Who We Are
A+ Schools is a community advocate for improving student achievement by supporting an action agenda shaped by the issues of high standards, quality teaching, leadership accountability, financial responsibility and community involvement.

Our purpose is to regularly report back to the public and engage a range of community partners in the effort to improve the educational outcomes of public school students. We are an independent organization focused on improving student achievement. We will seek to ensure objective oversight and steady support for public school improvement initiatives.

Our public schools are vital to the future of our city. They are organizing institutions for neighborhoods; they attract families to the city, they are the foundations of the strength of our workforce and the engine for the future creativity and responsibility of our citizens. But we have no civic mechanism for holding our education system accountable. We need an empowered advocate for student performance; we need a way to speak loudly and clearly about the progress of reform; we need a means to engage the broader community in order for our schools to improve.

Why a Community Alliance?
Every major city that has embarked on fundamental school reform has had as its partner an empowered civic organization as a key ingredient to its success.

Three key aspects of A+ will make a genuine difference in our public school situation:

• A vocal leadership that makes clear this community's high expectations for performance and accountability of its school system
• Developing genuine community engagement in both the issues and the activities undertaken by the organization
• Resource support from community institutions and businesses, the future of which depend on the excellence of the products of our education system, our children

History
A year and a half ago, when three major Pittsburgh foundations withdrew their financial support from the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and the Mayor created the Commission on Public Education, there was a genuine sense of crisis about this vital community resource. The Mayor's Commission, which included citizens from every interest group and section of town, worked hard for a year and came to consensus on a series of findings and recommendations based on extensive professional research, experience from other cities, and input from dozens of neighborhood meetings. That work now becomes the basis for a genuine movement to bring Pittsburgh into that company of American cities which are embracing the challenges in their public education systems.