Spring `04 - Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Transcription

Philadelphia Public School
NOTEBOOK
Celeb
rat
Our ing
10th
Year
199
4
2004
Focus on
small
schools
Sección en
español
Table of contents p. 2
Small schools backers push to be heard on capital plan
VOLUME 11, NO. 3
n Student groups put forward an
alternative vision for high schools to
be built under the District’s $1.5
billion construction program.
by Beandrea Davis
Two student groups and their allies are
among those who see the District’s $1.5 billion
Capital Improvement Program as a landmark
opportunity to transform Philadelphia’s high
schools.
The capital plan calls for building 20 new
schools and renovating dozens more small
over the next five
years, addressing a
real need in a
District where 71 percent of school buildings
are more than 50 years old.
Students from Youth United for Change
(YUC) and Philadelphia Student Union (PSU)
are organizing not just to win better buildings
but also to create smaller schools, which they
say are more engaging learning environments
than the large, impersonal high schools they
currently attend.
The students’ focus on small schools is supported by data from surveys they have conducted of hundreds of students about what
would improve their education. Both groups
have visited several successful small high
schools across the country (see page 18).
“What I found out when I went into these
[small high] schools was a lot of students wanted to go to class, which is kind of rare when
SCHOOLS
SPRING 2004
you look at Philadelphia
schools,” said PSU member
Robert Cunningham, a West
Philadelphia High senior.
YUC members from
Kensington and Olney High
and PSU members from West
Philadelphia High – whose
schools are scheduled to
receive new buildings – have
been working to gather support for their plans to restructure their large high schools
into clusters of small schools.
The students’ restructuring
small
plans call for the creation of
high school campuses made
up of four small schools, each
with their own principal and
budget. The campus would
have schools serving grades
9-12 with 400 students each,
and they would share some
common facilities such as the
Photo: Harvey Finkle
gymnasium, cafeteria, and
Principal
Edward
Monastra
greets
a
student
outside
Olney
High
School,
one
of
the
city’s
large
high
schools
that are slatlibrary. Students are excited
ed for replacement or renovation. A proposal would break up Olney into several new, small schools.
about the possibilities.
“Although I’m not going
officer in charge of high schools, said he isn’t
to be here when the new school gets built, I just
Kensington, and Olney has galvanized a variconvinced that 400 is the optimal enrollment
think about what if my little sister or my little
ety of constituencies citywide, said Fran
for a small high school.
cousin ends up going there,” said YUC memSugarman, coordinator of the Philadelphia
At “400 you can do some decent programber Jennifer Howell, an eleventh grader at
chapter of the Cross City Campaign, a network
ming, but you don’t maximize building space
Kensington High School. “I would want them
of local education groups.
[or] teacher allocation,” he said, maintaining
to have a better education than what I went
“There’s a much stronger, broadened conthat a size of about 600 students is also usualthrough.”
stituency around the concept of small schools
ly more efficient in terms of construction costs.
This student-led effort to transform West,
that’s already having a significant impact across
the city,” she said.
New building, new education
On the radar screen
Key to YUC’s and PSU’s ability to promote
Though the students’ plans are on the
their small schools vision is finding the approDistrict’s radar screen, school officials have
priate channels for having input into not only
stopped short of declaring their support for the
the design of the buildings but the educationData released by the state of Pennsylvania
students’ vision.
al programs that will go on inside them.
confirm that there is tremendous variation among
“We’ve seen the student proposals, and
“We don’t just want a shiny new building
schools in their ability to staff classrooms with
they’ll be considered, but there will be broadand the same old, poor-quality education,” said
teachers that meet the state’s definition of “higher community input too,” said District CEO
PSU Executive Director Eric Braxton.
ly qualified” – teachers who are fully certified
Paul Vallas.
Chris Harris, the District’s director for capThe District is committed to decreasing the
or those who have passed their exams and are
ital projects, described an extensive process for
size of its neighborhood high schools by crein approved alternative certification programs.
community input into the design of new schools
Overall, just over 90 percent of
ating small high schools (see page 17) and lim(see sidebar, p. 16) but said decisions about the
Philadelphia’s public school teachers met the
iting its new high school construction to buildeducational programs of the new schools are
state’s standard in 2002-03. While dozens of
ings for a maximum of 1,000 students.
outside the scope of that community process.
Creg Williams, deputy chief academic
See “Small schools” on p. 16
Continued on p. 13
SCHOOLS
Vacancies down, but teacher quality gap remains
Coalition highlights staffing disparities
by Paul Socolar
There were just 41 teacher job vacancies in
Philadelphia schools this February, less than
half the number from a year earlier. Applications
for teaching positions have climbed by 70 percent in two years. Fewer new teachers this
school year have quit.
Looking citywide at staffing in the School
District, the trends are unmistakably positive.
But a newly formed coalition of more than
20 local organizations points out that when
looking at the numbers school by school,
glaring inequities among schools show up.
“The unfortunate fact remains that our
schools with the highest concentration of poor
and minority students have the highest percentages of emergency-certified teachers, the
highest percentage of inexperienced teachers,
the highest number of vacancies, the highest
teacher turnover rates, and the most challenging working conditions,” said Aldustus Jordan,
education specialist at Philadelphia Citizens for
Children and Youth.
These inequities in the distribution of qualified teachers are also the subject of a federal
civil rights complaint filed with the U.S.
Department of Education on March 8 by the
Education Law Center.
There are also fears that a new early retirement plan will worsen the staffing disparities.
FOCUS ON
Small Schools
Distrito busca crear escuelas superiores más pequeñas
n En un periodo de más de dos años,
habría 14 escuelas superiores
adicionales
por Paul Socolar
En reacción a la creciente evidencia de que
el ambiente de aprendizaje en las escuelas superiores urbanas de gran tamaño no es tan bueno
como el de las escuelas más pequeñas, el
Distrito Escolar está expandiendo su número
de escuelas superiores para así reducir la
matrícula en las escuelas superiores grandes.
Creg Williams, el subdirector de asuntos
académicos a cargo de las escuelas superiores,
dijo que el Distrito está implantando una estrate-
Students impressed
by visit to NYC
small schools
15
gia de “escuelas pequeñas” no solamente para
disminuir la cantidad de estudiantes que
asisten a las escuelas grandes pero también para
proporcionar “muchas más opciones para los
jóvenes en cuanto a programas académicos ”.
Además de abrir escuelas completamente
nuevas, el Distrito también dividirá en
escuelas separadas algunas de las escuelas superiores que tienen múltiples planteles y convertirá varias escuelas intermedias en escuelas superiores. De acuerdo a los planes actuales, habrá
14 escuelas superiores más en el Distrito el
próximo septiembre que las que habían hace un
año – y la mayoría tendrá matrículas de
300-500 estudiantes.
District pursues
creation of new,
smaller high
schools
Mientras que muchas de estas escuelas
tendrán una nueva configuración de estudiantes
en edificios existentes del Distrito, cada una de
las 14 escuelas nuevas tendrá su propio
principal, presupuesto y programas curriculares.
Williams dijo que cuando el Distrito
construya un edificio para una nueva escuela
superior mediante su programa de capital, la
matrícula se limitará a 800-1000 estudiantes.
Pero en los casos en que una escuela superior
existente se esté reconstruyendo, la misma
podría todavía tener más de 1,000 estudiantes.
Aunque algunos organizaciones dicen que
el Distrito debería procurar que el tamaño de
Continúa en la p. 10
17
In Oakland,
groups win
small
In Our Opinion
Making Philadelphia’s schools smaller has
emerged as a popular idea here. Endorsed by
community groups and District officials alike,
the small schools movement is also a national
trend, bringing together people across the political spectrum.
Forces have aligned in Philadelphia so that
the District actually has the resources at its disposal to perform a physical transformation of
dozens of schools. In a rare turn of events, there
is also a consensus about one place to start: making our large high schools smaller – particularly the city’s neighborhood high schools, which
have been impervious to previous reform efforts.
The possibility of Philadelphia’s high schools
undergoing such an extreme makeover may
seem miraculous in a system that was facing
bankruptcy just two years ago. But CEO Paul
Vallas has already successfully raised nearly half
the cash he needs for a $1.5 billion capital plan,
and construction plans are moving forward at
schools across the city.
The $1.5 billion question remains: how do
we make sure this extreme makeover transforms
the character of Philadelphia’s schools – not
just their appearance?
A large body of evidence suggests that small
schools can be a tool for improving student
achievement, reducing violence, enhancing
teacher satisfaction, and increasing parental
involvement. There is evidence that students of
color perform better in smaller schools and
achievement gaps narrow.
Small schools can create a sense of belonging – a community where students are connected to teachers and to each other. In such a community, high expectations for students’academic
performance can take root and students’ individual needs can be addressed more readily.
There are significant issues to address about
how small a small school should be. But whatever the target size, simply making schools
smaller is not enough.
The power of the small school model rises or
falls on the quality of the relationships in each
school. For there to be strong parental involvement, an active professional community among
teachers, and an engaged student body, a web of
relationships must be built at the school level and
given enough autonomy and authority to flourish.
Planning for a new school is an ideal time to
work on weaving these relationships and helping all stakeholders feel that they have a say. In
the words of Schools as Centers of Community,
a US Department of Education publication:
Widespread participation in designing learning environments is valuable for the sense of
shared purpose it engenders. When members of
a community are given opportunities to come
Philadelphia Public School
NOTEBOOK
An independent quarterly newspaper – a voice
for parents, students, classroom teachers, and
others who are working for quality and equality
in Philadelphia public schools.
Editorial Board:
JoAnn Caplan, Donalda Chumney, Beandrea Davis,
Cristina Gutiérrez, Ajuah Helton, Benjamin Herold,
Aldustus Jordan, Ros Purnell, Amy Rhodes,
Paul Socolar, Fran Sugarman, Eva Travers,
Sharon Tucker, Ron Whitehorne
Executive Committee:
Kelley Collings, Myrtle L. Naylor, Ros Purnell,
Sharon Tucker, Ron Whitehorne
Editor: Paul Socolar
Community outreach coordinator:
Amy Rhodes
Staff writer: Beandrea Davis
Design: Patricia Ludwig
Cartoonist: Eric Joselyn
Editorial assistance: Elayne Bender,
Joseph Blanc, Katherine Conner, Sandy Socolar
Distribution: Irvin B. Shannon
Intern: Hannah Wurzel
Web volunteer: Barb Smith
2
together ... and make important decisions, this
commitment is strengthened. When community
members become visionaries, creators and owners, rather than cogs on a bureaucratic wheel,
they are more willing to work together to set
goals, solve problems, and, ultimately, provide
their schools with the kind of ongoing support
they need to be successful.
While the District has constructed a process
for community input, it does not involve the
broader community as “visionaries, creators, and
owners.” It offers only piecemeal involvement.
The experience of two student groups –
Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United
for Change – is illustrative. Both groups have
been studying small high school models and
have been hard at work on plans for redesigning high schools. Both groups are trying to have
a say in decisions about what is to happen at
schools where they are active: West Philadelphia,
Kensington and Olney High Schools. Together
they have mobilized parents, teachers, and community organizations into an alliance supporting small high schools
They have been able to get audiences with
District officials. They have learned that the
District is setting up a small, representative
school planning team for each construction project, and students have been encouraged to get
themselves on those teams. There are to be town
meetings for those who are not part of the planning team process.
But District officials also say that the planning teams and town meetings will focus only
on design decisions. Decisions about a high
school’s educational program – for example,
should West Philadelphia be one big high school
or four smaller ones – are to be made beforehand by high school chief Creg Williams. Top
District officials give different accounts of what
the ground rules will be. This leaves the process
looking suspect.
The students’efforts to gain a seat at the table
and to design new schools rooted in research
about effective educational practices should be
celebrated and seized upon – not mired in a
confusing bureaucracy laden with community
outreach consultants.
The Vallas administration is to be commended for its vision and aggressive timeline
for creating new schools and replacing and renovating school buildings. Its actions have created a historic opportunity for the School District,
and its interest in small schools is encouraging.
But we need to keep our eyes on the prize –
and the prize is not simply new, small schools.
It is to have small schools that are participatory
learning communities, and these cannot simply
be created by orders from the central office.
Advisory Board:
Eileen Abrams, Community College of Phila.
Judy Adamson, Research for Action
Marta Aviles, Eastern PA Organizing Project
Kira Baker, student, U. of Pennsylvania
Jane Century, Century Communication
Barbara Dowdall, GLSEN
Helen Gym, Asian Americans United
Jane Hileman, 100 Book Challenge
Eric Joselyn, teacher
Mary Mikus, Institute on Disabilities, Temple U.
Rochelle Nichols Solomon, AED
Len Rieser, Education Law Center
Linda Talbert, Young Voices in Print
Deborah Toney, Gompers Home & School Assn.,
Imhotep Charter School Council of Elders
Debbie Wei, Asian Americans United
Debra Weiner, Philadelphia Futures
Organizations for identification purposes only.
Special thanks to…
Our subscribers, advertisers, and volunteers who
distribute the Notebook. Funding in part from
Bread and Roses Community Fund, CampbellOxholm Foundation, Claneil Foundation,
Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, Douty Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Philadelphia
Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Washington
Mutual, and the Henrietta Tower Wurts Memorial.
Table of contents
Focus on Small Schools
1
Small schools backers push to be heard on capital plan
14
Biggest and smallest data: student enrollments in Philadelphia
14
Graph: Changing enrollments have had an impact on school size
17
District pursues creation of new, smaller high schools
14
15
18
19
20
21
23
24
25
25
Chart: Most students attend schools of 750 students or more
Photo essay: Students impressed by visit to small schools in New York
Two student groups formulate vision of small schools
In Oakland, community groups won small schools policy
Analysis: Looking at all the costs, small schools make sense
Still aiming for smaller high school feel, District shifts efforts
Why some schools choose to stay small: a look at four charters
Small schools resources
Gates Foundation: big funder of small schools, but not yet in Philly
Publications on small schools
Other News & Features
1
5
Peirce community steps up anti-violence initiatives
Departments
2
3
3
3
5
Editorial
Eye on Special Ed
Letters to the Editor
School Snapshot
Who Ya Gonna Call?
6
7
9
10-11
27
Neighborhood Notebook
Activism Around the City
News in Brief
Español
Guest Opinion
On the web at www.thenotebook.org
About the Notebook
The mission of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook is to promote informed
public involvement in the Philadelphia public schools and to contribute to the
development of a strong, collaborative movement for positive educational
change in city schools and for schools that serve all children well.The Notebook
celebrates its tenth anniversary as a newspaper in 2004.
Philadelphia Public School Notebook is a project of the New Beginnings Nonprofit
Incubator of Resources for Human Development.
Send inquires to Philadelphia Public School Notebook, 3721 Midvale
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Phone: 215-951-0330, ext. 107 • Fax: 215-951-0342
Email: [email protected] • Web: www.thenotebook.org
PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC SCHOOL NOTEBOOK •
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
SPRING 2004
Looking at Baltimore’s experience
Small schools hold promise
for students with disabilities
Volunteers come into
the classroom to read
with students at
Webster Elementary
School as part of
Philadelphia Cares’s
Reading STARS program. Reading STARS
uses a 27-book set
to guide students
through the basics of
the English language.
Upon
completion
of the program, students have improved
reading skills and
gained the knowledge
to become Reading
STARS tutors themselves. Philadelphia
Cares runs the program at four schools
in the School District
as well as numerous
community centers
and churches.
by Pat Halle
Question: Can small schools improve learning outcomes for
students with disabilities?
Answer: With lots of determination and deliberate effort at
the community and school level by parents, teachers, and community members, along with clear and specific support at the
school district level... yes.
There is enormous potential in small schools to meet the
individual learning needs of students with disabilities.
The personalized learning environment in small schools
creates the possibility that teachers will discover the
particular kind of mind each one of their students has, will
EYE ON SPECIAL EDUCATION
understand the kinds of learning skills each
lesson requires, and will learn to provide the
accommodations and modifications in instructional practice that students need.
However, small school size alone does not assure
that special education services will be delivered in
compliance with legal requirements or that instructional
programs will be designed for all kinds of learners.
I’ve worked on this issue in Baltimore, where there now
exists a process for creating small schools that includes a strong
focus on special education compliance. But we’ve had to come
a long way.
Over the past decade, while some other large urban school
districts like New York and Chicago had a “request for proposals” process allowing small school proposals to come from the
community, Baltimore officials were not interested. It took enormous political pressure from parents, teachers, and community
members to open the first parent- and teacher-run small public
school in Baltimore, the Stadium School, 10 years ago.
But through an April 1995 consent order in a long-standing
federal special education lawsuit, the Baltimore school system
was required to issue a request for proposals that would allow
community groups, universities, and other interested entities to
operate schools identified as consistently “non-compliant” with
special education laws.
This court agreement also led to the creation of the New
Schools Advisory Board and the district’s New Schools Initiative.
A plan to start a small school through Baltimore’s New Schools
Initiative must include how the new school will assure compliance with all aspects of special education laws, including the
identification of students with disabilities, writing and implementing individual education plans (IEPs), and ensuring due
process. School plans must describe how students with disabilities will be educated alongside their non-disabled peers.
Achieving improved learning outcomes for students with disabilities in small schools requires certain activities at both the
individual school and community level and at the central office.
At the school level, the vision that is developed at the outset
by teachers, parents, and community members must embrace
promoting academic success for all students, including those with
disabilities and those with limited English proficiency.
Schools that serve students with disabilities well have a continuing process that makes it safe for school planners to voice
their biases and prejudices.
In Baltimore, we’ve found that it’s best to get these biases out
in clear view as early and as honestly as possible. “Slow learners hold everybody back.” “What they need is too specialized for
our school.” “I don’t know how to teach them.” “All of our students are college-bound.” There are concerns about test results
and standards. Allowing this confusion and concern to be voiced
from the outset and accepting that there will always be lots of it
helps the process.
School planners must discuss staffing and always hire a skilled
special education teacher as part of the core staff so that the school
is not waiting for the district to assign staff based upon the
students’ IEPs.
The district must embrace the mission of small schools to be
inclusive of students with special needs, to require open admissions practices, and to support creative instructional practices and
staffing models.
Ongoing support must be available from the district to address
the challenges in staffing – allocating related service providers,
such as psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists, OTs,
and PTs, along with IEP team members who are knowledgeable
and supportive of the mission of small schools.
Pat Halle has worked as a paralegal at the Maryland
Disability Law Center (MDLC) in Baltimore for 20 years, providing advocacy services for students with disabilities in the
Baltimore City Public Schools. She represents MDLC on the New
Schools/Charter Schools Advisory Board. She also helped start
the Stadium School.
SPRING 2004
Photo: Philadelphia Cares
Letters to the editors
Failing our children
To the editors:
I am a concerned parent who has two children in the
Philadelphia public school system. My son was beaten by three
boys during recess at his elementary school. The School District
transferred him to another elementary school, said to be one
of the top public schools in the city.
My son has a hard time keeping up with schoolwork as a
result of coming from a low-performing school to a high-performing school. A teacher at his school admitted to me that the
curriculum speed is fast and that she and her colleagues have
no choice but to do as they are told.
I spoke to Paul Vallas about the teacher’s concern, but he
offered me plenty of excuses.
He mentioned the need for my son to attend Extended Day.
After 6 hours of schooling, my son is tired. He is bussed from
Center City to Kensington where we reside. If he stays for
Extended Day, he has no way to get home.
The curriculum seems to be taught at a fast pace to intentionally fail some students. During slavery Black children were
forbidden to learn to read and write. The legacy of dumbing
down Black children is alive and well.
We need a District CEO who is willing to give and
receive ideas as to how to make public education in Philadelphia
excellent.
Christine Wilson
Philadelphia
Senior volunteers could
provide guided reading help
To the editors:
I am writing in response to your Winter 2003 article “District
gets an earful about new curriculum.” One inherent difficulty
with the new mandated curriculum for teachers seems to be
the “guided reading groups,” during which the teacher needs
to work with several simultaneous groups on different levels
while also managing the classroom as a whole.
As your article indicates, this situation is more manageable
when there is another experienced adult in the classroom.
So far this support has been provided only sporadically,
either through the presence of a Literacy Intern Teacher or by
rearranging the schedules of other staff members. I wonder if
the District could develop a program to train literate senior citizens from the community to supervise small reading groups
and place them in lower-grade level classrooms during the guided reading time. Ideally such a program would offer, at minimum, a small stipend for participating seniors.
What’s YOUR opinion?
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If children were learning to read with an older person from
their neighborhood, this could help to connect the school with
the community, as well as assisting teachers through the presence
of another mature adult. It might make sense to test the idea with
a pilot program in a small cluster of schools that already have
strong connections with community associations in their area.
Rachel Mausner
Philadelphia
Teachers and special needs
To the editors:
I am writing in response to your well-written Eye on Special
Ed column, “Teacher vacancies a problem for special education students.” I am a 74-year-old concerned parent of an adopted 12-year-old son who was diagnosed with ADHD at age five.
Teachers do not understand legal issues concerning IEPs. I
know this, due to so many IEPs, due process hearings, and
being a member of Parents Involved Network (PIN). It should
be mandatory for teachers to attend at least a one-day seminar
on special education children and children with disabilities.
Your column should be a call to arms.
Doris Loftin
Philadelphia
Views expressed in “Letters to the editors” are not
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Kensington
Facilitators: Lincoln Community Family
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Gratz
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4
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Hunting Park
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SPRING 2004
Peirce community steps up anti-violence initiatives
by Amy Rhodes
The tragic death of Faheem Thomas-Childs
has been a wake-up call to community residents
and to School District, city, and state officials,
who have taken action to address the violence that
plagues many communities around Philadelphia’s
public schools.
Faheem, a third grader at T.M. Peirce
Elementary School, was shot in the forehead
when he was caught in the crossfire of two rival
drug gangs while
crossing the street to
attend school. He died
five
days
later.
Crossing guard Debra
Smith was also injured
in the shoot-out.
Through community meetings, candlelight vigils, and an
increased community
presence on street corners around the school,
neighborhood residents have joined others in
the city, and even suburban residents, to take a
stand against the violence in the community
around Peirce Elementary at 23rd and Cambria.
Peirce Principal Shively D. Willingham 2nd
said that the community response has been
“tremendous.”
“There’s a lot people who are committed
and recommitted to being determined that...this
tragedy will not just go away and fade without
something concrete coming out of it, to not help
just the people here in this community, but other
schools,” Willingham said, noting that other
District schools are also affected by violence in
their surrounding communities.
Local community organizations and churches have been organizing residents to speak up
against violence in the community, while citywide groups with experience in the neighbor-
hood, including Men for a Better Philadelphia
and the Philadelphia Anti-Drug Anti-Violence
Network (PAAN), have offered their support.
PAAN Executive Director Inez Love said
that the community response to the tragedy is
cause for hope that communities can come
together to end the violence in their neighborhoods. “I think that the anger in people is what’s
going to make them move, make them respond,
make them organized, and make them look for
results,” Love said.
“We may be able to
save other children
because now we’ve
become preventative,”
she added.
The shooting has
also spurred other
proactive responses to
the violence faced by
many schools in the
District.
The Institute for the
Study of Civic Values is working with the
District to place 100-150 participants in TANF
(a welfare-to-work program) in positions at
Parent Help Desks at about 50 elementary
schools this school year. Although the Institute
already places TANF recipients in some schools,
Ed Schwartz, its president, said the effort will
now be more systematic and reach more
schools.
In addition to the Parent Help Desks, District
officials have urged parents and community
members to join other school-based safety initiatives, including Parent Patrols and the Safe
Corridors program.
School District officials have also supported
state legislation that would create “Safe School
Zones,” introduced by State Senators Vincent
Fumo and Shirley Kitchen and State
Representative Jewell Williams in response to
Community organizations and churches
have been organizing
residents to speak up
against violence in
the community.
the shooting.
The legislation would prohibit the possession,
use, or control of a firearm within 1,000 feet of
schools and 500 feet of recreation centers, playgrounds, or school transportation vehicles. It
would require mandatory prison time for possession or discharge of a firearm in these zones.
District officials have also created a scholarship fund for Faheem’s ten siblings and joined
the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers in creating a memorial at Peirce’s library in honor of
the child.
Contact Men United for a Better
Philadelphia at 215-236-3372, PAAN at 215685-9521, or Institute for the Study of Civic
Values at 215-238-1434. For information about
Parent Patrols, call 215-875-3195. For Safe
Corridors information, call 215-875-3392.
Who ya gonna call?
School District of Philadelphia
Paul Vallas (Chief Executive Officer): 215-299-7823
School Reform Commission
James E. Nevels: 215-299-7916
Martin Bednarek: 215-299-3597
Sandra Dungee Glenn: 215-299-7799
James P. Gallagher: 215-299-2917
Daniel J. Whelan: 215-299-7660
City of Philadelphia
Mayor
John Street (D): 215-686-2181
City Council Members-At-Large
(elected citywide)
David Cohen (D): 215-686-3446
W. Wilson Goode, Jr. (D): 215-686-3414
Jack Kelly (R): 215-686-3452
James F. Kenney (D): 215-686-3450
Juan Ramos (D): 215-686-3420
Blondell Reynolds Brown (D): 215-686-3438
Frank Rizzo (R): 215-686-3440
District City Council Members
Frank DiCicco (D): 215-686-3458
Anna Verna (D): 215-686-3412
Jannie L. Blackwell (D): 215-686-3418
Michael A. Nutter (D): 215-686-3416
Darrell L. Clarke (D): 215-686-3442
Joan L. Krajewski (D): 215-686-3444
Richard Mariano (D): 215-686-3448
Donna Reed Miller (D): 215-686-3424
Marian B. Tasco (D): 215-686-3454
Brian J. O’Neill (R): 215-686-3422
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Governor
Ed Rendell (D): 717-787-2500
Why students prefer taking
courses at Gratz College
Unique courses, including
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Vincent J. Fumo (D): 215-468-3866
Christine Tartaglione (D): 215-533-0440
Shirley M. Kitchen (D): 215-457-9033
Allyson Y. Schwartz (D): 215-242-9710
Michael J. Stack (D): 215-281-2539
Vincent Hughes (D): 215-471-0490
Anthony Hardy Williams (D): 215-748-7811
State Representatives
Louise Williams Bishop (D): 215-879-6625
Alan L. Butkovitz (D): 215-335-2521
Mark B. Cohen (D): 215-924-0895
Angel Cruz (D): 215-291-5643
Lawrence H. Curry (D): 215-572-5210
Robert C. Donatucci (D): 215-468-1515
Dwight Evans (D): 215-549-0220
Michael Horsey (D): 215-243-1501
Harold James (D): 215-462-3308
Babette Josephs (D): 215-893-1515
William F. Keller (D): 215-271-9190
George T. Kenney, Jr. (R): 215-934-5144
Marie A. Lederer (D): 215-426-6604
Kathy Manderino (D): 215-482-8726
Michael P. McGeehan (D): 215-333-9760
John Myers (D): 215-849-6896
Dennis M. O’Brien (R): 215-632-5150
Frank L. Oliver (D): 215-684-3738
John M. Perzel (R): 215-331-2600
William W. Rieger (D): 215-223-1501
James R. Roebuck (D): 215-724-2227
John J. Taylor (R): 215-425-0901
W. Curtis Thomas (D): 215-232-1210
LeAnna Washington (D): 215-242-0472
Ronald G. Waters (D): 215-748-6712
Jewell Williams (D): 215-763-2559
Rosita C. Youngblood (D): 215-849-6426
To find out which District City Council member, State
Senator, and State Representative represents you, call
the League of Women Voters at 1-800-692-7281, ext. 10.
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5
In Northwest, two groups that bring community assets to schools
by Amy Rhodes
elementary schools: Emlen, Henry, Houston,
Whether they are gathering at the neighand Lingelbach.
borhood’s nightspots on Germantown Avenue
“People want to get involved but they don’t
or the annual Mount Airy Day celebration,
know how to, so we’re sort of the middleman
Mount Airy residents take pride in a racial and
in that way,” said Schools Committee Chair
economic diversity that is
Eleanore Pabarue.
unusual in Philadelphia’s
And no project seems to
neighborhoods.
be too big or small for the
But, for the most part, that
group.
diversity is not reflected in
“It’s amazing what difthe neighborhood’s public
ferent organizations can
schools.
bring to the table,” remarked
Over 90 percent of the
Terri Rivera, the commit2,200 students who attend
tee’s School-Community
Mount Airy’s four elementary
Liaison and the group’s sole
schools are African American.
staff person. “It can be as big
Well over half of the schools’
as a church deciding to folstudents qualify for free or
low a group of students over
Amy Rhodes
reduced-price lunch, despite
several years, or it can be a
being located in a zip code
group wanting to make a
NEIGHBORHOOD
with the fourth highest medione-shot donation.”
an household income in the
When longtime Mount
city. The many private schools
Airy community activist
in the area provide alternatives to families who
Barbara Bloom decided she wanted to start a
can afford them.
tutoring program in a neighborhood school, for
Since 1996, the Mount Airy Schools
example, she turned to the Schools Committee
Committee has been working to create a sense
for the long-term support they could offer,
of ownership of the public schools among all
though she was already familiar with the
of the neighborhood’s residents, regardless of
schools.
where their children attend school.
“It really takes someone who’s very indeStarted by the neighborhood’s two civic
pendently motivated to keep coming back [to
associations, West and East Mount Airy
volunteer] time after time when you’re not getNeighbors, the Schools Committee is a volunting any outside support,” Bloom explained.
teer organization with the mission to “bring the
“It’s a little easier to come back time after time
schools into the community and the commuwhen there’s an outside regular support who
nity into the schools.”
expects you to be there and is willing to say,
The Committee has raised awareness of the
‘How’d it go?’”
neighborhood’s public schools through a dizzyCaren Trantas, in her first year as principal
ing array of initiatives including volunteer proat Henry Elementary, said the Schools
jects, monthly meetings of school staff, parCommittee has also been a “wonderful support
ents, and community residents, and solicitation
system” for her.
of donated books and supplies for the schools.
Trantas has been a principal and assistant
They work in the neighborhood’s four
principal in other Philadelphia schools, but said
Notebook
she has found the Schools Committee to be
unique – “to have a community body that is so
willing to support and work with us in every
endeavor.”
Pabarue emphasized that the community
benefits from the Schools Committee’s work
as much as the schools do.
She hopes that bringing volunteers into the
schools and creating opportunities for
principals, teachers, parents, and community
members to meet regularly will help to
create a greater sense of community in the
neighborhood.
Recently, a branch of the committee called
the Information and Advocacy Project has been
sharing information with parents of schoolaged children in an effort to highlight the positive aspects of the neighborhood’s public
schools and to encourage families to consider
them as options for their children.
Ultimately, Pabarue said, she hopes the
Schools Committee can change Mount Airy
residents’ perception of the public schools and
to make them more reflective of the diversity
that is so celebrated in the neighborhood:
“When people have an option between private
and public schools, we want them to be able to
entertain the public school as an equally viable
choice.”
• • • • • • •
In another part of the Northwest Region,
the Northwest Stakeholders Group has
also been bringing community members into
the schools through a recently launched
mentoring program for students at risk of
becoming truant.
An effort of the Philadelphia Department
of Human Services’ Division of CommunityBased Prevention Services, nine “Stakeholder
Groups,” composed of social service providers
and community representatives, have been
given the charge of finding community-based,
preventive solutions to truancy problems.
The Northwest group has received a grant
from DHS to tap into the power of one-on-one
mentoring as a truancy prevention tool.
Building on a program at Roosevelt Middle
School, the program pairs students who are at
risk of becoming truant with adult mentors from
the community. In addition to meeting weekly with mentors, students will meet as a group
on a weekly basis to talk about issues like peer
pressure, violence, and drug awareness.
The program will include 15 to 40 students
at five schools in the region: Roosevelt, Pickett,
Wagner, Wister, and Levering. The program
has already started at Roosevelt and is set to
begin in late March at the other schools.
For Northwest Stakeholders Group co-chair
Rev. Curtis Dredden, the need for the program
is personal. As a student at Roosevelt in the
mid-1970s, Dredden said, “I was using drugs,
smoking marijuana, everything, when I
wasn’t in school....We’re trying to give them
another way, as opposed to the way I did it.”
Dredden, who also has a ministry with prisoners, said that he was drawn to this program
because of its preventive goals. “This will save
their lives and will give them something to work
with when they get out of school,” he said.
The Stakeholders Group has recruited and
trained 25 mentors so far. They are looking for
more individuals in the Northwest Region who
are interested in becoming mentors.
For more information about the Mount Airy
Schools Committee, contact Eleanore Pabarue
at 215-242-9796 or [email protected] .
For more information about the Northwest
Stakeholders Group’s mentoring program,
contact Rev. Curtis Dredden at 215-424-4694.
Contact Amy Rhodes at 215-951-0330, x160
or [email protected].
It’s Never too Early to Plan for College.
Need Help?
COLLEGE ACCESS CAN HELP YOU!
Call and Come into one of our Centers:
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The Gallery I, Street Level
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215-574-1341
FAX: 215-574-1535
Rivera Building
2603 N. 5th Street, 4th Floor
215-739-9360
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“Helping families
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The College Access Program is a project of
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6
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
SPRING 2004
Forum scheduled
on high school reforms
An April 21 forum will bring together veteran School District teachers, members of student organizing groups, and former students
to bring their collective knowledge about
Philadelphia’s high schools to bear on the
District’s current high school reform efforts.
Called “Envisioning high schools that work:
Learning from experience,” the forum will present information about the
District’s past efforts at
breaking up large high
schools into smaller units
and how the lessons from
those efforts can be applied
to the District’s current high school reforms.
Presenters will include high school teachers
who came together in the mid-1980s through
the Philadelphia Schools Collaborative, an organization devoted to advocating for and supporting the District’s efforts to break up high
schools into small learning communities.
The teachers will be joined by graduates of
successful small learning communities as well
as current students who are members of local
student organizing groups.
Attendees will work in small groups to discuss
what teachers and students need for high schools
to be effective places for teaching and learning,
and what actions should be taken to get there.
“This is a unique effort to allow teachers,
students, parents, and education activists to
talk across boundaries and to bring multiple
points of view to the table,” remarked forum
organizer Fran Sugarman.
The forum will take place on Wednesday,
April 21 from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at the United Way
Building, 17th and the
Parkway.
It is sponsored
by the Cross City
Campaign for Urban
School Reform, the
Philadelphia Writing
Project, Philadelphia
Student Union, and Youth United for Change.
A CTIVISM
Around
THE CITY
For more information or to attend, contact
Fran Sugarman at 215-991-6959 or at
[email protected].
Group celebrates policy
restricting soda sales
By a slim, one-vote margin, the School
Reform Commission recently signed off on a
West Philadelphia High School student Phillip Pearce led members of the Philadelphia Student Union
in a February 18 rally outside of the School District’s headquarters criticizing inequities among schools
in the distribution of qualified teachers. Students demanded a highly qualified, well-supported teacher
in every classroom in the District. “We are calling on the teachers’ union and the School District to put
aside their differences and do what it takes to make sure we have qualified teachers,” said Pearce.
The students’ rally coincided with the presentation of a set of recommendations by a coalition of community groups at the School Reform Commission meeting.
Photo: Hannah Wurzel
policy that will ban the sale of most sweetened
drinks to elementary, middle, and high school
students in schools districtwide.
Last spring, a solicitation of proposals by
the School District for an exclusive soft drink
contract sparked concerns among community
members and nutrition advocates.
Calling for the District to ban sweetened
beverage sales to students and to promote
healthier eating habits among youth, seven
local health advocacy groups came together
as the Philadelphia Coalition for Healthy
Children (PCHC) to launch a public information campaign, which included extensive testimony at public hearings and School Reform
Commission meetings.
PCHC member and public school cafeteria worker Cecelia James said the campaign
for a soda ban was effective because parents
and community members spoke out.
Campaigns to pressure District officials are
“not as effective, if [parents’] voices are not
heard,” she said.
Only 100 percent fruit juice, plain or flavored milk, and water will be available through
over-the-counter and vending machine sales in
continued on p. 13
Teaching:
Dangers of guns, drugs and violence
Nonviolent conflict resolution
Respect for self and others
Stranger Danger
Tigerman’s Anti-Violence educational
program is a 45-60 minute interactive show
for children in grades PreK- 4. The program
includes original songs, dialogue, a question
and answer period, conflict resolution and
relaxation techniques. TM Productions provides
student worksheets, educational prizes, T-shirts,
as well as teachers’ curriculum guides.
Tigerman has performed for more than
500,000 kids nationwide, and was
nominated as Peace Ambassador
for Children in 2002.
Teachers and parents report that the
Tigerman program has had a positive
influence on their children. Kids are
treating each other with respect, have
stopped fighting, and are walking away
from real weapons and toy guns!
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3721 Midvale Ave.
Phone: (215) 951-0330 Ext. 128
Fax: (215) 951-0342
E-Mail: [email protected]
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UDLVHWHVWVFRUHVLQ\RXUVFKRRO"
7HATFEATSOFDARINGWILLITTAKETOGETEVERYSINGLESTUDENTREADINGATGRADELEVEL4HANKS
TOTHE"OOK#HALLENGE®ALLITREALLYTAKESISAPHONECALL4HENYOURSTUDENTSGETTO
CHOOSETHEBOOKSTHEYREADALLTHEBOOKSARELEVELEDTOEACHSTUDENTSABILITIESANDTEACHERS
lNALLYHAVETHETOOLSTHEYNEEDTOIMPROVETESTSCORES !LLINANEASYTOUNDERSTAND
EASYTOIMPLEMENTCOLORCODEDSYSTEM 6ISITUSONLINEATWWWBOOKCHALLENGECOM
ANDLEARNHOWWECANHELPIMPROVEREADINGLEVELSINYOURSCHOOLPAINLESSLY
#PPL$IBMMFOHF¥
).$%0%.$%.#% /.%"//+!4!4)-%
8
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
SPRING 2004
Principals encouraged
to say ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’
“I know there are gay and lesbian people in
our school. It’s important to me that they feel
safe and welcome here. I don’t want you to use
that word any more.”
This is how School District staff should
respond when students
inappropriately use
words like “faggot” or
“dyke” in the classroom, says Danny
Horn.
Horn is the lead
facilitator of the current districtwide effort to train principals on
how to better implement the District’s landmark equity policy, Policy 102. The policy calls
for making schools safe for all students, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgendered (LGBT).
District CEO Paul Vallas issued a statement
to all principals in early December that underscored “the importance of full participation” in
these training sessions, part of an overall effort
to reaffirm Policy 102’s commitment to
creating safe schools for all students.
At one of 10 regional trainings to be completed by March, more than 40 elementary,
middle, and high school principals in the
Northwest Region gathered at Leeds Middle
School in late January to discuss ways to support LGBT students and address anti-gay
harassment in schools.
Horn told the principals that when students
use language that is insulting to LGBT people,
teachers and principals need to model appropriate language instead of avoiding the issue
altogether.
“What we have to do as a District
essentially is to say ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ are not
bad words. They are not bad for kids,” said
Horn, who is also the education director of
the Mazzoni Center, a local LGBT health
advocacy group.
Some principals at the training expressed
skepticism about the use of these words when
disciplining students.
But Katherine Pizzimenti-Murphy, principal of Germantown High School, which has an
active gay-straight student club, reflected:
“What am I doing as an administrator to make
sure that [Policy 102]
is implemented, and
what am I doing for
teachers to make
them feel safe and
help them talk about
real issues?”
Ultimately, the
recent trainings send an important message to
schools, said Joanie McNamara, director of the
District’s Office of Educational Equity: “We
value all the kids, and all the kids need the
opportunity to experience a good education in
a safe environment.”
News
In Brief
have only a 50/50 chance of earning on-time
promotion to the tenth grade, according to
research from Johns Hopkins University.
The new tutors allow for a reduction of class
size during the 90-minute literacy and math
blocks for eighth graders.
District CEO Paul Vallas acknowledged that
middle grades teachers need additional classroom support in implementing the District’s
“guided reading” program. As part of the daily
literacy block, students in each classroom are
grouped by reading level, and the classroom
teacher provides small group instruction while
making sure other groups work independently.
PEF Executive Director Nancy McGinley
said the tutor program is also “a pipeline to get
middle grades teachers certified.”
The tutors, who are non-certified college
graduates, work in schools four days a week
and attend a university program to complete
New eighth grade tutors
to support math, literacy
As part of a districtwide campaign to support improved student achievement in middle
grades, the School District has hired its first
batch of “Transition Support Tutors” for math
and for literacy. These tutors are being put to
work in eighth grade classrooms at 39 middle
or K-8 schools.
The 52 newly hired literacy tutors and 45
math tutors are an outgrowth of the Middle
Grades Matter campaign, a recently launched
partnership among the school system, the
Philadelphia Education Fund and the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.
The campaign is built on the premise that
student success in high school depends on
strengthened interventions in middle grades.
Students who enter ninth grade two or more
years behind grade level in math and reading
credits toward a Pennsylvania teaching certificate on the fifth day. Tuition will be provided by
the District for up to 15 credits a year, so tutors
can complete their coursework and pass state
certification tests by 2006.
Tutors will partner with veteran District
teachers in their assigned schools. In their first
year, they will work primarily in one-on-one and
small group settings to provide focused lessons.
This first batch of tutors is being placed in
“Corrective Action II” schools, schools that have
fallen short of state standards for student achievement for five or more years and are now facing
reorganization if test scores do not improve.
Other components of the Middle Grades
Matter Campaign include a principals’
exchange program, a middle grades parent
forum series for those raising middle grades
students, and a districtwide middle grades conference held in February.
New Lessons on Teaching,
School Improvement,
& Contracting Out
Learning from Philadelphia’s School Reform is pleased to announce the upcoming
release of three research briefs addressing important aspects of school improvement
efforts in Philadelphia:
●
Teacher Hiring and Placement Practices—A Comparative Study of
Philadelphia with School Districts in the Philadelphia Labor Market and
with Other Major Urban Districts Anticipated publication date: March 20, 2004.
●
From High-Stakes Testing to Improved Instruction to Student Learning:
Still a Leap of Faith Anticipated publication date: April 1, 2004.
●
Contracting Out—The Philadelphia Experience Anticipated publication date:
March 15, 2004.
Learning from Philadelphia’s School Reform, a research and public information
initiative of Research for Action (RFA), is bringing together a group of widely respected
experts and scholars to study whether changes in Philadelphia’s schools are actually
making a positive difference on the quality of teaching and learning, student
achievement, and public confidence in the city’s schools.
Previous studies, including Once and for All: Placing a Highly Qualified Teacher in Every
Philadelphia School, are available on RFA's Web site at www.researchforaction.org.
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9
Distrito busca crear escuelas superiores más pequeñas
continúa de la p. 1
las escuelas superiores fuera de 400 o menos
estudiantes, Williams y otros funcionarios del
Distrito sostienen que las escuelas con menos
de 600 estudiantes no son igualmente eficientes
en términos de costo.
Los datos del Distrito muestran que la
mayoría de estudiantes de escuela superior en
Filadelfia están actualmente matriculados en
escuelas de 1,500 estudiantes o más (vea la
página 14).
A continuación se muestran los detalles de
las tres estrategias principales para expandir las
opciones de escuela superior.
Conversión de escuelas intermedias
Williams dijo que el Distrito buscó
“escuelas intermedias grandes que pudieran
convertirse en edificios de escuela superior, en
las que la matrícula no era tan grande, o la
escuela no estaba funcionando”. Cinco de esas
escuelas intermedias añadieron el noveno grado
este año y seguirán añadiendo grados cada año
hasta convertirse en escuelas superiores.
Tres de las cinco escuelas – Vaux,
Wanamaker y Sayre – también están eliminando un grado de intermedia cada año. En
La mayoría de
estudiantes de escuela
superior en Filadelfia
están matriculados en
escuelas de 1,500
estudiantes o más.
FitzSimons y Rhodes no había espacio
suficiente en las escuelas elementales que las
suplen como para permitir que eliminaran el
sexto grado en la intermedia, dijo Williams.
En una sexta escuela intermedia, la conversión no tuvo éxito. Pickett estaba designada para
convertirse en
escuela superior
y añadió el
noveno grado
este año, pero
Williams dijo
que el edificio no
es el apropiado
para una escuela
superior y por lo
tanto regresará a
ser una escuela
intermedia el
próximo año.
El proceso de
conversión a una
escuela superior
no es fácil para
escuelas intermedias con problemas, y desde
febrero el Distrito
ha estado proporcionando entreFoto por: Harvey Finkle
namiento avanzadonde
asisten
2,300
estudiantes,
es
una
de
las
nueve
escuelas
superiores del
La
Escuela
Superior
Olney,
do para los
Distrito cuyas matrículas son de más de 2,000 estudiantes. El Distrito está buscando reducir la matrícula en estas
equipos adminiescuelas creando nuevas opciones de escuela superior.
strativos en estas
“escuelas
de
conversión”.
comenzarán el otoño próximo. La Escuela
costo de contratar un principal, una enfermera
Williams explicó que “ese grupo necesitaSuperior Parkway se convertirá en tres
y una bibliotecaria, dijo Williams.
ba ser entrenado junto como equipo. Aunque
escuelas separadas el próximo otoño – en el
Al menos una de las escuelas superiores
son principales y administradores con experioeste de Filadelfia, el noroeste de Filadelfia y
programadas para reconstrucción, la
encia, estaban en transición a una escuela supeCenter City – cada una con su propio principal.
Kensington, tiene un anexo que Williams dijo
rior y ese es un ambiente muy diferente al de
Otras dos escuelas que serán autónomas el
será considerado para convertirlo en una escuela
una escuela intermedia”.
próximo otoño son Randolph y Lankenau, que
separada más pequeña.
hasta ahora han estado anexadas a Dobbins y
División de escuelas con multiples planteles
Creación de escuelas completamente nuevas
Germantown, respectivamente.
El otoño pasado se crearon tres nuevas
El plan para una escuela nueva más
Cada una de las escuelas resultantes tendrá
escuelas con nuevos principales al cambiar
comentado es la escuela modelo auspiciada por
una matrícula de menos de 500 estudiantes. “El
planteles auxiliaries en escuelas separadas. Este
la Microsoft Corporation, ahora programada
tamaño de la matrícula fue dictado en la
año se crearán cinco escuelas superiores más
para construcción en un terreno en el oeste de
mayoría de estos casos por el tamaño del
de la misma manera.
Filadelfia cerca del Zoológico de la ciudad. La
plantel”, explicó Williams.
De la Escuela Superior Bartram en el
escuela será un edificio nuevo, enfocado en tecEl costo adicional y continuo de la
suroeste de Filadelfia se crearon dos pequeñas
nología, con capacidad para aproximadamente
creación de estas escuelas pequeñas es de
escuelas el otoño pasado, y dos más
800 estudiantes. La inauguración está proyecaproximadamente $225,000, que incluye el
tada para septiembre de 2006.
Otra escuela superior que está en la mesa de
planes será el producto de una colaboración del
Distrito con el Franklin Institute, cuya meta es
desarrollar una escuela superior tipo magnet
enfocada en ciencias y tecnología.
Una nueva escuela programada para
abrir este otoño es una “escuela superior
militar” – un modelo que trajo el CEO
locales han estado organizando a los residentes
Además de los Parent Help Desks, los
Paul Vallas desde Chicago.
para ponerle frente a la violencia en la comufuncionarios del Distrito han exhortado a los
El pasado septiembre el Distrito abrió en el
nidad, mientras que otros grupos de la ciudad
padres y miembros de la comunidad a unirse a
noreste de Filadelfia la Escuela Superior
con experiencia en el vecindario, que incluyen
otras iniciativas de seguridad organizadas en
Delaware Valley, una escuela superior
a Men for a Better Philadelphia (Hombres
las escuelas, que incluyen las Parent Patrols
disciplinaria de 100 estudiantes, con
unidos por una mejor Filadelfia) y al
(patrullas de padres) y el programa Safe
administración privada.
Philadelphia Anti-Drug Anti-Violence Network,
Corridors (pasillos seguros).
PAAN (Red de anti-drogas y anti-violencia de
Los funcionarios del Distrito Escolar han
Todavía falta más
Filadelfia), han ofrecido su apoyo.
apoyado legislación estatal que crearía “Zonas
Williams dijo que su oficina continuará
La Directora de PAAN, Inez Love, dijo que
Escolares Seguras”, un proyecto introducido
explorando posibilidades para expandir las
la reacción de la comunidad a esta tragedia ha
en respuesta a la tragedia por los Senadores
opciones de escuela superior. “Vamos a ver qué
dado esperanza de que las comunidades
estatales Vincent Fumo y Shirley Kitchen y el
oportunidades tenemos de rentar y contratar
puedan unirse para ponerle fin a la violencia
Representante estatal Jewell Williams.
espacios adicionales. Si hay escuelas privadas
Esta ley prohibiría la posesión, uso, o
en sus vecindarios. “Creo que el coraje que
que cierren, vamos a explorar esas
control de un arma de fuego a menos de 1,000
sienten las personas es lo que las va a mover,
oportunidades”.
pies de distancia de una escuela y 500 pies de
a hacer reaccionar, a lograr que se organicen
A nivel de distrito, es mucho menos lo que
centros de recreación, parques de juego, o
y a que busquen resultados”, dijo Love.
está ocurriendo para reducir el tamaño de las
vehículos de transportación escolar. Requeriría
“Podremos salvar a otros niños ahora
escuelas para los grados Kinder a 8vo. De
tiempo de cárcel obligatorio por posesión o disporque nos hemos vuelto preventivos”,
hecho, mientras las conversiones de escuelas
paro de un arma de fuego dentro de estas zonas.
añadió ella.
intermedias deberían reducir la matrícula en
Los funcionarios del Distrito también han
El incidente también ha incitado otras reaclas escuelas superiores, las escuelas K-8 y
establecido un fondo de becas para los diez
ciones preactivas a la violencia que enfrentan
elementales de la ciudad crecerán porque
hermanos de Faheem y se han unido a la
muchas de las escuelas del Distrito.
tendrán que mantener a los estudiantes de los
Federación de Maestros de Filadelfia para crear
El Institute for the Study of Civic Values
grados intermedios. Este año, 26 de las
(Instituto para el Estudio de Valores Cívicos)
un memorial en honor al niño en la biblioteca
escuelas elementales de Filadelfia añadieron
está trabajando con el Distrito para que este
de la escuela Peirce.
un grado para acomodar más estudiantes de
año entre 100-150 participantes del programa
grados intermedios.
TANF (programa para transición de benefiEl teléfono de Men United for a Better
El año que viene se creará una nueva escuela
cencia a empleo) sean asignados a puestos de
Philadelphia es el 215-236-3372, el del PAAN
elemental al separar el anexo de la Escuela
ayuda para los padres, conocidos como Parent
es el 215-685-9521, y el del Institute for the
Sheridan en el norte de Filadelfia.
Help Desks, en aproximadamente 50 escuelas
Study of Civic Values es el 215-238-1434. Para
Además, ya está programada para más tarde
elementales. Aunque el Instituto ya tiene
información sobre las Parent Patrols, llame al
este año la construcción de una nueva escuela
recipientes del TANF trabajando en algunas
215-875-3195. Para información sobre el proelemental en la esquina de la calle G y la
escuelas, el Presidente Ed Schwartz dijo que
grama Safe Corridors, llame el 215-875-3392.
Avenida Hunting Park.
el esfuerzo ahora será más sistemático y
abarcará más planteles.
Traducción por Mildred S. Martínez
La comunidad Peirce afianza
sus iniciativas en contra de la violencia
por Amy Rhodes
La trágica muerte de Faheem ThomasChilds ha sido una llamada de alerta a los
residentes de la comunidad y al Distrito
Escolar, la ciudad y los funcionarios estatales,
quienes han tomado acciones para resolver la
violencia que abunda en muchas comunidades
alrededor de las escuelas públicas de Filadelfia.
Faheem, un niño de tercer grado en la
Escuela Elemental T.M. Peirce, recibió un
balazo en la sien cuando se encontró entre la
balacera de dos gangas rivales de drogas al
cruzar la calle para ir a la escuela. Murió cinco
días después. La guardia de cruce Debra Smith
también resultó lesionada en el tiroteo.
Mediante reuniones comunitarias, vigilias,
y un aumento en la presencia de la comunidad
en las esquinas alrededor de la escuela, los
residentes del vecindario se han unido a otros
en la ciudad, y aún a los residentes suburbanos,
para ponerle paro a la violencia que existe
alrededor de la Escuela Elemental T.M. Peirce
en la intersección de las calles 23 y Cambria.
La principal de Peirce, Shively D.
Willingham, dijo que la reacción de la
comunidad ha sido “tremenda”.
“Hay mucha gente comprometida y
recomprometida con la decisión de que... esta
tragedia no se va a olvidar ni a desaparecer sin
que algo concreto resulte de la misma, no solamente para ayudar a la gente de esta comunidad pero a la de otras escuelas”, dijo
Willingham, notando que otras escuelas del
Distrito también son afectadas por la
violencia en la comunidad que les rodea.
Las iglesias y organizaciones comunitarias
10
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
SPRING 2004
Un vistazo a cuatro pequeñas escuelas chárter en Filadelfia
Por qué algunas escuelas prefieren permanecer pequeñas
por Benjamin Herold y Beandrea Davis
Por varios años, las escuelas chárter han sido
la solución para aquellos que han querido crear
pequeñas escuelas autónomas en Filadelfia.
Desde que los legisladores de Pensilvania
aprobaron la Ley de Escuelas Chárter del
estado en el 1997, fundar una escuela chárter
ha sido la opción principal disponible para los
residentes de Filadelfia que querían enseñar un
currículo basado en un tema independiente,
implantar su propio modelo organizacional, y
crear escuelas pequeñas con pocos estudiantes
e instrucción personalizada.
La ley de escuelas charter del estado
permite la creación de escuelas públicas
independientes que reciben fondos del distrito
escolar local y que tienen que cumplir con los
estándares y requisitos de las demás escuelas
públicas de Pensilvania. Actualmente, hay 49
escuelas chárter que operan en Filadelfia.
Para esta edición, el Notebook habló con los
líderes y maestros de cuatro pequeñas escuelas
chárter de Filadelfia. Escuela Superior Chárter
para Arquitectura y Diseño (grados 9-12),
Escuela Chárter Bilingüe Eugenio María de
Hostos (K, 5-8), Escuela Chárter Green Woods
(K-7), y la Escuela Superior Mastery
Charter (9-11).
Les preguntamos sobre la importancia del
tamaño en la visión de los fundadores, su
modelo de toma de decisiones y su currículo,
así como también sobre las ventajas y desventajas que sus escuelas han experimentado como
resultado de su tamaño. Estos líderes nos
hablaron consistentemente sobre varios temas:
Las pequeñas escuelas chárter
batallan por recursos limitados
Aunque las escuelas charter reciben fondos
del Distrito Escolar de Filadelfia, los recursos
son limitados. La asignación por estudiante de
las escuelas chárter es aproximadamente $2,000
menos que el gasto promedio por estudiante en
el Distrito Escolar, aunque esta comparación
no toma en consideración cierto número de
funciones administrativas que el Distrito Escolar
tiene que realizar.
La mayoría de las escuelas chárter tienen que
realizar una variedad de actividades de recolección de fondos para poder cubrir sus gastos. Para
las escuelas pequeñas, la falta de fondos a
menudo conduce a menos maestros de arte y
música, a la falta de equipos de deporte y actividades extracurriculares, a edificios limitados, y
a veces a mayor dificultad para cumplir con las
regulaciones estatales, federales y del Distrito.
En Green Woods, el Oficial Administrativo
John Di Lello reportó, “No hay una economía
de escala. Es como si estuviéramos en una isla.
Tenemos los mismos requisitos de informe y
cumplimiento de un distrito escolar grande, pero
no contamos con los fondos”.
El pequeño tamaño del plantel
facilita una instrucción más
individual y relaciones estrechas
entre los maestros y los estudiantes
En Mastery, el Oficial Ejecutivo Scott
Foto por: Harvey Finkle
Los defensores de escuelas pequeñas como la Escuela Chárter Bilingue Eugenio María de Hostos dicen que un beneficio importante de ser pequeñas es el
sentido de comunidad – todo el mundo se conoce en la escuela.
Gordon reportó que ser una pequeña escuela
chárter les permitió implantar un modelo de
instrucción en el que los estudiantes progresan individualmente a su propio paso, en base
a sus propias metas y experiencia.
“Solamente porque somos pequeños y
somos un chárter podemos tener nuestro propio sistema de notas y promoción, que es
único en Filadelfia y quizás hasta en todo el
país”, dijo.
La más grande diferencia entre enseñar en
una escuela grande y una pequeña, dice la
maestra de sexto grado Evelyn Rivera de la
escuela de Hostos, es que en la pequeña “se
puede enseñar de acuerdo a la capacidad de
aprendizaje de cada niño”.
Evelyn Lebrón, principal en la escuela de
Hostos, está de acuerdo en que un tamaño
pequeño mejora la calidad de la instrucción.
“Podemos satisfacer mejor las necesidades de
los estudiantes porque todo el mundo se
conoce en nuestra escuela”.
Para Di Lello en Green Woods, las ventajas que ofrecen las escuelas pequeñas para
fomentar relaciones en comparación a las
escuelas grandes son muy obvias.
“El aprendizaje se logra mejor cuando los
niños se sienten conectados al lugar,
conectados entre sí, y a las personas que les
están enseñando”, dijo. “La mejor oportunidad
para crear este tipo de comunidad de aprendizaje es un ambiente pequeño en el que se
sientan como en familia y en el que les guste
aprender”.
Datos de las escuelas chárter
Escuela Bilingüe
Eugenio María de
Hostos
Green Woods
Arquitectura
y Diseño
Mastery
215-455-2300
215-482-6337
215-351-2900
215-922-1902
Grados
K, 5-8
K-7
9-12
9-11
Ubicación
Hunting Park
Roxborough
Center City
Center City
Matrícula actual
200 (meta cumplida)
225 (meta 250)
380 (meta 580)
300 (meta 400)
Escuelas
Número de
teléfono
Tamaño promedio
de clase
Año de fundación
SPRING 2004
20
1998
22-25
22
22
2002
1999
2001
Lebrón añadió: “Por ser una escuela pequeña,
nuestros estudiantes no sienten temor de ser ellos
mismos. No le tienen miedo a ser niños”.
Ser una escuela pequeña resulta en
un sentido de colaboración y responsabilidad colectiva entre el personal.
“La escuela Green Woods fue fundada por
cinco madres de la comunidad que querían un
ambiente más pequeño y educativo para sus
hijos”, dijo Di Lello. “Querían una escuela que
tuviese la textura de la enseñanza en el hogar
y que también incluyera aprendizaje activo,
práctico y basado en proyectos”.
Añadió que para crear este ambiente, Green
Woods “emplea un proceso colaborativo de
toma de decisiones que se basa en relaciones,
confianza y una visión común”, y esto se logra
con comités que incluyen padres, maestros y
miembros de la junta.
En la Escuela Superior Chárter para
Arquitectura y Diseño (CHAD), “De los
maestros se requiere tanto, que no hay palabras
para expresarlo”, dice la Subdirectora de
Asuntos Académicos Cristina Álvarez. “Si se
desea innovación, hay que tener personas que
quieran trabajar de esa manera y es por eso que
aquí funciona.”
Lebrón está de acuerdo en que por ser una
escuela pequeña el personal tiene que hacer
más de lo que haría en una escuela más grande.
“Los maestros tienen que hacer de todo un
poco”, dice, señalando la importancia del trabajo en equipo.
De acuerdo a la maestra de inglés Susan
Cook, la cultura de la escuela CHAD promueve
la colaboración. “El ambiente no es como el
de una fábrica. Es más como el de un taller”,
dijo. “Aquí la gente dice lo que piensa”.
Ser una escuela pequeña intensifica
los efectos de la renuncia de
maestros.
Scott Gordon, de Mastery, describió el
impacto desproporcionado de cualquier renuncia de maestros en una escuela pequeña en
comparación con una grande: “Porque somos
pequeñas, la renuncia de cualquier maestro
afecta la estabilidad”.
Además, el primer año para muchas
escuelas chárter pequeñas es a menudo
escabroso, lo que puede resultar en dificultad
con la renuncia de maestros. Álvarez dijo que
de un grupo de 26 maestros, ella anticipa perder
entre 10 y 20 por ciento de un año al otro.
Lebrón reconoce que la renuncia de
maestros fue un problema durante los primeros
años de operación de la escuela, pero dice que
ha mejorado según el equipo administrativo se
ha estabilizado. El porcentaje de renuncia del año
pasado al actual todavía fue de 40 por ciento.
Ser pequeña permite que el
currículo esté diseñado para el
enfoque individual de la escuela.
El currículo en la escuela CHAD se
enfoca en enseñar a los estudiantes cómo
aplicar principios de diseño en todas las
disciplinas de las materias académicas.
A las escuelas chárter se les permite tener
hasta 25% de maestros sin certificación, y los
administradores en CHAD han elegido reservar todas las plazas de enseñanza sin certificación para el departamento de diseño.
“Valoramos mucho la experiencia personal
y profesional en el campo del diseño y arquitectura”, dice Álvarez, quien nota que a todos
los maestros de las materias académicas se les
requiere tener certificación. Los maestros que
no estén certificados tienen que estar matriculados en un programa de certificación.
El currículo en la escuela de Hostos tiene
un programa de inmersión dual en español e
inglés a partir de kindergarten, un programa
específicamente enfocado a las necesidades de
su población estudiantil, que es en su mayoría
bilingüe.
El personal utiliza una variedad de
métodos para evaluar el rendimiento de los estudiantes. Mientras Lebrón reconoce la importancia de los exámenes estandarizados para
evaluar a los estudiantes, también nota que, “Eso
no es lo que va a impulsar nuestra escuela”.
Benjamin Herold es miembro de la junta
editorial del Notebook. Llame a la reportera
del Notebook Beandrea Davis al 215-951-0330
x 156 o escriba a [email protected].
w w w. t h e n o t e b o o k . o rg
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
11
WIC
A supplemental food and nutrition education program
for Women, Infants, and Children under 5 years old.
You may be eligible for WIC benefits; call 1-800-743-3300.
City Health Center #3
WIC Office
555 S. 43rd Street
(215) 685-7519
Germantown
WIC Office
6352 Germantown Avenue
(215) 844-8076
City Health Center #5
WIC Office
1900 N. 20th Street
(215) 765-8481
Lehigh
WIC Office
217-33 W. Lehigh Avenue
2nd Fl.
(215) 634-8713
Aramingo Avenue
WIC Office
2401 East Tioga
Aramingo Ave. & Tioga Street
(215) 744-4981
Children’s Hospital of Phila.
WIC Office
Room 1175
34th & Civic Center Blvd.
(215) 590-1096
City Avenue
WIC Office
Rowling Hall Bldg.
4190 City Line Avenue
5th Floor
(215) 871-1948
Frankford Avenue
WIC Office
4510 Frankford Avenue
(215) 533-9937
Northeast
WIC Office
8570 Bustleton Avenue
(215) 745-7252
Olney/Logan
WIC Office
5729 North Broad Street
(215) 927-1950
Roxborough Health Center
WIC Office
5830 Henry Avenue,
Lower Level
(215) 487-6550
St. Christopher’s Hospital
WIC Office
Waldo E. Nelson, MD Pavillion
100 E. Erie Street,
Suite 2030
(215) 427-5977
South Philadelphia
WIC Office
1802 S. Broad Street,
2nd Floor
(215) 463-5571
Strawberry Mansion
WIC Office
2301 N. 29th Street
(215) 228-2553
Temple Children’s
Medical Center
WIC Office
3509 N. Broad Street,
4th Floor
(215) 707-6777
West Philadelphia
WIC Office
4148 Lancaster Avenue
(215) 222-3244
Woodland Avenue
Health Center
WIC Office
5511 Woodland Avenue
(215) 726-1142
Mobile WIC Office
642 N. Broad Street,
Suite 101
1-800-743-3300
Administered by NORTH, Inc.
642 North Broad Street, Suite 101
Philadelphia, PA. 19130
215-978-6100 • 1-800-743-3300
Website: www.northincwic.org
12
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
SPRING 2004
continued from p. 1
Philadelphia schools were staffed entirely with
teachers deemed “highly qualified,” many of
the city’s high-poverty schools fell well below
the citywide average.
FitzSimons Middle School had only 44 percent “highly qualified” teachers and Muñoz-Marín
Elementary had only 58 percent. Besides having
high-poverty populations, these two schools, like
most of those that ranked near the bottom citywide on teacher qualifications, are currently run
by private education management organizations.
Perpetual vacancies
The District’s teacher recruitment and retention czar, Tomás Hanna, while citing encouraging trends in the vacancy situation as well as
the 1,290 new teachers hired this year, is quick
to acknowledge the continuing problem with
what he calls “perpetual vacancies,” or “churn.”
Hanna explained, “So you’ve filled the
vacancy, but that same vacancy has been filled
already four times this year, so the consistency
issue does remain in play.”
Understanding and addressing this churn is
one focus of Hanna’s office, which is working
on expanding the support provided for new
teachers – from the central office, from new
teacher coaches, and from principals.
Recruitment also continues to be a priority.
Despite an increase in applications, the District
hired well over 300 emergency-certified teachers this year. That means 27 percent of newly hired
teachers this year are on emergency certificates.
Last year, 32 percent of newly hired teachers were
emergency-certified, Hanna reported.
Hanna expressed optimism that initiatives
like the District’s standardized curriculum, class
size reduction, a more aggressive approach to
dealing with discipline issues, and principal
training on teacher recruitment and retention
are beginning to help stabilize the teaching staffs
in high turnover schools.
Positions in middle grades and special education are still among the hardest to fill, Hanna
said. A new District middle grades initiative targets staffing problems at that level (see p. 9).
Seven-point plan
But the newly formed teacher quality coalition, convened by the Philadelphia Student
Union, is advocating a package of additional steps
for getting and keeping experienced and highly
qualified teachers in Philadelphia’s high-poverty, high-turnover schools. Coalition members
have presented a seven-point “Teacher Equity
Platform” to the School Reform Commission
(SRC), to CEO Paul Vallas, and to the
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT).
The group hopes to ensure that current teacher
contract negotiations include strategies to address
the uneven distribution of experienced, certified
teachers throughout the school system.
“It has been 50 years since Brown vs. the
Board of Education, and schools are still relatively unequal,” Student Union member Andrew
Hopkins, a Gratz senior, told the SRC.
“The unequal distribution of experienced
and highly qualified teachers in the Philadelphia
public school system seriously undermines the
ability of my children and thousands of other
children to achieve the quality education to
which they are entitled,” added Dolores Shaw,
a mother of two and vice chair of the Eastern
Pennsylvania Organizing Project.
The coalition’s platform calls for:
• Offering extra incentives for teachers at
hard-to-staff schools, including non-monetary
benefits such as smaller class sizes and extra
planning time;
• Capping the number of emergency certified teachers allowed at hard-to-staff schools;
And Take
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Good low-cost computers for families who cannot
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Teacher vacancies are down and job applications are up, but inequities among schools persist.
• Implementing a grow-your-own program to
help paraprofessionals become certified teachers;
• Making it easier for schools to have
site-based teacher selection by requiring a
simple majority vote of teachers for schools to
adopt the policy.
Push for site selection
CEO Paul Vallas and members of the School
Reform Commission welcomed the coalition’s
call for site selection and reiterated that giving
schools the power to hire teachers is a top priority in contract talks with the PFT.
“As commissioners, that’s a policy that we
desire,” said Commission Chair James Nevels.
The current union contract affords teachers
the right to opt for a site-based selection process
at their schools, but such a measure must secure
two-thirds of the teacher vote at a particular
school, and the vote must be repeated annually.
This year, new teachers will be hired using a
site-based selection process at 44 schools, up from
31 schools last year. At these schools, a personnel committee, including the principal, teachers,
and a parent, makes hiring decisions.
The number of schools that use site-based
hiring has grown steadily each year since it
began with 15 schools in 2001.
Union spokesperson Barbara Goodman
affirmed the current contract language providing for a vote; it “empowers schools to make a
choice on whether site selection will work well
in that particular school situation,” she said.
Coalition spokesperson Jordan said the
response from District officials was encouraging but added a caution: “Site selection by itself
will not address the issue of the inequitable distribution of certified and experienced teachers.”
“The only way that we’re going to ensure
that there’s a balance of teachers across the
District is to make sure that the working conditions at the hardest-to-staff schools are
improved,” he added.
The current teachers’contract includes financial incentives for teachers to work in hard-tostaff schools, but coalition members want the
District to go further. They point to other districts such as Minneapolis and Chicago that offer
hard-to-staff schools extra resources and professional development opportunities.
Retirement program raises fears
The development of an early retirement
program by the District is a potential wild card
that some fear will undermine other efforts to
keep certified, experienced staff in high-poverty schools. About 2,000 teachers attended a PFTled informational meeting about the retirement
package in early March.
The School District hopes to save money by
enticing highly paid veteran teachers to retire
with a financial incentive of up to $50,000 in taxfree retirement benefits. The offer is open to
teachers with 20 or more years of experience.
The District will accept teachers into the plan
based on seniority.
“The obvious worry is that there will be
more turnover, especially in high-poverty
schools already characterized by high turnover,”
said Betsey Useem, senior research consultant
at Research for Action. Besides the retirements
from these schools, she noted, a migration of
teachers from high-poverty to low-poverty
schools is likely as jobs open up at those schools.
“That’s an absolutely legitimate concern,”
said Jim Van Horn, director of human resources
for the School District. He said the District is
prepared to “limit or even potentially rescind”
the program if it appears to be having a harmful effect on the workforce.
Contact Aldustus Jordan at 215-563-5848
for information on the Teacher Equity Platform.
Notebook Editor Paul Socolar can be
reached at [email protected].
Activism
continued from p. 7
schools when the new policy takes effect this
July. Sweetened “sports” drinks may also be
sold, but only in high school athletic areas.
Yael Lehman, senior associate with the
Food Trust – the organization that spearheaded PCHC – said Philadelphia’s policy goes
“farther than almost any other policy of any
other school district in the country.”
New York and Los Angeles, have already
banned soda sales during the school day.
For more information call the Food Trust
at 215-568-0830 or visit www.thefoodtrust.org.
The School District of Philadelphia
Office of Language, Culture & the Arts
“I just won a scholarship. Now
my mommy can go to college!”
• ESOL Bilingual Programs
• World & Heritage
Language Programs
• Cultural Education
& Special Events
• Creative & Performing Arts
Administration Building, Room 302
21st and Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-299-7791, 7185, 7180
Fax: 215-299-7792 • [email protected]
SPRING 2004
PROVIDING INNOVATIVE
SOLUTIONS FOR TODAY’S
FAMILIES
1701 W. Lehigh Avenue,
2nd Floor
Phone: 215-228-0200
Fax: 215-228-0285
Email: [email protected]
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
Are you a single mom with a child under
the age of five and need help paying
child care tuition while going to college?
You may qualify for the FCS Child Care
Scholarship.
Call 215-228-0200 for more information or
log onto www.familycaresolutions.org for
guidelines and an application.
Application deadline is May 28, 2004.
13
The biggest
and smallest
Student enrollments in Philadelphia
High schools
Northeast
Washington
Edison
Lincoln
Central
Parkway Center City
Bartram Human Service
Bodine
GAMP
Carver
Middle schools
Clemente
Grover Washington
Wilson
Harding
Tilden
AMY Northwest
Elverson
Hill-Freedman
MYA
La Brum
Elementary schools
H.R. Edmunds
Spruance
Elkin
Finletter
Carnell
E.M. Stanton
Harrison
Leidy
Spring Garden
Waring
Powel
Charter schools
MaST Community
Mariana Bracetti Academy
Math, Civics and Sciences
Franklin Towne
Philadelphia Academy
Philadelphia Performing Arts
Family
Green Woods
Multi-Cultural Academy
YouthBuild Philadelphia
Most Philadelphia students attend
schools of 750 students or more…
18 schools
3,459
2,704
2,572
2,474
2,385
345
444
487
493
566
1,500 – 3,500
STUDENTS
1,316
1,246
1,245
1,239
1,216
29 schools
231
239
241
306
359
1,122
990
960
925
764
School District data are for October 2003
Source: School District of Philadelphia
111
126
165
170
175
Charter school data are for 2002-03 school year
Source: Greater Phila. Urban Affairs Coalition
72,000 students
in Philadelphia
are in one of the
47 schools with
1,000 students
or more –
that’s 38% of
the 190,000 students in the
District.
100,000 students
– that’s 53%, a
clear majority –
are in the 80
schools of 750 or
more students
1,000 – 1,500
STUDENTS
1,294
1,281
1,208
1,175
1,168
142
180
231
232
241
241
More than 37,000
students – that’s
20% of Philadelphia public
school students –
attend one of 18
schools with 1,500
or more students.
All but 1 of the 18
schools of 1500 or
more are high
schools – so a
majority of high
school students
are in one of those
schools.
33 schools
750 – 1,000
STUDENTS
while less than 10 percent attend
schools of 400 students or fewer.
60 schools
Only 18,636 students –
less than 10% of the
student population – are
in the 60 schools of 400
or fewer students.
400 OR FEWER
STUDENTS
Each
represents 350 students.
Source: School District of Philadelphia
Changing enrollments have had an impact on school
Total enrollment at District schools has declined by 28,000
(or 13 percent) since the adoption of charter school legislation
in 1997, and Philadelphia now has 22,000 students in
charter schools. During the six years since 1997, enrollment at
many District schools has plummeted, but in some parts of the
Key
city, school enrollment is soaring.
1997
Biggest increases
Benjamin Franklin (K-8)
Northeast HS
H.R. Edmunds (K-8)
Spruance (K-8)
Tilden MS
14
736
1,141
3,079
3,459
974
1,294
964
1,281
948
1,216
2003
+405 (+55%)
+380 (+12%)
+320 (+33%)
+317 (+33%)
+268 (+28%)
Biggest declines
Strawberry Mansion HS
William Penn HS
Overbrook HS
Olney HS
King HS
Longstreth (K-5)
Gillespie MS
Lea (K-8)
2,002
1,099
2,306
1,415
2,903
2,017
2,946
2,332
2,487
1,946
972
460
1,138
651
1,069
644
*Middle school phased out
-903 * (-45%)
-891
(-39%)
-886
(-31%)
-614
(-21%)
-541
(-22%)
-512
(-53%)
-487
(-43%)
-425
(-40%)
Student group impressed by visit
to small schools in New York
On the outside, the Julia Richman Education Complex, on
Manhattan’s Upper East Side, looks much as it did before it was
converted from a large high school to six small schools.
Photo: Youth United for Change
Student work covers the walls at Julia Richman. This student artwork is from an Urban Academy photography class, where students
were assigned a project to tell their life stories through black and
white photography. The school is equipped with its own darkroom.
Photo: Peter Hahn
Looking for ideas on how to turn their
large, low-performing high schools into small
schools, Kensington and Olney High School
students from the education organizing group
Youth United for Change (YUC) set out to
find successful examples of small schools
around the country.
Last March, their search led them to the
Julia Richman Education Complex, a building in New York City that is home to six
small, autonomous schools ranging in size
from 130 to 400 students.
Formerly a large, chaotic high school with
a history of low student achievement, the
five-story building underwent a total
redesign, starting in 1993, facilitating its reorganization into several small schools.
Schools in the complex have seen dramatic increases in student achievement. For
example, Urban Academy now reports a 95
percent college acceptance rate for its students, which
is significantly higher than the citywide average, while
the dropout rate at Manhattan International is down
almost to one-half the citywide average.
But it was not simply the building redesign that
made the difference, experts are quick to point out.
The architectural change was coupled with a very
different school climate in the new schools.
YUC students said they were impressed with the
close-knit culture at Julia Richman. Students there
call teachers by their first names, the hallways have
couches where students can relax, and there are no
bells telling students when they should be in class.
“In my school, you have four minutes to get to
class, and then they start the hall sweep,” remarked
Olney High senior L’Erinne Capers. But at Julia
Richman, she said, “They had a much longer break
between classes. After time was up, students knew
when they had to go to the next class, and they
wanted to go.”
Olney High student Edner Joseph said of his visit
to Julia Richman: “You felt like you were at home
there.”
Of particular interest to YUC were the four small
high schools housed at the Julia Richman Complex:
Manhattan International, for children of recent
immigrants; Talent Unlimited, specializing in the
creative and performing arts; Urban Academy, offering college-style classes for students formerly at-risk
of dropping out; and Vanguard, serving children with
learning disabilities.
This photo essay details some of what the YUC
students learned from their daylong visit at the
nationally acclaimed small schools complex.
Text by Beandrea Davis
YUC students get a tour of the student lounge area in Urban Academy.
In their visit to
the library,
shared by all
the high
schools at Julia
Richman, YUC
students relax
in the loft
above the
library’s
holdings,
created as a
result
of student
input on what
they wanted
their library to
look like.
Photo: Youth United
for Change
The six schools at Julia
Richman share not only a
library, auditorium,
cafeteria, and gymnasium
but also a dance studio,
greenhouse, and ceramics
studio.
Photos: Peter Hahn
YUC member Sida Din shows off a self-portrait she made in an art
class at Urban Academy to fellow YUC member Edner Joseph and
Olney High principal Edward Monastra.
Urban Academy’s faculty room was designed
to encourage teachers
to collaborate, rather
than isolating themselves in individual
classrooms. Students
are welcome to come in
and speak with their
teachers.
Photo: Peter Hahn
Urban Academy has a bulletin board where students voice their opinions about education. There is also a tag wall where students can do
graffiti, which cuts down on school vandalism, a problem
at Julia Richman when it was one large high school.
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
• SPRING 2004
15
Small schools backers want a voice
continued from p. 1
“We don’t voice opinions on the academic
program. All we do is design the building that
supports whatever decisions have been made,”
she said.
Academic decisions regarding high schools
are in the hands of Creg Williams. But supporters of small schools say they are unclear
about how student and community organizations can help define the educational vision of
the new schools if educational and design issues
are kept separate.
Braxton said he would like to see more efforts
made to clarify this process. “We’re concerned
that the public engagement process around the
capital plan doesn’t really allow authentic community participation,” said Braxton.
“The community really wants to be involved
in the process,” he stated. “It’s unclear how
that’s going to work.”
In search of avenues for real input
Aprocess that is open to a wide array of viewpoints is key to building schools that are centers
of communities, says architect Steven Bingler,
president of the firm Concordia Inc., which specializes in facilitating community engagement
in school planning and construction.
“The important thing is [that] the process is
structured so that people’s input is genuinely considered,” he said, emphasizing that community
input is not the same thing as community engagement. “You’re not just asking them to approve
some decision that has already been made.”
The School District’s community outreach
process, focused just on design issues, begins
with a small, representative group at the school
level called a School Planning Team. The
school’s principal selects the team.
“This is our community, and the community [should have] a say on the design team,”
argued YUC member and Kensington High
tenth grader Kenneth Ramos.
But both YUC and PSU say they are not
sure whether or not they will get a seat at the
table when it is time to begin the design phase
of their schools’ projects.
An outside consulting firm, Lana FeltonGhee Associates, has a 3-year, $715,000 contract to insure adequate community input on
the capital plans. Mayor Street’s former campaign manager, Lana Felton-Ghee is lead community outreach consultant. Her contract is with
the URS Corporation, the project management
firm guiding the District’s capital program.
Asked if members of the student groups
would be invited to join the school planning
teams at their high schools, Felton-Ghee said:
“I don’t know. But will they be heard?
Absolutely, yes.”
The School Planning Teams are responsible for developing the “final scope of work”
for each project. Then three broader community meetings, where the architect presents the
scope and then updates the community during
the design process, are places where community groups can express their views.
“Nothing is carved in stone until after those
large-scale community meetings,” said District
spokeswoman Cecelia Cummings, who urged
community groups not to judge the process
prematurely.
But, as Felton-Ghee noted, any suggestions
made during these town meetings will have “to
work within the framework” already established
by the School Planning Team.
“The schedule will not allow for major revision of the design,” agreed Dan Schrader of L.
Robert Kimball Associates, the architecture firm
designing the new building for Fels High School.
Review of the minutes
A Notebook review of minutes of
several sets of School Planning Team
meetings raised additional concerns about
the planning process at some of the
schools that are now in the design phase.
Meeting minutes recorded by the District’s
community outreach staff show that at one
school, Longstreth, no parent or community
representatives signed off on the final scope of
work. Other teams were smaller than the suggested size of seven to nine representatives.
Minutes indicate that District staff consistently expressed the need to secure the School
Planning Team’s “sign-off” on a scope of work
by the second team meeting.
But Harris noted that most schools in the
first round of projects did have at least three
team meetings and said that, except for
Longstreth, schools had teams that represented the key constituencies.
“We have engaged in a proactive approach,”
Harris said. “Our principals and community
members have been very happy.”
Capital plan community outreach
The District has a two-pronged approach to
community input on school construction:
School Planning Teams (SPT): During the initial
planning phase for the design of a capital project,
that school’s SPT – a small, representative design
team of about eight people – is the primary forum
for community input. The school’s principal is
charged with making sure the SPT includes teachers, Home and School members, concerned parents and staff, students, faith-based and community
representatives. The SPT hears a facility assessment, reviews proposed improvements, and signs
off on the project’s “scope of work.” Then an architect is hired to design the project, and the SPT continues to consult on project details.
Community meetings: The broader community
has a chance to discuss a school’s design plan during a series of three public meetings where the
architect first presents the scope and then updates
the community at two points in the design process.
Names to know
Chris Harris (director of capital programs)
215-875-8494
Oversees the execution of all school improvement
projects under the capital plan.
Fels High principal Jeffrey Petty agreed:
“What’s been fabulous about it is that I have
had huge input into the way the new building
is going to look,” he said.
For child advocate Shelly Yanoff,
executive director of Philadelphia Citizens for
Children and Youth, students should be at the
center of efforts to seize upon this opportunity to transform high schools.
“Their voices should be the dominant
ones,” she said.
Steven Bingler’s report “Schools as
Centers of Community: a Citizens’ Guide
for Planning and Design,” is at
www.concordia.com/files/schoolsascenters.pdf.
Contact
Notebook
staff
writer
Beandrea Davis at 215-951-0330 x 156 or
[email protected].
Anton Hackett (capital projects director of external
and community affairs), 215-875-3650
Leads outreach team that works to insure
community input on the project.
Lana Felton-Ghee/LFG Associates (consultant)
215-564-6100
Cody Anderson/ACG Associates (consultant)
215-823-6970
LFG Associates provides overall support for the
outreach team. ACG Associates assists with
outreach for public meetings.
Projects
The design and community input process is underway at the following schools:
Major renovation: H.A. Brown, Bluford, Gratz,
Longstreth, Mifflin, Roxborough, Shawmont, Strawberry Mansion, University City,Washington High
New building: G & Hunting Park Elementary, Fels
Middle school conversion: Sayre,Vaux
Building addition: Lawton, Moore, Ziegler
The process will start soon at Ethan Allen and GAMP.
For more information on how to get involved in the
planning process, see www.phila.k12.pa. us/offices/psit
or call 215-875-3650.
Attendance/Truancy Intervention Prevention Support (ATIPS)
A new initiative from the School District of Philadelphia
providing services to students who have been identified as truant and to their families
Truancy is the unexcused absence of students from school and is often the first indicator that a student is losing
his or her way and heading for trouble. ATIPS is an early intervention program to find out what supports are needed,
make a connection, and provide resources so that students can get back to school and the family back on track.
Twelve community agencies are implementing this program across the city. If you are interested
in being part of this initiative as a parent truancy officer, please contact the agency in your area.
NORTH
Harold O. Davis Memorial
Baptist Church
4500 N.10th Street 19140
215-329-8859
WEST
Holy Temple of the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ
5116 Market Street, 19139
215-474-7656
CENTRAL
Northern Home Children
& Family Services
5301 Ridge Avenue, 19128
215-482-1423
NORTH
Children Aid Society Logan/
Olney Family Center
9th & Lindley Street, 19141
215-456-5561
WEST
Youth Services Incorporated
410 North 34th Street, 19146
215-222-3262
CENTRAL
Philadelphia Anti-Drug/
Anti-Violence Network
2700 N. 17th Street 19132
215-940-0550
NORTHEAST
Philadelphia Anti-Drug/
Anti-Violence Network
2700 N. 17th Street 19132
215-940-0550
NORTHWEST
Women’s Association
for Women’s Alternatives
6801 N. 16th Street 19126
215-924-6104
16
EAST
Lutheran Children & Family Services
5902 North 5th Street, 19120
215-456-4700
CENTRAL EAST
Congreso de Latinos Unidos
216 W. Somerset Street, 19133
215-763-8870
CENTRAL EAST
ASPIRA of Pennsylvania
4322 N. 5th Street 19140
215-455-1300
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
SOUTH
United Communities
Southeast Philadelphia
2029 South 8th Street, 19148
215-468-6111
SOUTHWEST
Presbyterian Children’s
Village Services
6601 Chester Avenue, 19142
215-727-4333
SPRING 2004
LS
District pursues creation of new, smaller high schools
Over two-year period, number of high schools to increase by 14
by Paul Socolar
Responding to growing evidence that large,
urban high schools often are not as good learning environments as smaller schools, the
School District is expanding its roster of high
schools and thereby aiming to reduce student
enrollment at large high schools.
Creg Williams, the District’s deputy chief
academic officer in charge of high schools,
said the District is implementing a “small
schools” strategy not only to decrease the numbers of students in large high schools but also
to provide “a whole lot more programmatic
options for young people.”
Besides starting up high schools from scratch,
the District is dividing some high schools with
multiple sites into
separate schools
small
and converting
several middle
schools into high
schools. Based on current plans, there will be
14 more District high schools next September
than there were a year ago – the majority of these
with populations of 300-500 students.
While many of these schools involve new
configurations of students in existing District
buildings, each of the 14 new schools will have
its own principal, budget, and curricular
offerings.
Williams said that when the District constructs a facility for a new high school through
its capital program, enrollment will be limited to 800-1000 students. But where existing
high schools are being rebuilt, these schools
may still be larger than 1000.
While some local community groups say
the District’s target high school size should be
400 or fewer students, Williams and other
District officials maintain that schools with
enrollments under 600 are less cost-efficient.
District data show that a majority of
Philadelphia high school students are now
enrolled in schools of 1,500 students or more
(see page 14).
Here are the details on the three primary
strategies for expanding high school options.
SCHOOLS
Conversions of middle schools
Williams said the District looked for “large
middle schools suitable to become high school
buildings, where the middle school enrollment
was low, or the middle school wasn’t working.” Five such middle schools took on a ninth
grade this year and will keep adding a grade
each year to become full-fledged high schools.
Three of the five schools – Vaux,
Wanamaker, and Sayre – are also dropping a
middle school grade each year. At FitzSimons
and Rhodes, there was not enough space in the
feeder schools this year to permit dropping the
sixth grade at the middle school, Williams said.
An unsuccessful conversion took place at a
sixth middle school.
Pickett was slated for high
school conversion and
added a ninth grade this
year, but Williams said the
building is not suitable for
a high school, and it will
be back to middle school
status next year.
The process of conversion to a high school is not
an easy one for struggling
middle schools, and since
February the District has
been providing stepped up
training for the administrative teams at these
“conversion schools.”
Williams explained,
“That group needed to be
trained together as a
group. Although they were
Olney High School, with 2,300 students, is one of nine District high schools with more than 2,000 students. The District
aims to reduce enrollment at these schools by creating new high school options.
experienced principals and
administrators, they were
transitioning to a high school, and that’s a
The additional, ongoing cost of creating
Still more to come
much different school environment than a midthese separate small schools is about $225,000
Williams said his office would continue to
dle school.”
each, including the cost of hiring a principal,
explore possibilities for expansion of small
a nurse, and a librarian, Williams stated.
high school options. “We’re going to look for
At least one high school scheduled for
Dividing schools with multiple sites
opportunities to rent and to lease additional
reconstruction, Kensington, has an annex that
Three new schools with new principals
spaces. If parochial schools close, we’re going
Williams
said
will
be
considered
as
a
possible
were created last fall by turning auxiliary sites
to look at those opportunities.”
site for conversion to a separate, small school.
into separate schools. Five more high schools
Less is happening districtwide on reducing
will be created that way this year.
school size for grades K-8. In fact, while the
Bartram High School in Southwest
Creating new schools from scratch
middle school conversions should reduce the
Philadelphia spun off two small schools last
The most talked-about plan for a new
enrollment at established high schools, some
fall, with two more to come this fall. Parkway
school is the demonstration school backed by
K-8 and elementary schools across the city
High School by next fall will be three
Microsoft Corporation, now slated to be built
will grow larger as they have to hang onto their
on a piece of park land in West Philadelphia
middle grades students. This year, 26
near the Philadelphia Zoo. This is to be a new,
Philadelphia elementary schools added a grade
technology-centered building serving about
to accommodate more middle grades students.
800 students. The projected opening is
One new elementary school will be creatSeptember 2006.
ed next year by spinning off the annex of
Another high school on the drawing board
Sheridan School in North Philadelphia as a
will be the product of a District partnership
separate school. In addition, construction is
scheduled to get underway later this year for
with the Franklin Institute, aimed at developa new elementary school at G Street and
ing a magnet high school focused on the sciences and technology.
Hunting Park Avenue.
One new school scheduled for opening this
Paul Socolar, Notebook editor , can be
fall is a “military high school” – a model
reached at [email protected].
brought by CEO Paul Vallas from Chicago.
separate schools – in West Philadelphia,
The District is crafting a proposal to make
Northwest Philadelphia, and Center City –
Leeds Middle School in Northwest
each with its own principal. Also becoming
Philadelphia a middle and high school with a
autonomous schools next fall are Randolph
military program for high schoolers. A District
and Lankenau, currently attached to Dobbins
spokesperson said community meetings will
and Germantown, respectively.
be scheduled for input on the plan.
Each of the resulting schools will serve
Last September, the District added a
fewer than 500 students. “The facility dictatprivately managed 100-student disciplinary
ed the enrollment size in most of these cases,”
high school in Northeast Philadelphia, the
www.thenotebook.org
Williams explained.
Delaware Valley High School.
A majority of
Philadelphia high
school students are now
enrolled in schools of
1,500 students or more.
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SPRING 2004
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17
LS
Student groups formulate vision of small schools
Plan for the new West Philadelphia High
by West Philadelphia High School
Philadelphia Student Union chapter
West Philadelphia High School is in need
of major change. In the six years that
Student Union
has been at West,
small
we have had
eight different
principals. The
school has often been in a state of chaos. We
had 39 fires in one year, and we have some
of the worst test scores and dropout rates in
the state.
Still, we in the Student Union have a
vision for West Philadelphia as a model of
excellence in inner city education. We are
pleased that our school is scheduled to get
a new building. We see this as an opportunity to change not only the physical structure of the school, but to redesign the way
that teaching and learning happen.
We have been researching excellent inner
city high schools. We visited schools that
SCHOOLS
Our high schools
are too large and
impersonal to
adequately
educate and
support students.
are having success with similar populations
in New York, Chicago, and Oakland. From
our research, the thing that seems to be
working the best in turning around big urban
high schools is breaking them into smaller
schools.
Our high schools are too large and impersonal to adequately educate and support students. The Cross City Campaign for Urban
School Reform recommends that high schools
have 300 to 500 students. The Gates
Foundation defines small schools as schools
that have no more then 100 students per
grade. Research shows that small schools can:
• Raise student achievement
• Reduce incidents of violence and disruptive behavior
• Combat student anonymity and isolation
• Increase attendance and graduation rates
• Elevate teacher satisfaction
• Improve school climate
• Be more cost effective.
We also held listening campaigns with
over 300 students at West. We used their
input and our research to develop this
proposal.
Plan for the new Kensington High
by Kensington High School
Youth United for Change chapter
In December 2002, Paul Vallas, the CEO of
Structure
the Philadelphia School District, announced his
Our plan for West is to have four
Capital Improvement Program. The program
autonomous schools and a
calls for the building of a
common building. Each of
new Kensington High
Kensington and West
the buildings will house no
School in 2005. We went
more than 400 students,
from classroom to classPhiladelphia High Schools
with its own staff and
room at Kensington listenwill be replaced with new
administration. We want
ing to over 300 students to
school buildings as part of
the buildings to look like
find out what they would
the School District’s
this:
like to see in the new build$1.5 billion capital plan.
Common building: This
ing. We took this informaPhiladelphia Student Union
building will contain a
tion and research we have
members from West
library, lunchroom, gym,
done about the Small
Philadelphia and Youth
and auditorium that will be
Schools Movement and
United for Change memshared by the four schools.
developed a proposal for
bers
from
Kensington
have
Business and commerce
our new school.
researched and developed
building: This building will
proposals for how their
be for students who are
Structure
interested in the field of
We propose that
new schools should be built.
business management and
Kensington High School be
These are excerpts from
starting their own business.
broken up into four small
the proposals.
The school will have a
schools. Each school would
strong focus on socially
have its own principal and
responsible business.
would service approximately 400 students. The
Automotive building: This building is for
schools would be built on the same piece of land
students interested in a career in automotives.
and share some facilities like tracks and fields.
West already has an automotive building so
Extracurricular activities, especially sports, would
we would like to keep that building.
also be shared by all four schools. All of the
Health and fitness: This is for students
schools would have a multicultural, technologywho have an interest in careers in the health
integrated curriculum.
and sport fields. We are not just talking about
Based on data gathered from our classroom
being a sports superstar. We want to have edupresentations, we propose the following themes
cational options for students interested in the
for the small schools:
law, medical, and communications fields that
Business: This school would focus on small
have to do with sports.
business development, entrepreneurial programs
Creative and performing arts: This school
and business administration. It would also house
will be for people who are interested in the
some shops including culinary arts and cosmearts. West has always had an excellent choir
tology/barbering. The idea behind bringing these
and dance troupe. We want to keep this part
programs together is so students who graduatof the school’s culture.
ed would be prepared both for college and/or
starting their own business in their field. Located
Contact the Philadelphia Student Union
on the proposed property on Front and Berks is
at 215-546-3290.
the Mercado which is run by Norris Square
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Envisioning
high schools that work:
Learning from experience
2 1 5
3 8 2
#
0 8 6 3
We propose that
Kensington High
School be broken up
into four small schools.
are becoming K-8 schools under the proposed
Capital Improvement Plan developed by the
School District of Philadelphia.
Urban studies: This school would take a social
action approach to education. The curriculum
would focus on critical thinking and problem
solving. Courses would include ethnic studies,
multiple history courses, and multiple political
science courses. This school could partner with
numerous local community organizations and
have an intensive community service component.
Location
The site we are proposing is at Front and
Berks. This property is located close to public
transportation and is accessible to the entire
Kensington community. It is located close to
two recreation centers and community organizations like New Kensington CDC and Norris
Square Civic Association, which would open
endless opportunities for collaborations between
the schools and the larger Kensington
community. It is also located in Philadelphia’s
Empowerment Zone.
Contact Youth United for Change at
215-423-9588.
HARMONIOUS VOLUNTEER CENTER
Bringing Resources to Underserved Neighborhoods in Philadelphia
Join us for a dialogue between veteran
teachers and students about past
reforms to break high schools down
into smaller structures.
Participate in developing action steps
as to what teachers and students
need for high schools to be effective
for teaching and learning.
Wed., April 21, 3:30 - 6 P.M.
United Way Building
17th Street & the Parkway
Sponsors: Cross City Campaign,
Philadelphia Student Union,
Youth United for Change,
Philadelphia Writing Project
For more information, call
Fran Sugarman: 215-991-6959
18
#
www.mlanjeni.com
Civic Association. The school could partner with
the Mercado to develop students’business skills
and sell student-generated products.
Creative and performing arts: The
Kensington community is filled with creative
students. However, there is little opportunity
for students to explore and develop their skills
in a school setting. This school would service
all of the students interested in art, drama, dance,
and music. It would also include graphic design,
web page design, and photography courses.
ESOL/Bilingual and dual immersion: This
school would support Kensington’s
ESOL/Bilingual community. It would also
include students interested in dual language
programs and international studies. The school
would have computer-equipped language labs.
This is a natural fit because currently there are
300 ESOL/Bilingual students at Kensington
High School and there are three elementary
schools that feed into Kensington High School
that have dual immersion programs. They are
McKinley, Willard and Sheppard, all of which
Since April 1998, the Harmonious Volunteer Center has been providing
community services, volunteer training, and assistance to other nonprofit
organizations. Here are some of the programs available for your use.
Computer Training Program: An informal presentation about computers and
technology. Learn at your own pace by contributing two hours once each week to
become familiar with computers and their systems. A hands-on course designed with
you in mind.
Journalism Training Program: Gives the participants the opportunity to write stories;
gather news; learn about the newspaper business, interviewing, layouts.
Neighborhood Leadership Program: Involves people who are seriously
concerned about making improvements in our various neighborhoods. The group
meets Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and immediately goes into action, with some very
positive results.
Cultural Affairs Program: Talent everywhere is expressed at the HVC's Jazz Club
located at Mokas, 3507 Lancaster Avenue. Every Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m.
Visit our website link at www.guidestar.org or call
Executive Director Irvin B. Shannon at 215-382-3469, or
Artese Harris, Administrative Coordinator at 215-227-3622,or
e-mail [email protected]
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
SPRING 2004
LS
In Oakland, community groups
won small schools policy
by Sukey Blanc
Oakland, California is at the forefront of
the small schools movement, with parents and
community activists leading the way.
Since May 2000, fifteen new small schools
have opened in Oakland, and plans are underway for a dozen more in the next two years.
The success of
Oakland’s small
small
school movement
is the result of a
multi-year, parentand community-led campaign organized by
the group Oakland Community Organizations
(OCO).
Over thirty years old, OCO is made up of 40
congregations and community organizations
committed to gaining power and improving the
prospects for low- to moderate-income families
living in the flatlands neighborhoods of Oakland.
Parents and community members in the
flatlands have long been angry about school
overcrowding and low reading scores in their
neighborhoods. In the mid-1990s, parents,
teachers, and community members began
researching and exploring different approaches to school improvement in Oakland.
Following a visit to New York’s small
schools organized by OCO in 1998, parents,
teachers, and community leaders sharpened
their focus on organizing a small schools campaign in Oakland.
“Our vision for schools is simple,” states
an OCO brochure. “Every child needs to be
known by name. They need to be safe. They
need to be challenged to do their best. They
need dedicated, well-prepared teachers. They
need to be surrounded by a supportive community of caring adults. Parents, teachers, and
students are all essential partners.”
SCHOOLS
After the community’s first effort, the creation of a small school at Jefferson Elementary,
was rejected, OCO leaders made a strategic shift
and decided to launch small charter schools.
In the spring of 1999, the small schools
campaign had a major victory with the
approval of six new public charter schools,
two of them started by parents who were part
of the campaign.
Maintaining their focus on districtwide policy change, OCO formalized their partnership
with the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable
Schools (BayCES) a well-established school
reform group, to build a long-term school
reform campaign focused on small schools.
When school opened in the fall of 1999,
OCO continued to organize parents, teachers,
and community members to push for changes
in districtwide policy that would ensure high
quality public education for all children in
Oakland. OCO brought parents and community members together who developed a
strategy and turned out in large numbers to gain
public commitments from city and school
officials to build small, autonomous schools.
“Our ability to turn out high numbers is the
way we counterbalance the power of those who
hold positions of authority,” explained one
OCO organizer.
At the same time, BayCES helped to bring
together a core of Oakland teachers committed
to developing small schools, who helped to
counter initial resistance from the teachers’union.
In the spring of 2000, Oakland voters
approved a bond measure to build facilities for
new small schools, and the Oakland Unified
School District Board approved a small schools
policy, which called for the creation of
autonomous small schools that would be
accountable for student achievement and
Students speak at a forum about small high schools sponsored by the Notebook in January.
Student members of Youth United for Change and the Philadelphia Student Union shared what
they learned from visiting exemplary small high schools across the country, and discussed the problems facing their large, comprehensive high schools. Pictured (l to r): Shilika Carter, Edner Joseph,
Photo: Beandrea Davis
Jerel Mitchell, Kenneth Ramos.
governed by school-site decision-making.
In October 2003, OCO and BayCES, along
with the Oakland Unified School District,
released the executive summary of a report
about the first nine new small autonomous
(NSA) schools created in Oakland. This summary, part of a study providing baseline data
on the early period of implementation, describes
many positive findings, including:
• On the whole, NSA schools outperformed
comparison schools in their ability to attract
credentialed teachers. Teachers express satisfaction with the professional and academic
environment in their schools.
• The degree and form of parent involvement varies but is generally very high in NSA
schools, including middle and high schools,
where parent involvement typically drops off.
• NSA schools generally outperformed
comparison schools in test scores, attendance,
and high school graduation rates.
• NSA schools reported a lower level of
suspensions and a low incidence of graffiti
and vandalism.
The report also identifies challenges facing
NSA schools, including uncertainties about
location and operational resources, and problems related to the scope and limits of school
autonomy, high demands on school leadership,
and uneven capacity for data collection and
program evaluation.
The report’s executive summary is available on the BayCES website.
Sukey Blanc was a team member on Strong
Neighborhoods - Strong Schools, Research
for Action’s study of indicators of the impact
of community organizing on schools.
Strong Neighborhoods - Strong Schools:
Case Study of OCO was prepared by Research
for Action for the Cross City Campaign for
Urban School Reform: www.crosscity.org.
For more information on Oakland,
see
www.oaklandcommunity.org
and
www.bayces.org.
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SPRING 2004
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19
S
Looking at all the costs, small schools make sense
Is bigger really cheaper? Should expense be an obstacle to creating small schools?
The following is an excerpt from Dollars
& Sense: The Cost Effectiveness of Small
Schools, a report by the KnowledgeWorks
Foundation.
The idea persists that however beneficial
small schools may be, they are prohibitively
expensive.
This report finds a contrary result by looking more closely at the supposed economies
of large schools.
small
Adding up the
costs and weighing
them against the
benefits shows that small schools not only are
better places in which to educate children, but
that large schools themselves actually create
significant diseconomies.
Researchers at New York University’s Institute
for Education and Social Policy examined 128
high schools using school-by-school budget information for 1995-96. They found that schools with
fewer than 600 students spent $7,628 per student
annually, $1,410 more than was spent by schools
with more than 2,000 students.
SCHOOLS
The cost per graduate, however, at the small
schools was $49,553, slightly lower than the
per-graduate cost of $49,578 at larger schools.
This is because dropout rates at the small
schools were much
lower – 64 percent of
small-school students
graduated in four years
compared with 51-56 percent of the students in
large schools with 1,200-2,000 or more students.…
This finding is particularly encouraging because
the small schools served a higher percentage of
poor students and part-time special education students than did the large schools.
Using similar methodology to that used in
the New York study, researchers reported in
1999 that in Nebraska small schools out-performed larger schools in both the percentage
of students graduating and the percentage
going on to post-secondary education.…
By two important measures of student
outcomes, smaller schools in Nebraska
generally perform better than larger ones. The
additional input cost of supporting students in
smaller schools needs to be weighed against
their more positive educational outcomes. The
so-called inefficiencies of small schools are
greatly reduced when calculated on the basis
of cost per graduate,
and virtually disappear when the substantial social costs
of non-graduates and the societal impact of
college-educated citizens are considered.
Measuring per graduate instead of per
student cut the annual cost differences
between the smallest schools and the larger
ones in half.
Measuring expenses by the cost of educating a student who graduates makes sense.
Once it is mentioned, it seems strange that
for years schools have calculated costs by
counting students who drop out in the same
measure with students who graduate with
marketable skills and/or go on to postsecondary education.
The term “economies of scale” was borrowed from the business world, so it seems
A N A LY S I S
SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PHILADELPHIA
OFFICE OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
We welcome parents to take advantage of the following services:
Parent Support Hotline
215-299-7276
Offers assistance to parents in navigating the system, helping them resolve
issues, and communicate with central and regional offices.
Parent Support Center
Room 605
Personal face-to-face conferences, information center with resources from
District, city and community agencies. Other programs and services available.
Parents’ Roundtable
Administration Board Room.,
2120 Winter St.
The 3rd Thursday of the month. March 18, April 15, May 20, 12:30 to 1:30.
Parents and leaders of community based organizations gather to discuss
District programs, provide parent insight into initiatives and address concerns
in the school community. Call Anastasia S. Karloutsos at 215-299-2995.
Title I Leadership Institute for Parents
Promotes awareness and understanding of District initiatives, policies and
procedures, topics relevant to parents, in collaboration with the Philadelphia
Home & School Council.
For further information, contact Pat Knapper-Smith, Director
215-299-2995
20
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
only fair to use a business-like method of
measuring results. No viable business would
include the costs of “producing” (educating)
a “product” (students) that didn’t meet certain
“quality controls” (graduation requirements)
Students drop out of
large schools at
significantly greater
rates. The costs to
society are enormous.
to measure its costs and rate of success in the
marketplace. Both the Nebraska study and its
counterpart in New York show that,
measuring by the cost of a graduate, small
schools are good financial and educational
investments.
While it may be true that in small schools
some costs increase because they are spread
out over fewer students, research suggests that
large schools require added tiers of administration, more security people, and additional
maintenance and operations personnel. The
reason for this may be that in large schools
more students feel alienated from the life of
the school and some vent their anger in inappropriate or violent behavior. Therefore, it takes
more paid professionals per student to deal
with the negative effects of alienation in a large
school than in a small one, where people know
each other better.
Students drop out of large schools at
significantly greater rates than they do out of
small schools. The costs to society for
students who drop out of high school before
graduating are enormous – incalculable in
terms of loss of productivity and effects on
the individual and members of his or her
family. Dropping out of high school influences
a person’s health, chances of being on
welfare, chances of getting a job, chances of
going to prison, and his or her relationships
with family members.…
Almost half of the people who are heads of
households receiving public assistance are
dropouts. Dropouts are almost three times more
likely to receive assistance than graduates who
did not go on to college (17 percent to 6
percent). This is expensive in human and
monetary terms.
Dropping out of high school makes it
likely that a person will earn one-third less than
his or her classmates who graduate, and it is
less likely the dropout will find work.… This
is a loss of productivity not only to the
individual, but to the society as a whole.
Success in high school is a necessary step
toward earning a college education.
Educational attainment is associated with
social and physical health. People who have
graduated from college are twice as likely as
those without a high school diploma or GED
to report being in excellent or very good health,
and parents who lack a high school degree are
more likely to be involved in incidents of child
abuse and neglect.
Perhaps the worst indictment of large
schools with high dropout rates is the fact that
dropouts are three-and-one half times as likely as high school graduates to be arrested and
82 percent of inmates in the adult criminal justice system are dropouts. On December 31,
2000 there were almost 1.4 million people in
federal and state prisons, and in 1996 the average annual cost was $20,100 per prisoner. In
contrast, in 1996-97 an average of $5,923 was
spent per student. This astounding difference
of $14,177 per year suggests the magnitude of
savings possible from small schools.
© 2003 by KnowledgeWorks Foundation.
Used by permission. Full article available at:
www.kwfdn.org/Resources/dollars_sense.pdf.
SPRING 2004
LS
Still aiming for smaller high school feel, District shifts efforts
n New academies emphasize
school-to-work, consistent
standards
by Beandrea Davis
School District officials have adopted a
high school “academy” model with a schoolto-work focus as their latest approach to creating smaller, more supportive and effective
communities within large high schools.
This reform approach, which is now being
implemented at neighborhood high schools
citywide, groups students into small, careerthemed communities within a
small
school. Business
partnerships give
students workplace exposure in their field, connecting academics and the world beyond the classroom.
Career academies have existed in the
District since 1969, most of them under the
auspices of the nonprofit Philadelphia
Academies, Inc.
Currently, there are 86 academies in the
District at 22 high schools.
SCHOOLS
Previously, most high schools had been
divided into several thematic “Small Learning
Communities” or SLCs, which grouped the
same set of students and teachers together from
grades 9-12.
But now in most schools with academy
programs, students begin high school in a
“freshman academy” that operates on a
“block schedule” with double periods of math
and language arts and is aimed at easing the
transition to high school. These students then
move into a career academy for tenth to
twelfth grades.
The move away from SLCs toward academies, after years of little progress in Philadelphia
high schools, raises key questions for those who
want to see these schools transformed.
What makes academies any different from
SLCs? Will academies bring deep and meaningful structural change to these schools, or
are they yet another overlay that fails to
improve instruction or school culture?
SLCs vs. academies?
While SLCs were merely “theme-based by
name,” academies deliver a more focused and
rigorous academic program, says Deputy Chief
It has proven difficult to create a positive school climate in Philadelphia’s large neighborhood high
schools. Academies are the latest District high school reform effort.
Academic Officer Creg Williams.
Each academy is built around a Districtapproved theme and is required to offer a set
sequence of standard courses in a dedicated
part of the building. The school must ensure
The Education First Compact
CONGRATULATES
the Staff, Teachers, Families and Students
from the following schools:
Adair
AMY-Martin
AMY Northwest
Audenried
Barton
Blaine
Blankenburg
Bluford
Bodine
Central East Middle
Clemente
Conwell
Cooke
Daroff
Dobson
Emlen
Frankford High
Franklin Elementary
Franklin Learning Ctr.
Grover Washington, Jr.
H. A. Brown
Hancock
Henry
Julia de Burgos
Key
Lea
Lowell
M. H. Stanton
McCloskey
McClure
Meade
Meredith
Morrison
Nebinger
Overbrook Elementary
Olney Elementary
Peirce Middle
Penn Assisted/Alexander
Pennypacker
Pollock
Powel
Reynolds
Rhoads Elementary
Welsh
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YOU worked as a TEAM to assemble a committed teaching staff whose experience matches the needs of your school
YOU realized that empowering schools to participate in teacher selection is one
of the best, proven strategies for putting a qualified teacher in every classroom
YOU helped the children of Philadelphia
We acknowledge your commitment, and applaud your achievements.
For more information on Site Based Selection of teachers,
call the Philadelphia Education Fund at 215-665-1400.
This ad is brought to you by the Education First Compact, a civic engagement project
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SPRING 2004
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG
that enough teachers are certified to teach specialized courses.
In contrast, some teachers played a significant role in defining the theme and shaping
the curricular offerings of their SLCs, which
could vary greatly from school to school.
Instituting academies citywide has posed
difficulties. Academy leaders at several schools
report they haven’t received necessary
resources such as textbooks and enough
certified teachers.
“It’s going to take us a year to really get it
aligned properly,” says Williams, who oversees high schools in the District. “Going
through this initial pain and making the transition is going to help us over a longer period
of time ensure a better quality of program.”
Long history with SLCs
The District had been experimenting with
ways to make large neighborhood high schools
feel smaller and more cohesive for over a decade
prior to the recent implementation of academies.
SLCs first operated during the late 1980s
Each academy offers
a set sequence of
standard courses in
a dedicated part of
the building.
with backing from the Philadelphia Schools
Collaborative, an organization that provided
professional development support to teachers
in their efforts to create SLCs.
Based on the principle that small size facilitates the creation of stronger, more effective
learning environments, SLCs were seen as a
way to engage teachers in creating curriculum
while helping to build a professional teaching
culture within schools.
Dina Portnoy, a long-time District English
teacher, taught in an SLC with a math and
science theme at University City High School.
“The Philadelphia Schools Collaborative
really encouraged teachers to become engaged
and creative and participants in the transformation of schools,” says Portnoy.
Getting to know students and their families
well is especially important given the sizable
high school dropout rate, says former SLC coordinator Theresa Simmonds, a social studies
teacher at University City.
For students at risk of dropping out, “what
determines which way they’re going to go is
their relationship with their teachers,” she says.
But it is widely known that the quality of
SLCs varied greatly and that most SLCs, despite
their small size, did not prepare students well
academically.
Dropping SLCs
The District formally abandoned SLCs last
year when the Secondary Education Office
continued on p. 22
21
Academies stress school-to-work, consistent standards
continued fromp. 21
mandated that schools restructure any existing
SLCs into academies.
This decision was made, “to really force
schools and administrators to scrap what was
and to start over from scratch with certain guidelines and standards in place,” according to
Rosalind Chivis, head of high school instructional support.
But some disillusioned educators say the
District is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Louis Lessick, a former SLC coordinator at
Olney High who has been with the District for
45 years, calls this mandate “a unilateral deci-
Efforts to reduce
high school size fell
short of the vision of
small autonomous
schools within a
school.
sion without any discussion with the SLC coordinators” about how to improve high school
academic quality.
The poor implementation of SLCs overall
in the District undermined a reform that had significant potential to improve student achievement, says researcher Richard Clark, who
studied the Collaborative’s efforts in
Philadelphia for ten years.
The District’s decision to mandate SLCs in
every high school was partly responsible, maintains Clark. Seeing the move as simply another top-down reform, some teachers hastily
formed SLCs and “just stopped at the name
TEMPLE
because there was pressure to create [them].”
School-based hiring of teachers would have
helped ensure quality among SLCs, adds
Portnoy.
“Teachers really couldn’t choose who they
would work with, so that presented problems
in terms of them being able to craft a community of shared values,” she explains, adding that
the District should have stuck with SLCs for a
longer period of time.
Despite these challenges, however, SLCs
did see some success.
Veteran English teacher Marsha Pincus cofounded the rigorous inquiry-based
“Crossroads” SLC at Gratz High in 1991.
“What we were really good at was igniting
the spark and creating an atmosphere where it
wasn’t nerdy or selling out to be intellectual and
do well in school,” she observes.
SLC autonomy: out of reach
But ultimately these efforts to reduce high
school size in Philadelphia fell short of the
vision of creating small autonomous schools
within a school.
New York City’s 1990s small schools movement was largely based on many small schools
with their own budgets and principals
replacing large high schools.
Admirers of this model who looked to break
up large high schools in Philadelphia, however, met with much resistance to affording SLCs
this kind of power.
While some SLCs formed during the days
of the Collaborative could determine students’
rosters or choose their own textbooks, most had
little discretionary spending and were at the
mercy of principals’ decisions and teacher
assignments that were out of their control.
Even though she played a key role in shaping
Crossroads’ academic program, this lack of
autonomy made the overall SLC experiment “a
struggle” for Pincus, who saw a steady stream
U N I V E R S I T Y
of principals come and go at Gratz.
Without real autonomy, “small learning
communities tend not to work because the
structural changes really don’t go far enough,”
says Lili Allen, program director with the Boston
research and advocacy nonprofit Jobs for the
Future. “Many high schools layer the SLCs on
top of the existing organizational structure at
the high school.”
Simmonds said the way that schools are
being told to implement the academy model
reflects a larger trend in the way central admin-
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Take courses in the MLA program on Modern Culture,
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Environmental Studies, and other topics. You may also take
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You may apply online and, once enrolled, you may register
online.
District academies: Most District high schools now have a “ninth grade
academy,” and students in grades 10-12 are also divided into “academies” that
provide focused career training in a specific field. Citywide, there are 86 academy
programs in 13 different career areas.
Philadelphia Academies Inc.: Thirty-three of the District’s 86 academies
are affiliated with this nonprofit, whose staff provides students with supports in
getting job-related experience. Seeking to decrease high school dropout and
youth unemployment rates, civic, business, and government leaders joined
together to develop the academy model during the 1960s. The first academy
opened at Edison High in 1969.
Talent Development academies: “Ninth Grade Success Academies” and
“Tenth grade academies” at some schools are part of Talent Development High
School’s (TDHS) whole-school reform model, which operates at Edison, Franklin,
Germantown, Gratz, Kensington, Strawberry Mansion, and South Philadelphia.
TDHS academies are designed to give students added support in making the
transition to rigorous high school courses.Talent Development operates through
a partnership between the District and the Philadelphia Education Fund,
supported by Johns Hopkins University.
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Enrolling Students in
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for 2004–05
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Or call us at: 215 204 1644.
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22
writer
Contact
Notebook
staff
Beandrea Davis at 215-951-0330 x 156 or
[email protected].
Whose academy is it?
MASTER OF LIBERAL ARTS
•
istrators sometimes hand down reforms.
“There does not seem to be a real consideration of the people on the ground who have to
implement a lot of this,” she said.
Portnoy adds, “When you mandate one-sizefits-all and you don’t offer the opportunity for
people to really explore and create and envision
for themselves, it’s never going to be as good.”
• College preparatory curriculum with a focus on art,
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SPRING 2004
Why some schools choose to stay small
A look at four small charter schools in Philadelphia
by Benjamin Herold and
Beandrea Davis
For several years, charter schools have been
an outlet for those who want to create small
autonomous schools in Philadelphia.
Since Pennsylvania legislators enacted the
state’s Charter School Law in 1997, founding
been the primary option
a charter school has small
available to Philadelphians who wanted to
teach an independent theme-based curriculum,
implement their own organizational model,
and create small schools with small enrollments and personalized instruction.
The state’s charter law provides for the creation of independent public schools that receive
local school district funding and are held accountable for meeting the standards and requirements
of other Pennsylvania public schools. Currently,
48 charter schools operate in Philadelphia.
The Notebook spoke to school leaders and
teachers at four small Philadelphia charter
schools: Charter High School for Architecture
& Design (grades 9-12), Eugenio María de
Hostos Community Bilingual Charter School
(K, 5-8), Green Woods Charter School (K-7),
and Mastery Charter High School (9-11).
We asked them about the importance of
small size to their founding vision, their decision-making model, and their curriculum, as
well as the advantages and disadvantages their
schools have experienced as a result of their
size. These leaders consistently reported on
several themes:
SCHOOLS
Small charters struggle with limited
resources.
Although charter schools do receive funding
from the Philadelphia School District, resources
are limited. The per-pupil allocation for charter
schools is about $2,000 less than the average
expenditure per pupil in the School District,
although this comparison does not take into
account a number of management functions
that the School District must perform.
Most charters
to engage in
have
small
a variety of
fundraising activities in order to
cover their costs. For small schools, shortages
of funds often lead to fewer art and music
teachers, a lack of sports teams and extracurricular activities, limited facilities, and sometimes greater difficulty in complying with
District, state, and federal regulations.
At Green Woods, Chief Administrative
Officer John Di Lello reported, “There is no
economy of scale. We’re kind of out there on
an island. We have all the same reporting and
compliance requirements of a large school district, but not the funding.”
SCHOOLS
Small size facilitates more individualized
instruction and closer relationships among
staff and students.
At Mastery, Chief Executive Officer Scott
Gordon reported that being a small charter
allowed it to implement an instructional model
in which individual students advance through
their coursework at their own pace, based on
their own goals and experience.
“Only because we are small and a charter
can we have our grading and promotion system, which is unique in Philadelphia, if not the
nation,” he said.
The biggest instructional difference
Proponents of small schools like de Hostos Community Bilingual Charter say an important benefit of
their small size is connectedness – everybody knows everybody at the school.
between teaching in large and small school
environments, said sixth-grade teacher Evelyn
Rivera of de Hostos, is “being able to teach to
the learning capacity of each child.”
Evelyn Lebron, principal at de Hostos,
agreed that small size helps improve the
quality of instruction. “We’re better able to
meet [students’] needs because everybody
knows everybody in our school.”
For Di Lello at Green Woods, the advantages in relationship building that small schools
offer over larger ones are obvious.
“Learning takes place best when kids feel
connected to place, to each other, and to the
people teaching them,” he said. “The best
opportunity to create this kind of learning
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community is in a small setting where they feel
like a family and where they like learning.”
Lebron added: “Because we are small,
students aren’t afraid to be themselves.
Students aren’t afraid to be kids.”
Small size results in a sense of collaboration
and collective responsibility among staff.
“Green Woods was started by five mothers
in the neighborhood who wanted a smaller,
more nurturing environment for their kids,” Di
Lello said. “They wanted a school that had the
texture of home schooling and that also included active, hands-on, project-based learning.”
He added that to create this atmosphere,
Green Woods “employs a collaborative decision-making process that is based on relationships, trust, and a common vision,” and this
takes the form of a committee process that
includes parents, teachers, and board members.
At the Charter High School for Architecture
and Design (CHAD), “A lot is required [of the
staff] that cannot possibly be put down on
paper,” said its Deputy Chief Academic Officer
Cristina Alvarez. “If you want innovation, you
have to have people that want to work that
way, and that’s why it works here.”
Lebron agreed that being small means staff
members have to do more than they would at a
larger school. “The teachers here have to do a
little bit of everything,” she said, pointing out
the importance of teamwork among the staff.
According to first-year English teacher
Susan Cook, the culture of CHAD promotes
collaboration. “It’s not as much a factory feel.
It’s more of a workshop feel,” she said. “People
speak their minds here.”
Small size can intensify the effects of teacher
turnover.
Scott Gordon, of Mastery, described the
disproportionate impact of any teacher turnover
at a small school as compared to a larger one:
“Because we are small, any teacher turnover
is destabilizing.”
In addition, the first year for small charters
is often rocky, which can result in difficulty
with teacher turnover. Alvarez said that from a
teaching staff of 26, she anticipates losing
between 10 and 20 percent of teachers from
year to year.
Lebron acknowledged that teacher turnover
was a problem during the first few years of the
school’s operation, but said it has improved as
the administrative team has stabilized. Teacher
continued on p. 24
READ IT
ON THE
WEB!
23
Small charter school profiles
School
Eugenio Maria
de Hostos
Community
Bilingual
Green Woods
Architecture &
Design
Mastery
Phone Number
215-455-2300
215-482-6337
215-351-2900
215-922-1902
Grades
K, 5-8
K-7
9-12
9-11
Location
Hunting Park
Roxborough
Center City
Center City
Enrollment
200 (target met)
225 (target 250)
380 (target 580)
300 (target 400)
If You
See It
Charters that choose to stay small
Avg. class size
20
22-25
22
22
Year opened
1998
2002
1999
2001
continued from p. 23
turnover from last year to this year was still
about 40 percent.
Small size allows for a curriculum that is
suited to the individualized theme of the
school.
CHAD’s curriculum focuses on teaching
students how to apply design principles across
disciplines in the core academic subjects.
Charters are allowed to have up to 25
percent of non-certified teachers, and administrators at CHAD have chosen to reserve all
non-certified teaching positions for the design
department.
“We highly value life experience and
expertise in the field of design and architecture,” said Alvarez, who notes that all
Around
Our
teachers of core academic subjects are required
to have certification. Non-certified teachers
must be enrolled in a certification program.
The curriculum at de Hostos features a
unique dual immersion program in both
Spanish and English starting in kindergarten,
a program specifically geared towards the needs
of its mostly bilingual student population.
The staff uses a variety of assessment methods to evaluate student performance. While
Lebron acknowledged the importance of standardized tests in assessing students, she also noted,
“That is not what’s going to drive our school.”
Schools…
Truancy
Benjamin Herold is a member of the
Notebook editorial board. Contact Notebook
staff writer Beandrea Davis at 215-951-0330
x 156 or [email protected].
Weapons
Small schools resources
Big Picture Company
401-456-0600
www.bigpicture.org
Creates and sustains 20 innovative, personalized
small schools across the country.
Center for Collaborative Education
617-421-0134
www.ccebos.org
Promotes small, caring learning communities in
K-12 public schools.Worked with Pilot Schools
in Boston.
Coalition of Essential Schools
510-433-1451
www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/query/
q/1015?x-r=runnew
A collection of articles on the benefits of
smallness.
Cross City Campaign for Urban School
Reform
312-322-4880
www.crosscity.org/pubs/flashfacts1.htm
Characteristics, resources, and readings regarding
small schools from a national network of urban
school reform leaders.
Gates Foundation
206-709-3607
www.gatesfoundation.org/Education
Small high schools resources from a leading
player in the small high school movement.
New Visions
212-645-5110
www.newvisions.org
Lead organization for the small schools movement
in New York City, which has the largest concentration of new, small public schools.
Violence
Small Schools Office, Chicago Public
Schools
773-553-2197
www.smallschools.cps.k12.il.us
Provides a variety of small schools resources
ranging from the theoretical to the practical.
Small Schools Project
206-616-0303
www.smallschoolsproject.org
Resources on core characteristics of and starting
up small schools, as well as promising curricular
resources for small high schools.
Bullying
Small Schools Workshop
312-413-8066
www.smallschoolsworkshop.org
Group of educators, organizers, and researchers
that collaborates with teachers, principals, parents,
and district leaders to create new, small, innovative
learning communities in public schools.
Drugs
What Kids Can Do
401-247-7665
www.whatkidscando.org/portfoliosmallschools/
portfoliohome.html
Online portfolio of student learning in four small
high schools across the country, including extensive student reflections and detailed description
Report It!
Call
(215)299-SAFE
Join the network for change!
Sign up today for
phillyschools
email list
…Because Education is EVERYONE’S Business
Philadelphia’s online discussion on
what’s happening to improve our schools and
how we can get involved in the process.
To join, go to http://phillyschools.org on the web
and use the sign-up form on the web site.
O F F I C E O F S C H O O L C L I M AT E A N D S A F E T Y
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24
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SPRING 2004
Gates Foundation: big funder of small schools, but not yet in Philly
by Eva Travers
small
Since its inception in 1994, the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more
than $1 billion for new and existing public
schools, much of which has been aimed at creating small high schools.
But while many large, urban school systems
– including New York, Chicago, Boston, and
Baltimore – are already benefiting from
generous Gates grants to create small high
schools, the Philadelphia School District has
not yet successfully tapped Gates dollars for
its high school plans.
According to Ellen Savitz, the School
District’s chief
development offi- small
cer, “By the time
we clarified how
the District’s plans
fit with the goals of the Gates Foundation, it
was too late for the last funding cycle.” She
said the foundation “strongly encouraged” the
District to look toward making a proposal for
the 2004-05 funding cycle.
One of the major educational goals of the
Seattle-based Gates Foundation is to jumpstart
efforts to create high-quality, innovative small
SCHOOLS
SCHOOLS
high schools, ideally with 400 students or less.
In schools of this size, the foundation maintains
that the teaching and learning environment can
be personalized for students and staff, helping
ensure that students receive rigorous preparation for post-secondary education, employment
and citizenship.
The foundation is
especially committed to
improving the high
school graduation rates
of low-income students
and students of color.
They say these goals
are better served by
high schools much
smaller than those most
students currently attend.
Rather than awarding grants directly to school
districts, Gates gives grants to nonprofit
organizations that have established partnerships
with school districts or consortia of school districts. The foundation has supported planning
and feasibility studies and has given multi-million dollar grants for up to five years to reorganize existing high schools and create new ones.
Last year, the foundation gave $51 million
to create 67 small high schools in New
York City.
Marie Groak, a spokesperson for the Gates
Foundation, said the foundation looks for districts where it can improve the graduation rates
for low-income students and students of color,
and for communities
where there is evidence of stable and
committed leadership
of key community
players – including
the superintendent,
mayor, civic and business leaders, and
grass roots organizations – who present a
unified vision for educational reform.
Groak said the foundation sees itself as “a
catalytic funder” that helps get the small high
school ball rolling. She also noted that the foundation needs to be confident it will be able to
exit the community in five years, with the assurance that the schools it has helped create will
be maintained by the district.
Savitz said that both the School District and
the Gates Foundation, despite working toward
The foundation jumpstarts efforts to create
innovative small high
schools, ideally with
400 students or less.
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Publications on small schools
Dollars and Sense: The Cost Effectiveness of
Small Schools
Notebook-To-Tablet Flexibility
Makes the case that small schools are a wise
investment. By Bingler, Steven, et al. Knowledge
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Available online at www.kwfdn.org/Resources/
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High Schools on a Human Scale: How Small
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Profiles four very different small schools around
the country, each demonstrating the positive
aspects of small schools. By Thomas Toch.
Beacon Press: Boston, 2003.
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The Power of Their Ideas : Lessons from America
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A description of a pioneering small school in
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By Deborah Meier.Beacon Press:Boston,1995.
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The Schools We Need: Creating Small High
Schools That Work For Us
Co-authored by twenty high school students
from Bronx,NY,impacted by the district’s transition to small high schools. Includes a description of how the student organization Sistas
and Brothas United organized to create a small
school.What Kids Can Do: Providence, 2003.
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the same goals, had initial concerns and questions. She said the Gates Foundation had to be
convinced of several points, including that
District CEO Paul Vallas was committed to
being in the District for five years or more; that
the District was stable and had a comprehensive plan for systemic change that included
high schools; and that the District could manage and maintain newly established small high
schools over the very long term.
From the District’s perspective, Savitz said
they needed to probe the flexibility of the Gates
Foundation’s requirements for small high
schools, particularly their size limits and the
foundation’s approach toward reconfiguring
existing high schools or creating new ones so
that they might share “big ticket” items like gymnasiums, cafeterias and libraries. Savitz expressed
concern that schools of 200-400 would limit the
selection of courses and would make it challenging to create many afterschool activities.
The District is working on plans for new
high schools built in partnership with the
Franklin Institute and Microsoft (see p. 17), but
these would be somewhat larger than the small
schools supported by Gates.
Savitz reported that the District is also working with the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate
School of Education on a proposal to the Woodrow
Wilson Foundation that would support the creation of a campus of small high schools.
Savitz said the District is also hoping that its
recently created Philadelphia’s Children First
Fund, which has nonprofit status and will have
an independent oversight board, can be used to
allow funding from grants for the creation of
small high schools to flow directly to the District.
800-211-4952
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Small Schools and Race
A volume of articles offering perspectives on
ensuring that small schools provide improved
educational opportunities for children
of color. Voices in Urban Education,
No. 2. Annenberg Institute for School
Reform: Providence, Fall 2003.
Small Schools, Big Imaginations: A Creative Look
at Urban Public Schools
A book of essays on small schools by the Cross
City Campaign for Urban School Reform.Edited
by Michelle Fine and Janis I. Somerville. Cross
City Campaign: Chicago, IL, 1998.
25
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26
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SPRING 2004
Crisis in our high schools cannot be allowed to continue
Small schools: a foundation for improving Philadelphia high schools
by Fran Sugarman
Philadelphia public high schools are failing
too many of our students, and we need some
solutions.
One sign of this failure is that at a typical comprehensive or vocational/technical high school,
the number of ninth graders is more than double
the number of twelfth graders, according to the
2003 “High School Audit” by the Philadelphia
Education Fund. One recent study put Philadelphia’s graduation rate at under 50 percent –
the rate is certainly not much higher than that.
Years of inadequate academic progress have
placed over 20 Philadelphia high schools in
“Corrective Action II,” meaning that they face
a restructuring of management next fall – the
strongest sanction called for under the federal
No Child Left Behind Act – unless they can
make significant gains this year.
One option that a number of student groups,
community organizations, teachers, and parents
have proposed is to restructure many of our
existing high schools into smaller schools. The
Gates Foundation, one of the leading national
proponents of this approach, defines small
schools as schools that have no more than 100
students per grade.
The Vallas administration’s ambitious, fiveyear school construction plan creates an exciting and timely opportunity to rethink what our
high schools should look like and develop a
small schools strategy.
While small schools are not a panacea, they
can help lay the groundwork for success for
students.
Having worked in a small middle school,
I remember how rewarding it was to be in an
environment where every child was known on
an individual basis by more than one adult.
Teachers could easily talk about student work
and plan exciting curriculum together at common planning
times during
the school day.
Teachers were
able to control their rosters, enabling them to
schedule the kinds of activities that they want
to see happen at their school.
Research also has clearly demonstrated the
many benefits of small schools. Small schools
result in better student performance, higher
achievement rates, lower
dropout rates, and lower
suspension rates. Small
school size also contributes to greater gains
in schools with lowincome students or high
minority enrollments.
Students demonstrate
improved behavior and
increased participation
in small schools, while
these schools also show
reduced violence and
fewer discipline problems. Researcher Michelle Fine has shown that
students who graduate from small schools not
only do better in post-secondary activities but
are also able to seek out an adult when they
need help.
At a time when our dropout rate is very
high, the potential for our communities of having small schools where personalized learning and individual attention substantially
reduce this rate is exciting. The consequences
of failure to deal with this problem are clear.
Dropouts are threeand-a half times as
likely as high
school graduates to
be arrested; and 82 percent of inmates are
dropouts. We pay an average annual cost of
over $20,000 per prisoner.
There is controversy about the relative costs
of constructing smaller vs. larger schools. But
the research about operating costs and school
size appears to
show that because
of the lower dropout
rates and lower rates
of failure, small
schools actually
have lower costs per
graduate to operate.
Small schools have
also been shown to
have higher attendance rates for students and lower
teacher turnover and
absenteeism, which
could lead to huge savings for school systems.
What should small schools look like?
Besides smaller numbers, organizational
autonomy with regard to staff, budget, and
curriculum is important. Small schools that
actually are in control of their curriculum,
O P I N I O N
Student groups,
community organizations, teachers, and
parents propose to
restructure existing
high schools into
smaller schools.
assessment, governance, staffing, and budget
show better outcomes than small schools with
limited influence.
One hopeful story for Philadelphians who have
heard it is about the Julia Richman Education
Complex in New York, which once housed a
large, failing urban school. At the urging of the
Coalition of Essential Schools and parent groups,
the school was closed and redesigned in the early
1990s and is now a consortium of small schools,
each with no more than 300 students.
“Metal detectors have been replaced with
teachers who know every student’s name and
incidents of violence have plummeted,” reports
an article from the journal Education
Leadership. The school has become a national
model, widely recognized for its success.
Small schools would attract many resources
to the School District of Philadelphia. Several
foundations have already indicated interest in
funding aspects of smaller schools. Pennsylvania
Secretary of Education Vicki Phillips has
expressed interest in small schools being a part
of her secondary education plan.
The question for our city and state educational leaders is not whether we can afford to
build and manage small schools. Given the
urgent needs of our young people and the clear
benefits, the question is: can we afford not to?
Fran Sugarman is coordinator of the
Philadelphia chapter of the Cross City
Campaign for Urban School Reform and can
be reached at [email protected] or 215-991-6959.
The author wishes to acknowledge Raja Shair
and Jackie Kahn for their assistance.
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The Notebook turns ten this spring!
You are invited to be part of the celebration!
Please join the Philadelphia Public School Notebook
as we mark a decade in the fight for educational equity
Our Hosts: 10th Anniversary Honorary Committee
Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown
Councilman David Cohen
Congressman Chaka Fattah
State Representative Babette Josephs
State Representative James R. Roebuck, Jr.
State Senator Allyson Y. Schwartz
Christie Balka, Bread and Roses Community Fund
Eric Braxton, Philadelphia Student Union
Jolley Bruce Christman, Research for Action
Michael Churchill, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Helen Cunningham, Samuel S. Fels Fund
Francenia Emery, The Multicultural Resource Center
Deidré Farmbry, Ed.D, The Urban Education Fund
Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn, School Reform Commission
Philip Goldsmith, City of Philadelphia
Steve Honeyman, Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project
Cheri Honkala, Kensington Welfare Rights Union
Jerry Jordan, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
Secretary of Education Debra Kahn, City of Philadelphia
Commissioner Alba Martinez, Philadelphia Department of Human Services
Nancy McGinley, Philadelphia Education Fund
Rev. Isaac Miller, Church of the Advocate
Acel Moore, Philadelphia Inquirer
Bishop Kermit Newkirk, Harold O. Davis Memorial Baptist Church
Mamie Nichols, Point Breeze Federation
Wendy D. Puriefoy, Public Education Network
Rebecca Rathje,Youth United for Change
Patricia Raymond, Philadelphia Home and School Council
Ed Schwartz, Institute for the Study of Civic Values
Sister Mary Scullion, Project H.O.M.E.
Ellen Somekawa, Asian Americans United
Janet Stotland, Education Law Center
Judy Wicks, White Dog Cafe
Shelly Yanoff, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth
Organizations for identification purposes only.
Tuesday, June 8
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The University of the Arts,
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10th Anniversary Planning Committee
Aldustus Jordan, Chair • Marta Aviles • Dennis Barnebey
Barbara Bloom • Vicki Ellis • Cindy Engst • Helen Gym
Germaine Ingram • Deborah Toney • Deborah Zubow
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