Two years ago, the Pennsylvania Campaign for Achievement Now (PennCAN) released the Allegheny Opportunity Schools report, which celebrated schools that are breaking the link between poverty and low-academic achievement. Although our report highlighted success stories, it also revealed a sobering reality: 94 percent of Allegheny’s high-poverty schools were not Opportunity Schools.
This report, Opportunities Lost: The Urgent Need to Improve Pittsburgh’s Schools, looks specifically at the city of Pittsburgh and its desperate need for more Opportunity Schools. In Pittsburgh, far too many students are stuck in schools where academic achievement is low, students are denied the chance to succeed in college and career, and where countless opportunities are lost.
