Justice Scholars Institute Report 2025

JUSTICE SCHOLARS INSTITUTE

Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

In partnership with Pittsburgh Public Schools Milliones 6-12, Perry Traditional Academy, and Westinghouse Academy

Table of Contents 2 FOREWORD—A TRIBUTE TO BARBARA SIZEMORE 4 Rising Up Story by Faith Schantz—From A+ Schools Report to the Community

10 JSI PARTNER SCHOOLS PROFILES 14 JSI EVENT SUMMARIES 2024-2025 14 14 15 15 15 15

Enrollment Day College Ready Workshop College Visits Personal Statement Workshop College Night & Holiday Party Research Workshop

16 JSI PANTHERS IN OAKLAND 18 JSI IN THE MEDIA 19 TEACHER COLLECTIVE SPOTLIGHT 19 A Peek into Milliones CHS Classrooms 19 Bilal Abbey 19 Ashley Capps 19 Brian Wagner 20 A Peek into Perry CHS Classrooms 20 Vicki Ammer 20 Kenneth Smith 21 Jason Boll 21 Rachel Mackenzie 21 Maria Orton 22 A Peek into Westinghouse CHS Classrooms 22 Angela Flango 22 Vincent Werling 23 Sean Means 24 Teacher Collective: In Focus 2024-25

26 PITT STUDENTS’ HANDS-ON WITH JSI 26 Reflections from JSI 2023-24 School of Education Interns 26 Ariana Hendersen 26 Molly Tiplady 28 JSI Lifers 28 Mary McMahon 28 Megan Hanlon

30 GIVING 32 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the cover: JSI Scholar Aneiah Travis Barnett, Class of 2024

School of Education Mission-Vision Statement We ignite learning. We strive for well-being for all. We teach. We commit to student, family, and community success. We commit to educational equity. We advocate. We work for justice. We cultivate relationships. We forge engaged partnerships. We collaborate. We learn with and from communities.

We innovate and agitate. We pursue and produce knowledge. We research. We disrupt and transform inequitable educational structures. We approach learning as intertwined with health, wellness, and human development. We address how national, global, social, and technological change impacts learning. We shape practice and policy. We teach with and for dignity. We think. We dream.

We lead with integrity. We are the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dean Eboni Zamani-Gallaher poses with Justice Scholars Institute students and Pitt School of Education (SOE) faculty and staff at the Center for Urban Education (CUE). The JSI students presented as part of the CUE Food for Thought series in April 2025. The high school seniors shared about their capstone research projects, visions for change in our communities, and hopes for the future.

Pictured from Left: JSI Program Manager Erica Roberts; Mahlae Pollard; Pitt SOE Dean Eboni Zamani-Gallaher; Jasmine Pierre [Back row from left] Nyxai Robinson, Jerel Sims, JSI Program Director and Pitt SOE Assistant Professor Esohe Osai.

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A TRIBUTE TO

Dr. Barbara A. Sizemore ■ BY ESOHE OSAI, PhD

Assistant Professor, School of Education Director, Justice Scholars Institute

The year 2025 began with much uncertainty for educators, especially those of us dedicated to educational equity and improving the livelihoods of people in marginalized communities. Reflecting on the current socio-political climate in the U.S., I am reminded of how this moment connects to historical periods in our nation. Confucius said, “Study the past if you would define the future.” In navigating today’s educational landscape, I am drawn to Dr. Barbara Sizemore: a giant in Black history, a force of a woman, and an audacious education leader.

Barbara Sizemore was born in Chicago, IL, in 1940. I was born in Chicago in the 1980s, not far from where Barbara Sizemore began her career as an educator. By the time I came on the scene, Dr. Sizemore had moved to Pittsburgh from Washington D.C., after serving as the first Black woman superintendent to head a major city’s public school system. Despite a tumultuous experience in D.C., she came to Pittsburgh ready to roll up her sleeves and stay engaged in the effort to improve educational outcomes for Black children. Dr. Sizemore joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education and was known for her intense dedication to low-income communities that were home to much of Black Pittsburgh. She worked closely with local schools and organizations to combat challenges in Black schools, developing programs and

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systems to ensure success for Black learners and to foster thriving Black communities. She was a leader in both the academy and the community – a true communityengaged scholar before that was even a popular designation.

Dr. Sizemore’s story is one of courageous leadership, sprinkled with humility, candor, and deep persistence. She had a profound belief in the potential for Black children to succeed and was unrelenting in her efforts to create meaningful change. As a researcher and thinker, she developed models that facilitated learning and engagement for the most disadvantaged children. She did not hesitate to confront powers and systems that threatened the livelihood and well-being of Black communities. She understood that “every system is perfectly designed to get the results that it gets,” so she tackled educational challenges with the force of her intellect. It did not matter who was at the helm; she faced opponents with grace and fortitude. She understood struggle.

She never backed down from a challenge and was relentless in striving for equity and excellence in education.

Sizemore’s life speaks volumes of what is possible for Black children in our public school systems in the U.S. She was like a river in the desert, pouring her heart and soul into her convictions and what she believed

was possible. Dr. Sizemore once wrote, “We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open.”

That is our assignment, despite the present challenges in education.

We must continue to expose young people to what is possible. We also have to help them become critically conscious because that helps them make sense of what they see around them while dreaming. We cannot allow them to be limited by the versions of reality that are most proximal. We must give them the opportunity to dream—to engage in freedom dreaming. This dreaming, based on deep desires, can become future goals and aspirations. We can then provide the educational and community infrastructure to help those goals and aspirations become reality.

Barbara Sizemore, Frank Floyd Hightower Photograph Collection, University Library System Digital Collections

The Justice Scholars Institute is entering its 10th year of partnering with the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) to help build that infrastructure. This foreword acknowledges that we owe a debt to Barbara Sizemore, who spent decades engaged in this kind of work and whose legacy, though underappreciated, speaks volumes. It took me moving to Pittsburgh to learn about Barbara Sizemore.

Sadly, she was never mentioned in the schools I attended. However, I intend to make sure that the PPS students I encounter know her name. Her message to PPS students was likely similar to the one I often share: You’re brilliant, and you can do hard things. The struggle of life is real. But you’re built for it.

Go forward and change the world.

Esohe Osai speaks at a recent research workshop which included senior students from all three participating schools.

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RISING UP ■ 2024 | WRITTEN BY FAITH SCHANTZ, REPORT EDITOR

On a cool March morning, 18 seniors troop into a classroom at Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy 6-12. The class is “Introduction to Social Justice,” and the lesson will be about “defunding” the police. Students have already read Race to Incarcerate,

by Sabrina Jones and Marc Mauer, and discussed the highprofile police killings of Black Americans. Today, teacher Sean Means invites them to consider other views. The idea behind defunding the police was to free up resources for proactive strategies and to reduce their power, he says.

But what has been the result?

A student speaks up from the back of the room. In Pittsburgh now, you can’t get the police to show up unless a crime is already in progress, she says. After her workplace was robbed, managers were advised to hire an off-duty officer rather than to expect more protection from the force. “Did Pittsburgh police ever get defunded, though?” she asks. “Good question,” Means responds.

He shows a short news video about police officers quitting their jobs across the country.

Should the police recruit in schools, he asks, like the

Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy 6-12 The Justice Scholars Institute: Making the path by walking

Traveler, there is no path.

The path is made by walking. ~ Antonio Machado military does? That would be useless, he’s told. “No one wants to be a police officer.”

“I’ll put 80 grand on the table,” he says. No takers. He raises the figure until some students seem tempted. One girl says, provocatively, “I might be a police officer because I could do whatever I wanted.”

“Where’s the location?” a boy asks. “Homewood? No. Mt. Lebanon? Yes.” By the end, students had so much to say that Means abandoned one element of the lesson. He says this type of candid, wide-ranging conversation is typical for the class. Earlier in the year, it was easier to get through a lesson “because they didn’t talk as much. As they’ve grown, the debates just start rolling. And sometimes they’re so good I don’t stop them.”

If this classroom scene sounds more like an engaged college class than 12th graders coasting toward graduation, that may be because it is a college class. Westinghouse students who pass Introduction to Social Justice will earn three transferable credits from the University of Pittsburgh, through a program based in Pitt’s School of Education

Reprinted with permission of A+ Schools. Written by Faith Schantz. © 2024.

For more information, go to ourschoolspittsburgh.org.

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called the Justice Scholars Institute (JSI). Assistant Professor Esohe Osai founded JSI in 2016, beginning with 13 students in the inaugural Intro to Social Justice class. Since then, the school has added the JSI courses “Argument,” taught

by Angela Flango; “US History,” taught by Means; and “Basic Applied Statistics,” taught by Vincent Werling. In 2021, the program expanded to include Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12 and Pittsburgh Perry High School.

More than 90 students enrolled in and passed JSI courses across the three schools just in the last year. To date, JSI students have earned over 1,000 Pitt credits, paid for by the program through grants and other funding.

Along with higher-level courses and the chance to earn college credits, JSI offers students college counseling, exposure to college life through visits to Pitt classes and other campuses, an Out-of-School Time (OST) component, and outreach to program graduates. JSI teachers can join the Teacher Collective, a learning community that shares information and works to support more successful transitions for students.

A QUESTION OF OPPORTUNITY Westinghouse Academy is located in Homewood North, in Pittsburgh’s East End, in a majestic five-story building dating back to the 1920s.

The majority Black community of Homewood holds some of the city’s richest cultural history, as well as a history of disinvestment and economic disadvantage. Boardedup houses sit across the street from the school. Flango, who also teaches 10th grade English, has been at Westinghouse since 2017. “We have a lot of really smart, capable, dedicated staff, and we have great students with a ton of potential but also students that experience a lot of challenges,” she says. For example, in the 2023-24 school year, 92% of students were economically disadvantaged, and 67% missed nearly a month of school or more.

Westinghouse also had one of the highest student mobility rates—the percentage of students transferring in and out—of any district 6-12 or 9-12 school.

Justice Scholar Nadia Dixon, of Wilkinsburg, says Westinghouse “is not as bad as it’s portrayed on the Internet. It’s a very tight community, even though we have our ups and downs.” She believes a student can get a good education there. At the same time, she recognizes that she didn’t have the same opportunities as students at some other schools, for example, Pittsburgh Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill. “’Dice has a lot of AP classes,” she says, referring to Advanced Placement, which offers students more challenging content

in high school and can allow them to skip more basic courses in college.

Given her goal of being a lawyer, in 9th grade she would have taken AP US Government and Politics if it had been offered at Westinghouse, as it was at Allderdice. She did take a few AP classes, and the school is beginning to offer more, she says, but she wishes she’d had more options.

Jackie Spiezia, who serves as the research and evaluation coordinator for JSI and runs its OST program at Westinghouse, contrasts the college counseling she experienced with what Westinghouse students have reported. The Catholic high school she attended in New York City employed two counselors for its 60 students. Both were “incredibly involved in the process” of helping students prepare for college, she says, including holding FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) workshops and arranging for one-on-one meet-ups with college representatives. Westinghouse has three counselors, for about 660 students. “When I asked the students, who is the person that you feel supports you the most, the two names they gave were the names of their teachers,” Spiezia says. “And so I specifically asked, ‘What has your engagement been like with your guidance counselor?’ And a few students said they had not even spoken to their guidance counselor the entire year.”

In addition to AP, students at certain schools can take courses through Pitt’s nationally accredited, longrunning College in High School (CHS) program, which partners with schools across the state to offer college-

level courses at a reduced rate. In Pittsburgh, though, “They were never in schools that had populations like we serve,” Osai says. “Before we started at Westinghouse, there were zero credit-bearing opportunities in that building whereas at Allderdice there were a dozen or so classes offered. And that to me was not surprising but disappointing that people let that continue.”

Just like at Allderdice, there were students at Westinghouse who wanted to take college classes. “If we know that research says the students who have college courses in high school are more likely to succeed in college,” Osai asks, “then why not give them that chance? And we know that we had very low numbers of successful post-secondary graduation rates from [Westinghouse, Milliones, and Perry]. You have three percent, five percent, six percent some years who are finishing high school and actually six years later have a college degree. That’s not okay.”

She decided, “I’m going to make sure that those students have access to what they should have access to.”

One major existing resource was CHS, which agreed to partner with JSI; currently, it provides teacher training and collaborates in other ways. At the same time, Osai knew that simply bringing CHS courses to Westinghouse would not be enough.

JSI would also have to offer the experiences, exposure, information, and “scaffolds” that help students get ready for college, the kind of multi-faceted support that students in schools with more resources often take for granted.

Opportunities for Black PPS students: Differences in perceptions “Black, African, and African American students have equitable acess to gifted, advanced placement, magnet and IB programming.”

“Black, African, and African American students are supported for academic success in gifted, advanced placement, magnet, and IB programming.”

Percent who disagreed:

Percent who disagreed:

Black PPS staff 76%

Black PPS parents/caregivers 48%

Black PPS staff 56%

Black PPS parents/caregivers 45%

White PPS staff 37%

White PPS parents/caregivers 38%

White PPS staff 33%

White PPS parents/caregivers 33%

Source: Survey data from The Current State of Racial Equity at Pittsburgh Public Schools (2023).

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Seniors’ public presentation of their research, culled from the 15-page papers they write in Argument class, also serves as a recruitment tool.

Flango realized that the research paper assignment had wafted into the “air” of the school when a 10th grader in one of her English classes said, “I think I’m going to write my 15page paper on this”—two years before the assignment would be due. More generally, according to Nadia, current students share course expectations with prospective students. “Trust me—everyone that’s in JSI right now—we talk about all the work we get. So if you’re interested, you know the workload.”

ENROLLMENT, ATTENDANCE, COMMUNITY One main difference between JSI courses and advanced course offerings in other high schools is that JSI courses are open to students who are interested in taking them.

According to JSI policy, students should be automatically enrolled in the courses (with the choice to opt out) if they meet the criteria for a Pittsburgh Promise scholarship: good attendance and at least a 2.5 grade point average. (Nationally, automatic enrollment in higherlevel courses based on objective criteria has been shown to increase enrollment for students of color.)

Interested students who don’t meet the criteria can submit a letter of recommendation from a teacher. As Means characterizes it, “If you want to get in, you can get in. We’re not going to stop you.”

In her view, those high expectations are the reason JSI students show up regularly for class. “You missed a day, you’re behind on so much.”

Both Means and Flango report no attendance issues in their JSI classes. Another draw might be the bonds students form, with their teachers and with one another. The goal is for students to stay together for more than one year. For example, at Westinghouse, 11th graders can take US History with Means. The following year, they can take Social Justice with Means and Argument with Flango. (They can take Statistics with Werling either year.) “Two years to build the community,” Nadia says.

“So yeah, we’re pretty close.”

Osai points out that scheduling students is a “dark room” she can’t enter as an external partner. But teachers have found ways to spread the word. At Westinghouse, Means and Flango have been JSI teachers since 2017 and 2018, respectively.

“I think us both being at the school for a number of years now has really helped us grow the program, kind of establish a name for ourselves in the school,” Means says. Because Flango teaches 10th graders, “She can really preach, talk about what it is, what that program is doing, and why they need to be a part of it.”

“They are responsible for the positive classroom environment,” Flango states. “There’s way more of them than me. They’re responsible for this idea of taking care of each other and looking out for each other.”

Relationships among classmates pay off academically as well. As

Means sees it, “Iron sharpens iron.”

When students see others working hard, they’re more likely to challenge themselves, he believes.

It helps that Argument is scheduled immediately after Social Justice and the classrooms face each other across a hall. And then, “Half the class is in my room for lunch,” Means says, adding, “I don’t think they know how much I like that and how good it makes me feel.” Osai notes that having that “special little corner” in the school made it easier to recruit students for OST, which took place on Wednesdays in Flango’s classroom last year. Osai recalls JSI staff telling students, “‘Hey, we’re going to have out-of-school time.’ And they’re all like, ‘Great, because we’re going to be here anyway.’”

Means has some cynicism after 10 years of teaching, especially with regard to the lip service paid to statements like “All children can learn.” Looking at how his students have built an actual community of learners, though, he feels hopeful “when I see how they work together and believe in one another. Briez is over there. He’s helping his colleague out. He’s helping this other kid out with his paper. Edwards is helping Diamond with her paper, and it is just running by itself. It’s a good thing in a place that’s struggled to find those types of things.”

* On that March day in Means’ classroom, the bell rings. Students gather their laptops and backpacks and cross the hall to Flango’s room.

we know that research says the students who “ Ifhave college courses in high school are more likely to succeed in college, then why not give them that chance?

”

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Once they’re settled, she asks them to chart the elements of their research papers and check off what they’ve completed. She tells them, “I want you to see how much you’ve done.”

After a beat, she says, “You’re tired.”

They nod. “You’re thirsty.” They laugh.

“It’s dark, and you’ve been running up and down….” More laughter.

Shoulders drop, and a wave of relief passes over the class. She reviews what the rest of the semester will look like, and asks who is coming to the study session over break.

She’ll be away at a conference for a few days, she reminds them. “Now they’ve got you leaving,” a student says, pretending to grumble.

“What’s next?”

HIGH EXPECTATIONS, HIGH SUPPORT Flango divides the Argument class into two parts. In the first semester, she says, “We learn the different types of argument, researching and writing arguments as well as delivering them, how to respond to counter arguments. So it’s a lot of reading, writing, debating and presenting.” The second semester focuses on the research paper.

Students undergo the scholarly process of “brainstorming their ideas, developing research questions, coming up with a working thesis, doing an annotated bibliography,” and ultimately creating and delivering a presentation. Westinghouse students who write research papers of at least 15 pages are eligible for a

$4,000 college scholarship funded by an anonymous donor. Despite that lure, Flango says that when she first started teaching Argument, “the buy-in was more difficult. The kids were all of a sudden being asked to grapple with a lot more rigorous material. And even though the support was there, it was like, why would I choose to do something more difficult if I can do something that’s easier? As the years have gone on and they’re able to see the upperclassmen do it, and then you see your friend do it the year before you, [the path] has become a lot smoother and a lot easier.”

Nadia’s topic was cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation and their effects on four cultures. She researched how each group defines cultural appropriation, conducted interviews, and read widely on the Internet to avoid basing her conclusions on one “skewed” argument, she says. She learned, “A 15-page paper is not as hard as it seems because 15 pages is a lot, but after you do it, it’s like, I was stressing for nothing.” In the end, she wrote more than 15 pages, and so did many of her classmates.

“It’s not just rigor and sink-or-swim,” Flango says. “We give them support— very targeted, specific support—every step of the way.” The key is to “meet students where they are” and allow them the space to grow, which can involve more than helping them develop research skills. “If you start to lose confidence or start to doubt yourself, we want to be there. We want to be that safety net to say, let me show you why I know you can do this.”

2024-25 JSI COURSES WESTINGHOUSE Basic Applied Statistics (11th or 12th) US History (11th) Instroduction to Social Justice (12th) Argument (12th)

PERRY Preparation for Biology (11th or 12th) 20th Centry African American Literature (11th) US History (11th)

MILLIONES African American History (11th) Argument (11th) Theories of Leadership (12th) Introduction to Social Justice (12th)

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Students may also need emotional support based on the topics they write about. Many choose an issue raised in the Social Justice class, or a related social problem, and the topic may be personally relevant.

For example, a young Black woman in the class wrote her paper on discriminatory practices in health care systems that affect Black women. But Flango believes the weight of an issue can provide its own form of support. “It’s a way of getting their voice heard on a topic that matters,” she says. “In a way, delving into these topics can be difficult, but also it’s kind of a release to be able to be like, look, I care about this. I want to present it. I want to spend my time looking into it.”

“To me, it’s all about raising their critical consciousness,” Osai says, about the research paper, the Social Justice discussions, and the program overall. “How do they make sense of the world that has not treated them fairly?” One way is to investigate how systems perpetuate inequalities, with the goal of changing them. Another way is for students to find their purpose, including why they might want to go to college in the first place. “It keeps you in the struggle longer when you have a sense of something bigger than you,” she says, “something you’re pursuing that’s part of your opportunity to change and support your loved ones, those around you, the world at large.”

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WHAT DO STUDENTS NEED? JSI students at Westinghouse who participate in the after-school program don’t have to wait until they’re adults to begin to address issues they care about, making their learning relevant to their present lives. While the OST space looks different at each of the three schools, depending on student and program coordinator interests, at Westinghouse Spiezia invited students to participate in action research. At first, she says, they came in wondering, “What is this space? What are we going to talk about? What are we going to do?

Is it going to be fun?” They played some get-to-know-you games and she talked to them about “youth participatory action research,” which aims to give young people decisionmaking power when they take on an issue. They visited Osai’s Adolescent Development class at Pitt, and learned that research is a collective endeavor. Spiezia also tried to show them, “This is fun.”

The Teacher Collective had chosen the low rate of college completion for Black PPS graduates as a research project. After Spiezia presented data to her students, they adopted the same question. By the end of the year they had crafted a research question, identified interview subjects, created interview protocols, and conducted mock interviews for teachers, counselors, principals, and districtlevel administrators—with a plan to pass on the project to the new group this year.

These investigations are part of a broader effort by the JSI community to keep pushing on the question: what kinds of support do students need to succeed in high school and ultimately to graduate from college? Osai acknowledges she has no control over whether JSI graduates can pay for four years of post-secondary education. But if she could, she says, she would hire a staff member to check in with program graduates who are freshmen in college, starting with questions like, “‘Have you been to the library yet?’ ‘Have you been to the office hours?’ ‘Have you gotten your books yet?’ These are little things, micro things, that can have great impact down the line.” JSI teachers reach out to their former students, and the Teacher Collective has conducted interviews with program alumni to ask what kinds of support they find most valuable. Osai would like to make those contacts systematic, “so there’s this constant feeling of, ‘I have back-up.’”

Program staff have also conducted interviews with current JSI students.

While Spiezia didn’t conduct any of the formal interviews, “Something that I can speak to is that students appreciate even the act of asking,” she says. Staff also learned, “Students care deeply about their classes. They care about their work, and it’s a matter of understanding why they didn’t want to go to class or an assignment was overwhelming, and bridging those feelings with support.”

Offering all students challenging courses: What works Insights from Justice Scholars Institute staff, Westinghouse teachers, and a student Students who meet certain criteria are automatically enrolled in courses. Others can enroll with a teacher’s recommendation.

The “cohort model”—keeping students together for more than one year—promotes community, which has social and academic benefits.

High expectations are paired with “specific, targeted” support designed to meet students where they are.

Student participants shape OST (after-school time) according to their interests, and work on projects that can create meaningful change.

High expectations and student-driven, relevant topics boost attendance

“DID WE DO ENOUGH?” Means says he tries to give his students a realistic view of their lives after high school. He wants them to have careers they can be passionate about that also pay well—no degrees in “underwater basket-weaving”—with the goal of having one job that will allow them to read to their children at night.

Each year, he wonders, “Did we do enough?” Just as he runs out of time in his classes, at graduation “we ran out of time again because there’s still things that you want for them.” Even so, one of the emotions that day is pride. “We did this for our children,” he says. Professionally, JSI has offered him a level of honesty and authenticity he hasn’t always

JSI staff and teachers regularly gather information about the support students and graduates need.

experienced. “Through the teachers that we’ve had, all the people on the Pitt end, and the students that we’ve had in the program, we’ve been able to build a culture in that space where people actually believe in what they’re saying.”

Nadia, who served as valedictorian for the Class of 2024, graduated with 12 Pitt credits she hoped to transfer to her chosen school, Howard University. With those classes behind her, she appreciates not having to take some of the general education classes, because “Who doesn’t want to be out of a gen-ed? No one.”

Overall, being a Justice Scholar helped her develop confidence in her ability to do college-level work, and her classmates seemed to feel the same way. “The program helped

them realize college is not that hard,” she says.

Spiezia completed her first year as program coordinator at Westinghouse in June. She was happy to witness motivated students’ enthusiasm and excitement as their college offers and scholarships flowed in. She was even prouder of being part of other students’ evolution throughout the program, seeing them make a life-changing choice.

“Maybe they weren’t sure,” she says, “even—‘I don’t know if I want to go to college.’ And then, it’s like, ‘I didn’t apply to college yet.’ And then, it’s like, ‘Okay, I applied to college.’ ‘I got in.’ ‘Actually, I think I’m going to go.’”

A+ Schools 4165 Blair Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15207 412-697-1298 | info@aplusschools.org

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JSI Partner Schools Profiles Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12 University Preparatory School

Current enrollment (October 2024): 280 students

88%

280 29 25% 4 88%

30%

38%

Attending college or trade school immediately after graduation 2022: 38%

87%

5%

Neighborhood school with a magnet entrance option, post-secondary focus; and Early Childhood Education and Entertainment Technology CTE programs

Enrollment 315 students

Percentage of neighborhood children who attend the school rate 18%

District 6-12 average: 615

5% 1% 5%

1%

District 6–12 average: 21%

Low-income:

IEP*

Student stability rate:

87% Black

White

American Indian

Asian

Hispanic

38%

20%

10%

10% 0% Class of 2020

10

Class of 2021

Class of 2022

Completion of degree within 6 years: Class of 2018: 5%

Percentage of Teachers new to school (2023-24): 3%

Graduation Rates Over Time 2020

32%

Graduation Rate 2023: 88%

3%

* Students with an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for special education, excluding students identified as “gifted”

30%

College in High School Courses

Percentage of Black Teachers (2023-24): 21%

Multi-ethnic

Postsecondary Enrollment Post Graduation

of Juniors and Seniors currently enrolled in JSI

14%

Pacific Islander

40%

Total Students in JSI

78%

2021

82%

2022

84%

2023

86% District Rate 78% (2020), 82% (2021), 84% (2022), 86% (2023)

Pittsburgh Perry Traditional Academy

430 76 28% 4 89%

Current enrollment (October 2024): 430 students

29%

29%

Attending college or trade school immediately after graduation 2023: 29%

80%

4%

9-12 neighborhood school with a Junior ROTC program; Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math Magnet programs; and Health Careers Technology and Cosmetology Career and Technical Education programs

Enrollment 428 students

Percentage of neighborhood children who attend the school rate 27%

District 9-12 average: 799

11%

3%

District 9–12 average: 39%

11% Low-income:

IEP*

Student stability rate:

88%

75% Black

White

American Indian

Asian

Hispanic

Multi-ethnic

20%

23%

29% 19%

Graduation Rates Over Time

Class of 2020

Class of 2021

Class of 2022

72% 83%

2021

2023

0%

Completion of degree within 6 years: Class of 2018: 4%

Percentage of Teachers new to school (2023-24): 3%

2022

10%

Graduation Rate 2023: 89%

3% 2020

30%

College in High School Courses

14%

* Students with an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for special education, excluding students identified as “gifted”

Postsecondary Enrollment Post Graduation

of Juniors and Seniors currently enrolled in JSI

Percentage of Black Teachers (2023-24): 14%

Pacific Islander

40%

Total Students in JSI

71% 89% District Rate 78% (2020), 82% (2021), 84% (2022), 86% (2023)

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JSI Partner Schools Profiles continued

Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy 6-12 Neighborhood school with Emergency Response Technology; Health Careers Technology; Culinary Arts; Cosmetology; Carpentry; Business Administration, Sports, and Entertainment Career and Technical Education programs

Enrollment 679 students

Percentage of neighborhood children who attend the school rate 23%

District 6-12 average: 660

3% 2% 2%

1%

District 6–12 average: 21%

Low-income:

92%

IEP*

31%

Student stability rate:

82%

93% Black

White

American Indian

Asian

Hispanic

Multi-ethnic

570 32 18% 4 85%

Current enrollment (October 2024): 280 students

21%

Attending college or trade school immediately after graduation 2023: 21%

3% 26%

Completion of degree within 6 years: Class of 2018: 3%

0%

Pacific Islander

* Students with an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for special education, excluding students identified as “gifted”

Postsecondary Enrollment Post Graduation 40% 30% 20%

27%

2021

21%

of Juniors and Seniors currently enrolled in JSI College in High School Courses Graduation Rate 2023: 85%

Percentage of Black Teachers (2023-24): 26% Percentage of Teachers new to school (2023-24): 0%

Graduation Rates Over Time 2020

28%

Total Students in JSI

61% 67%

2022

84%

2023

85%

10% 0% Class of 2020

Class of 2021

Class of 2022

JSI Partner Schools data is provided by our collaborators at A+ Schools

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District Rate 78% (2020), 82% (2021), 84% (2022), 86% (2023)

A JSI student developing academic writing skills at the JSI Research Workshop.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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JSI Event Summaries 2024-2025 Throughout the school year, Justice Scholars Institute provides a host of educational enhancement opportunities, including college preparatory workshops and college visits. The workshops are intended to expose students to learning that will prepare them for the post-secondary transition.

The college visits are vital to enhancing prospective students’ college selection experience. We often partner with The Pittsburgh Promise for college visits, which allows both organizations to expand our reach. JSI events are a great way for these students to immerse themselves in the full college experience and

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build skills that will be essential to them once they are enrolled in college.

1 Enrollment Day Enrollment Day is the day that the students initially meet the JSI team and officially enroll in College in High School courses. We share all about JSI and explain why dual enrollment is important. We also share the program expectations and answer any questions students might have about their involvement. Students sign an agreement committing to the program expectations. Finally, we assist, as necessary, with registration for the relevant College in High School courses being offered at their school.

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College Ready Workshop The JSI College Ready Workshop was held at Alumni Hall on Pitt’s campus. Juniors from across all three of our program schools attend the event. The students were greeted by the Roc (Pitt mascot) and Pitt Cheerleaders! After a welcome from our team, students engaged in a presentation by the Pitt Study Lab on Study Skills and Test Taking Strategies. Students took notes, dialogued with the presenters, and asked great questions. This was JSI’s first official partnership with the Pitt Study Lab and we look forward to working with them more in the future.

After the presentation, students went on a tour of the University of Pittsburgh. For most students in our program, this is their first official tour of Pitt’s campus.

The tour ended at the Pitt Eatery where students ate lunch with other college students. After lunch, we finished the day with hands-on learning activities.

Pitt is about a lot more than just classes. We wanted to expose our students to a few of the numerous activities, labs, and resources available on a college campus. Students were divided into three groups. One group went to the Bio Lab and participated in a lab exercise called “Searching for Biofuel Enzymes”. The second group went to the Open Lab where they learned about 3D printing and made their own buttons. The third group went to the Center for Creativity and made their own journals by book binding. Each of the three experiences was unique and enjoyable. Students left after a full day of diverse experiences on campus that gave them a glimpse into what college look like.

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College Visits

Personal Statement Workshop

Each year, one of our primary goals is to take seniors and juniors in our program on a college visit. We typically take seniors on a visit in the fall and juniors in the spring. On October 1, 2024, we took 40 seniors from across all three of our program schools to Slippery Rock University. Students attended an information session, had a tour of the campus, and were able to eat in the cafeteria with other college students. We finished our visit by connecting with former JSI students. We met up with Elijah Warren a 2024 graduate of University Prep/Milliones and current freshman at Slippery Rock University and Amari Richardson a 2021 graduate of Westinghouse and a current senior at Slippery Rock University. We even brought both students a care package to help them make it through their fall semester!

The Personal Statement Workshop is a collaboration between the Educational Outreach Center and the Pitt Writing Lab. We work together to provide seniors from across our three program schools with the knowledge and skills needed to craft a compelling college application essay and/or scholarship essay. This allows our students to effectively showcase their personality, experiences, and goals to admissions officers, ultimately increasing their chances of college acceptance.

6 Research Workshop

5 College Night and Holiday Party College Night and Holiday Party is another wonderful collaborative event! We usually partner with the Pittsburgh Promise to host the festivities. JSI students and their families are invited to attend, along with our JSI teachers who usually show up for the fun. Citizens Bank also partnered with us this year and provided students and families with Financial Aid and FAFSA information. Importantly, we shared a holiday meal catered by a local business. Six colleges and universities set up tables to share materials and talk to students and their families.

We raffled off prizes and gift cards to all in attendance.

Our JSI seniors were invited to the Research Workshop to learn firsthand about the research process, discover innovative research methods, and get inspired to write their research papers. Each senior in JSI does a research project as part of their College in High School class. The paper is converted into a poster and presented at our JSI Symposium & Celebration in May. This celebration gives our students the opportunity to showcase their work to their families, Pitt faculty, Pitt staff and the larger community. The Research Workshop is coordinated in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Hillman librarians and Dr. Khirsten Scott, a faculty member in the Pitt School of Education.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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JSI Panthers in Oakland Meet students who were involved in JSI during high school and are currently students at the University’s Pittsburgh campus.

Maiesha Mohiuddin, Westinghouse Graduate Pitt Class of 2026 How did you get connected to JSI and what led you to get involved with the program?

My high school teachers mentioned the JSI program to me as well as encouraged me to enroll in the dual enrollment classes with Pitt. I also had an older sibling who was part of JSI and that was another motivator to get involved with the program.

How did you benefit from your time working with JSI? I learned a lot about the application process for college as well as how difficult college coursework can be. I had the chance to produce a research paper and put together a poster for a symposium which I thought was very beneficial.

What is something that you learned through working with JSI? How might that impact you moving forward into your career?

Again, the opportunity to write a research paper and present my findings through a poster at a symposium was very beneficial. I am a STEM student, so research is a major aspect of my path, and I found the exposure to that in high school helped me get a better idea of one way the process of research can look like.

What do you feel was your most significant contribution to the program?

I feel my most significant contribution to the program was speaking to current high school students at different events hosted by JSI. I have been asked by members of JSI to come share some words at workshops or any events they hold at Pitt for the current high school students in the program and I always try my best to attend. I believe my current experience at Pitt/as a college student in general is very helpful to the students because it is always better to hear from someone that is closer in age to them as well as someone coming from a similar financial background to them.

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Demir Frison, Perry Graduate Pitt Class of 2028 How did you get connected to JSI and what led you to get involved with the program?

I got connected to JSI through my high school (Perry) and they came in and introduced us to workshop opportunities! I attended a paid workshop with JSI that same summer leading into my senior year.

How did you benefit from your time working with JSI?

Working with JSI has been very beneficial for me as I worked with them in high school leading up to college, and I now go to Pitt, where they are located. So I have a very helpful and insightful network of individuals that have helped me a lot along my college journey so far.

What is something that you learned through working with JSI? How might that impact you moving forward into your career?

JSI helped me prepare for my transition to college from high school and has helped me out throughout my time here at Pitt. The habits and skills I learned through my summer workshop with JSI like study skills and plans of action, expected experiences, and normal plausible reactions to those experiences have helped keep me on track and focused.

What do you feel was your most significant contribution to the program?

Encouraging the kids at my school to participate in JSI and take from the opportunities given to them.

Terrell Wafford, Westinghouse Graduate Pitt Class of 2028 How did you get connected to JSI and what led you to get involved with the program?

I was connected to JSI through a program within my school. This program allowed me to take college courses and participate in many events outside of school. What led me to be involved in JSI was the countless opportunities that the program provides that help with success in college.

How did you benefit from your time working with JSI?

The JSI program came with many benefits. The two major benefits, I would say, were, firstly, that it helped prepare me for college and, secondly, that it gave me many opportunities to explore Pennsylvania colleges that I was thinking of going to. JSI ultimately helped me pick the University of Pittsburgh with its numerous school tours and Pitt events.

What is something that you learned through working with JSI? How might that impact you moving forward into your career?

Something I learned through JSI is not to be afraid to ask for anything. JSI provides a lot of friendly people to help you on your college journey. Throughout high school, I had many JSI members help me be where I am now. Being able to ask for help when you need it is a big part of college. Everyone struggles in some sort of way in college, so being able to ask for help when needed is huge.

What do you feel was your most significant contribution to the program?

I believe my most significant contribution to the program was showing that the program does help prepare students for college. I am on my way to starting my second year in college and I can thank JSI a lot for that.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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JSI in the Media

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RISE Summer Program Sets Stage for College Success

How August Wilson’s archive came home to the University of Pittsburgh

For some Black families in Pittsburgh, finding the right school means choosing between diversity and academic rigor

WTAE Teacher of the Month: Mr. Means, Pittsburgh Public Schools

Tenth Anniversary of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Education Award in Partnership with Schools That Can

Pittsburgh students take part in Justice Scholars Institute symposium

Teacher Collective Spotlight

A Peek into Milliones College in High School Classrooms Bilal Abbey

Brian Wagner

My favorite Intro to Social Justice lesson is the Human Rights Market. In this exercise, we begin by brainstorming the basic needs of humans and compiling our ideas on the board. Then, I share an article on contemporary human rights issues—this year’s piece focused on the conflict in the Congo—to set the context for our discussion.

I always have a plan and goal when teaching my Argument class. However, while having a road map is handy, it is often when one goes off-road and explores their environment to provide an opportunity to know and learn something new. This is the second year that I have taught this College in High School class through the support of the Justice Scholar Institute. Last year was full of many learning opportunities for me (read failed lessons).

After reading, students receive a list of 16 human rights and are asked to rank them from most important to least. This task challenges them to distinguish between rights that may seem trivial and those that are essential to everyday life. Next, the class is divided into two groups: Buyers and Owners. The Buyers, who outnumber the Owners roughly five to one, learn that the Owners have “human rights” for sale and are competing to earn the most income from these sales. With a budget of $1000, Buyers must purchase their top four rights, while Owners can charge up to $500 for each right. After a few minutes of creating makeshift signs, the market opens. I love this lesson because it forces students to confront the reality that access to human rights is not universal. Wealth, geography, religion, and government influence those who enjoy these rights. At the end of the activity, Buyers reflect on what life would be like if they were limited to only the four rights they managed to acquire.

At the same time, Owners discuss their pricing strategies and how competition affects their empathy toward Buyers.

This simulation not only cultivates critical thinking but also personalizes the concept of human rights, prompting students to appreciate and question the value of rights that many of us take for granted.

This year, I have taken a different approach, having a clear agenda but always listening and looking for student feedback to improve learning. While introducing causal arguments, I became frustrated with the lack of student engagement and turned it over to the students what would make this class more relevant and encourage them to learn. Many ideas came fast and furious, and it was decided that we would present causal arguments that mattered to students: the term “strong Black woman” is more detrimental than helpful, having age restrictions to public spaces for teens under 18 is causing many problems, and America was born out of violence and has caused issues ever since. While this lesson is still in its infancy, I see possibilities abound. Problems have been identified, and the next step is to address them within our community, leading to our next subject: proposals. What to do to change the problem?

Having the structure to guide and the freedom to explore issues that matter have been a way to teach new skills through student-led voice.

Ashley Capps One of the highlights of Theories of Leadership is our Leadership Magazine project. After being introduced to various styles and models of leadership, students think of a leader they like or about whom they want to know more. The person can be contemporary or historical, real or fictional/ mythological. Students research the leader’s background and describe the person’s leadership style, noting any highlights or challenges that influence their trajectory. Students then design a two-page magazine spread presenting information about the leader they researched. They are encouraged to be creative in their design while also making sure to include the most relevant aspects of their research that support their description of their subject’s leadership journey. Their research is expected to follow conventions of essay writing, including a formatted reference list. The finished product compiles the student pages into a magazine that is able to be shared at community events and within the school.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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Teacher Collective Spotlight

A Peek into Perry College in High School Classrooms

Vicki Ammer

Kenneth Smith

One of my favorite lessons to teach is cell signaling, a fascinating yet complex process that explains how cells communicate and respond to their environment.

To make this concept more accessible, I break it down into a five-step timeline that ultimately leads to a change in gene expression. This structured approach gives students a solid foundation before exploring variations that can lead to different biological outcomes. To enhance relevance, I connect the lesson to real-world scenarios that students may have experienced or observed, such as diabetes, the fight-or-flight response, and sickle cell disease. For instance, when discussing diabetes, students analyze how insulin signaling regulates glucose uptake and what happens when the pathway malfunctions. In the fight-or-flight response, they explore how adrenaline triggers a cascade of cellular reactions, increasing heart rate and energy production. With sickle cell disease, students examine how a single genetic mutation disrupts hemoglobin structure, leading to altered cell signaling and the disease’s symptoms.

The following quotes reflect the 5 Pillars of Historically Marginalized People I use to prepare, teach, and learn from and with my students.

Their function is to create hooks for students to link past historical situations to current events.

I incorporate case studies, discussions, and interactive simulations to deepen engagement.

Students apply their knowledge by diagnosing conditions, predicting outcomes of pathway disruptions, and even modeling signal transduction using visual and hands-on activities. These elements challenge students to think critically and make real-world connections, reinforcing scientific rigor and relevance.

By the end of the lesson, students gain a deeper appreciation of how cell signaling governs essential biological processes. More importantly, they see the direct impact of these pathways on health and disease, transforming an abstract concept into something meaningful, applicable, and thought-provoking.

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Quote 1 ~

”Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” attributed to philosopher George Santayana.

Quote 2 ~” …

My concern about not remembering (the past) is NOT that we will REPEAT it.

My concern … my fear is that we will CONTINUE the past. We will continue to do thethings that created inequality and injustice in the first place. So, we must disrupt the continuum of hard history, and we can do this by seeking truth; by confronting hard history directly by magnifying hard history for all the world to see. We can do this by speaking the truth and teaching hard history to our students.

To do anything else is to commit educational malpractice.

Hasan Kwame Jeffries |Professor of History at Ohio State University The 5 Pillars of Historically Marginalized People (HMP) help students confront what Jeffries calls “hard history”: the good, the bad, and the ugly of American History. The Pillars bring different lenses to history that start and end with TRUTH. This pillar helps reveal honest stories through various perspectives instead of nostalgic storytelling.

Truth examines the paradox of American history between prioritizing principles and actions that maintain social, economic, and political power over others. The remaining pillars shed light on this substantial contradiction regarding principles, policies, and actions the United States took against HMP. They are OPPRESSION – through forms of segregation, discrimination & violence toward HMP to maintain paternalism, White supremacy, and other forms of domination over HMP; RESISTANCE from HMP against oppression to achieve justice, equitable opportunities, and protection to maintain basic human rights; RESILIENCE through persistence and fighting through renewed forms of oppression; RESOLUTION or goals that mirror complete freedom or partial positive outcomes that fuel HOPE. Thus, an honest examination using these pillars equips students to prepare for the cyclical nature of U.S. History, linking past events to the present. Hopefully, as new forms of oppression take shape, newer forms of resistance may also evolve toward achieving a more perfect union.

Rachel Mackenzie

Jason Boll

Maria Orton

Teaching the CHS Argument has been one of the highlights of my school year.

Currently, we are working on a “Narrative as Argument” unit that centers around Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, a memoir about Noah’s experiences growing up in South Africa during and after Apartheid.

Students have been engrossed in the text, making connections between his experience and our world today, analyzing how he uses personal stories to develop his arguments, and discussing how we can use our stories to advocate for change. Our classroom has been filled with rich discussion.

Recently, we read an important section of the book where Noah contends, “A knowledgeable man is a free man or at least a man who longs for freedom.

The only way to make apartheid work, therefore, was to cripple black minds” and highlights how the government wielded the school system to do just that. As a class, we explored these ideas, and I was impressed with how students made deep connections between this and the American public school system. Several students were quick to point out that they felt their own public-school experiences at times reflected this limited opportunity but highlighted that having the opportunity to take College in High School courses has been a gamechanging experience for them. In my mind, this is what Justice Scholars is about: providing students with those “game-changing experiences”.

Great Literature courses are all about connections. In College in High School 20th Century African American Literature, students are asked to make connections across decades, characters, challenges, and the themes that always seem to surface in great literature. This year, the students have worked with more texts than ever before that have spanned from the early writing of the 20th Century to more modern science fiction. When students read Octavia Butler, Alice Walker, Malcolm X, August Wilson, and Zora Neale Hurston, they start to build critical connections between what was happening in the rural south in the 1920s, to Pittsburgh in the 1950s, to California in the 70s, and through to what is happening now in America.

The issues of race, community, gender, family, power, and resistance exist in all great literature.

My class is unique because I still go out of my way to learn new content and figure out how to make it relevant. Last summer, I worked with a group of teachers at Pitt, learning experimental protocols surrounding the microevolution of bacteria and an amoeba that eats it. For this research, Pitt doctors and scientists in the lab were working on how similar protocols are being used to find cures for cancer and cystic fibrosis. We then brought those same experiments to the classroom and made connections between the work of those scientists to experiments we do in class and how, as a scientist, when you design your experiments, you may learn new information that no one else in the world may know yet ... until you share your findings.

We practice thinking like a scientist and acting like a scientist. It is not just bookwork or lectures. They got a chance to grow their bacteria, see if it mutated, and then change experimental conditions to test the fitness of the bacteria and the amoeba that eats it. I’m a chemistry teacher, not a biology teacher, but that’s not the point. The research connects to the idea of chemical reactions and how changing the conditions of the reactions changes the amount of products you get.

You don’t always get what you want in real life, but you don’t just quit. You modify the conditions and try again. Resilience is key to being successful in life. Yes, chemistry is complex, but it’s doable. My skill is breaking down complex ideas and reintroducing them to students using metaphors that make the content palatable to students regardless of their background or culture. I don’t expect perfection, but I demand growth. We can always grow together, no matter where we begin.

The words “this reminds me of” have become a common pathway in this course. It feels powerful to have students know the characters well enough to say that Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God reminds them so much of Edana from Octavia Butler’s Kindred. Then, students often discuss how those two characters are connected. Students are showing growing confidence in speaking about the really challenging issues that arise in many of these great novels, plays, and non-fiction works.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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Teacher Collective Spotlight

A Peek into Westinghouse College in High School Classrooms

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Angela Flango

Vincent Werling

Student choice is key to cultural relevance and student engagement: choosing what you are doing naturally makes you want to do it more. The second semester of the Argument course is rooted in student choice as the springboard for the challenging and rigorous process of writing a 15-page research paper. Any research topic goes, as long as it has a social justice angle. From the detrimental effects of catfishing to the mental health of athletes to inequities within the criminal justice system, the student topics are rooted in their interests and advocacy, issues they see in the world that need attention, awareness, and solutions. The writing process spans several months and while rigorous, it is highly supportive, broken down into each step necessary to write a high-quality paper. It’s not just about the product. The process along the way is where the learning happens. From learning to find and read scholarly sources to creating an annotated bibliography and writing multiple drafts, the students are challenged and supported every step of the way.

A culmination of passion, hard work, and academic skills, the research papers are the true epitome of students exemplifying being a Justice Scholar.

My Statistics lesson that engages students is one I borrowed from another curriculum. At the beginning of our study of binomial random variables, we came across the story of Darius Washington. Darius was a point guard for the Memphis Tigers during their 2005 playoff run. He was playing in the Conference USA championship game and was fouled while taking a 3-point shot with no time left, and his team was down two points.

The question the lesson tries to answer is whether it is wise to foul a player at the end of a basketball game. When we begin the lesson, the class maps out how Darius could win, lose, or tie the game with his three shots. Students are then given Darius’s accuracy when shooting from the line. Students then calculate the probability of win, lose, or tie. We continue to follow the game via video and recalculate these probabilities as Darius makes or misses his shots.

Once the game’s outcome is decided and Memphis loses, we are given Darius’s 3-point shooting accuracy. We take this new knowledge along with the previously calculated probabilities of winning or tying and compare it to the 3-point probability.

It’s a great lesson that engages both me as a teacher and all my students.

Sean Means I use a variety of engaging methods to support learning in my classroom. We begin by examining how Hitler gained power and relate this to the use of fascism and dictatorships in other parts of the world. Next, we step on The Magic School bus and land in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Students read a condensed biography of Jessie Owens. Next, they’re instructed to write and argue why he should or shouldn’t have participated in the athletic protest during the games. At the end, we run the 100mm race (outside or in the hallway), and I dress up in my Olympic gear, and we even use a candle lighter as a torch. I’m losing by a wider margin each successive year.

Operation Dynamo using a rolling laundry basket (we also use this when flying in P-51 with and watching Red Tails during our after-school Dinner and a Movie).

We then turn to maps, where students examine how The Blitz occurred, and which nations were taken over when and how.

We’ll look at appeasement strategies and why such a policy failed then and now. We conclude the takeover of Europe by watching the first few minutes of Dunkirk and modeling

Towards the end of the unit, I’ll show students a video I made in Normandy, France, where I created a video tutorial of the battlefield in addition to providing focused readings and engaging prompts on Stalingrad, 761st Tank Battalion, the Holocaust, the Pacific Campaign, and the Manhattan Project.

After the Battle of Berlin, students read multiple articles on the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll create flashcards on the airmen and continue with those cards throughout the different chapters of the war; they will work in pairs, asking one another questions based on their research using the notecards. By quizzing multiple peers, they will make different connections and understand the context from various viewpoints.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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Teacher Collective: In Focus 2024-2025

Over the past three years, our JSI Teacher Collective has focused on a Problem of Practice, which states: Inequitable post-secondary pathways exist for students in our schools, particularly for Black students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools District. In exploring this issue, we narrowed in on four areas that are implicated in the problem: 1

Our Practice

2

Our Students’ Lives

3

Our Schools

4

Our District

In previous school years, we engaged JSI students, district leaders, principals, and community members to help us make sense of the dynamics in all four areas. This year, our collective has narrowed in on Our Practice, where we have the most direct impact. The goal was to create an evaluation tool that would serve two purposes: 1) Help us create a frame for the types of CHS classrooms that are most effective in JSI-partnered schools and 2) Assist us with an internal assessment within our community of practice.

Dr. Carmen Thomas-Browne is supporting the development of the JSI Classroom Observation Framework. The Classroom Observation Framework aims to ensure alignment across courses while maintaining a commitment to preparing students to be social justice advocates with the necessary skills to succeed in their post-secondary pathways. The framework contains four domains: Planning and Preparation, Learning Environment, Teaching & Learning, and Professional Engagement. The Framework aligns with the state of Pennsylvania Teacher’s Framework for Observation and the Cultural Awareness Competencies of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Common Ground Framework. The tool provides a structured approach to assessing and enhancing instructional practices. It uses a reference for college-level course rigor since students will gain college credit upon successful completion of the courses.

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Meet the newest member of our JSI Teacher Collective!

Dr. Carmen Thomas-Browne has joined our team as a Justice Scholar’s Institute consultant. She is a seasoned educator with over 25 years in the field. She was formerly a Comprehensive School Improvement Math Specialist working on the Regional Improvement Team for the State of Pennsylvania. She came to this work from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a Math Test Development Manager on the Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) Project.

She has supervised numerous preservice teachers in their student teaching experiences. She was the lead author in the development of an instrument titled, Assessment of Beliefs and Practices of Teaching Mathematics to AfricanAmerican Students, which was used on the Designing for Equity by Thinking in and about Mathematics (DEbT-M) project as a tool for teachers to reflect on their beliefs that inform the quality of their teaching and classroom practices. An article on this instrument was published in the journal Urban Education. She also wrote a book chapter on teaching mathematics for social justice that was published by the Association for Educational and Communication Technology. She brings the flavor of a seasoned educator, mathematics instructor, and native Pittsburgher to our team.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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Pitt Students’ Hands-On with JSI Reflections from JSI 2023-2024 School of Education Interns Ariana Henderson I interned with the Justice Scholars Institute (JSI) in my senior year at Pitt. My major, Applied Developmental Psychology, required me to work part-time with children and youth in Pittsburgh. I remember not having anything specific I was looking for in an internship. One day, my advisor sent me an internship posting with JSI. I had a couple of experiences working with youth already, and I saw this internship as an opportunity to capitalize on that. I also had professional goals of working within schools after graduation. Therefore, I saw JSI as the perfect chance to combine my personal and vocational interests.

I did many things at JSI, from supporting workshops, chaperoning college trips, checking in on past students from the program, helping students complete college applications, editing scholarship essays, sitting in on dual enrollment classes, and participating in the program’s monthly Teacher Collectives meeting. My favorite part about all of these things was getting to know the students in the program and witnessing their progress throughout the year.

It was rewarding seeing all the hard work they put in, and it paid off as many of our students received multiple college acceptance letters. And for those who did not choose the path of a college education, it was exciting to see that they

had set goals for their futures. At the end of the experience, I had the pleasure of attending graduations for Perry and Westinghouse of which our students held positions as both salutatorian and valedictorian. This is a testament of the hard work of JSI students and also the staff and teachers as we help to challenge them academically while supporting their growth as students and people.

I credit the amazing time I had during my internship with JSI to the staff, namely, Erica Roberts, Kaleah Malloy, Jackie Spieza, Dr. Esohe Osai, Kelcey Rounsville, and, my fellow intern, Molly Tiplady. I always looked forward to our frequent meetings throughout the week. Even the more dull gaps of time spent driving to and from schools, traveling to colleges, setting up for programs, and the lulls between workshop sessions were made fun. Throughout the year, the JSI team was supportive and accommodating of my busy schedule which I appreciate. I keep regular contact with all these individuals and even continue to support their work after the end of my internship. Although the experience only lasted a year, I will never forget the time I spent at JSI and the connections I made along the way.

Molly Tiplady My experience as an intern with the Justice Scholars Institute was nothing short of amazing. I was able to watch students learn and grow in their JSI courses. It was inspiring to see our students connect what they were learning in class to local history and their firsthand experiences within their communities. The trips we took to various colleges, universities, and local organizations allowed students to explore their options, passions, and make plans for their futures. Not only were these trips insightful for students during their college/career planning

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process, but the students never failed to make the trips enjoyable and have us laughing all day. Working side by side with JSI teachers was truly an invaluable experience for me. Seeing school staff members learn, adapt, and advocate for their students the way the JSI teachers did was extremely influential for me regarding my own career goals and aspirations. The way the Justice Scholars Institute highlighted the importance of community, educational equity, and social justice made it the most memorable and impactful educational experience for me.

A JSI student actively engaged at the JSI Research Workshop.

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Pitt Students’ Hands-On with JSI JSI Lifers: Interviews with two Pitt graduates who spent four years volunteering with the Justice Scholars Institute Mary McMahon Mary McMahon worked with JSI throughout her time as an undergraduate student at Pitt. She volunteered with the schools weekly to provide peer and academic support. She also worked with Dr. Osai on a research project by interviewing past JSI students who had graduated. Mary is now at Columbia University working to get her Master’s degree in Social Organizational Psychology.

What program theme stood out to you as most impactful through mentoring with the JSI? A big theme of the program is being able to see yourself in postsecondary education [and seeing all of the] opportunities that are out there. Bringing [JSI students] to Pitt’s campus … was where I saw the most transformative experience for them.

What was your biggest takeaway from working with JSI? Listening. I learned way more from [JSI students] than I honestly think students learned from me. There are so many ways to listen to students, which is especially important in high school because it can be a hard time overall.

What did you learn from the interviews you completed with JSI graduates?

Personal development is what stuck out throughout the interviews. Even after moving on to college, students could talk about how their experiences shaped them as a person. The program definitely has a long-lasting effect on the students.

Megan Hanlon What did you gain from interning with JSI? I learned a lot about how you engage in the community and how you talk about students in general. I engaged in conversations that were uncomfortable in a good way.

When volunteering, you learn so much about your [own] perspective.

What was your biggest takeaway from working with JSI? Two things come to mind. The first is they gave me a sense of autonomy and power towards how I spend my time and how I can contribute. Being a business major working with the School of Education, I would sit in a room full of people who have two to three degrees on me. I was young and I had not even an undergraduate degree. I never once felt like I didn’t have the power to contribute. It gave me a lot of like sense of purpose and confidence in the

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workplace professionally. The second thing I most benefited from was the exposure I got. I grew up in a very isolated community in Massachusetts. When I moved to Pittsburgh, I would say in higher education, nothing really changed about that. I think JSI was a big place where I was able to engage in conversations of topics and people of different socioeconomic statuses, upbringing and beliefs, engage in conversations that made a real difference.”

What have you learned through JSI that you will carry with you throughout your future career?

I learned that it is important to have a multidisciplinary approach to every job and every project I work on. Different ages, different perspectives, different career paths. I think JSI was a big wake-up to the fact that you gain so much more from having people working on the same project who have very different backgrounds”

A JSI student shares her research poster at the 2024 JSI Symposium.

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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Giving Based in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, the Justice Scholars Institute is a college preparation and academic enrichment program for high school students in Pittsburgh Public Schools. Our goal is to prepare young people to be advocates for change and social justice. Please support our efforts by clicking the QR code to the right to make a donation today.

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The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

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The Justice Scholars Institute Team

Back row, left to right:

Front row, left to right:

Jackie Spiezia, research and evaluation coordinator

Brian Wagner, partner teacher

Jason Boll, partner teacher

Kenneth Smith, partner teacher

Rachel Mackenzie, partner teacher

Carmen Thomas-Browne, community partner

Bilal Abbey, partner teacher

Vicki Ammer, partner teacher,

Erica Roberts, program manager

Ashley Capps, partner teachers

Maria Orton, partner teacher Angela Flango, partner teacher Esohe Osai, founder and director Sean Means, partner teacher Kaleah Malloy, program coordinator

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Acknowledgements

University of Pittsburgh College in High School Program Office of the Chancellor Office of Engagement and Community Affairs Office of the Provost University Educational Outreach Center School of Education School of Social Work University Library System School and Community Partners A+ Schools Catapult Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Public School District Pittsburgh Milliones Pittsburgh Perry Pittsburgh Westinghouse The Pittsburgh Promise Pittsburgh Public School District Leaders Special Thanks to Our Philanthropic Supporters Hillman Family Foundations The Pittsburgh Foundation

The Justice Scholars Institute: Sustaining an Equity-Focused College Preparatory Partnership for Pittsburgh

School of Education 5900 Wesley W. Posvar Hall 230 S. Bouquet St. Pittsburgh, PA 15260 justicescholars@pitt.edu education.pitt.edu/justice-scholars-institute

115059-0525