Keystone Books

A Social History of Pittsburgh's First Public High School

Jake Oresick

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780271079776
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: History of Education

The Schenley Experiment is the story of Pittsburgh's first public high school, a social incubator in a largely segregated city that was highly—even improbably—successful throughout its 156-year existence.

Established in 1855 as Central High School and reorganized in 1916, Schenley High School was a model of innovative public education and an ongoing experiment in diversity. Its graduates include Andy Warhol, actor Bill Nunn, and jazz virtuoso Earl Hines, and its prestigious academic program (and pensions) lured such teachers as future Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather. The subject of investment as well as destructive neglect, the school reflects the history of the city of Pittsburgh and provides a study in both the best and worst of urban public education practices there and across the Rust Belt. Integrated decades before Brown v. Board of Education, Schenley succumbed to default segregation during the "white flight" of the 1970s; it rose again to prominence in the late 1980s, when parents camped out in six-day-long lines to enroll their children in visionary superintendent Richard C. Wallace's reinvigorated school. Although the historic triangular building was a cornerstone of its North Oakland neighborhood and a showpiece for the city of Pittsburgh, officials closed the school in 2008, citing over $50 million in necessary renovations—a controversial event that captured national attention.

Schenley alumnus Jake Oresick tells this story through interviews, historical documents, and hundreds of first-person accounts drawn from a community indelibly tied to the school. A memorable, important work of local and educational history, his book is a case study of desegregation, magnet education, and the changing nature and legacies of America's oldest public schools.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Notes to Introduction
• Chapter 1: Origin Story: The People’s College and Why Schenley High Almost Never Happened
• Notes to Chapter 1
• Chapter 2: These Three Walls: The Comprehensive High School, Edward Stotz, and the Fight to Make Schenley Extraordinary
• Notes to Chapter 2
• Chapter 3: Enter to Learn: 1916–1929
• Notes to Chapter 3
• Chapter 4: Growing Pains: 1930–1949
• Notes to Chapter 4
• Chapter 5: Running Uphill: 1950–1964
• Notes to Chapter 5
• Chapter 6: The Writing on the Walls: 1965–1979
• Notes to Chapter 6
• Chapter 7: If You’re Going to Drop a Bomb: The PHRC, Richard Wallace, and the Teacher Center
• Notes to Chapter 7
• Chapter 8: Renaissance: 1983–1993
• Notes to Chapter 8
• Chapter 9: The School of Choice: 1994–2007
• Notes to Chapter 9
• Chapter 10: Closing Time: Mark Roosevelt, Asbestos, and the “Save Schenley” Movement
• Notes to Chapter 10
• Chapter 11: After Oakland: Reizenstein, University Prep, and Obama Academy
• Notes to Chapter 11
• Conclusion
• Notes to Conclusion
• Appendix A: Notable Central High Alumni
• Notes to Appendix A
• Appendix B: Notable Schenley High Alumni
• Notes to Appendix B
• Appendix C: Athletics
• Appendix D: Theater
• Appendix E: Pittsburgh Public High Schools Index
• Notes to Appendizes C–E
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index