For East Allegheny, 2026-27 Is About Building on Progress

Over the past several years, change at East Allegheny School District has started with something that cannot be measured by a test score or found in a new program.

It started with rebuilding trust.

When Superintendent Joseph DiLucente returned to East Allegheny in 2022-23, the district was coming off a decade of enrollment decline and had lost its connection with some families. Before looking at bigger changes in the classroom, he believed EA first had to rebuild that relationship.

“People want to be engaged,” DiLucente explains. “They want to form a connection. They want somebody that’s actually going to listen to them.”

Rebuilding trust also meant putting the right people in place. DiLucente says that has been an important consideration as the district has built its leadership team, including people such as Director of Student Services Jennifer Costello and Junior/Senior High School Principal R.J. Long.

Each brings something different to the district, but DiLucente says they share an ability to connect with people and build the kind of trust needed to move EA forward.

There are signs that things are moving in the right direction. After years of steady enrollment decline, EA has begun to see a slight increase. Sixty-two students have also returned to the district from charter schools over the past two summers.

For DiLucente, that progress creates an opportunity to start thinking about what comes next.

Starting With What Students Need

Some of that work is already taking shape in the classroom. During the 2025-26 school year, teachers at the Junior/Senior High School used more frequent assessments to see where students were making progress and where they needed more help. Instead of waiting until the end of a semester or school year, teachers could use that information to adjust instruction along the way. In Algebra, 44% of students demonstrated a full semester of growth between the winter and spring math interim assessments.

EA is building on that approach in 2026-27 with new literacy materials being introduced across grades K-12, along with a stronger focus on structured literacy. The district is also expanding how teachers use student data to identify who needs additional support and who is ready for more challenging work.

The idea is straightforward. Find out what students need and respond sooner.

Looking Beyond Individual Subjects

Through EA’s work with the League of Innovative Schools and the Grable Foundation, district leaders have been able to see how other schools are approaching education differently. One example that caught DiLucente’s attention combines English and science around real community problems. This is where he sees the bigger opportunity in what can come next. Students still learn the required material in both subjects, but they also see how those skills work together outside school.

“We need to show kids how the skills they learn in school apply to different careers, apply to what’s going on in the community,” he says.

It raises a bigger question for East Allegheny. Instead of students moving from English to science to math and treating each as something separate, where are the opportunities to connect them? Those connections can help students understand not only what they are learning, but why they are learning it.

Preparing Students for What Comes Next

The fundamentals are not going away. Students still need to read well, write clearly, understand math and develop a strong academic foundation. The challenge is preparing students with those fundamentals for a world that is changing quickly around them.

DiLucente believes schools have to prepare students to apply what they know, solve problems and continue learning as careers and technology change around them. That is where East Allegheny is looking next.

The past couple of years have been about rebuilding trust, strengthening connections and taking a closer look at what students need. The work ahead is about building on that progress and making sure an East Allegheny education prepares students for the world they will actually enter.