ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Acting Allentown Schools Superintendent Carol Birks hosted a public meeting Wednesday to enlist ideas and solutions from teachers, community members and parents.
It was the first of several planned meetings, with others scheduled for Jan.10, March14 and May 9.
- Acting Allentown Schools Superintendent Carol Birks answered questions and discussed plans
- High on Birks' agenda was the hope that all can work together to reimagine Allentown schools
- Schools in the district earned low proficiency scores on the 2022 end-of-year tests.
The meeting began with remarks by Birks who said everyone can work together to reimagine Allentown so it can become one of the highest performing school districts in the state.
Then groups broke out around the gym at Hays Elementary School with conversations focusing on areas such as teaching and learning, culture and climate, organizational efficiencies, and recruitment and retention.
Birks said she was happy with the results of the initial gathering.
“It was good to hear the voices of our families as well as our community,”Carol Birks, acting superintendent of the Allentown School District
“We had our school administrators here and I was really excited that we had our board representation was here so they had an opportunity as well to hear what people from the community are saying as it relates to some areas that I’ve identified as areas that we need to pay close attention to as an organization.”
Some community members and parents said there is a disconnect at times between Allentown School District staff and students.
Camilla Greene, a member of the board of Promise Neighborhoods of Lehigh Valley, said teachers have told her they are simplifying the curriculum for their students.
Rosalind Lucien with the Thrive Hub and Scholar Blueprint said students are frequently being directed to community colleges even though they have excellent grades. She said she talked to a student who visited a college who wanted to go there because the student said they “were really nice to her.”
“I said, ‘Why wouldn’t they be nice,’” Lucien said. “I said that’s more of an indication of what you have experienced up until now.”
The town hall meeting comes just a day after the Pennsylvania Department of Education released scores for the Pennsylvania System of State Assessments, known as the PSSAs, that showed some very low scores for Allentown schools.
Francis Raub, Harrison-Morton and Trexler middle schools had the lowest math proficiency scores in the district, ranging from 3.5% to 2.2%. Allentown high schools William Allen and Louis Dieruff, and Raub Middle School had the lowest proficiency on science testing, from 3.9% to 7.4%.
Central Elementary School had the lowest proficiency for the English language arts assessment at 11.8%.
Several district elementary schools, along with Raub, Harrison-Morton and South Mountain middle schools, had proficiency rates of between 14.5% to 23%.
