Jillian Forstadt
Education ReporterJillian Forstadt is an education reporter at 90.5 WESA. Before moving to Pittsburgh, she covered affordable housing, homelessness and rural health care at WSKG Public Radio in Binghamton, New York. Her reporting has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition.
She can be reached at jforstadt@wesa.fm.
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Undergraduate and graduate programs for those working toward a teaching certificate must emphasize core “structured literacy” elements, such as phonics, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
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Executive director Saleem Ghubril sent a letter to parents in the district this week framed as an “important reminder” that the organization would not offer Promise scholarships post-2028.
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Shapiro said the governing board will help state agencies find ways to use AI to improve government services while also establishing guardrails.
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PPS and the other plaintiffs are seeking an injunction that would stop the state from implementing the new age-out rule for students with special needs and draft a new one with additional district input.
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Schools have historically struggled to feed all kids who are eligible for the breakfast program. Only 52 students participate in breakfast for every 100 that participate in school lunch nationwide, according to a report from the 2021-22 school year.
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Racial equity audit challenges Pittsburgh schools to further address disparities in student outcomesAccording to the team of consultants contracted to independently conduct the audit, the majority Black schools in the district had a suspension rate 5 times greater than majority white campuses.
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More than a dozen Pittsburgh public schools introduced new measures this year to restrict cell phones in the classroom, citing a need to reduce classroom distractions and the number of phone-related disciplinary infractions.
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Sofo said he reached out on Aug. 22 to the Allegheny County Elections Division, seeking to remove his name from the ballot, but he found he had missed the Aug. 14 deadline to do so.
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Education Secretary Khalid Mumin urged school leaders to be patient as Level Up funding continues to remain in limbo.
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The majority of funding will expire this month, and the last allocation of funds must be used by September 2024.