Successful Schools in Philly

Good school stories.

I mentioned to a friend that I had visited some great schools recently as part of a PCCY "successful schools" project. My friend turned to me and said, "In Philadelphia?" Ouch. Yes...in the Philadelphia public schools! Each time I walked away thinking, "Everybody should see this place!" and "Who wouldn't want their kids to go here?" Calm places, active, engaged classrooms and well-behaved youngsters. Teachers and other staff comfortable with visitors, even the principal hanging around their rooms. Folks were proud of what they were doing. There were interesting similarities among them:
-Stable principals and staff with a "let's figure this out together" mentality
-Lots of work being put into using available resources to keep class sizes small and let teachers talk and plan together
-Multiple partnerships with outside organizations to bring in additional resources.
-Lots data that’s now available put together so that is useful, not just a pile of paper and numbers.

Each was also unique:
Meade, near Temple, has developed terrific partnerships with organizations to make sure arts are a big part of the school program.
Fairhill, in a large Latino neighborhood, has nurtured strong relationships with its parents, sponsoring meetings to help families out with their needs, developing a strong trust in the school's ability to take good care of their kids.
Kearny, on the edge of Northern Liberties, finds creative, fun, ways to push literacy and higher order thinking skills while using all of its resources to keep class sizes small.
E.M. Stanton persistently reviews benchmark data, to inform not only the instructional practices, but also to empowering students to be in control of their own successes.

We have to wonder why schools like this are not only highlighted more often, but why their "secrets" are not shared more with others. A lot depends on the quality of leadership. Are we doing the best at helping these good leaders grow more? How many other fine schools are out there that never get “their day in the sun?”

AFT Article About First-Year Teacher

According to the American Federation of Teachers article below, "roughly 40 to 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years." With so many new teachers often assigned to our most challenging schools, we hope this perspective
gets worthwhile consideration:

FIRST YEAR TEACHERS ABOVE ALL MUST KNOW TO AVOID 2ND FLOOR BATHROOM

On her first day as a high school English teacher in a large urban public school, a new teacher expected to be greeted by the principal or chairperson, guided to her classrooms and provided with what she considered to be the essentials (schedule, curriculum, rosters and keys), writes an anonymous second-year teacher for American Educator.

Instead, she was provided with only a piece of paper with two numerical codes and a warning not to use the women's bathroom on the second floor. After frantic inquiries, she learned that the codes signified that she would be teaching 9th and 10th grade English. She then asked a question that, two years later, has yet to be answered: "what is taught in 9th and 10th grade English?"

In response, all she received was a list containing more than 20 books per grade and was told to select six books from the appropriate list and teach one book every six weeks. As her colleagues scrambled to inspect their classrooms, one experienced teacher kindly informed the neophyte that they wouldn't receive books for the first month, so she should try to do poetry. This led to the inevitable and also unanswered question: "what does 'do' poetry mean?"

Before she had a chance to find out, her students arrived eager to know what was expected. So she reproduced the same vague responses that she was given. She felt sorry for her students that day and each day after because this was not the education they were intended to receive.

When she hears the commonly cited statistic, that roughly 40 to 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years, she wonders how many of those departures could be avoided if teachers were provided with clear and achievable expectations.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/spring2008/newteacher.htm

Ending "Cradle-to-Prison" pipeline

Our schools too often are places that contribute to the "Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline." This intiative below sets higher expectations for our children and youth:

The Youth PROMISE Act focuses on putting an end to what experts at the Children’s Defense Fund have termed the “Cradle to Prison Pipeline.” Unfortunately, too many of our nation’s children – and particularly minority children – are born under circumstances that, without sufficient intervention, place them on a trajectory to prison. Yet, credible research and studies show that we can intervene and place these youth on a "cradle to college" trajectory.


A vital piece of the "cradle to college pipeline" is education. The Youth PROMISE Act would ensure that education entities are provided with the assistance they need to redirect youth at risk of adverse criminal justice involvement. These grants would also allow communities to fund a variety of education-based programs, including Early Head Start, Head Start, after school programs, mentoring programs, conflict resolution skills training, sports, arts, life skills, employment and recreation programs, summer jobs, summer recreation programs, alternative school resources for youth who have dropped out of school or demonstrate chronic truancy, and education programs for pregnant teens and teen parents.

More information on the Youth PROMISE Act is available at: http://www.house.gov/scott/hotissues_youthpromiseact.shtml.

Henry parents examine school choice

What factors do parents consider in choosing an elementary or middle school for their child? And how does this differ among schools? A survey by Mt. Airy’s Henry School parents offers a glimpse. Nearly 200 responses were collected, and one clear indication emerged: “Families in Northwest Philadelphia are very serious about choosing” schools.

You can download the full report from http://whatmatters.uwde.org/henry.pdf.

Here’s a summary from United Way’s “What Matters” report:

Henry School parents surveyed
In October 2007, The Henry Group, an informal group of parents whose children attend Mt. Airy’s C.W. Henry School or are considering sending their children to the school, surveyed families in the Mt. Airy community to understand how they choose elementary and middle schools. The group was interested in the demographics of the respondents, and how these differed between Henry families (those who did/do send their children to Henry) and non-Henry families (those who did not choose Henry), as well as the factors driving school choice, and how these differed between Henry and non-Henry families. The group also surveyed the participants on how Henry and non-Henry families feel about Henry School, and whether the Henry Group meetings were helpful in making school decisions.
A total of 192 survey responses were collected and yielded the following information:
Demographics. Despite differences in race and income level, there were few significant demographic contrasts between the Henry families and the non-Henry families.
Factors in School Choice. In general, Henry and non-Henry families sought the same characteristics in elementary and middle schools. The survey indicates that both populations were comparable in their school selection criteria as well as in their demographic profiles.
Henry School Rated. There were several areas in which Henry and non-Henry families rated Henry school similarly (such as opportunities for parental involvement). There were also areas
in which Henry and non-Henry families rated factors dramatically differently (such as teacher quality). The preliminary conclusion is that there are substantive attributes and liabilities which
attract or deter all families. The survey results also indicate that Henry School may want to address promotion and perception as well.
Henry Group Meetings. Most of the respondents who attended the Henry Group meetings found them very or somewhat useful.
The group says that its initial findings suggest that families in Northwest Philadelphia are very serious about choosing elementary and middle schools; that Henry School has strengths as well as practical and promotional challenges; and that the Henry Group meetings have helped families explore school choices. They are sharing their survey results in the hope that the survey provides useful information to Henry School, Henry School families, the Mt. Airy community, the School District of Philadelphia, and the new mayor and administration.

Tracking Violent Incidents in Schools

How violent are our school kids?

According to District figures, rates of violent incidents vary widely among academic regions.

One region counted enough serious incidents to merit transfer to a disciplinary school for one in every nine of its high-school students. Called the “Restructured Schools/EMO region,” it also reported 115 threats (verbal and written) by students in elementary school grades also worthy of a discipline assignment.

The fact that these are our youngest children, in Kindergarten through 5th grade, would seem to give the impression that such a high rate of threats would be unique among serious incidents. Except that assaults by elementary-school children make up the largest sect of any category. Schools reported more than 1,600 “Level 2” assaults from elementary school children, compared with 1,500 from high-schoolers.

Ironically, Philadelphia’s school district doesn’t really have schools into which troubled elementary school children – unless they’re diagnosed with a mental condition – can even be transferred into. So that would mean the schools themselves are addressing the behavioral health needs of these students. Are they?

Looking at these figures – which were shared with the Alternative Education Task Force as part of its charge to examine both disciplinary and non-disciplinary alternative school slots – open the door to lots of questions:

• Is the EMO/Restructured Schools region (with nearly 28,000 students) too big in size to handle all those problems?
• Is that region’s incidents commensurate with the behavioral supports the schools, students and staffs in that region receive?
• When a whopping 115 incidents in one region are verbal and written threats by elementary school students, isn’t that an indication that there’s an attitude problem somewhere? (Whether that “where” is the schools or the homes is another question)

While the EMO/Restructured Schools region (not be confused with the original Restructured Schools region) reported the most “serious/Level 2” incidents (1,854), it was followed by the East Region with 1,122. The fewest incidents (540) were reported from the Northwest Region, although percentage-wise, the Northeast fares well, with 773 incidents, but nearly 28,000 students.

Judging what happened in Cleveland

Let’s hope that Wednesday's shooting at SuccessTech Academy in downtown Cleveland doesn’t result in the traditional, knee-jerk reaction that has made metal detectors the sole response to violence in schools, and an increase in disciplinary school slots the answer to all our questions about what to do with troubled youth.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning reported that 14-year-old shooter Asa Coon in previous years had been ordered to undergo psychological testing, had attempted suicide and was prescribed two medications. Burns to his arms and scratches on his forehead signaled domestic abuse and thus had forced a call to the Department of Children and Family Services. Asa was released from probation after five months without incident.

But his fight prior to that shooting should have been considered an “incident,” for which mere suspension for such a troubled youth was a shallow answer.

Let’s hope that the chorus of “why’s” that are sure to follow this shooting, also incorporate the role adults played in this 14-year-old’s access to two revolvers and a duffel bag of ammunition.

But I fear it will instead increase our salacious appetite for one-size-fits-all punishments of students, and more expulsions of kids for carrying a pencil sharpener and a finger nail file, considered "weapons" by some Philadelphia administrators and officials.

And while we’re assessing blame, let’s give credit to the Cleveland school system and the Gates Foundation for what they did right around SuccessTech – for building a small school with small, manageable class sizes, for motivating its population of mostly minority, low-income kids to reach high expectations, and for graduating 94 percent of its students. Here’s hoping that those kids, that school and the rest of us will grow and not shrink in appropriate reaction to this incident.

How do we reach teacher equity?

(Choose a suggestion in the poll to the right or provide your own suggestion below.)

The effort to get quality teachers into traditionally hard-to-staff schools has been so contentious, one proposal nearly led to a strike when teachers’ contracts were last negotiated. Previous initiatives have not exactly proven effective. What will?

Answer the poll to the right and/or post your own comments.