Friday, October 24, 2008 Advocates for African American students
in the Pittsburgh Public School system hope to bring the
community up to date this weekend on a more than decade old
settlement with the district aimed at closing the achievement
gap between blacks and whites. A complaint was field in 1992
that African American children were being underserved and were
falling behind other students in the system. In 2006 a
conciliation agreement was finally signed and the terms of that
agreement are to be discussed Saturday at the “Crisis Education
Forum” at the East Liberty Branch of the Carnegie Library from
1-3pm. Original complainant Wanda Henderson is still involved in
the effort and will be part of the event. She says a major part
of the agreement is the creation of an “equity advisory panel”
directions for the panel will be discussed Saturday. She says
the data shows the longer a black child is in the Pittsburgh
Public school system the farther they fall behind. She says the
gap between black and white stu