Event eliminates barriers, offers ideas

A Mt. Lebanon teacher whose program teaching high school studentsballet, modern jazz, dance for musical theater and choreography hasbecome the envy of other schools will conduct a workshop today onsetting up a school dance curriculum.

CeCe Kapron built the program over 35 years at Mt. Lebanon HighSchool and it now draws 150 students.

Kapron will lead the workshop, one of hundreds planned at 58 sitesthat make up Countywide Professional Development Day, sponsored bythe Allegheny Intermediate Unit.

"There are a number of student dancers who would like this, andthere are a number of teachers who would like this kind of program,"Kapron said. "But it's a lot of work to get it going, especiallywithout support."

Partly paid for by schools and the intermediate unit, today's$214,000 event also attracted support from four foundations -- theHeinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Grable Foundationand the Henry C. Frick Educational Fund of the Buhl Foundation.

The event aims to improve student performance, along with theteaching of core academic subjects such as reading and math. Otherworkshops address contemporary issues, including Internet safety andthe choking game, where youths compress their chests to cut off theflow of oxygen and attain a perceived high.

"We are trying to break down barriers between school districts andimprove student performance," said John Esaias, coordinator of theevent and former superintendent at the North Hills School District."School administrators talk to each other and share ideas. Teachersdon't and they should."

The event is the largest such educational collaboration inPennsylvania, he said.

The workshops are popular with teachers, said Cheryl Griffith,assistant superintendent at the Hampton School District.

"I got no negative feedback. Everyone seemed to think it wasuseful," Griffith said.

Marilyn Cain, director of elementary education in the North HillsSchool District, said there are already results from last year.

North Hills' seven elementary schools have adopted a readingprogram that many teachers first learned about last year during apresentation by Heidi Miller, a middle school reading teacher in theQuaker Valley School District.

"We piloted that program last year," Cain said. "This year, it isin the curriculum at all of our elementary schools."

That's exactly what is supposed to happen, said Doug Root, aspokesman for the Heinz Endowments, which contributed $30,000 towardthe event.

"That's what we like to hear. That's what makes this worth theeffort," Root said.

Performance in the 42 school districts that form the AlleghenyIntermediate Unit, which does not include schools in the city ofPittsburgh, outranks state averages.

For example, 71.1 percent of fifth graders in AIU schools arerated as proficient in reading under the Pennsylvania System ofSchool Assessment testing, compared to 60.6 percent statewide. Theintermediate unit's math proficiency rate of 75.3 percent is alsoabove the state average of 66.9 percent.

Proficiency targets for fifth graders are met in 83 percent of AIUdistricts, according to the state Department of Education.