The Pittsburgh Foundation

2014 Report to the Community

The Pittsburgh Promise Issues 2014 Report to the Community

at Pittsburgh’s New Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District

  • 5,100 Students Receive More than $49 Million in Post-Secondary Scholarships
  • High School Graduation Rates Increase Among African-American Students
  • Peoples Natural Gas Makes Multi-Year Commitment 
  • Scholarship Fund Achieves 70% of Fundraising Goal 
  • First to Test App for Real-Time Attendance, Notification of Grades, Resources
  • Tony Award Winner, Native Pittsburgher Billy Porter to be Special Guest at 2015 GALA

PITTSBURGH, October 22, 2014 – The Pittsburgh Promise today issued its sixth annual report to the community and provided an update on the status of Promise Scholars, Promise-readiness initiatives at Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS), funding and new commitments from the community, and new technology that will help facilitate the school connection with students and parents.

Students, Community leaders, Pittsburgh Public Schools officials, City officials, donors and Promise officials met at the new Energy Innovation Center (EIC) in Pittsburgh’s lower Hill District for this annual meeting. The EIC is the site of the former Pittsburgh Public Schools Connelly trade school. The new facility – expected to host high school, technical school and college programs and students – is a 6.6 acre urban complex that will promote energy-sector research and innovation and create direct and deliberate bridges to job creation, entrepreneurship and urban economic revitalization.

This year’s report also highlights the progress and challenges that remain for advancing academic achievement in urban public education. It summarizes the program’s impact on the first six years of Promise Scholars, its progress in influencing both high school and college retention rates, and its role in advocating for urban education reform.

Promise Executive Director Saleem Ghubril presented benchmark updates and moderated the program. Among the many facts and statistics related to the progress of The Promise, his report featured the following impacts on our young people, including:

  • During the past six years, Promise scholars received nearly $230 million in grants and scholarships, including $49 million from The Pittsburgh Promise scholarship fund.
  • Core Promise scholars are persisting in higher education at rates that are comparable to students across the United States.
  • Core Promise scholars from the first two classes (2008 and 2009) attained Bachelor degrees within four years at rates that are equal to or exceed national benchmarks at most institutions.
  • Since the outset of the Promise, there has been a 46% increase in the number of Pittsburgh Public School ninth graders who finish high school and attain a post-secondary degree, diploma or certificate.
  • The high school graduation rate during the past five years has increased from 65% for the class of 2009 to 71% for the classes of 2013 and 2014.
  • Much of the graduation rate increase is due to gains among African-American students whose four-year graduation rates increased from 57% to 65%, and five-year rates grew to 71%.
  • When compared to big city school districts with a high concentration of low income students in a report by GradNation: A Campaign of America’s Promise Alliance, the graduation rate at Pittsburgh Public Schools places 11th among 40 other top cities.
  • The report also features the 2014 Executive Scholars of The Pittsburgh Promise, a special program that matches Promise Scholars with Pittsburgh companies who have provided unprecedented support to The Promise.  

“We celebrate the nearly 1,100 students who have earned a degree, diploma or certificate, the majority of whom are now working in the Pittsburgh region. Their success is due to their hard work, along with the remarkable support of their families, schools, and the Pittsburgh community. We can all take pride in their success,” said Saleem Ghubril.

Pittsburgh Public Schools Focused on the Whole Child for Promise-Readiness

Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Linda Lane discussed how The Promise continues to influence teachers, students and families in the City schools. She underscored the alignment between the Promise and the District’s vision that all PPS students will graduate from a two or four year college or receive a workforce certification.

In partnership with Pittsburgh Public Schools and other community organizations and leaders, The Promise leads or supports key initiatives that aim at helping the entire student population including: efforts to promote higher school attendance, a campaign to promote kindergarten enrollment, mentoring programs among middle school students, mentoring activities with high school students with a focus on African American students, peer support in all high schools, and college tours to more than 40 higher educational institutions.

“The Promise remains a driving force behind our efforts to improve student performance, both academic and social-emotional learning – The Whole Child,” said Dr. Lane. “From increasing access to early childhood education, helping students to reach reading proficiency by third grade to increasing student success in upper-level mathematics, we remain focused on the goal that all students will benefit from the community’s support of the Promise in their post-secondary education. I am particularly proud of the trend of increasing graduation rates among African-American students. Our entire system of education is clearly focused every day on the goal of achieving promise-readiness.”

70% of Fundraising Goal Achieved; Peoples Natural Gas Makes Multi-Year Commitment

As of September, the Pittsburgh Promise Scholarship Fund has achieved 70% of its $250 million 10-year fundraising goal, with $75 million remaining to raise. Thus far, in addition to UPMC’s $100 million challenge grant, 32 foundations have granted a total of $56 million, 78 companies have donated $16.3 million, and 3,800 individuals gave $2.1 million to the scholarship fund.

Peoples Natural Gas announced its multi-year commitment to support Pittsburgh Promise scholarships to train and develop future workers in the energy field. Peoples Gas President and CEO Morgan O’Brien, who also chairs the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, commented on the important reason for his company’s commitment to investing in the Promise.

“It is important to support the training of our young people to provide them the tools so that they can meet the growing needs for skilled workers in the energy area which is a major driver in the growth of this region,” said Morgan O’Brien. “Our investment in The Promise is an affirmation of the work they are doing to promote career and technical education that is more aligned with the growing opportunities in the Pittsburgh marketplace, including our company,” he added.

Commenting on the numerous commitments to the Promise and the community, Promise Executive Director Saleem Ghubril said, “We are so very grateful to Peoples Gas and to all donors who continue to find reasons to invest in our children, and in creating a stronger workforce for our future.”

Pittsburgh’s Billy Porter to be featured at 2015 Fundraising Event

Ghubril also announced a new fundraising gala that will take place on May 11, 2015 and will feature Tony Award-winning star Billy Porter, a Pittsburgh native and product of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. This event will also feature a musical and theatrical program including students from Pittsburgh CAPA and Carnegie Mellon, Mr. Porter’s two alma maters.

New App Helps to Connect Parents with Student Grade/Attendance Status

As part of today’s report to the community, Pittsburgh-based technology company TrueFit Innovations, led by its CEO Darrin Grove, unveiled a new App that pushes to parents their student’s grades and attendance updates in real-time and will also provide resources to help students with their studies. The App is expected to be available by the end of the year via a free download from www.pittsburghpromise.org.

110 Executive Scholars and Top Donors Build Pipeline for Future Workforce

In its third year, a total of 110 Promise Scholars – including 45 recent high school graduates – are now designated as Executive Scholars of The Pittsburgh Promise, a special program that matches Promise Scholars with Pittsburgh companies who have provided unprecedented support to The Promise. The opportunity to be named Executive Scholars in connection with potential employers or influencers at UPMC, Highmark, Giant Eagle, PNC, BNY Mellon, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Mylan, American Eagle Outfitters, and the McGuinn Family, offers invaluable connections and relationships which could, if desired by the students and the companies, serve as a pipeline for networking, internships and eventual employment. A listing of the Executive Scholars is available at pittsburghpromise.org.

About The Pittsburgh Promise

The Pittsburgh Promise, a scholarship program for Pittsburgh Public School students, advocates for improving the quality of education and increasing the preparedness and diversity of the region’s workforce.  It is one of the region’s largest fund-raising programs and one of the nation’s largest Promise programs. For more information about The Pittsburgh Promise, visit www.pittsburghpromise.org