By Dennis Ciccone
CEO, Carnegie Learning

I was very pleased to see the announcement that Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt is making high school improvement a top priority in 2007. The Pittsburgh school district is joining the ranks of urban districts nationwide that understand and are responding to the urgency and liability of falling graduation rates in America.

Like many societal issues, the mission of preparing every child to graduate is now receiving the attention it has long deserved because it has moved beyond a debate of social responsibility to one of economic preservation. At the Federal level, the President’s American Competitive Initiative includes proposals to improve math and science education in our schools in order to advance our nation's economic competitiveness. The National Governors Association is driving the Innovation America program at the State level with a similar mission, and Bill and Melinda Gates and their foundation have named high school transformation a key area of focus in their effort to reduce inequities in the United States.

Roosevelt’s commitment is, congruously, set in Pittsburgh, a city of companies and organizations that are emerging front and center in high school transformation initiatives nationwide. I am proud to be leading Carnegie Learning, Inc., a fast-growing mathematics software and textbook publishing company evolved from 20 years of cognitive science research at CMU and backed by success in diverse classroom settings across the country.  Through the process put in place by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Learning was chosen as one of two math curricula providers in the Chicago Public Schools where we are focused specifically on helping at-risk middle and high school students succeed in math and advance to graduation. Recently, Dr. Steve Ritter, a company founder and our chief product architect was invited to discuss our approach with members of the Board and staff of the Gates Foundation. We are also implemented in similar high school reform programs in Los Angeles Unified School District and Miami-Dade.

We are not alone in our expertise. The RAND Corporation, a Santa Monica, CA-based research and public policy institution, has a Pittsburgh office addressing K-12 assessment and accountability and school reform, among other issues.  The Science of Learning Center at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning, Research & Development Center are leaders in theories on teaching and learning. The Heinz Endowments is committed to increasing and improving our region’s pool of highly skilled teachers who will create successful learning environments.

High school reform is a point of national concern and Pittsburgh is playing a major role in driving change, assessing results, and improving the futures of our young people. We hope that Mark Roosevelt, his staff, and the students of the Pittsburgh Public Schools will benefit from the expertise we have cultivated right here in town.

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