The Pittsburgh Promise announced Wednesday that it will remove attendance and minimum GPA requirements for its scholarship for students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools class of 2021.
The Promise said the one-time easement of requirements was meant to ensure that students who graduate this year can pursue postsecondary plans despite the challenges they experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have concluded that it will be nearly impossible to measure attendance for the class of 2021,” said Saleem Ghubril, executive director of the Pittsburgh Promise. “We also believe that due to disparities in access to technology and ongoing hardships of COVID-19, some students’ grades will be detrimentally impacted.”
During normal years, the scholarship requires students to have a minimum cumulative, unweighted GPA of 2.5 throughout high school. Students with a GPA between 2.0 and 2.49 are eligible for the Promise Extension Program, which requires them to complete a year at Community College of Allegheny County before enrolling in another postsecondary institution in the state. But this year, students with GPAs below 2.0 will still be eligible for the program.
Eligibility for the scholarship also typically requires students to graduate with a 90% or higher attendance record. This year, however, student attendance will not be reviewed.
Other scholarship policies, including the residency and enrollment requirements, will not change.
Mr. Ghubril said early data showed that freshman enrollment dropped by nearly 25% for Promise scholars in 2020. The Promise, he said, hopes to mitigate that decline as much as possible for the class of 2021.
“We encourage our students to keep pushing forward towards their postsecondary plans, and not let the circumstances of this year derail their future goals,” he said.
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: February 17, 2021, 8:37 p.m.