technology Institute and also Miller
African-Centered Academy.

1d. How do I find the percent of achievement gap between whites and blacks?

Many schools have enough of the white population to report scores for whites. In this case you
simply subtract the percent score for blacks from the percent score for whites. However, in the case
of the schools within the Hill District, the schools are predominately black. For this instance, you can
locate the percent proficient for the "white" subgroup for the PA state report card. Again, you would
subtract the percent of black students in Vann Elementary who are proficient from the percent of
white students who are proficient for the state of Pennsylvania.
To find the percent proficient for the state of Pennsylvania, go back to the main page, or click on

http://paayp.emetric.net

Click on the tab at the top right that says "State Report."
Click "the tab on the right that says "Report Card."
Click the link for the state report card.
Go to page 3 "Accountability" and find the percent proficient for white students.
Subtract the percent proficient of African-American students at Vann Elementary from the percent
proficient of white students on the state report card.
This is the academic achievement gap for African-American students at Vann Elementary compared
to white students across the state of Pennsylvania.
You can repeat this step to find similar gaps at the other public schools within the Hill District, or for
any school that does not have enough white students to report their scores.

1e. What are my chosen schools current year's scores?

Each year, PSSA scores are given to each school district around summer time. These scores are
then reported by the district to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. It usually takes some
time before those scores are processed into databases such as School Matters, School Data
Direct, and other databases. So, the scores on the Pennsylvania Department of Education website
for the state report cards are as up to date as they can be at this time.

1f. How can I find scores for previous years, like 2007, 2006 or 2005?

Click on this link: www.schooldatadirect.org
In the box under "Name" type in Vann Elementary School. In the box under "City" type in Pittsburgh.
Select "PA" from the drop down box under "State." Then click "Go."
Next, click on the link for Vann Elementary School.
You will see a set of tabs under "Vann Elementary School" beginning with "Overview." Click on the
one that says "Analytics." A window will pop up. Simply click "Close."
Follow the steps in 1d to find the percent proficient for African-Americans for each year you would like
to compare.
To find scores for whites in the state of Pennsylvania, go back to the main page: or click

www.schooldatadirect.org

Under the word "Search" you will find a box that says "Educators," "Researchers," and
"Policymakers." Under that box you will see "National Information" and "State Information." Click on
"State Information."
A window will pop up. Select "Pennsylvania."
Under "Pennsylvania Public Schools" you will see a set of tabs beginning with "Overview."
On the far right, there is a tab for "Anaylitics." Click "Analytics."
This will give you a table of scores dating back to 2003. You can compare the African-American
scores from your school with scores for whites from the state if your school did not have enough
whites to report their scores.

2a. What does "proficiency" mean?

Proficiency describes the percent of a population that has scored at a level set by the state. It is not
the percent that students get correct on a test.

2b. What are the levels of proficiency?

Advanced, Proficient, Basic, and Below Basic
When a person talks of the percent of students who are "Proficient," they often mean the percent of
students who are "Proficient" and "Advanced."
When a person talks of the percent of students who are not "Proficient," or who are "failing," they are
talking of the percent of students who are "Basic" and "Below Basic."
In order for a school or district to be considered meeting "AYP," they must have a certain percentage
of students at "Proficient" and above. The goal set forth by NCLB was to have all students within the
country considered at least "Proficient" by the year 2014. Each year, an individual state has
increased their minimum proficiency standard until the year 2014 when it must be 100%.

3a. What are Dame Dame Schools and how does a school qualify as one?

What are Dame-Dame Schools?

These schools close or reverse racial achievement gaps in the least expected places-
predominately black low-income settings. Our Dame-Dame designation is inspired by its Adinkra
icon which symbolizes intelligence, curiosity, and ingenuity- attributes of successful schools that
have closed or reversed racial achievement gaps in least expected places.

How do schools qualify?

High achieving predominately black (minimum 75%) low-income (minimum 75%) schools are
eligible for one of three Dame-Dame Awards:

Gold if the average black proficiency in reading and math is a minimum of 85%,
Silver if the average black proficiency in reading and math is a minimum of 75%, or
Bronze if the average black proficiency in reading or math is a minimum of 75%

Information taken from:
Taylor, Jerome (2009) Introducing Dame-Dame Schools: Overcoming Long Odds to Achieve Academic
Excellence

3b. How do I find Dame Dame schools?

Steps in Locating Dame Dame Schools (local, state, and national)

   1. Go to schooldatadirect.org
   2. Under SEARCH FOR A SCHOOL OR DISTRICT, Click on “DISTRICT” then type in the desired
        city and find appropriate state. Then click GO.
   3. Under the SEARCH FOR A SCHOOL OR DISTRICT, find the ADVANCE SEARCH option, Click it
   4. In the Advanced Search webpage
        a. Under Step 1, CLICK ALL SCHOOLS
        b. Under Step 2, Put in the desired city name and state
              i. To find Bronze, Silver, and Gold level Dame Dame schools, click 50-74% AND 75-100%
                  for both Overall Reading Proficiency (%) and Overall Math Proficiency (%). Continue to
                  Step iii
             ii. To find Silver and Gold level Dame Dame schools, click 75-100% for both Overall
                  Reading Proficiency (%) and Overall Math Proficiency (%). Continue to Step iii
            iii. Under Economically Disadvantaged (% of Students), Click 75-100%
             iv. Under Racial/Ethnic Groups (%of Students), Choose Black and 75-100%
              v. At the bottom, Click Search, and your results (if any) will show.

                         (Transformation)
4. What are some practices consistent with higher achieving schools that have high numbers of
African-American students, high levels of low-income students and high achievement for these
students in reading or math or both?

(This site will be updated to reflect this information shortly)

(4a.) How do I monitor and evaluate the extent to which Hill District schools manifest attributes
typically associated with accelerated learning in African-American schools?
(4b.) What method should be used to disseminate information on the relative presence or absence
of attributes associated with accelerated learning in African-American schools?
(4c.) How can policies and strategies be developed for schools, churches and organizations that
promote student engagement and accelerate student achievement?
(4d.) How might we put the policy and practice plans into action?
(4f.) How can you measure the extent in which recommended practices and policies have been put
into place and evaluate the effects of these policies and practices on enhanced student
engagement and accelerate the achievement of African-American students?

Reference Information for the above links:

Pennsylvania State, District and School 2007-2008 Report Cards
http://paayp.emetric.net/

School Matters
Find public district and school achievement data information nationwide.
http://www.schoolmatters.com/

School Data Direct
Find public state, district and school achievement data.
www.schooldatadirect.org

National Center for Education Statistics
The Nation's Report Card
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/gaps/

Pennsylvania Department of Education
What students will be responsible for knowing on the PSSA's
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/2005Math_Assessment_Anch ors_intro.pdf

http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/lib/a_and_t/Reading_Assessment_Ancho rs_intro.pdf

Taylor, Jerome (2009) Introducing Dame-Dame Schools: Overcoming Long odds to Achieve Academic
Excellence

Certification Criteria Team: Martens Roc, Jessica Mpamugo, Epryl King, Dr. Jerome Taylor (University of
Pittsburgh, Department of Africana Studies)