Pittsburgh’s school test scores and absenteeism remain dismal, but English learner population rises

Reading proficiency among Pittsburgh students dipped over the past year, according to state test scores noted in the latest A+ Schools report.

Rates of chronic absenteeism during the 2024-2025 school year, while improved since the height of the pandemic, surpassed the previous year’s levels.

A+ Schools executive director James Fogarty said methods his group has worked with Pittsburgh Public Schools to employ over the past few years, such as text reminders and letters home, have helped reduce the number of students missing 10 or more days of school.

But those interventions, Fogarty stressed, can only do so much to help students get to school — the first step in improving student proficiency in reading and math.

The latest report shows progress PPS made to reduce chronic absenteeism reversed course this past school year, with the overall rate increasing from 32% to 34%.

“So the next level is [addressing] students with more significant issues. Students where you have to delve in and understand root causes and have tools to be able to address those root causes,” Fogarty said.

That, he continued, includes fostering a sense of belonging for students and their families. A+ Schools is working with several PPS schools to pilot new strategies that can be replicated citywide.

One trial works with school counselors at Morrow PreK-8 on the North Side to better serve students who missed at least two days during the first month of school. At nearby Perry High School, the organization is working with one teacher to leverage classroom-level attendance data and identify best practices.

In the South Hills, A+ Schools is working with staff at Arlington PreK-8 to engage the families of kindergarteners and provide them with resources. The organization is also working with several schools districtwide to incentivize improved attendance through Stay in the Game!, an initiative launched this fall in partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“And so one of the things we’re trying to get better at is [saying], ‘Here’s some things we think you can control that seem to be working in terms of getting kids to come to school more often,” Fogarty said.

Just 44% of Pittsburgh third graders were proficient in reading last school year, down from 46% the year prior, according to state exam results released last month. Math proficiency, meanwhile, increased by roughly 1 percentage point.

Pittsburgh’s progress mirrors statewide trends. Among the state’s third through eighth graders, math proficiency increased from 40.2% in 2024 to 41.7%. Reading scores decreased from 53.9% to 49.9%

National assessments also show reading and math scores have yet to rebound to pre-pandemic levels. While Pennsylvania students remain slightly above the national average in reading and math, last year’s fourth graders scored lower in both subjects than fourth graders tested in 2019.

Researchers warn this learning slump could come at a staggering economic cost.

“I  think we have a huge economic mobility question lying over us,” Fogarty said.

Reconfiguration and desegregation

The A+ Schools report also draws attention to the district’s reconfiguration plan. PPS board members voted down the plan last week, stating they couldn’t confidently give administrators the go-ahead to close nine school buildings and restructure many others without a more detailed timeline.

The district had nearly 17,600 vacant seats last school year. According to the report, more than 5,500 city students instead opted to attend local charter schools during the 2024-2025 school year — an increase of 3% from the year prior.

While Fogarty has long called the district’s reconfiguration plans necessary, in a letter authored alongside Black Women for a Better Education last week, he asked the district to consider a delay.

“Our letter was pretty clear: flesh out some more of these details [and] get yourself the help you need so that you’re able to execute on this well,” Fogarty said.

But he is also urging PPS to continue efforts to distribute its resources more equitably, including by investing in strong neighborhood elementary schools and disbanding most elementary school magnet programs.

Some parents have raised concerns that doing so would eliminate programs initially created to better integrate students from different backgrounds. Fogarty, however, pointed to existing socioeconomic segregation at PPS: nearly half of white students attend seven schools where the concentration of economically disadvantaged students is less than 50%.

In the 20 district schools where the vast majority of students are economically disadvantaged, very fewwhite students are enrolled. Fogarty attributes the problem to school choice.

About 66% of Pittsburgh families enroll their child in a magnet program, charter school, private school, or homeschool, according to the report.

Fogarty said the plan to disband most magnet programs — paired with redrawn school attendance zones — would instead create less socioeconomically segregated schools.

“But we also know that doing a big holistic change like this is going to take more than just the district to get done,” he said. “We all need to be part of it. We all need to be on board and we all need to push it forward.”

English learners stem enrollment decline 

The report also shines a light on the contributions of Pittsburgh’s English language learners — the fastest growing population in the district.

Black and white student enrollment at PPS has decreased since the 2021-2022 school year, with an overall loss of 847 students. The number of English learners coming to the district, meanwhile, has increased by 794 students over the same period, slowing the rate of enrollment decline.

Nearly 10% of PPS’s 18,312 students were English learners during the 2024-2025 school year. In addition to English, the most commonly spoken languages in the district that year were Spanish, Arabic, Swahili, Pashto and Uzbek.

More than a quarter of students at Concord K-5 in Carrick are English learners. Principal Jamie Kinzel-Nath said Tuesday that every day her students are learning to celebrate different cultures and languages.

She also pointed to the benefits research shows immigrant students have on their native-born peers beyond understanding and tolerance. One study found the presence of immigrant students in Florida classrooms was linked to academic gains for students born in the U.S., including Black and low-income students.

“In an era of blame for immigrants and refugees as problems for this country, we wanted to be very clear that what we see in the data is the exact opposite,” Fogarty added. “Immigrant and refugee families are keeping PPS from having precipitous population decline.”