PDF - Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Transcription

En español: Caras nuevas en la SRC, p.11
Vol. 16 No. 4
Summer 2009
www.thenotebook.org
FOCUS ON
Teacher
Excellence
18
No easy road,
part 2
22%
23%
21% 22%
16%
12%
633
1375 927 523
531 175
20
New data,
same inequities
Harvey Finkle
Shanee Garner is a first-year English teacher at Bartram High School. Teacher contract talks are an opportunity to address how to provide adequate supports and
incentives to retain good teachers at high-need schools.
Seeing opportunity in teacher talks
Activists want the new contract to tackle staffing inequities. Negotiations are in secret.
by Dale Mezzacappa
26
Tomorrow’s
teachers of color
Also in this
issue:
Imagine 2014
p. 4
New faces
at the SRC
p. 12
Fresh content daily
on the Web at
thenotebook.org
P
ublic and private statements from School District leadspeaking publicly about their overall goals and priorities in the
ers indicate that they are seeking a significant overhaul
contract talks. They also won’t say how often the two sides are
of the contract with the Philadelphia Federation of
meeting or whether any progress is being made.
Teachers (PFT) as a way to tackle stubA coalition of activists working under the
born issues that have troubled activists
Education First Compact and the PhiladelA coalition is pushing phia Cross City Campaign for School Reform
and reformers for years.
The talks this year are taking place under
is pushing the two sides to figure out better
both sides to make
both national and local pressure to improve
ways to make sure that all students are exsure all students
overall teacher quality, assign teachers to
posed to good teaching on a consistent basis.
schools where they are most needed, reThe campaign, called Effective Teaching
are exposed to
vamp teacher evaluation and professional
for All Children: What It Will Take, is adgood teaching on a
development, tie compensation to perforvocating for significant incentives and supmance, and stop the tide of teachers who
ports to get teachers to work and stay in the
consistent basis.
leave within the first few years on the job.
highest-poverty schools.
Partly due to high turnover, the District says
Along with that, a campaign priority is
it will need to hire 1,024 new teachers for September. Data shows
full site selection of teachers, in which all vacancies are filled
that 30 to 40 schools lose one-third of their teachers each year.
at the school level, with real decision-making power in the
Along with the District, the union includes teacher retenhands of a leadership team rather than just with the principal.
tion as one of its goals. But it has differed sharply on other items,
Now, schools can use full site selection only with approval
particularly compensation that is tied to teacher performance
by a vote of school staff. At other schools, half the vacancies
rather than being based primarily on longevity and education.
are filled through seniority-based transfers, and that complex
Despite pleas from activists to keep the public more inprocess contributes to delays in teacher hiring.
formed and engaged, neither the District nor union leaders are
Continued on page 17
tableofcontents
FOCUS ON TEACHER EXCELLENCE
1
O
18
O
20
O
21
O
22
O
24
O
25
O
26
O
28
O
29
O
30
O
35
O
Seeing opportunity in teacher talks
No easy road, part 2: The ties that bind
Data on teacher quality, vacancies, and diversity
District, with fits and starts, inches toward teacher equity
Teacher equity hinges on principals, policy changes
Other cities outstrip Philadelphia in recruiting, hiring teachers
Residency program preps top-notch teachers for high-needs areas
Where have all the teachers of color gone?
Screening for teachers with the right stuff
Teacher evaluation system has lots of critics
Ackerman: Reward high-performing teachers with more pay
Quicktakes: How can you tell that your teacher is doing a good job?
OTHER NEWS AND FEATURES
4
O
12
O
15
O
16
O
34
O
Imagine 2014 gets a green light from the SRC
New business manager joins Notebook staff
Stimulus funding boost is not a sure thing
Fresh faces at the SRC
Opinion: Dungee Glenn advocated for children with passion, commitment
DEPARTMENTS
2
O
5
O
5
O
7
O
7
O
8
O
9
O
10
O
11
O
32
O
Our opinion: Once and for all, Our right to know
Letters to the editors: Valuing diversity is key to learning
Eye on special education: Recruiting special education teachers
School snapshot: Fels High School wins chess league finals
Who ya gonna call?
News in brief: Accelerated high schools, Art initiative, Parent ombudsmen
Activism around the city: Nonprofit, Local testimonies, Meal program
Español
School calendar
Sports stories – Back on track: Swenson’s 4x100 girls relay team
More online at www.thenotebook.org
ouropinion
Once and for all
could lay the foundation for enhancing
We know that good teaching can
teacher quality and equity across the sysmake an amazing difference in the lives
tem. In the past, the two sides have failed
of children. Reams of research tell us that
to come up with agreements for getting
the quality of the teacher is the single most
more teachers where they’re needed. The
important factor in student achievement.
District has brushed off the task of providIn recent years, Philadelphia has made
ing top-notch leadership and staff support
strides in improving the caliber of its new
in all schools, while the union has dug in
teachers. But inequity in teacher distrito protect the seniority-based system for
bution among schools is still intolerable.
teacher assignment.
There is no more urgent need than putting
But this year there is a broad commutop-quality teachers, both new and vetnity push for change, coordinated by the
eran, in the District’s neediest and hardestEducation First Compact and the Cross
to-staff schools – and then keeping them
City Campaign for School Reform. Their
there.
commonsense Teaching Quality and EqAmong the 30 highest-poverty
uity Platform calls for
schools in Philadelphia, a
majority have 10 percent There is no more urgent meaningful incentives
for accomplished eduor more of their staff who
need than putting
cators to work in the
are not deemed highly
neediest schools and a
qualified. Among the 30
top-quality teachers
commitment to assignlowest-poverty schools,
the comparable figure is in the District’s hardest- ing effective principals
where the staffs are
4 percent or less.
to-staff schools.
most inexperienced. It
The problem of
also calls for diversifying the applicant pool
rapid teacher turnover in high-poverty
and putting extra funding into improved
schools is not unique to Philadelphia. Naworking conditions by reducing class size,
tionwide, this costs $7.3 billion a year, acadjusting teacher loads, increasing support
cording to the National Commission on
staff, and providing additional classroom
Teaching and America’s Future. They’ve
materials.
estimated it costs as much as $15,000 to
Granted, there are other serious obreplace each teacher who leaves.
stacles to retaining teachers – not the least
But other cities are further along in
of which is the consequences of concendealing with the teacher gap (see p. 24).
trated poverty. Teacher pay in PhiladelThey generate a much larger pool of apphia lags behind most suburban districts.
plicants to choose from and then provide
And the current obsession with improving
more focused induction and mentoring to
test scores at all costs, most intense at the
help new teachers get established.
highest-poverty schools, takes a toll on
With new leadership, a supportive
teachers’ sense of themselves as creative
mayor and governor, a new president of
professionals
the Philadelphia Federation of TeachBut many of our problems can be
ers, and an expected infusion of federal
more immediately addressed. Over the
stimulus funds targeted toward enhancing
coming months, we must turn up the
teacher quality, there is no better time for
heat on both the District and the union
the District to study and strive to surpass
to do so. We can’t squander this opporthe successes in other cities.
tunity, once and for all, to tackle the
The District and the PFT have a condisparities in access to good teaching.
tract to negotiate by September, which
Our right to know
An independent news service and quarterly newspaper – a voice for parents, students, classroom
teachers, and others who are working for quality and equality in Philadelphia public schools.
Leadership Board: Christie Balka, Derrick Gantt, Helen Gym, Dee Phillips, Len Rieser,
Brett Schaeffer, Mary Ann Smith, Toni Bynum Simpkins, Ron Whitehorne, Jeff Wicklund
Editorial Board for this Issue: Brian Armstead, Sarah Burgess, Shani Adia Evans, Benjamin
Herold, Meghan McHugh, Betsey Useem, Debra Weiner, Ron Whitehorne
Editor: Paul Socolar
Managing editor: Wendy Harris
Contributing editor: Dale Mezzacappa
Operations/business manager: Corey Mark
Web editor: Erika Owens
Design: Joseph Kemp
Copy editor: Juli Warren
Cartoonist: Eric Joselyn
Editorial assistance: Len Rieser, Sandy Socolar
Interns: Todd Friedman, Dominique “Peak” Johnson, Kate Nelson, Julius Rosenthal
Distribution: Rebecca Bradley, Luc Pierre, Ron Whitehorne
Special thanks to: Our subscribers, advertisers, and volunteers who distribute the Notebook.
Funding in part from Bread and Roses Community Fund, Claneil Foundation, Communities for
Public Education Reform, Allen Hilles Fund, Patricia Kind Family Foundation,
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Project U-Turn, Union Benevolent Association,
William Penn Foundation, and from hundreds of individual donors.
2 Philadelphia Public School Notebook
Ensuring progress toward the goal of a
highly effective teacher in every classroom
is not simply a matter of improving human
resource capacity. It also requires regular
public reporting and open access to information about the teacher workforce.
Such access is crucial to making any
government body more accountable,
building public trust and involvement.
Recent history in Philadelphia bears
this out. For several years, the District
made significant progress toward reducing
vacancies and improving teacher qualifications. It is no coincidence that during
this period, local advocacy, research, and
organizing groups were closely watching.
But in the turmoil and leadership
turnover from 2007 till this year, there has
been little public dialogue or reporting
on whether the District was maintaining
these gains. Sure enough, we soon found
ourselves slipping on key indicators. For
one thing, teacher vacancies soared.
Last year, Education Resource Strategies – hired by the District to study its
professional development – noted in its
report how hard it was to get data on staff
characteristics and teacher quality. This
May, the District told the Notebook it was
too busy to respond to all our requests for
teacher data. Much of what we wanted
is information that should have been at
their fingertips – for instance, absenteeism and new teacher retention rates.
Regular reporting of data is necessary
to keep the District’s eyes on the prize.
That is exactly why the Obama administration is requiring districts to step up
and modernize data collection as a condition for receiving large chunks of federal
stimulus funds.
The Ackerman administration can
improve its track record for publicly reporting key data. It has announced plans
to purchase and install new systems in the
coming year. This upgrade is a good time
to be vigilant that District staff and leadership have the capacity, mandate, and
commitment to keeping the public fully
informed.
Summer 2009
letterstotheeditors
Kindergartners finished 100 books
To the editors:
My daughter started kindergarten this year at
McCall Elementary School. Having lived in Society Hill for almost a decade, it was difficult to
decide whether public or private school would be
best for our family. But choosing our local public
school has been one of the best decisions we
have made.
Recently, we achieved something so significant in my daughter’s class that I wanted to
share it with others.
At the beginning of the school year, the children started the 100 Book Challenge program.
This program, which started in the Philadelphia
schools, encourages children to read in school
and at home with the goal of reading 100 books
in the academic school year. The program helps
to improve self-esteem and confidence of young
aspiring readers and provides them with tools
and resources to help them achieve in the future.
Recently, each of the 28 children in my
daughter’s kindergarten class met the goal of
reading 100 books! When I shared this with
some friends, they truly didn’t believe that kindergarten children (especially many who did not
even speak English when the school year started)
actually read these books. However, after volunteering almost daily for this program, I assure
you they have. My daughter Lucia, who is the youngest in
her class, started off at the very beginning levels
of reading and is now reading chapter books. I
cannot begin to explain the pride I feel in our
local children and families committing to and
achieving such a goal. Seeing the growth among
these five- and six-year-olds has made every hour
I’ve invested worth it.
Andrea Layden
Valuing diversity is key to learning
To the editors:
I service the School District’s public and charter school students through a school bus company. My job is to pick up and drop off students
and make sure they’re on time. Some students
are well behaved and others are difficult to deal
with. It is not an easy task, but I am glad to be of
service to our children.
I have the privilege to talk to some of the students on my bus. They speak about their grades,
detention in school, violence, and other issues
like what they want to do as their career. I notice that they have little to no knowledge of the
contributions made by their ancestors to the development of this nation and others. They do not
know much about the vast contributions made by
Granville T. Woods, Elijah McCoy, Benjamin Banneker, Garrett A. Morgan, Julian Francis Abele,
and Lewis Latimer. Knowledge of self builds selfesteem, and no education is complete without
learning history.
A student on my bus who attends a charter
school said she was not happy with her school
due to the fact that any infraction could land her
in detention. I noticed that most of the teachers at that school are White. As I gained some
understanding of the interaction between some
educators and their students, it became clear to
me that educating children should be a labor of
love, not rigidity, and should be done keeping in
mind the value of diversity.
Ernst Ford
The writer, a school bus driver in Philadelphia, works
for PhillyTrans.
Go to www.thenotebook.org to comment
on any Notebook article!
Summer 2009
eyeonspecialeducation
Recruiting special education teachers
proves to be a challenge for the District
by Connie Langland
A
s the school year ends, parents of special needs
children have one question: Who will teach my
child next year?
Special education teachers are hard to recruit and
retain, and the School District of Philadelphia’s current
vacancy list shows dozens of special education teaching
positions.
The District does some recruitment of these teachers through Teach for America and The New Teacher
Project, locally called the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows. But while using these has met some success, these
pathways can be viewed as a stopgap measure.
A 2007 Research for Action report said, “Too many
special education students are being taught by novices
who are in the process of receiving full certification…
The pool of qualified candidates in certain areas, particularly special education, continues to be inadequate.”
According to Teach for America, 35 TFA teachers
are teaching special education this year, 21 in District
public schools and 14 in charter schools. All receive ongoing training at Chestnut Hill College.
The District has worked, with some success, to
convince area colleges to increase special education
training for all teachers. Betsey Useem, senior research
consultant for RFA, said elementary education teaching candidates increasingly acquire certificates in both
elementary education and special education. However,
staffing high school special education classes continues
to be a challenge, she said, and that worries parents who
want to ensure that their special needs child receives
the best education and supports.
Cecelia Thompson, Right to Education Task Force
spokesperson, said parents are concerned that numerous vacancies mean disabled students are often taught
by substitutes. “If you have never been in an emotional
support class, you shouldn’t be there because you have
no knowledge of the disability impacting that child,”
she said.
The District did not respond to interview requests
about its recruitment and retention of special education
teachers. But Arlene Kempin, Philadelphia Federation
of Teachers vice president, said the PFT has made retention an issue in current teacher negotiations and that
talks with the District about hiring special education
teachers for the coming school year have been positive.
“It appears we are okay for September,” she said.
“Recruitment efforts have been beefed up, and the
District is making every effort to hire highly qualified
teachers who are certified in special education and their
content area.”
But according to District data, the number of special education applicants dropped between 2005 and
2008. Applications peaked in the 2005-06 school year
at 458, but declined by more than 100 in the two subsequent school years.
A big reason for the shortages is that few new graduates opt to teach special needs children. Once hired,
many special education teachers transfer schools or assignments, or leave the profession, causing a decline
in numbers. Meanwhile, the number of children with
learning disabilities such as autism goes up.
Special education teaching applicants also must
face extra hurdles to get hired, including taking extra
coursework. It can be a daunting task for middle and
high school special education teachers to earn certification in every subject area they teach – a requirement to
meet NCLB’s “highly qualified” guidelines.
Carol Pate, chair of the education department at
Chestnut Hill College, said, “Special education teachers are getting a double whammy—the paperwork required by their students’ IEPs [individualized education
plans] and being held accountable for meeting AYP
goals under NCLB.”
Connie Langland is a former Philadelphia Inquirer education writer.
aboutthenotebook
The Philadelphia Public School Notebook is an independent news service whose mission 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 has published a quarterly newspaper since 1994. Philadelphia Public School
Notebook is a project of the New Beginning Nonprofit Incubator of Resources for Human Development. Send inquiries to:
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Philadelphia Public School Notebook 3
districtnews
Imagine 2014 gets a green light from the SRC
by Paul Socolar
The District’s new strategic plan is
called Imagine 2014, but its message is that
creating a “great city system of schools” in
Philadelphia within five years is no fantasy.
The plan for getting there, put together by Superintendent Arlene Ackerman
and her administration, is a 64-page package of more than 170 initiatives. Of those,
48 are targeted for action in “Phase One,”
which starts immediately.
The biggest chunk of the plan is focused on “student success,” with multiple
academic initiatives targeting every age
bracket – for instance, providing language
assistance for preschoolers learning Eng-
lish, restoring art and music to all elementary schools, personalizing middle schools
by creating teacher teams with common
planning time, and opening three additional career and technical high schools.
The plan has four other sections:
“quality choices,” “great staff,” “accountable adults,” and “world-class operations.”
“It’s aspirational … but I think it’s doable,” said new SRC chair Robert L. Archie, Jr., after the commission approved
Imagine 2014 on April 22. Noting that
there was no blueprint before, Archie said,
“This is now the [District’s] roadmap.”
“The implementation is still a work in
progress,” he added.
Renaissance Schools plan spells out community role
The final version of Imagine 2014 added new details on the process and timeline
for identifying targeted low-performing schools and potential providers to manage
“Renaissance schools.”
The approved plan promises to “engage students, parents, and the community in
a transparent and inclusive decision-making process.”
Ackerman said that early this summer, the District will release a Request for
Qualifications to identify individuals and organizations that want to redesign schools,
and in the late summer “District and community representatives will participate on
the selection committee to identify successful RFQ finalists.”
The first cohort of schools slated for turnaround will be identified in the fall.
Afterward the District will release full Requests for Proposals for the successful
RFQ applicants to flesh out their plans. In late fall, ‘District and community representatives will participate on a selection committee to determine successful RFP finalists.”
Early in 2010, according to the plan, “Renaissance school communities (students, parents, and community members) review and identify preferred proposals
from a list of RFP finalists.” The rest of the 2009-10 school year will be a transition period, with the schools opening under new management in September 2010.
that the plan was missing imporThe total cost over five
tant elements and lacked detail
years? Still unclear.
about priorities and price tag.
Chief Budget Officer Mi”I appreciate that passion,”
chael Masch said only the Phase
Ackerman said, “but it’s time for
One items have been costed out,
us to move on and try to change
with an annually recurring cost of
these outcomes for children.…
$126 million. Masch said these
Every year, we’ll come back and
items represent about “20 to 25
Harvey Finkle make mid-course corrections.”
percent” of the total. While the
Arlene Ackerman
But skepticism remains.
cost of implementing the whole
“Teachers and other educational profesplan would grow by hundreds of millions of
sionals don’t need mile-long lists of initiadollars by 2014, Masch said that the District
tives that are unlikely to be sustained when
would be able to pay for it if the pace of
federal funds run out,” said Jerry Jordan,
growth of the District’s local, state, and fedPhiladelphia Federation of Teachers presieral revenue continues along recent trends.
dent in testimony to City Council May 12.
The single most expensive initiative
Throughout the process, the most
in the first year is a commitment to reduce
heated debate was around Ackerman’s
maximum class size in kindergarten to
“Renaissance Schools” plan for the turn23 and to no more than 26 in 1st to 3rd
around of chronically low-performing
grades, with even deeper reductions in the
schools by putting them under new manDistrict’s lowest-performing schools.
agement. The final version of the plan
Other big ticket items for the first year
included greater detail about how commuinclude growth in the number of guidance
nities would be involved in the overhaul
counselors in middle and high schools,
of the first cohort of about 10 Renaissance
more electives and increased faculty planschools (see box).
ning time in comprehensive high schools,
The six-month process leading up to
and an expansion of summer school prothe vote included task forces, the unveilgrams, including music, art and dance.
ing of a draft plan, a series of community
While the SRC voted unanimously
meetings involving more than 3,000 peoin favor, the final version encountered
ple, a revised plan, and then yet another
significant opposition from organized
set of changes on the eve of the SRC vote.
groups and individuals, with a majority
of two dozen speakers to the panel raising concerns. Groups such as ACORN
Contact Notebook Editor Paul Socolar at
and Philadelphia Student Union argued
pauls@thenotebook.org
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Celebrating Our Work Education Activism Student Journalism
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Come celebrate the Notebook’s consistent,
groundbreaking coverage of Philadelphia’s
schools for 15 years. As we work together to
advance quality and equality in our schools, let’s
take some time to appreciate the victories we
have won and reenergize for our continued
efforts of advocating for better schools.
Founded in 1994, the
Philadelphia Public School Notebook
is an independent news service that serves
as an information source and a voice
for parents, students, teachers, and
other members of the community who
are working for quality and equality in
Philadelphia’s public schools.
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Summer 2009
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Len Rieser and Fernando Chang-Muy
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Summer 2009
schoolsnapshot
whoyagonnacall?
School District of Philadelphia
Arlene Ackerman (Superintendent): 215-400-4100
Maria Pitre-Martin (Chief Academic Officer): 215-400-4200
Regional Superintendents
Benjamin Wright (Alternative Schools): 215-400-4220
Marilyn Perez (Central): 215-351-3807
Francisco Duran (Central East): 215-291-5696
Michael Silverman (Comprehensive HS): 215-684-5132
Gregory Shannon (East): 215-291-5680
Lucy Feria (North): 215-456-0998
Lissa Johnson (Northeast): 215-281-5903
Pamela Brown (Northwest): 215-248-6684
John Frangipani (South): 215-351-7445
La Verne Wiley (Southwest): 215-727-5920
Diane Hathaway (West): 215-823-5530
School Reform Commission
Robert L. Archie, Jr.: 215-400-6270
Denise Armbrister: 215-400-6273
Johnny Irizarry: 215-400-6266
Heidi Ramirez: 215-400-6956
ASAP
Fels High School has earned the school’s first citywide chess championship. Sophomore Ang
Zhang (left) of Northeast High School and sophomore Trung Nguyen (right) of Fels squared off
in the Philadelphia Scholastic Chess League finals held in February at the School District of
Philadelphia Education Center. Fels won the match 3 games to 2. Fels also received top honors in their section at the state championships in March and finished ninth in their division in
the Supernationals in Nashville in April. After School Activities Partnerships (ASAP) sponsors
the chess league, which includes 69 teams in elementary, middle, and high schools.
Helping families
FIND, SELECT and
PAY for child care
1-888-461-KIDS
Summer 2009
Referrals are free regardless of
income. Funding may be available
to help eligible working families
pay for child care.
City of Philadelphia
Mayor Michael Nutter (D): 215-686-2181
City Council Members-at-Large (elected citywide)
W. Wilson Goode, Jr. (D): 215-686-3414
Bill Green (D): 215-686-3420
William K. Greenlee (D): 215-686-3446
Jack Kelly (R): 215-686-3452
James F. Kenney (D): 215-686-3450
Blondell Reynolds Brown (D): 215-686-3438
Frank Rizzo (R): 215-686-3440
District City Council Members
Frank DiCicco (D): 215-686-3458
Anna C. Verna (D): 215-686-3412
Jannie L. Blackwell (D): 215-686-3418
Curtis Jones, Jr (D): 215-686-3416
Darrell L. Clarke (D): 215-686-3442
Joan L. Krajewski (D): 215-686-3444
Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez (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
To find out which District City Council member, State
Senator, State Representative, or member of Congress
represents you, call The Committee of Seventy at
1-866-268-8603.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Governor Ed Rendell (D): 717-787-2500
State Senators
Lawrence M. Farnese, Jr. (D): 215-560-1313
Christine Tartaglione (D): 215-533-0440
Shirley M. Kitchen (D): 215-227-6161
Michael J. Stack, III (D): 215-281-2539
Vincent J. Hughes (D): 215-471-0490
LeAnna Washington (D): 215-242-0472
Anthony Hardy Williams (D): 215-492-2980
4UBUF3FQSFTFOUBUJWFT
Louise Williams Bishop (D): 215-879-6625
Brendan F. Boyle (D): 215-676-0330
Vanessa Lowery Brown (D): 215-879-6615
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
Kenyatta J. Johnson (D): 215-952-3378
Babette Josephs (D): 215-893-1515
William F. Keller (D): 215-271-9190
Kathy Manderino (D): 215-482-8726
Michael P. McGeehan (D): 215-333-9760
Thomas P. Murt (R): 215-674-3755
John Myers (D): 215-849-6592
Dennis M. O’Brien (R): 215-632-5150
Michael H. O’Brien (D): 215-503-3245
Frank L. Oliver (D): 215-684-3738
Cherelle L. Parker (D): 215-242-7300
Tony J. Payton Jr. (D): 215-744-7901
John M. Perzel (R): 215-331-2600
James R. Roebuck (D): 215-724-2227
John P. Sabatina Jr. (D): 215-342-6204
John J. Taylor (R): 215-425-0901
W. Curtis Thomas (D): 215-232-1210
Ronald G. Waters (D): 215-748-6712
Jewell Williams (D): 215-763-2559
Rosita C. Youngblood (D): 215-849-6426
U.S. Congress
Senator Arlen Specter (D): 215-597-7200
Senator Robert Casey (D): 215-405-9660
Rep. Chaka Fattah (D): 215-387-6404
Rep. Robert Brady (D): 215-389-4627
Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D): 215-335-3355
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D): 215-348-1194
newsinbrief
District doubling the number
of accelerated high schools
Since the inception of accelerated
high schools in 2004, serving over-age students with few credits, enrollment in these
programs has grown to 1,275 students.
Next year, even more students will
have an opportunity to pursue this alternative pathway toward their diploma.
The District has increased the number of
slots in accelerated high schools to 3,000,
growing the number of schools from 8 to
16 by contracting with additional outside
providers to operate them.
Multiple Pathways to Graduation
Director Courtney Collins-Shapiro said
the slot expansion was prompted by the
existing accelerated high school wait
list, which now stands at 1,000 people,
the success of the District’s new re-engagement center, and the large number
of repeating 9th graders.
“We’ve had more than 2,000 young
people come through the re-engagement center in a year to re-connect
to school. Then we have a lot of the
comprehensive high schools who have
young people who are repeating 9th
grade and thousands who are repeating
the 9th grade for the second or third
time,” Collins-Shapiro said.
“It’s no longer acceptable for us to
leave them in the same environment
if they need a different environment,”
she said. “We’re hopeful that this will
be the expansion that we needed, and
we’ll be able to help every kid who
walks through the door,”
In the current fiscal year, the District
is spending close to $10 million to operate its accelerated high schools. With
the slot expansion, “we’re almost going
to triple spending,” Collins-Shapiro said.
But a cap on provider compensation
and shift of funds from the disciplinary
schools to these programs will keep any
cost hikes to a minimum.
-Peak Johnson and Wendy Harris
Accessible arts experiences
are focus of 10-year initiative
Arts opportunities for children in
Philadelphia will be getting a boost
through a recently announced, 10year campaign – Arts for Children and
Youth of Greater Philadelphia
A partnership headed by the Philadelphia Education Fund, Public Citizens for Children and Youth, and the
Fleisher Art Memorial, the project will
pool local resources to expose more
children in the region to high-quality
visual and performing arts experiences,
both in and out of school.
At an April 16 community meeting launching the project, the partners
emphasized the importance of arts experiences in improving the life chances of
children. “We’re going to be starting our
work in the middle grades because our research shows that this is where kids fall off
track to graduation,” said Carol Fixman,
executive director of the Philadelphia Education Fund. “Arts are not an add-on.”
The groups will be working to build
supportive networks between arts organizations and teachers, to help teachers integrate all arts disciplines in their
classrooms, and to involve families and
communities in the initiative.
The lead partners in the project
were selected through a year-long process that engaged more than 150 representatives of community, educational,
and cultural organizations in conversations about how to improve access to
the cultural assets of Philadelphia for
the region’s children.
The Wallace Foundation, the
William Penn Foundation, the Lenfest Foundation, the Nutter Inaugural
Committee, and the Lincoln Financial
Foundation contributed $1.4 million
for the start-up of the project.
–Paul Socolar
Parents gain school advocates
with ombudsman expansion
Expansion of the District’s parent ombudsman program is a priority
of Phase One of the District’s strategic
plan, with 49 new ombudsmen slated to
be hired for 2009-10.
Currently, there are 127 of the parent “ambassadors,” who give parents
and guardians access to information and
resources regarding their child’s school,
and serve as a liaison between the parent
community and District personnel. The
District also maintains 10 regional ombudsmen that provide support for those
schools that don’t have these parent advocates. But by 2014 the District’s plan
calls for a parent ombudsman in every
school, as well as the regional posts.
“A lot of parents in schools that
didn’t have an ombudsman wanted to
have one,” said Karren Dunkley, deputy
chief of Parent, Family, Community, and
Faith-based Partnerships. “Even principals who didn’t have it in their budget
were trying to see how they could purchase an ombudsman,” she said.
The expansion will cost $4 million. It will include a case management
model where ombudsmen will meet
with members of their school’s leadership team to foster team-building and
promote diversity.
The parent ombudsman program
was launched last fall after Superintendent Arlene Ackerman gathered
feedback from many concerned parents
about the treatment they were receiving.
“Our schools were just not welcoming to parents as they should have been,
so it was the superintendent’s feeling
that she needed to create a position
that was really focused on navigating
the system for parents,” Dunkley said.
So far, feedback has generally been
positive, Dunkley said. Christina Williams, a parent ombudsman at Shaw
Middle School, said “my experience
has been that the parents have shared
things with me that they primarily
wouldn’t share with personnel in the
school, so it’s a very essential mechanism to make our schools family- and
parent-friendly.”
-Wendy Harris
Counseling
Individual and group counseling
Crisis Intervention
24 Hour Hotline
Hospital Accompaniment
Court Accompaniment
Criminal Justice Center
Family Court
Outreach
Latino
Asian
Seniors
People with disabilities
Education & Training Programs
School Programs K – 12
Professional
Community
Faith Based
Women Organized Against Rape
1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard Suite 1100
One Penn Center (Suburban Station)
Philadelphia PA 19103
Phone (215) 985 – 3315 Fax (215) 985 – 9111
Hotline (215) 985 3333
www.woar.org
Summer 2009
BDUJWJTNaroundthecity
Education nonprofit focuses
on policy and electoral politics
Ever wonder where your legislator
stands on issues affecting schools and how
you can influence his or her position?
Education Voters Pennsylvania is
a new nonprofit doing issue advocacy
with the ability to engage in electoral
politics, Susan Gobreski, executive director, explained.
The group began in 2007 and is modeled after other issue advocacy groups that
engage in both policy and electoral activities, such as the League of Conservation
Voters, which evaluates and endorses candidates based on their stance on policies
and legislation on a core issue.
Although education “touches just
about everyone,” Gobreski said, it has no
such grassroots political group.
For voters who care about education,
“the outcomes of elections are tremendously important,” Gobreski said.
“If we want better policies, we have to
make sure that policy makers are accountable for their records on these issues. They
all say, ‘Yeah, I am for kids, I am for education,’ but as citizens we need to be able to
sort out who is actually doing something,
who votes for good policy, who is helping
to reform the system, and who is really
making education a real priority.”
Priority issues at the moment include
pushing the state legislature to make a longterm commitment to Pennsylvania’s new
education funding formula and to ensure
that federal stimulus money is spent appro-
Summer 2009
priately. The group is also working on college tuition relief, teacher quality, and statelevel efforts to stem the dropout rate.
In 2008, the group started a political
action committee, PA Ed PAC, to support pro-public education candidates and
played a role in several tight races.
For information, call 215-564-2299 or
visit www.educationvoterspa.org.
-Dale Mezzacappa
Local testimonies describe how
money has made a difference
Local activists trying to convince
state and city officials that adequate school
funding improves teaching and learning
now have a new tool at their disposal.
A booklet titled “Community Account: Success Stories from PA’s Education Investment” is full of individual testimonies describing how this year’s historic
boost in state school spending made a difference. A local network of education organizing groups, Cross City Campaign for
School Reform, interviewed more than
100 educators, students, and families in
southeastern Pennsylvania.
What they heard, according to Megan
Williamson of Philadelphia Student Union,
who designed the booklet, is that “when
more money and resources are directed
through the school funding formula and
serve groups like English language learners
and high-poverty students, it can have a
real impact on the quality of education.”
In Philadelphia, most of the additional state funding was used to reduce class
size. The booklet quotes 2nd grade teacher
Nathan Blodgett at MorSuperintendent Arlene
ris Elementary: “If you’re
Ackerman’s
school
in a smaller class, you can
reform plan after presdevelop personal relationsure from Community
ships with the kids, you can
Legal Services, Public
work on some of the issues
Citizens for Children
they might be bringing
and Youth, and other
in from the outside. Also
groups that have long
when you’re talking about
made this a priority.
breaking into small groups
Activists are still
… it’s much easier.”
pushing the District
In adopting a funding
to include meal parformula aimed at ensuring
ticipation rates on new
adequate resources for evschool report cards that
ery school district within
will be used to judge the
six years, the Pennsylvania
performance of schools
legislature also put in place
and principals.
accountability provisions
In March, state
The cover of the Cross City booklet,
requiring districts to spell highlighting the impact of new funds. documents
obtained
out their plans for spending
by The Inquirer and the
the increases. The Cross City coalition has
Notebook revealed that schools vary widely
been monitoring district plans across the
in breakfast participation. Meanwhile, prinregion, and members have been talking to
cipals were making sure that students ate
legislators about what they are learning.
school breakfasts during test taking, but not
Josh Varon of the Education Law
always at other times.
Center, who worked on the booklet, said
“We’re trying to get principal and loits message for legislators preparing to vote
cal school accountability for enrollment of
on the state budget is twofold: “Preserve
eligible children at breakfast and lunch,”
the core principles of the funding formula,
said Jonathan Stein of the Community
and preserve accountability.”
Legal Services. “We want to see more sub“Community Account” can be downstantial enrollments in the breakfast proloaded at www.phillystudentunion.org.
gram especially.”
-Paul Socolar
Now, only one of three eligible
children are served breakfast in school,
District urged to get more
Stein said.
to participate in meal program
Activists are also working with local
members of Congress to preserve so-called
Increasing student meal participation,
especially at breakfast, was an addition to
(continued on page 12)
enespañol
Principales y cambios en políticas determinan equidad en maestros
Las escuelas de menos
desempeño todavía carecen de
personal de calidad.
por Meghan McHugh
La Elemental Sheppard es una
escuela pequeñita y antigua en West
Kensington, donde la comunidad es
mayormente latina y más de nueve de
cada diez estudiantes viven bajo el nivel
de pobreza. El vecindario tiene problemas por la alta incidencia de crimen y el
tráfico abierto de drogas.
“Nosotros podríamos ser el niño
símbolo de las escuelas que no consiguen
maestros”, dijo el principal James Otto.
Pero en los seis años que Otto ha estado en la escuela solamente han habido
dos vacantes y él las llenó rápidamente.
La mayoría de los maestros de Sheppard
han estado ahí entre seis a 12 años, y algunos se han quedado por 20. La asistencia diaria de los maestros es 96%.
“Todo mi personal tiene suficiente
tiempo de servicio como para solicitar
transferencias voluntarias a otros lugares”, dijo Otto. “Pero ellos optan por no
hacerlo”.
Lamentablemente, la tasa de retención de maestros de Sheppard no es muy
común en Filadelfia.
Según un informe presentado el
año pasado por Education Resource Strategies, 35 por ciento de los maestros en
las escuelas de peor desempeño del Distrito – las que están en Acción Correctiva por no haber logrado las metas de
logro de los estudiantes por cinco años
– todavía no son maestros “altamente
cualificados” de acuerdo a los estándares
federales de la Ley Que Ningún Niño
Quede Atrás (NCLB). Este porcentaje
compara con 20 por ciento en las escuelas que están logrando el “progreso
anual adecuado” bajo esa ley.
Las escuelas en Acción Correctiva
también tienen los porcentajes más altos de maestros con menos de tres años
de experiencia.
Esa situación existe a pesar de que
la ley NCLB (aprobada en el 2002) hizo
un compromiso federal de distribuir a los
maestros más cualificados y expertos de
manera equitativa. La meta de que todos los estudiantes tuvieran un maestro
altamente cualificado se supone fuera
cumplida para el 2006, pero pocos estados y distritos se acercaron a la misma.
La administración de Obama está
haciendo más presión, estableciendo
que la mejora en la calidad y la distribución equitativa de los maestros sea una
condición para recibir parte de los fondos del estímulo federal.
¿Pero eso mantendrá a los maestros
de más experiencia y altamente cualificados en las escuelas que más los necesitan?
Los maestros mismos enfatizan el
Harvey Finkle
poder de contar con una comunidad de
Shanee Garner está en su primer año como maestro en la Escuela Superior Bartram. En un disapoyo y un buen liderazgo.
trito donde muchos de los principales también son nuevos, es posible que no todos los líderes
“El personal aquí es como una faescolares puedan proveer los apoyos que los maestros necesitan.
milia”, dijo Christina Genetti-Grosh,
los mejores maestros, pero no le dedica
Sin embargo, es más fácil fomentar
que ha estado en Sheppard por diez
suficiente atención a adiestrar a los prinla armonía entre colegas en una escuela
años. Ella dijo que por Otto “este es un
cipales sobre cómo aprovecharlos.
elemental pequeña que en una escuela
lugar en que la gente se quiere quedar”.
Abogar por ese tipo de adiestrasuperior de una comunidad grande.
“Él respeta la autonomía del maestro
miento es uno de los enfoques princiDurante su segundo año, una maestra
en el salón de clases mientras le ofrece
pales de una campaña en pro de la efecde una de esas escuelas superiores en el
apoyo mediante desarrollo profesional y
tividad de los maestros dirigida por la
norte de Filadelfia describió que ensese asegura de que tenga suficientes maEducation First Compact y la Philadelphia
ñar era una experiencia solitaria con
teriales”, dijo ella.
Cross City Campaign for School Reform.
muy poco apoyo o reconocimiento. Ella
“Nosotros tenemos todo lo que
Estos grupos dicen que las condiciones
tiene planes de repudiéramos necesinecesarias para asegurar la calidad y la
tar para ayudar a Maestros enfatizan el poder nunciar cuando terdistribución equitativa de los maestros
mine el año.
nuestros niños” dijo.
todavía no se han establecido.
“Aquí no im“Eso nos facilita de una comunidad de apoyo
“Ahora mismo es necesario ser
porta si uno fracasa
mucho el trabajo”.
y un buen liderazgo.
un principal excepcional para poder
o aprueba a los esLa
maestra
lograr los cambios que necesitamos para
tudiantes”, dijo esta maestra, que preKate Sharp, que pasó ocho años en la
nuestros niños”, dijo Brian Armstead
firió no identificarse a sí misma ni a la
Elemental Meade, también enfatizó
del Philadelphia Education Fund, uno
escuela. “Ahora mismo nadie me está
la necesidad de colaboración entre los
de los líderes de la campaña. “Si estapidiendo cuentas”.
maestros bajo la dirección de un buen
mos dependiendo en que la gente será
Dijo que los administradores necesilíder. “Más que nada, la mayor razón por
excepcional, nunca transformaremos el
tan estar más al tanto de lo que ocurre
la que me quedé en Meade fue el equisistema”.
en los salones. “Hasta con una sencilla
po”, dijo ella. “Ellos me pusieron bajo
Armstead dijo que un cambio de
pregunta semanal bastaría: ¿qué sabían
sus alas inmediatamente”. Y el principal
política que obviamente se necesita es
tus estudiantes al principio de la semana
“hizo una labor fenomenal para que los
el de selección autónoma de personal
y qué saben ahora, y cómo lo lograste?”
maestros trabajaran juntos”.
(full site selection), en la que los princisugirió ella. “No hay forma de sentirse
pales y las escuelas son los que seleccioexitoso”.
nan a quienes desean para llenar sus vaUna manera de acabar con ese aislacantes. Ahora el Distrito usa un sistema
miento es crear pequeñas comunidades
complicado en el que únicamente unas
de aprendizaje en las que los maestros
desvían de su camino a graduarse”, dijo
pocas posiciones son llenadas por selectengan tiempo común de planificación.
Carol Fixman, directora ejecutiva del
ción autónoma y el resto por orden de
Donald Anticoli, principal de la EsPhiladelphia Education Fund. “Las artes
años de servicio.
cuela Superior Lincoln y ex principal
no son algo que simplemente se añade”.
Algunas escuelas usan el sistema
de la Intermedia Penn Treaty ha tenido
Los grupos estarán trabajando para esde selección autónoma pero es porque
éxito con este modelo. “Eso les da a los
tablecer redes de apoyo entre las organizason escuelas nuevas o la facultad votó
maestros tiempo para ser profesionales
ciones y los maestros de arte, ayudar a los
por ello; estas escuelas tienen menos vaen lugar de solamente enseñar por siete
maestros a integrar las artes en sus salones
cantes, dijo Armstead. El año pasado, 16
periodos cada día”, explicó. “Todo es
de clase, y lograr que las familias y las copor ciento de las escuelas que usaban la
parte de la retención de los maestros;
munidades participen en la iniciativa.
selección autónoma tuvieron vacantes a
crear un ambiente de manera que ...
Los líderes del proyecto fueron semitad del año escolar, en comparación
puedan colaborar y no sentirse solos”.
leccionados durante un proceso de un
con 33 por ciento de las escuelas sin seEn un distrito donde el 29 por
año que requirió la participación de más
lección autónoma.
ciento de los principales tienen menos
de 150 representantes de organizaciones
Armstead añadió, sin embargo, que
de cuatro años de experiencia, sin emcomunitarias, educativas y culturales en
la selección autónoma por sí misma no
bargo, no todos los líderes quizás pueconversaciones sobre cómo mejorar el
va a resolver el problema.
dan ofrecer los apoyos que los maestros
acceso a los elementos culturales de Fi“Parte de lo crítico” dijo él, “es
necesitan.
ladelfia para los niños de la región.
poder crear un ambiente en el que las
Bernard McGee, quien fue principal
La Wallace Foundation, la William
personas quieran estar”.
en Filadelfia por muchos años y ahora
Penn Foundation, la Lenfest Foundation,
está encargado de ubicar a los maestros
el Nutter Inaugural Committee, y la Linestudiantes de Temple University, dijo
coln Financial Foundation aportaron $1.4
Meghan McHugh, miembro de la junta editoque el Distrito está “empezando a ser
millones para iniciar el proyecto.
rial del Notebook, es parte de la administramás proactivo” en cuanto a emplear las
ción de la Children’s Literacy Initiative.
mejores prácticas para reclutar y retener
Traducción por Mildred S. Martínez.
Traducción por Mildred S. Martínez.
Accesibilidad a experiencias en arte
es el enfoque de iniciativa de 10 años
por Paul Socolar
Las oportunidades de arte para los
niños de Filadelfia se van a impulsar con
una campaña de 10 años recientemente
anunciada – Arts for Children and Youth
of Greater Philadelphia (Artes para los
niños y jóvenes de Filadelfia).
El proyecto, que es una colaboración dirigida por el Philadelphia Education Fund, la organización Public Citizens for Children and Youth, y el Fleisher
Art Memorial, reunirá recursos locales
para exponer a más niños de la región
a experiencias visuales y de las artes de
la representación de alta calidad, tanto
dentro como fuera de la escuela.
En una reunión comunitaria el 16
de abril para lanzar el proyecto, los colaboradores enfatizaron la importancia
de las experiencias de arte para mejorar las oportunidades de vida para los
niños. “Vamos a comenzar nuestra labor en los grados intermedios porque
nuestra investigación ha mostrado que
ese es el momento en que los niños se
Summer 2009
enespañol
Caras nuevas en la SRC
aprobar el plan estratégico de cinco
años del Distrito.
La comisión ahora tiene solamente
cuatro miembros, ya que está pendiente
por Paul Socolar
la confirmación del Licenciado Joseph
Dworetzky, ex abogado de la ciudad.
La Comisión para la Reforma EsLas acciones de la SRC requieren
colar, la junta de gobierno del Distrito
la aprobación de tres o más de los cocompuesta de cinco miembros, perdió
misionados.
dos de sus veteranos y le dio la bienLos términos de cuatro de los covenida en abril a los dos nuevos nommisionados habían concluido en enero,
brados por el alcalde. Otro nominado
y los tres nuevos miembros de la SRC
por el Gobernador Rendell está todavía
fueron presentados en una conferencia
esperando ser confirmado por el senado
de prensa conjunta convocada por el
del estado.
alcalde y el gobernador el 28 de marzo
El nuevo Comisionado y presidente
después de un largo mes de deliberaciode la Comisión es Robert L. Archie, Jr.,
nes a puerta cerrada.
un abogado de expeLos tres nuevos miembros
Además de los
riencia y exalumno
tres, el Gobernade la Escuela Sude la SRC fueron
dor Rendell volvió
perior West Philapresentados en una
a nombrar a la codelphia. Archie es
misión a Heidi
parte del bufete de
conferencia de prensa
Ramírez,
experta
abogados
Duane
Morris LLP y tiene conjunta convocada por el en política de educación,
investimucha experiencia
alcalde y el gobernador.
gación y evaluación
en finanzas municique dirige la Urban Education Collabpales.
orative en la Escuela de Educación de
Otro de los nombrados por el AlTemple University.
calde Nutter es Johnny Irizarry, quien
La expresidente de la SRC Sandra
lleva muchos años como activista de
Dungee Glenn, una de dos comisiola comunidad latina, es líder de organados que no fueron nombrados otra
nizaciones sin fines de lucro y también
vez, era la última del grupo oficial de
educador de arte. Irizarry dirige el Cenla SRC que tomó el poder a principios
tro para la Excelencia Hispana de la
del 2002 inmediatamente después de la
Universidad de Pensilvania: La Casa
“toma amigable” del poder del Distrito
Latina.
por parte del estado. Otro comisionado
A escasamente una semana
de muchos años que también salió de
después de la ceremonia de juramentala comisión es Martín Bednarek. El
ción el 8 de abril, ambos tuvieron que
comisionado James Gallagher renunció
participar en el importante voto para
Alcalde y gobernador anuncian
los dos escogidos para servir
en la comisión.
Comentarios de los nuevos comisionados
en cuanto a la labor por hacer
Archie: “Estamos conversando
sobre reestructurar el nivel de participación de la junta a través de comités en lugar de que la SRC actúe
como un comité completo en todos
los asuntos. Nos vamos a organizar
y básicamente funcionar como dos
comités principales – un comité de
facilidades y un comité de finanzas.
Tendremos presidentes en esos comités quienes entonces nos reportarán y estarán en comunicación
con el personal del Distrito Escolar
sobre los asuntos de esas áreas en
particular ... lo cual es algo nuevo
según me han dicho”.
Irizarry: “La meta es asegurar que
los niños obtengan la educación que
se merecen. Yo no pienso de manera
lineal. Mi pensamiento es sumamente circular ... Algunas personas
dicen, ‘Voy a manejar esto primero
y después aquello’. Bueno pues la
vida no ocurre así. Los niños vienen
a la escuela con todo ocurriendo a su
alrededor. El sistema está ocurriendo, las calles están ocurriendo, y sus
familias están ocurriendo a su alrededor. Ellos no pueden simplemente
decir, ‘Ahora voy a lidiar con la escuela y después voy a la casa a lidiar
con el abuso y los problemas y todas
esas cosas’. Así no es que las cosas
operan ... Hay que decir cuáles son
los problemas mayores que realmente afectan las posibilidades de
que los niños tengan éxito en la escuela. Son problemas sociales, problemas de la comunidad, problemas
del sistema, problemas sobre igualdad, problemas de salud – y entonces está la enseñanza”.
LÉALO EN LA WEB
www.thenotebook.org
Summer 2009
Harvey Finkle
Heidi Ramírez (izquierda, sentada al lado de la Superintendente Arlene Ackerman), Robert L.
Archie, Jr., Denise Armbrister, y Johnny Irizarry ahora componen la Comisión para la Reforma
Escolar. Archie e Irizarry son los nuevos miembros de la comisión, nombrados por el Alcalde
Nutter.
al final de su término en enero.
Ahora la “veterana” de la comisión
(con menos de dos años de servicio) es
Denise McGregor Armbrister, directora
ejecutiva de la Wachovia Regional Foundation y madre de cinco niños, dos de los
cuales actualmente asisten a las escuelas
SCHOOL CALENDAR
públicas de Filadelfia. Ramírez ha sido
parte de la SRC por un año.
Comuníquese con Paul Socolar, Jefe de
Redacción del Notebook, escribiéndole a
pauls@thenotebook.org. Wendy Harris también aportó parte del reportaje.
CALENDARIO DE LA ESCUELA
2008-2009
5/25
Memorial Day – Schools/
administrative offices closed
Día de la Recordación – Escuelas/oficinas
administrativas cerradas
6/23
Last day for pupils
Último día de clases
6/24
Staff only – Professional
development day
No hay clases – Día de desarrollo profesional
para personal
6/25
Last day for staff – Planning Day
Último día de trabajo para los maestros
- Día para planificación
9/1
Staff only – Organization Day
No hay clases – Días Organizacional
9/2-9/4
Staff only – Professional
development days
No hay clases – Días de desarrollo profesional
para personal
9/7
Labor Day – Schools/
Día trabajo – Escuelas/oficinas administrativas
cerradas
9/8
First day of elementary and
secondary pupil attendance
Primer día de clases en escuelas
elementales y secundarias
9/8-9/14
Kindergarten, Pre-Kindergarten
Head Start, and Bright Futures
parent/teacher conferences
Conferencias de padres y maestros
de kinder, Head Start, y Bright Futures
9/15
First day of Kindergarten,
Pre-kindergarten Head Start,
and Bright Futures attendance
Primer día de clases kinder, Head Start,
y Bright Futures
9/28
Yom Kippur – Schools/
Yom Kippur – Escuelas/oficinas
10/12
Columbus Day – Schools/
Día de Colón – Escuelas/oficinas
11/3
Staff Only – Professional
development day
No hay clases – Días de desarrollo profesional
para personal
11/11
Veterans’ Day – Schools/
Día del Veterano – Escuelas/oficinas
11/26-11/27
Thanksgiving holiday – Schools/
Acción de Gracias – Escuelas/oficinas
12/24-12/31
Winter recess – Schools closed
Vacaciones de Invierno – Escuelas cerradas
1/1
New Year’s Day – Winter Recess
Schools/administrative offices
closed
Escuelas/oficinas administrativas cerradas
1/18
Martin Luther King Day –
Schools/administrative offices
closed
Día de Martin Luther King – Escuelas/oficinas
2/15
Presidents’ Day – Schools/
Día de los Presidentes – Escuelas/oficinas
3/29-4/2
Spring recess – Schools closed
Vacaciones de Primavera – Escuelas cerradas
5/11
Staff Only – Professional
development day
No hay clases – Día de desarrollo profesional
para personal
5/31
Memorial Day – Schools/
Día de la Recordación – Escuelas/Oficinas
6/17
Last day for pupils
Último día de clases
6/18
Last day for staff –
Organization day
Último día de trabajo para los maestros
– Días Organizacional
2009-2010
New business manager
joins Notebook staff
Corey Mark has joined the staff of
the Notebook as its new operations/business manager. His addition marks the second new hire for the Notebook in recent
months, as it continues to expand its staff
and news services.
Mark grew up near
Scranton and is a Swarthmore College graduate.
Before joining the Notebook, he worked for the
Prometheus Radio Proj- Corey Mark
ect, a national media activist organization,
where he helped to advance development
and communication efforts.
Drawing on both a fundraising and an
organizing background, he is committed to
furthering the Notebook’s mission by supporting the growth of the organization’s operations. Just weeks into the job, he is helping to finalize details for the Notebook’s 15th
anniversary celebration to be held June 11
at the University of the Arts (see p. 5). Mark is also an active musician, playing percussion in a band.
He joins a staff consisting of Editor Paul
Socolar, Managing Editor Wendy Harris,
Contributing Editor Dale Mezzacappa, and
Web Editor Erika Owens, former operations/business manager, who was promoted
in February to oversee the maintenance and
development of online publishing.
The Notebook is also supported by a
skilled group of freelancers, interns, and
active volunteer leadership and editorial boards.
Staff expansion was funded by the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s
Community Information Challenge and
a matching gift from the William Penn
Foundation to upgrade the Notebook’s
Web presence.
Activism
(continued from page 9)
“universal feeding,” in which all students at
a school automatically get free meals because
the overall poverty level in its neighborhood
is so high. Providing meals to all students in
a school is generally cheaper than making
families fill out paperwork to qualify.
The Bush-era Department of Agriculture threatened to end this program,
which is unique to Philadelphia, and the
Obama administration has not yet taken a
position on this issue, Stein said.
-Dale Mezzacappa
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Summer 2009
THE RTC DIFFERENCE
SPRING 2009
Days 1-4: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Day 5: 8:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA CENTER CITY
TEACHING READERS TO THINK
July 20 - 24
EXPANDING STUDENT THINKING IN THE CLASSROOM
June 22- 26
STYLES OF TEACHNG: PERSONALITY TYPE IN THE CLASSROOM
July 10, 11, 12, 25, 26
Day 1: 6:00 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.
Day 2 - 5: 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
COOPERATIVE DISCIPLINE
July 13 - 17
PHILADELPHIA NORTHEAST
THE KINESTHETIC CLASSROOM: TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH MOVEMENT
August 3 - 7
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
May 29, 30, 31, June 20, 21
Day 1: 6:00 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.
Day 2 - 5: 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
July 20 - 24
STYLES OF TEACHING: PERSONALITY TYPE IN THE CLASSROOM
July 13 - 17
COOPERATIVE CLASSROOM: KAGAN’S INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES
July 27 - 31
COOPERATIVE DISCIPLINE
June 12, 13, 14, 27, 28
Day 1: 6:00 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.
Day 2 - 5: 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
TEACHING WRITING AND THINKING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
August 17 - 21
BRAIN BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING
July 6 - 10
SKILLS AND STRATEGIES FOR INCLUSION AND disABILITY AWARENESS
June 22 - 26
MELROSE PARK
GRATZ COLLEGE CAMPUS, OLD YORK & MELROSE AVENUE
STYLES OF TEACHING: PERSONALITY TYPE IN THE CLASSROOM
August 10 - 14
DEALING WITH ADHD - TYPE BEHAVIOR IN THE CLASSROOM
July 27 - 31
WELLNESS: CREATING HEALTH AND BALANCE IN THE CLASSROOM
June 12, 13, 14, 27, 28
Day 1: 6:00 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.
Day 2 - 5: 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Summer 2009
districtnews
Stimulus funding boost is not a sure thing
by Paul Socolar
With a burst of federal dollars from the
economic stimulus bill, hopes are high that
this year Philadelphia schools may finally
make a real dent in resource gaps that have
subjected its students to a lower standard of
schooling for decades.
But it is also possible that the School
District of Philadelphia will be forced to
scale back plans for Phase One of its ambitious five-year Imagine 2014 blueprint.
The outcome will likely be determined by an escalating struggle over the
state budget in Harrisburg. June 30 is the
deadline for its adoption.
“The fundamental question right now
is ‘Are people who care about kids and
schools going to get organized and try to
ensure that the assumptions we built our
budget on become a reality?’” said District
Chief Budget Officer Michael Masch.
The District is poised to adopt its $3.2
billion unified budget, which assumes an
increase in expenditures of $314 million,
an extraordinary 11 percent boost. But
well over half of the total funding for that
budget comes from Harrisburg.
The funds would permit major reductions in class size in elementary schools,
support hundreds of new counselors for
middle and high schools, pay for new personnel to speed up the notoriously slow
evaluation process for special education, as
well as funding about 40 other initiatives
from the new District strategic plan.
The District’s spending parameters
are based on Gov. Rendell’s 2009-10 budget proposal, which, despite the gloomy
economic climate, continues to honor a
2008 commitment to six years of annual
increases in education funding.
Standing in the way is the Republican
majority in the state Senate, which wants to
curb any increases in support for education.
Rendell plans to use stimulus funds
to put through a second installment
of significantly higher basic education
funding. But the Senate countered with
a budget that freezes state aid at current
levels and uses $728 million in federal
stimulus funds to replace rather than
supplement the state contribution.
Funding advocates say the legislature
should be following through on its own recent “costing out” study, which found that
districts need more than $4 billion in additional funds to adequately educate all their
students. Last year, legislators committed
to achieving funding adequacy by 2014
through annual funding increases.
For Philadelphia and other districts,
expenses go up every year, so a budget
freeze would force severe cutbacks.
“Communities are still trying to recover from a 30-year system of education
finance that actually contributed to their
economic decline, as well as failing to provide a quality education for students,” explained Janis Risch, executive director of
Good Schools Pennsylvania.
The District’s proposed 2009-10 budget has not been free of controversy, though
planned initiatives like reducing class size and
hiring counselors have been well received.
With its expected stimulus funds, the
District has earmarked $16 million for
upgrades to data systems for its human resources, finance, records, and facilities departments. At press time, the Notebook had
not received an explanation from the District of some additional multi-million dollar
increases for central office departments.
Parents United for Public Education,
a local advocacy group, has questioned
spending on administration and contracts,
including the District’s plans to continue
to spend $4.6 million for 80 employees of
the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT) who
are on the District payroll.
After articles in The Inquirer exposing patronage and abuse at the BRT, SRC
Chair Robert L. Archie, Jr. endorsed the
calls to move these employees off the payroll but suggested the District could pay
the city a service fee for them.
Notebook Editor Paul Socolar blogs about
the budget at www.thenotebook.org/blog.
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Summer 2009
districtnews
Fresh faces at the SRC
The mayor and governor
each announce two choices
to serve on the commission.
by Paul Socolar
The School Reform Commission,
the District’s five-member governing
board, lost two of its veterans and welcomed two new mayoral appointees in
April. Another nominee, put forward
by Governor Rendell, is still awaiting
confirmation by the state Senate.
Thrust into the roles of commissioner and chair of the body is Robert
L. Archie, Jr., a veteran attorney and
alumnus of West Philadelphia High
School. He is a partner at the law firm
Duane Morris LLP, with a strong background in municipal finance.
Mayor Nutter’s other appointee
is Johnny Irizarry, a long-time Latino
community activist, nonprofit leader,
and arts educator. Irizarry directs the
University of Pennsylvania’s Center for
Hispanic Excellence: La Casa Latina.
Both were quickly called upon to
cast a major vote on the District’s fiveyear strategic plan barely a week after
their swearing-in ceremony on April 8.
The commission now consists of
just four members, with the confirmation pending of gubernatorial appointee Joseph Dworetzky, an attorney and
former city solicitor.
SRC actions require approval of
three or more commissioners.
Terms of four commissioners had officially expired in January, and the three
new SRC appointees were introduced
at a joint press conference called by the
mayor and governor on March 28 after a
months-long, closed-door vetting process.
In addition to the three, Governor
Rendell reappointed to the commission
Heidi Ramirez, an expert in education policy, research, and evaluation, who heads
the Urban Education Collaborative at
Temple University’s College of Education.
The outgoing SRC Chair Sandra
Dungee Glenn, one of two sitting commissioners not reappointed, was the last
of the original SRC cohort who took
office in early 2002 in the wake of the
“friendly takeover” of the District by
the state. Also out is long-time commissioner Martin Bednarek. Former
commissioner James Gallagher stepped
down at the end of his term in January.
Now the “old-timer” on the commission, with less than two years of service, is Denise McGregor Armbrister,
executive director of the Wachovia Regional Foundation and a mother of five,
two of whom currently attend Philadelphia public schools. Ramirez has served
on the SRC for one year.
pauls@thenotebook.org. Additional reporting
by Wendy Harris.
Photos by Harvey Finkle
Robert L. Archie, Jr. (left) and Johnny Irizarry are newly appointed to the SRC by Mayor Nutter.
Comments from new commissioners on tasks ahead
Archie: “We’re talking about restructuring
the board participation level through committees as opposed to the SRC acting as
a committee of the whole on all of the issues. We’re going to sort of drill down and
basically come up with two principal committees – that’s a facilities committee and
a finance committee. We’re going to have
chairpersons of those committees who will
then report back and interface with the
staff of the School District about issues in
those particular areas…which is something
new, I’m told.”
Some people say, ‘I’m going to handle this
first and then I’m going to handle that.’
Well, that’s not the way life occurs. Kids are
coming to school with everything happening around them. The system is happening
around them, the streets are happening
around them, their families are happening
around them. They can’t just say, ‘I’m going
to deal with school right now and then go
home and deal with the abuse and craziness and all that kind of stuff.’ That’s just
not the way it operates…. You have to say
what overarching issues are really hurting
kids’ possibilities of succeeding in school.
Irizarry: “The goals are making sure that It’s social issues, community issues, syskids get the education that they deserve. I temic issues, equity issues, health issues
don’t think linear. I think very circular…. – and then there’s teaching.”
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Summer 2009
districtnews
Teacher talks
“Schools and communities across the
city face challenges in creating an effective teaching workforce,” said Brian Armstead of the Philadelphia Education Fund,
a leader of the teacher quality campaign.
“A part of what we need to do is empower
schools to develop visions and develop
staffs that can live up to those visions.”
Armstead said the District has indicated they support “just about everything
in the campaign.” He added, “The union
actually is in support of a vast majority
of things. The sticking point for them is
site selection,” which cuts too deeply into
teacher seniority rights and, as it’s done
now, gives too much power to principals.
Besides incentives to work in hardto-staff schools and full site selection, the
campaign is calling for a better evaluation
system and performances standards for
teachers and principals (see p. 29) “that are
aligned with student success,” and professional development that promotes a “culture of collaboration” in schools.
The current contract specifies that
teachers are not required to attend any
professional development outside of what
is scheduled as part of the regular workday.
The union is currently working under a one-year contract because Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, who arrived
at this time last year, said there wasn’t
enough time to resolve major issues. The
PFT – prevented from striking by state law
– reluctantly agreed.
Wages and benefits
The PFT contract expires on August
31. Historically, the District and union
rarely settle before the last minute, with the
major sticking points coming down to wages and benefits. These usually track what is
given to municipal unions, and this year,
Mayor Nutter has put no extra funds in his
proposed budget for raises for city workers.
The District is not in as dire financial
straits as the city, however, especially if an
expected infusion of federal stimulus funds
arrives. (see p. 15)
Nutter also would not comment
through his chief education advisor, Lori
Shorr, on what he would like to see a new
teachers’ contract accomplish.
But through examining the District’s
reform blueprint, Imagine 2014, and compiling various public statements of Ackerman and others, it is clear that leaders would
like to move towards performance pay, a
longer school day and year, better evaluations, more comprehensive professional
development, earlier deadlines on teacher
transfers, and expansion of schools’ ability
to choose teachers through site selection.
Officials have also said they want teachers to sign individual contracts, requiring
them to inform the District in a timely fashion of pending retirements or resignations.
Imagine 2014, while it includes several items that would have to be negotiated, omits a call for full site selection, even
though work groups that helped develop
the plan recommended it. The union
agreed to hire half the positions at every
school through site selection in 2004 after
the SRC publicly made it a priority.
Phase One of Imagine 2014 does include an item calling for “financial incentives
for high performance among individuals
through differentiated salary increases,” and
simplified mechanisms for removing poor
performers. (see p. 30)
Broad powers
Right or wrong, policymakers who engineered the state takeover of the District
in 2001 blamed contractual restrictions for
lack of meaningful changes and gave the
newly created School Reform Commission
broad powers to unilaterally impose terms.
For instance, the law says the SRC
“is not required to engage in collective bargaining negotiations” regarding
“staffing patterns and assignments, class
schedules, academic calendar, places of
instruction, pupil assessment, and teacher preparation time.” In other words, the
District could unilaterally end senioritybased teacher assignment if it chose.
Previous school leaders have decided
not to use this power and to bargain around
these issues anyway, considering the move
counterproductive, politically unpalatable,
and likely to be challenged in court. Ackerman, however, has hinted she might use
the so-called “nuclear option,” particularly
to implement her turnaround plan for up
to 35 underperforming schools that could
involve starting over with a new staff.
Ackerman noted at a press briefing
that the law gives her the power to reassign teachers at will.
To learn more about the “What Will It
Take” campaign, visit www.phillytqe.org.
Contact Notebook Contributing Editor Dale
Mezzacappa at dalemezz@comcast.net.
Master Your Subject,
Advance Your Career.
L. Pasceri, M.S. Reading Specialist
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Graduate Arts and Sciences
Spirit Intellect Purpose
Summer 2009
www.sju.edu/graduate
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teacher excellence
NO EASY ROAD, PART 2
by Benjamin Herold
additional reporting by Todd Friedman
photos by Harvey Finkle and Benjamin Herold
For thousands of city teens, 9th grade is a new world full of
opportunity and peril. Successfully completing freshman year
means nearly doubling their chances of graduating from high
school. But what does this make-or-break year look like from
the perspective of the students going through it?
Last edition, we looked at 9th-grade transition supports
through the eyes of Corey White, who arrived at his high school,
Academy at Palumbo, 90 minutes early every day for extra
instruction; Dominique Holloman, whose freshman seminar
helped her adjust to life in Audenried High School; and Will
Green, who was struggling to find his place at South Philadelphia High School.
Vital to these students’ success is access to highly effective teachers. With the school year drawing to a close, we check
in on each student’s progress and explore how key teachers,
past and present, have tried to impact their learning – and
their lives.
Harvey Finkle
“I look my students in the eye and tell them that I love them,” says Latoyia Bailey, an English teacher at Academy at
Palumbo. Bailey is one of several teachers who spoke to the Notebook as part of our in-depth look at what is keeping 9th graders Corey White, Will Green, and Dominique Holloman connected to high school.
The ties that bind
For three 9th graders sharing their
stories with the Notebook, connecting
with teachers is a critical step in staying
engaged with school and on track to
graduation.
I
there’s an experiment to be conducted.
His general attendance, however, is less steady. In the
first 150 days of the school year, Will has 31 official absences
and 33 latenesses.
His poor attendance stretches back to elementary
school; from 5th through 8th grades, Will missed 36, 56, 58,
and 33 days.
Will blames this on his asthma. But in 4th grade, the
year he had Charlene Jablow at Abigail Vare Elementary, he
was absent just 20 times and late only twice.
“I liked Ms. Jablow’s class,” remembers Will. “She had
animals all over the room, and we got to take care of them.”
Like Millington, Jablow has strong credentials – undergraduate degrees in elementary and early childhood education, a master’s in curriculum and instruction – and keeps
her students engaged with multiple activities. Her training,
she said, drove home that “doing hands-on experiments was
fundamental to helping students grasp concepts.”
For Will, that meant feeding and observing a guinea pig
named “Fatty Patty,” building underwater environments using Tupperware and clay, and turning a lemon into a battery.
t takes a lot to rattle Will Green. An unexpected move
after his mother’s landlord refused to fix their flooded basement? A three-day suspension for throwing crayons in
English class? His photo on the front page of the Notebook?
The quiet 14-year-old just shrugs.
At South Philadelphia High, Will’s unassuming demeanor sometimes means getting lost in the shuffle.
At a large school with a 56 percent dropout rate, that
is scary. But in his physical science class, where he has the
chance to conduct all manner of hands-on experiments,
Will’s steadiness often works in his favor. Never is that more
true than during teacher Segan Millington’s “earthquake
challenge.”
Millington gives students a variety of materials and
challenges them to construct three-tiered structures that can
withstand her efforts to topple them. Will and
his partners select popsicle sticks, cardboard
and glue, then get to work building a solid base
and supporting the walls.
The next day, theirs is the lone tower still
standing.
“Everyone else used Play-Doh,” explains
Will, “so theirs fell apart.”
“[Will] can’t get enough of hands-on material,” laughs Millington, a third-year teacher
with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Syracuse University who worked in an endocrinology lab before getting a master’s degree in
science teaching at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Science can easily go either way,” she
said. “Kids are either very excited or think it’s
the most boring thing ever. I try to come up
with as many hands-on activities as possible.”
This strategy clearly works for Will.
Whether mixing chemical solutions or
“Ms. Millington’s class is the only one where we really
investigating marshmallow-filled syringstuff and do experiments,” says Will Green (right).
es, Will always seems to make class when
His favorite lesson, though, was dissecting owl pellets to
learn about the bird’s diet. “We found all kinds of bone and
fur, then had to figure out what animals they were from,” he
recalls animatedly.
All along, the presence – or absence – of that enthusiasm has been reflected in Will’s performance. Fourth grade
was his last year of all A’s and B’s. In the most recent marking
period at South Philadelphia High, he received an A in science but a C in Algebra and a D in English.
In his other classes, says Will, “Sometimes we get on the
computer or we get to make posters. But Ms. Millington’s
class is the only one where we really get to build stuff and do
experiments.”
His connection to school – and his dream of becoming
a veterinarian – would feel shakier if not for the promise of
more such instruction.
Rarely one to talk about the future, Will is looking forward to one aspect of 10th grade.
“I hope I have Ms. Millington for biology,” he says
brightly. “She said we’ll get to dissect animals.”
F
Benjamin Herold
get to build
ifteen blocks away at the Academy
at Palumbo, Corey White, 14, is
struggling to get ready for his English test on The Odyssey.
“I really didn’t get it because there
were a lot of names that all sound alike,”
he laments.
Fortunately for Corey, teacher
Latoyia Bailey, 35, is devoting an entire
period to a Jeopardy-style review game.
Bailey – a 10-year veteran who has
a Ph.D. in African-American history
to go with her undergraduate degree
in English education – goes all-out to
engage her students. She has turned
the blackboard into a giant scoreboard, and she cracks up her students
by adopting the voice of a Greek god.
Corey said that he feels comfortable
with both Bailey’s teaching style, which
he describes as “going from parts to the
whole,” and her personal style, which
feels intimately familiar.
Summer 2009
teacher excellence
L
Summer 2009
When Mary Anderson died, the family fell into disarray. “I still haven’t gotten over it,” Anderson said quietly.
“When she died, I just wanted to block out the world.”
In many ways, she succeeded in doing just that. The
push from home for Dominique to stay engaged in school
eroded over time.
Dominique’s teachers have been ill-equipped to make
up the difference.
“I don’t want to get into other people’s business,” said
Dolores Daniels, Dominique’s 6th grade teacher at Walter
G. Smith Elementary. “Dominique could have been a higher achiever. But I do not think there was a great demand on
Dominique from home to do better.”
Dominique regularly attended Smith, only a few blocks
from her home.
That was not the case for her 7th and 8th grade years at
William Peirce Middle School. “I missed a lot of days,” she says.
“I would get real sick, and my mom would let me stay home.”
During Dominique’s two years, Peirce was beset by poor
academics, dwindling enrollment, and high teacher turnover. It closed for good after her 8th-grade year.
Subsequently, fearing the climate at South Philadelphia
High and failing to find an alternative, Anderson allowed
her daughter to miss an entire year of school before enrolling
her in September at the newly reopened Audenried.
Though readjusting to school and dealing with her
pregnancy, Dominique managed decent grades.
“Dominique was a great student while she was there,”
said physical science teacher Kate Herts. “She would always
do her work, ask questions when she was confused – everything a teacher would want a student to do.”
But as her pregnancy progressed, her attendance slipped
again. A worried Anderson frequently took Dominique
home after lunch. Then came the bed rest and the confusion over the missed work.
“Ms. Monacelli said ‘I got you,’” said a frustrated
Dominique. “She said she was going to drop it off, but
she never came.”
Equally frustrated, Monacelli tried to contact Dominique but lacked the time to navigate the maze of changing
cell phone numbers and family tiffs that made reaching her
student an ordeal.
“I’m not going to chase her,” Monacelli explained. “I
have 170 other kids to worry about.”
Audenried is better positioned than most neighborhood
schools to help keep students like Dominique connected.
With only 9th graders, support staff have manageable
caseloads. The school has a detailed procedure for situations
like Dominique’s, and the principal has brought in community partners. Dominique’s teachers clearly like her, see her
potential, and want to support her.
Yet because of the lost months, it’s uncertain whether
Dominique will complete 9th grade.
While Anderson watches Destiny, the tired new mother tries to plow through her missed lessons.
“I do what I can,” she said, a touch wearily. “But I need
help.”
Web Extra: Corey’s ‘Othermother’
Harvey Finkle
“I really can’t describe
it,” he says of her classroom
presence. “It’s just a feeling
I get when I look at her. I
automatically feel natural.”
Research suggests that
matching students of color
with teachers of the same
race can positively affect
academic
performance.
The “natural” feeling that
Corey describes may play
a role.
Bailey certainly values that feeling. She goes
out of her way to be a role
model, and she sees her job
as not only helping Corey
Harvey Finkle
with schoolwork, but help“It’s just a feeling I get when I look at her. I automatically feel
ing him figure out who he
is in the world.
natural,” says Corey White.
“African-American
Luckily for Corey’s mother, Bell understood and emstudents in particular need to see people who come out of
braced these expectations.
their communities who have a good life and have pressed
Luckily for Corey, she didn’t take his mother’s advice
through the same issues they face,” she says. “I let [them]
literally.
know the road it took for me to get here.”
“All I know,” says Robin White, “is that he never talkBailey’s childhood and schooling in Paterson, NJ, had
ed out of turn in her class again, and he got awesome grades.
a lot in common with that of her students, and she shares
We took care of Corey together.”
her story freely. She does not hesitate to let them know, for
example, that she received public assistance on the way to
her doctorate.
ike Corey, 16-year-old Dominique Holloman has a
For Corey, such information clearly hits home. “She inmother and teachers who care about her. Unlike those
troduced herself and told us her background,” he says. “She’s
in Corey’s life, the adults in Dominique’s have a diffifrom the ‘hood. I related to that and took a certain respect
cult time bridging the gulf between home and school.
to her.”
Recently, miscommunication with the teachers and
Bailey also believes that extending her caring and comstaff of Audenried High School has left her under the gun
mitment beyond the classroom is essential to being a good
to pass 9th grade.
teacher.
Dominique, who started the school year pregnant, went
“I look my students in the eye
on bed rest at the end of Feband tell them that I love them,” she
ruary. Her teachers, following
says. “I tell my students that I am
procedure, collected her work
like your ‘other mother.’”
and sent it to the main office.
In claiming this role, Bailey
They expected Dominique’s
has joined Corey’s “village” – as he
mother, Linda Anderson, to
puts it, the people who will “kick
pick it up.
my behind if I try to stand on the
Dominique, however,
corners.”
thought that Roster Chair
This leads Corey to pay Bailey
Victoria Monacelli, with
the two highest compliments he
whom she had developed a
knows.
close relationship, would de“She reminds me of my
liver the work to her home.
mom,” he says. “And she reminds
Nothing happened for
me of Ms. Bell.”
two months while DomiDonna Bell-Koon, 41, is Conique sat at home, bored.
rey’s all-time favorite teacher. She
Then, on May 1, Domitaught him for 4th through 6th
nique had her baby – a girl
grades at Harrington Elementary,
she named Destiny.
pushing to “loop” with her stuNine days later, Domidents for three years so she could
nique and her mother celbetter nurture their growth.
ebrated Destiny’s first MothWhen asked to describe Bell,
er’s Day.
Corey smiles and calls out, “Mom,
Anderson gazed conBenjamin Herold
tell about my mother in school.”
stantly at her tiny grand“I’m
tired
but
I
got
a
lot
to
do,”
says
Robin White, 28, happily
daughter. “My kids were my
Dominique Holloman (left).
obliges.
kids,” said the 37-year-old
“Ms. Bell is the best teacher
mother of four. “But this
ever. She helped to bring Corey’s natural abilities out of him.
one” – Destiny – “is really mine.”
We got along like we’d known each other forever. There
Dominique has turned to her mom for advice on everywere never any misunderstandings.”
thing from labor pains to feeding, and Anderson often takes
“From day one,” says Robin White, “Ms. Bell just felt
care of Destiny while her daughter recuperates.
like family.”
“I feel very happy knowing I’m so supported,” glows the
To illustrate, Corey and his mother tell the following story.
proud teenager.
“When I was in 4th grade, I talked a lot,” begins Corey.
Though Dominique’s connection to Audenried has
“So Ms. Bell called my mom.”
frayed, her bond with her mother has deepened.
“She said, ‘Girl, I love Corey to death, but your boy
“I don’t treat her like my mom,” she says. “I treat her
talks too much,’” continues Corey’s mom.
like my sister.”
“I said, ‘What are you calling me for? Take him in the
Their relationship intensified following the 2002 death
coat room and wear his behind out.’”
of Dominique’s grandmother, Mary Anderson.
Her rule for her children, Robin White explains, has al“My mother was our backbone,” said Anderson. “She
ways been, “When you go to school, your teachers are your
was always the first one up in the morning, getting the kids to
parents.”
school.”
“From day one,” says Robin White
of her son’s all-time favorite teacher,
“Ms. Bell just felt like family.” On April 25, The
Notebook was there as Corey, his mother, and
Donna Bell-Koon reunited to share their memories
and insights about the teacher’s impact on Corey.
Check out the multimedia slideshow at
www.thenotebook.org/corey-video
teacher excellence
New data – same staffing inequities at high-poverty schools
Schools and the percentage of teachers
from 2007-08 who returned in 2008-09
EDUCATION
Percentage of Teachers Retained from 07-08 to 08-09,
by School Level AND Percentage Low Income (includes all teachers)
100
83% 84%
22%
23%
21% 22%
20
16%
16%
14%
12%
11%
11%
10
0
8%
1362 489 1633
1375 927 523
K-8
Schools
High
Schools
0-79% low-income
531 175 435
Percentage of teachers
80
30
745 548 1069
Middle
Schools
79%
81%
75%
40
20
1346 475 1637
1379 931 518
K-8
Schools
85%+ low-income
546 181 450
725 541 1064
Middle
Schools
Elementary
Schools
High
Schools
0-79% low-income
80-84% low-income
85%+ low-income
(Actual number of teachers in white)
High-poverty schools are less likely
to have highly qualified teachers
There was a spike in teacher vacancies
at the opening of school in fall 2008
Percentage Highly Qualified, by School Level AND Percentage Low Income
(includes only teachers of core subjects)
Number of Teacher Vacancies on First Student Day,
2001-2008, School District of Philadelphia
100
93% 92%
92%
90%
84%
80
160
148
86%
80%
146
120
60
40
20
95
81
80
60
51
40
1082 391 1291
1022 636 367
391 117 328
601 441 883
20
K-8
Schools
High
Schools
Middle
Schools
Elementary
Schools
0
80-84% low-income
112
104
100
2001
85%+ low-income
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Year
(Total number of teachers in white)
The percentage of teachers who are African American
has been declining
The District has just experienced two years
of low numbers of teacher applicants
Representation of teachers of color by ethnicity
in the School District of Philadelphia, 2001-2008
Teacher applications received, 2002-2008, School District of Philadelphia
5000
40%
35%
146
140
78%
71%
0-79% low-income
80%
62%
0
97% 98% 96%
83%
73%
60
Elementary
Schools
80-84% low-income
87%
84%
76%
(Actual number of teachers in white)
0
33.3%
36.7%
51.9%
53.7%
54.5%
55.2%
57.1%
57.1%
57.7%
60.0%
60.0%
60.5%
61.1%
61.3%
62.1%
66.7%
66.7%
66.7%
69.2%
70.8%
72.2%
73.5%
73.7%
74.1%
74.1%
75.0%
33.9%
33.2%
32.4%
32.0%
30.5%
3975
4000
29.1%
29.2%
3918
28.7%
Applications received
30%
25%
20%
15%
3573
3123
3322
3000
2799
2000
10%
1000
5%
0%
2.8%
2.9%
2.9%
2.9%
1.5%
2001
1.5%
2002
1.7%
2.0%
2.0%
2.1%
2.2%
2.2%
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2.7%
2.7%
2.7%
Year
*school planned for closing
LACROSSE
Percentage of Teachers with 1-2 Years Experience in District,
by School Level AND Percentage Low Income (includes all teachers)
32%
Retention rate
Gillespie Middle*
Sulzberger Middle*
Smith Academics Plus
Rhodes High School
Phila. HS for Business
Locke
Turner Middle*
Vare Middle
Shaw Middle
Stetson Middle
Carroll HS
Tilden Middle
Dunbar Academics Plus
Roosevelt Middle
Clemente Middle
Alcorn
Youth Study Center
L.P. Hill
Cramp
Ethel Allen
FitzSimons HS
Hartranft
Potter-Thomas
Kenderton
Munoz-Marin
M.H. Stanton
High-poverty schools retain fewer of their teachers
from one year to the next
40
% of all teachers
School
High-poverty schools are more likely to have teachers
with only 1-2 years experience
Teacher vacancies
26 District schools have had teacher
retention rates of 75 percent or less
in each of the last four years
Source: School District of Philadelphia Data analysis by Ruth Curran Neild
Despite efforts to more equitably distribute teachers, School District data obtained by the Notebook this spring show
that schools with the highest concentration of poverty still have the most teacher
turnover and the lowest percentages of
highly qualified and experienced teachers.
Differences are most striking at
middle schools and high schools. For instance, at high schools where more than
85 percent of the students live below the
poverty line, nearly one in three teachers
is not highly qualified and one in five has
two or fewer years of experience. In the
highest-poverty middle schools, nearly
one in three teachers has two years or
less of experience.
The same pattern is true for teacher
retention and turnover – higher rates
of poverty correlate with higher rates
of turnover. Again, the differences are
most striking in middle schools. Many
schools lose 30 to 40 percent of their
teachers or more each year.
At the same time, the data show
that the District has seriously regressed
since 2006 in filling all teacher vacancies by the beginning of the school year.
There has also been a decline in applicants from high levels achieved between 2003-04 and 2005-06. The percentage of African American teachers
has been declining as well.
African American
Asian
Latino
2.6%
0
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
School Year
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Call: 215-951-0330 x 2190
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Summer 2009
teacher excellence
District, with fits and starts,
inches toward teacher equity
by Paul Socolar
The summer of 2002 was a low point
in Philadelphia’s ongoing struggle to put
effective teachers in the classroom.
The hiring crisis was so severe
that nearly half the teacher vacancies were being filled by
individuals
with
emergency certifications. In many
cases, they were
hired despite weak academic backgrounds, failure to pass licensing exams, and lack
of classroom experience.
That fall, newly hired CEO Paul
Vallas launched a Campaign for Human Capital to address the paltry applicant pool, the extraordinarily high
teacher turnover rate, and the continuing flight of teachers from the system’s highest-poverty schools.
A year later, education organizing
and advocacy groups came together
around a teacher equity platform to
urge the District and teachers’ union
to take vigorous steps to ensure a “stable, certified, experienced, and well
supported teaching force.” They aimed
to put these issues at the forefront in
that year’s contract negotiations.
“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,”
EDUCATION CIRCLE CHARTER
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
IMANI
EDUCATION
CIRCLE
CHARTER
SCHOOL
Please email your resume to
randerson@imanicircle.org
or for more information
about the school visit
www.imanicharter.org
Summer 2009
parent Dolores Shaw of the Eastern
Pennsylvania Organizing Project told
the School Reform Commission at a
February 2004 meeting.
During the five years of the Vallas
administration, experts say progress
was made. But since 2007 – a period
of major transitions in the District – a
Notebook review of teacher data suggests that backsliding has occurred on
a number of fronts.
“Responding both to NCLB’s requirement that students be taught by
‘highly qualified’ teachers, and to local reform efforts launched in 2002,
the District slashed the number of
teachers with emergency certifications, substantially reduced classroom
vacancies, and raised the certification
rate for the teaching workforce, especially among new teachers,” observed
the authors of a 2007 Research for
Action study of District staffing problems.
A new Web site and new university partnerships helped boost applications. The districtwide core curriculum put in place starting in 2003
provided a vital support for new teachers, and it was backed up by a large
cohort of coaches. New partnerships
with alternative certification programs – Teach for America and later
The New Teacher Project – played a
big role in alleviating shortages.
Over five years, the number of
emergency-certified teachers in the
District dropped by more than 2,000.
WEB
Harvey Finkle
Parkway West High School is one of three urban education academies, along with
programs at Furness and Overbrook, that introduce students to careers in teaching.
Here, Howard Kennedy, environmental science teacher at Parkway West, reviews
the work of Carnell Dudley (left) and Akeem Adekanmbi. For more about the acadEXTRA emies, see the Web extra at www.thenotebook.org/teacher-academy.
director of teacher recruitment each
In September 2006, school opened
have changed hands twice in two
with just 51 teaching positions unyears.
filled – a record-low number of vacanAlong with turnover at the top,
cies.
the vacancy numbers have ballooned.
Nonetheless, things were far
On the first day of school this year,
from rosy. The steady decline in the
there were 146
number of African
vacancies, back to
American teach- WEB Five years ago, the Notebook
profiled six new District
where things were
ers in Philadelphia
teachers. How did they fare?
in 2002.
schools
continWhere
are
they
now?
Total applicaued. And glaring
Read
about
it
at
tions for teaching
disparities among EXTRA
www.thenotebook.org/six-teachers
positions dropped
schools in vacancy
off by almost 30
rates,
turnover,
percent in 2007 and only recovered
and teacher qualifications also perpartially in 2008.
sisted. Schools with predominantly
Superintendent Arlene Ackerlow-income student and students of
man’s creation of a top-level execucolor continued to struggle to attract
tive position of “Chief Talent Develand retain teachers.
opment Officer” last November put a
The past two years have been
renewed focus on addressing the Dismarked by leadership change at all
trict’s human resources challenges.
levels among those responsible for
“Great staff” is one of the five
putting good teachers in Philadelphia
major goals of Ackerman’s recently
classrooms. The positions of CEO,
adopted strategic plan, Imagine 2014.
chair of the School Reform CommisThe document envisions beginning
sion, head of human resources, and
“every school year with a full complement of highly effective staff that
We are seeking highly qualified, certified and long term
reflects the diversity of our student
substitute teachers for September 2009. We are looking for
population.”
Measures underway this year unelementary and middle school teachers, especially those
der Chief Talent Development Officer
certified in math, science and social studies.
Estelle Matthews include moving up
Imani currently operates a K-8 charter school in the Germantown area of
the bulk of new teacher hiring from
Philadelphia serving 450 students. We have made AYP for the past four out of
August to June and increasing the refive years and promote a spirit of excellence in our students.
cruitment of teachers of color.
New initiatives planned and budgeted for the first year of the District’s
Qualifications:
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form teaching standards, a new Of
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for action on a set of proposals to adyou and your dependents. Our health coverage plans include dental and vision
dress inequities in the distribution of
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teacher excellence
Teacher equity hinges on principals, policy changes
The city’s lowest-performing
schools are still short on
quality staff.
by Meghan McHugh
Sheppard Elementary is a tiny, old
school in West Kensington, where the
community is overwhelmingly Latino
and more than nine in ten students live
below the poverty line. The neighborhood struggles with high crime rates
and open-air drug trafficking.
“We should be the poster child for
the hard-to-staff school,” said Principal
James Otto.
But in the six years Otto has been
at the school, there have been only two
openings, and he filled them quickly. Most
teachers at Sheppard have been there between six and 12 years, and some have
stayed for 20. The daily teacher attendance rate is 96 percent.
“All of my staff has enough time [to]
qualify for voluntary transfers to other
dents with a highly qualified teacher was
places,” said Otto. “They choose not to.”
supposed to be achieved by 2006, but few
Unfortunately, Sheppard’s rate of
states and districts came close.
teacher retention is rare in Philadelphia.
The Obama administration is ratchetAccording to a report last year by Eduing up the pressure, making improvement
cation Resource Strategies, 35 percent of
in teacher quality and equity a condition
teachers at the District’s lowest-performing
of receiving some of the
schools – in so-called Corrective Action because Teachers emphasize federal stimulus money.
But what will keep
they haven’t met student
the power of a
experienced and highly
achievement goals for five
years – are still not “highly supportive community qualified teachers in
qualified” by federal stan- and good leadership. schools where they are
most needed?
dards under No Child Left
Teachers themselves emphasize the
Behind. That rate compares to 20 percent
power of a supportive community and
at schools that are making “adequate yeargood leadership.
ly progress” under the law.
“The staff here, we’re all family,” said
Schools in Corrective Action also
Christina Genetti-Grosh, who has been
have the highest percentages of teachers
at Sheppard for 10 years. She said Otto
with less than three years of experience.
“makes it a place where people want to
This situation exists even though
stay.” He respects teachers’ classroom auNCLB, enacted in 2002, made a federal
tonomy while providing support through
commitment to more equitably distribprofessional development and making sure
ute the most qualified and experienced
teachers have ample supplies, she said.
teachers. The goal of providing all stu-
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“We have everything we could possibly need to help our children,” she said. “It
makes our job a lot easier.”
Teacher Kate Sharp, who spent eight
years at Meade Elementary, also emphasized
the need for collaboration among teachers
under the direction of a strong leader. “My
whole reason for staying at Meade was the
team more than anything,” she said. “They
took me under their wing immediately.”
And the principal was “phenomenal at
making teachers work together.”
It is easier, however, to build collegiality at a small elementary school than at
a large neighborhood high school. A second-year teacher at one such high school
in North Philadelphia described teaching
as a solitary experience with little support
or recognition. She plans to resign at the
end of the year.
“You can fail or pass your students
here,” said this teacher, who preferred not
to identify herself or the school. “Right
now nobody’s holding me accountable.”
She said administrators need to be
more aware of what happens in classrooms. “Even just a weekly check-in: what
did your kids know at the beginning of the
week and what do they know now, and
how did you do it?” she suggested. “There’s
no way to feel successful.”
One way to address such isolation is
to create small learning communities with
common teacher planning time. Donald
Anticoli, principal at Lincoln High School
and formerly at Penn Treaty Middle, has
had success with this model. “It gives teachers time to be professional as opposed to
[just] teaching seven periods a day,” he explained. “This is all part of retaining teachers, creating an environment so that…they
can collaborate and feel not alone.”
In a district where 29 percent of the
principals have less than four years’ experience, however, not all school leaders may be able to provide the supports
that teachers need.
Bernard McGee, a longtime Philadelphia principal who now places student
teachers from Temple University, said that
the District is “becoming more proactive”
about identifying best practices for recruiting and keeping top teachers, but doesn’t
devote enough attention to training principals in how to use them.
Advocating for such training and
support is a major focus of a campaign
for teacher effectiveness led by the Education First Compact and Philadelphia
Cross City Campaign for School Reform. The groups say that the conditions necessary to ensure teaching quality and equity are not yet in place.
“Right now, you need to be an exceptional principal to be able to make the
changes that we need for our kids,” said
Brian Armstead of the Philadelphia Education Fund, a leader in the campaign. “If
we’re relying on people to be exceptional,
we’ll never transform the system.”
Armstead said that one obvious policy
change is full site selection, which means
that principals and schools can select who
they want to fill vacancies. Now, the District has a convoluted system in which
only some positions are filled through site
selection and the rest through seniority.
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GifîXdjXcjff]]\ij('$n\\bZfcc\^\$c\m\cZflij\j
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teacher excellence
Other cities outstrip Philadelphia in recruiting, hiring teachers
by Betsey Useem
Despite a wind-chill factor of 25 below
zero, more than 1,000 prospective teachers attended a job fair run by the Chicago
Public Schools last winter. The number of
job applicants per opening in Chicago
has increased from 2.5 per position
in 2002 to 10 candidates per slot
since 2006. Since the system
now expedites the hiring and
assignment of teachers, schools
open with few teacher vacancies.
In Boston, there is an average of 38 licensed applicants per new teacher opening
(candidates can apply for more than one
opening), and teachers are typically hired
by the end of June.
In New York City, there are six applicants for every opening. As in Boston and
Chicago, teacher vacancies have decreased.
By contrast, in Philadelphia, only two
to three candidates per position applied
for the 2008-09 school year. Hundreds of
teachers were hired as late as the end of August or early September, and school opened
with 146 teacher vacancies, almost three
times the number just two years earlier.
In the last decade, school superintendents in Chicago, Boston, New York
City, and several other urban districts
have radically altered how they recruit,
hire, and assign new classroom teachers
after making reform of their human resource systems a top priority.
While none have resolved all their
staffing problems, leaders in these districts
succeeded in upgrading the number and
quality of applicants so they could be more
selective in hiring. Studies in Chicago and
New York City link the improvement in
the academic credentials of the teachers to
gains in student achievement. These
cities have also narrowed the gap
in teacher qualifications between
low- and high-poverty schools.
In a series of 2008 reports, researchers at the Center for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at the University of Wisconsin described how human
resources departments in New York, Boston, Chicago, Long Beach, Calif., and
Fairfax County, Va. attracted a larger and
more talented pool of applicants.
According to report author Allen
Odden, these districts “figured out how to
open school in the fall with virtually no
teacher and principal vacancies.”
The set of reforms included:
r " TDIPPMCBTFE UFBDIFS TFMFDUJPO
process that “gave schools the sole power
to make the final decision on which teachers [both new and transferring] to hire.”
r " TJHOJàDBOU SFEVDUJPO JO WFUFSBO
teachers’ seniority-based right to transfer
to other schools.
r"OFBSMJFSBOEGBTUFSIJSJOHQSPcess that enabled districts to snare
promising prospects before they signed
on with other districts.
r5IFVTFPGFMFDUSPOJDUPPMTUPBVUPNBUF
the hiring and school assignment process.
r%FWFMPQNFOUPGOFXBOENPSFTF-
Jason Geil
The Chicago public school system has accelerated its hiring of teachers, allowing schools to
open with fewer vacancies. Shown here is teacher Olga Nunez-Johnson at Spry Elementary.
lective talent pools through agreements
with national organizations, particularly
The New Teacher Project and Teach for
America, and through the creation of
homegrown teacher residency programs.
The researchers also found that superintendents in these cities have typically
been in their position for six or more years
and are backed by powerful city mayors.
“The reality in urban districts [is that]
union-management collaboration is often essential for moving forward,” noted
CPRE researcher Julia Koppich.
Philadelphia’s district-union relations,
however, have always tended to be more
antagonistic than cooperative.
While Philadelphia has not kept pace
with the advances made in these other cities, the District did make some progress
between 2002 and 2007 in revamping its
hiring and assignment processes.
Under the Paul Vallas administration,
the District largely replaced “emergency-certified” teachers with “intern-certified” teachers – mostly from Teach for America and
The New Teacher Project – who typically
had much stronger academic backgrounds.
Moreover, a 2007 report by Research
for Action found that between 2002 and
2006, the percentage of new teachers in
Philadelphia who were certified rose from
47 percent to over 92 percent, and teacher vacancies dropped.
SUMMER 2009 AT PAFA
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with a great opportunity to advance their personal work, refresh their
teaching with stimulating ideas amidst a new community of artists and
teachers, and accumulate Act 48 and Graduate Credit.
The Academy in Your Classroom
July 6 - 11
The teaching philosophy at the PAFA, emphasizing a foundation in observational
drawing and technical knowledge, has stood the test of time. Learn to apply the PAFA
teaching model to the contemporary high school setting, and give your students an
artistic edge!
Six-Week Studio/Critique Program
July 6 – August 14
Designed for artists and educators who desire constructive feedback on their artwork
as well as the support and interaction of an artistic community. Registration confers
a private studio in the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building and critiques from a stellar
ensemble of nationally and internationally known artists, including members of the
Academy’s acclaimed faculty.
Art as a Foundation for Learning
A week to honor your creativity!
Al Gury
Susan Rodriguez
PAFA Continuing Education offers a wide range
of art classes, workshops and programs for adults
and high school students of all levels of experience. For more information, to register or for a
free catalogue:
www.pafa.org/CE | continuinged@pafa.edu |
215-972-7632
July 27 – 31
Join renowned educators, Al Gury, artist,
author and Chair of the Painting Department at PAFA, and Susan Rodriguez, artist
and author, for a week of enlightenment and
new ideas. Learn, relax and make art in the
studios and galleries of one of the world’s
finest collections of American art and the
oldest art school in the nation! Draw and
paint in the same studios where Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins and Henry O. Tanner
started their art careers. All levels welcome.
Continuing Education Programs
128 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
Summer 2009
teacher excellence
Residency program preps top-notch teachers for high-needs areas
by Sarah Burgess
A new teacher preparation program is
coming to town with a focus on not only
preparing highly qualified teachers, but
also retaining them.
In its inaugural year, the Philadelphia
Teacher Residency (PTR) program will
guide 10 aspiring math teachers through
a rigorous practicum experience and specially designed coursework, ending with a
promise to be hired by the District in fall
2010. In return, “residents” commit to
teach in Philadelphia public schools for at
least three years.
The three-year teaching commitment is
not the program’s only unique characteristic. Its approach to preparing teachers emphasizes what PTR Director Diana Campbell
calls “the blending of theory and practice.”
The practicum is at the center of the
experience. Teaching mentors, selected
by the program’s staff, are required to
participate in a rigorous training process
that involves high levels of supervision
and feedback over an entire school year.
Graduate Studies at Moore
Coursework is deliberately designed to
complement residents’ experience at the
school where they are placed. This tight
integration between theory and practice is
one of the model’s hallmarks.
Recruitment goals also set the model
apart. Residency programs are explicitly
established to serve the needs of particular school districts. As a result, they only
recruit candidates to fill high-needs areas
their district identifies.
For Philadelphia, this means starting
with math. PTR’s full-time recruitment
director is seeking applicants who are
math professionals, have experience with
children, are committed to Philadelphia,
and, in Campbell’s words, have “a burning
desire to teach.” PTR is particularly interested in recruiting African American and
Latino teachers.
The Urban Teacher Residency (UTR)
model on which PTR is based has attracted attention nationwide. President Obama
called for the creation of 200 such programs across the country. While UTRs have
not been evaluated for effects on student
achievement, a study conducted by the Aspen Institute and the Center for Teaching
Quality found that retention of graduates
from UTR programs in both Boston and
Chicago was above 90 percent after 3 years.
While the model is more expensive
than programs that only provide summer
training, the Aspen Institute report indicates that much of the money is recouped
through higher rates of retention.
The idea to create a Philadelphiabased residency program came from a
working group of the Philadelphia Education Fund’s Math and Science Coalition.
Applications are being accepted and
the PTR staff is working with the District,
the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and the University of Pennsylvania to
launch the program this summer.
Visit www.philaedfund.org/ptr for information.
Sarah Burgess served on the Notebook editorial board for this issue.
MA in ART EDUCATION
with an Emphasis in Special Populations
s Design innovative teaching strategies for exceptional students
s Critically examine existing art education practices
s Explore adaptive technology
s Professional field placement
s Annual symposium with regional and national experts
Low residency program for men and women
33 credits: 4 semesters or 15 months
2 six-week summer intensives
Evening and one weekend per month September through May
Small class size
Lynne Horoschak, Art Education Graduate Program Manager
Inaugural class begins in June 2009
Next Entering Class in Art Education begins in Summer 2010
Other Graduate programs
MFA in Studio Art
MFA in Interior Design
Come in for a visit, tour the facilities
Change Your Life
Make Your Mark
and see the programs at work
Graduate Studies
Moore College of Art & Design
20th Street and The Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103
gradstudies@moore.edu
215.965.4016
www.moore.edu
Other cities
The 2004 contract between the District
and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
allowed for school-based selection of all new
teachers, all teachers hired in newly created
schools, and half of all other vacancies.
Still, the District’s reforms have fallen
short of comprehensive change. Philadelphia
does not have system-wide school-based site
selection. Seniority rights of veteran teachers with regard to school placement remain
embedded in the contract. A delayed hiring
timeline, caused in part by a prolonged annual teacher transfer process, results in many
qualified applicants drifting away.
Moreover, the District still does not
have the technology needed to make the
hiring and school assignment process more
efficient and customer-friendly.
CEO Arlene Ackerman said she intends to reform the District’s hiring and assignment process, and her administration
has worked with the PFT to try to expedite
the transfer and hiring schedule.
However, many of the underlying issues that affect human resources practices,
including the extent of teacher seniority
rights, have long been a subject of contention between the District and the PFT and
are likely to remain so in the contract talks
now underway.
The current one-year PFT contract
expires at the end of August.
Betsey Useem, a senior research consultant
at Research for Action, served on the editorial board for this edition.
Current Availabilities
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Summer 2009
teacher excellence
Where have all the teachers of color gone?
District sets an ambitious target
and commits to reversing a
downward trend.
by Wendy Harris
It’s 11:05 a.m. and 28 students
at Fulton Elementary School in Germantown quietly file into Christopher
Wright’s 6th grade math class. After
taking their seats, they dive into their
daily series of equations on the blackboard. After making his way around
the room checking each student’s
progress, he asks for the answers.
Hands shoot up, and Wright dashes
back to the blackboard.
One girl points out a mistake in
one of the problems. “That number
should be negative, instead of positive,” she said with confidence.
Wright responds with a smile,
“You’re right. I’m just trying to trip
you up.”
Wright has been with the District
for eight years, five at Edmonds Elementary and three at Fulton, where
he teaches math and science. It seems
that his students are thriving.
But Wright is one of just a handful of African American teachers at
Fulton, and the only Black male instructor at a school where 99 percent
of the student population is Black.
Some dispute a direct link between same-race teachers and student
gains, saying that students can benefit
from all talented teachers. But a 2005
Texas-based study “The Market for
Teacher Quality,” released by the National Bureau of Economic Research,
reports “a positive value of matching
students and teachers by race … and
Black teachers tend to be more effective with minority students.”
“Looking at my boys in particular,” Wright said, “I’ve found that
Cheyney University
Cheyney University’s Call Me MISTER trains Black male students to become teachers. Pictured
from left are Christopher Lewis (sophomore), Anthony Towns (senior), Howard Jean (director),
and Joseph Bryant (graduate student).
I can talk to them about my experiences growing up in North Philly be-
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cause they have experienced the same
things.”
He said they listen when he tells
them “the choices they make today
are going to affect them tomorrow.”
Currently, less than 34 percent of
teachers are Black, Latino, or Asian
in a district in which 87 percent of
the students are non-white.
According to District data, 28
percent of teachers and 62 percent of
students are African American, 2.6
percent of teachers and 17 percent of
students are Latino, and 2.2 percent
of teachers and 6 percent of students
are Asian.
This year, just 17 percent of 984
newly hired teachers were African
American, down from 28 percent
in 2002, a figure cited in a never-released report from the 2006 Teacher
Diversity Campaign.
Estelle Matthews, the District’s
Chief Talent Development Officer,
said she was not aware of the report,
which provided a detailed action
plan. But she said that the Ackerman
administration is embarking on several initiatives to diversify the workforce and wants to increase teachers
of color to 51 percent by 2014.
“Students of color need to see
that role model and understand that
what they see in front of them is attainable and that they can get there
with a mentor and a support system,”
Matthews said.
Reasons for the shortage
Teachers of color say that lack of
support has kept untold numbers out
of the profession. Carmen BrownPerez, a Latino kindergarten teacher
at Pennell Elementary who has been
with the District for a decade remembers being discouraged while studying
early childhood education at Temple
University.
“I felt like this was my calling,
but I had teachers who gave me a
hard time,” she said. “One actually
said to me ‘You’ll never be a teacher.’
But I think that made me more determined.”
A big factor in the shortage of
Black teachers is the under-represen(continued on page 27)
Summer 2009
teacher excellence
Teachers of color
percent – were Black. To help with
exam preparation, the District oper(continued from page 26)
ates a Praxis study group and covers
the $450 testing fee for those who
tation of African Americans in colcommit to stay in the system at least
leges of education. According to a
five years.
study by the community organization
Donald Armstead has taught in
ACORN, only 4.5 percent of the eduthe District for 17 years, the past
cation degrees awarded at 24 Pennsylseven as a business and computers
vania universities in 2004 went to Afteacher at Vaux High School. He
rican Americans, and just 1.1 percent
said Praxis is not the best barometer
to Latinos.
of successful teaching.
Failure to pass the state licensure
“I have spoken to Black teachexams, Praxis I and II, necessary for
ers who use ‘Black English’ or codestate certification, has also contribswitch when they teach,” he said.
uted to low numbers. According to
“They may not always get their verb
data from the Educational Testing
tenses correct, but they know how to
Service, which administers the test,
connect with the kids, and succeed
African Americans often struggle to
with them in ways
pass.
that other people
Shanee Garner,
A Cheyney program
an African American
uses rigorous instruction, can’t.”
To recruit more
10 th grade English
teacher at Bartram Praxis test workshops, teachers of color, the
District is holding
High School, said the
and more to prepare
job fairs, attending
reason is simple.
national conferences,
“There
is
an
Black men to teach.
and meeting with loachievement gap that
cal universities. It also hopes hires
exists in our schools because of the
from Teach for America and The
quality of teachers that we have and
New Teacher Project (see p. 28) will
the resources that do or do not come
help diversity.
into the school,” said Garner, a first
The District maintains three
year teacher who came through Philacademies of urban education (see p.
adelphia Teaching Fellows. “That
21) to introduce students to the proachievement gap runs deep and folfession, and offers one $10,000 schollows you through school.”
arship each year to a graduating high
Matthews said the District had
school senior who intends to study
to drop over 270 teachers who failed
education and teach in the city.
to pass the test prior to the 2006Matthews is also forging closer
2007 school year; most of those – 61
ties with Cheyney’s Call Me MISTER, an initiative founded 10 years
ago at Clemson University that
grooms African American men on 26
campuses for urban school districts.
The MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role
Models) program selects students
largely from socially and economically challenged communities. Howard
Jean, the program’s director and a MISTER alum, said that through rigorous
instruction, classroom observations,
Praxis workshops, and weekly leadership meetings, students are prepped
to enter a low-performing District elementary school after graduation.
Christopher Lewis, a graduate of
FitzSimons High in North Philadelphia, is one of the 25 Black men in
the program. “Throughout all my life
I always had a teacher to encourage
me, so now I want to be that encouragement for others,” he explained
Lewis won’t graduate until 2012,
but Matthews said partnering with
the program early allows the District
to provide support.
“I want to get to people as they
enter the universities to talk about
the opportunities within the School
District and how we can walk with
them for four years,” she said.
Contact Notebook Managing Editor Wendy
Harris at wendyh@thenotebook.org.
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Never stop exploring
teacher excellence
Screening for teachers with the right stuff
How alternative certification
programs ensure that their hires
are ready for urban teaching.
by Ron Whitehorne
Success as a teacher in urban school
systems like Philadelphia requires, among
other things, respect for low-income students of color and their families – and respect for these students’ capacity to learn
at high levels.
But how do school districts measure
“respect” as they interview prospective
teachers? What are the qualities that
are the predictors of success with urban
students? Can harmful stereotypes be
identified in the screening process?
The alternative certification programs that provide teachers for Philadelphia also provide a new source of
strategies for ensuring that teachers are
a good match for urban students.
While skin color is no guarantee of
teaching success or failure, some research
indicates that having an African American teacher increases the likelihood of
success for African American students
(see p. 26). Conversely, there is considerable evidence that racial stereotypes
negatively impact student learning. As
a result, screening all candidates for attitudes and values is widely practiced. A
variety of screening methods have been
derived from studies of the characteristics
of successful urban teachers.
Some school districts use commercial instruments like the Haberman PreScreener, (used in Philadelphia) and the
Gallup TeacherInsight Assessment to help
them evaluate the attitudes of teacher
candidates. The Haberman consists of 50
questions and seeks to assess 10 dimensions, including one’s ability to deal with
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at-risk students and persist in the face of
learning and behavioral problems.
Hundreds of Philadelphia teachers now bypass this process because
they come to their positions through
two alternative certification pathways,
Teach for America (TFA) and The New
Teacher Project, known locally as Philadelphia Teaching Fellows.
Through TFA, college graduates make
a two-year commitment to teach in urban
schools. Philadelphia Teaching Fellows
recruits people who want to shift careers
to teaching. Both programs are highly selective and target qualities associated with
teaching success in urban schools.
Respect for communities
TFA’s Philadelphia director, Mike
Wang, says that an essential quality for
their teacher corps is having “the desire to
work relentlessly and to give children in
Philadelphia exactly the same opportuni-
ties as students elsewhere.”
TFA looks for five core values it believes are predictors of teaching success in
urban schools; these include commitment
to the organization’s mission of closing the
racial achievement gap and respect for
families and communities.
TFA has been criticized for a missionary model of educational change in which
an elite and dedicated teacher cadre rescues downtrodden students. But Wang says
TFA “rejects those who have the mentality that they will save these kids.” Rather,
the organization promotes an “asset-based
perspective” in which TFA members “understand they have a lot to learn from students and families.”
The selection process for Philadelphia
Teaching Fellows relies on identifying and
measuring key “competencies.”
“One of the competencies we’re
screening for is commitment,” says Sarah
Almy, who oversees the program. “We’re
looking for individuals who are able to articulate clearly that they are committed to
all children achieving at high levels and
[believe] that regardless of a student’s background, they can be as successful as their
more affluent peers,” she said.
A red flag, Almy says, is “any comment or indication that standards
should be different” for students in
high-needs schools. The program also
places emphasis on respect and ability
to interact with everyone within the
school community, including parents
and teaching colleagues.
Intensive interview process
TFA and Philadelphia Teaching Fellows rely on an intensive one-day interview
process, as well as a written application to
assess candidates. Group discussion, a oneon-one interview, presenting a model lesson, and responding to different classroom
School Safety Hugs...
Give 2 Emergency Phone Numbers to schools:
o Active Numbers that will be answered at ALL times
Tell schools the name(s) of people you approve to
pick up your children (form EH-4)
o They MUST have valid photo identification
Be PREPARED EVERY DAY to care for you & your
family for 72 hours (3 days)... Rx, H2O, Food, Cash
Know the School Dist. 24 hr. Safety Hotline #:
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Summer 2009
teacher excellence
Teacher evaluation system has lots of critics
But there is talk of developing
clearer standards, and peer
review models are emerging.
by Dale Mezzacappa
Last year, though more than half the
students in the Philadelphia School District failed to meet standards in reading
and math, just 16 of its more than 11,000
teachers were rated “unsatisfactory.”
Only six were dismissed due to poor
classroom performance.
That apparent disconnect has long
frustrated parents, students, and advocates
who wonder why the District seems unable
to deal with inadequate teaching. Superintendent Arlene Ackerman raised the issue
at a recent School Reform Commission
meeting, saying that those numbers are
out of sync.
New models for teacher evaluation
are emerging around the country, including some that involve teachers observing
and rating their peers.
But the District’s teacher evaluation
system is like those in most other cities –
cumbersome, restricted by the teachers’
contract, and not designed to ensure highquality instruction.
Some principals say that if they are
determined, they can terminate ineffective
teachers or encourage them to leave, especially newer ones. But they say the process
is virtually useless in the cases of veterans
who are in control of their rooms but fail to
process more meaningful, but the District
use effective teaching strategies.
never bothered to require principals to use
Trying to terminate such a teacher
them. Most principals still use old forms
based on poor teaching – as opposed to
that, among other things, require the prinmisconduct or specific classroom incidents
cipal to judge teachers on “personality.”
– “is hard, and goes on a long, long time,”
Under state regulation and the Philasaid Charles Connor, principal of Decatur
delphia Federation of Teachers’ contract,
Elementary in the Far Northeast.
principals must observe and rate teachers
Researchers say more often the evaluonce a year – twice for
ation process is perfunctory and suffers Researchers say there are new teachers still on
probation. After one
because there are no
no agreed-upon norms
unsatisfactory rating,
agreed-upon norms for
what constitutes good
here for what constitutes veteran teachers can
be observed more than
teaching.
Without
good teaching.
once a year, but disstandards, deciding
missal requires three
what good teaching
unsatisfactory ratings in a row, after the
is becomes a matter of taste; for instance,
principal has documented the inadequasome principals want active classrooms
cies and taken the proper steps to get the
in which students are engaged in inquiryteacher help.
based learning, while others don’t.
Teachers have often requested trans“We have not seen evidence …that
fers or gone on leave to avoid consecutive
teacher evaluations are used to provide de“unsatisfactory” ratings, several principals
tailed metrics on a teacher’s performance
said, often showing up at a different school
needs, beyond the summary score of ‘satiswhere the process must start over again.
factory’ or ‘unsatisfactory,’” a recent report
Revamping this ineffective system
for the District by Educational Research
has taken on new urgency, given the
Strategies concluded.
more focused national attention on qualThe report said that far from helping
ity teaching.
teachers get better, the evaluation proceFederal officials have made improving
dure is so rigid and arbitrary that it “makes
teacher evaluation – and tying it somehow
it difficult for school-based experts and
to student learning gains – a condition of
coaches to … target those most in need of
receiving the second round of federal stimsupport.”
ulus funds.
State rating checklists were updated
According to a letter U.S. Secretary of
in 2004 in an effort to make the evaluation
Education Arne Duncan sent to governors
on April 1, states must report the number
and percentage of teachers and principals
in each district who receive low performance ratings and specify whether their
evaluation system requires any evidence of
student achievement gains.
“Decoupling teacher evaluation and
student [progress] is like pretending pro
basketball has nothing to do with a score,”
he told a group of education writers in
April. “Outcomes matter. We have to …
find a way to measure classroom success
and teacher effectiveness.”
But teacher unions and others fear this
means evaluating teachers based primarily
on student test scores, which they oppose.
PFT P resident Jerry Jordan said he
doubts there is any fair way to link teacher
assessment and student achievement, “unless they make sure that other institutions
that affect students’ lives like health care,
housing and employment for parents are
also addressed.”
But there are teacher evaluation models that improve upon Philadelphia’s without relying on student test scores. Some
systems have been created through district-union partnerships, others with help
from foundations interested in improving
teacher quality.
Most employ some sort of peer evaluation, in which teachers help devise the
standards and metrics for what good in(continued on page 31)
Pennsylvania’s early childhood initiatives:
investing in a better and bright future!
Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts provides high quality pre-kindergarten
opportunities to three and four year olds. To learn more about these
programs at the School District of Philadelphia and their 50 community
partners visit http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/e/earlychild.
Keystone STARS is a continuous quality improvement program and rating
system for early learning and school age programs in Pennsylvania. To find
a Keystone STARS program near you, visit www.pakeys.org/stars/centers.aspx
or call Child Care Information Services at 1-888-461-KIDS.
Child Care Works keeps working families working by providing assistance
for child care costs and makes it possible for child care programs to serve
children whose families could not otherwise afford care. If you need help,
call Child Care Information Services at 1-888-461-KIDS.
Pennsylvania’s Promise
for Children
Because every child
is Pennsylvania’s future
www.papromiseforchildren.com
Summer 2009
teacher excellence
Ackerman: Reward high-performing teachers with more pay
Nationally, though, there is
little agreement about what
models are effective.
by Dale Mezzacappa
With another contract negotiation with the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers underway, performance pay for
teachers is again on the agenda.
Superintendent Arlene Ackerman
wants to promote compensation plans that
are tied to performance. She’s in line with
President Obama, who is seeking a whopping $517 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) in the federal budget.
But what is meant by performance pay?
Bonuses for higher student test scores? More
money for student progress on multiple
measures? Increases for going through rigorous evaluations and assuming extra duties?
There have long been performance-pay
experiments. One of the best known, called
ProComp, is in Denver. Jointly worked out
by district and union, it pays teachers extra
based on whether they meet personal objectives, receive positive evaluations, and get
students to exceed growth goals on state tests.
But there is little evidence on whether
such plans improve student achievement
or the quality of who enters and stays in
the profession.
“Research coming out of the early
experiments is either inconclusive or modest,” said Kate Walsh, executive director of
the National Center on Teacher Quality.
Performance pay is just one form of
“differentiated pay,” which also encompasses incentives for teaching in hard-tostaff schools and in high-need areas such as
science, but doesn’t necessarily mean tying
salary or bonuses to academic performance.
Differentiated pay is an effort to move away
from the rigid salary schedule now used
in most contracts, based on longevity and
level of education regardless of teacher ambition, effectiveness, or value to the school.
Philadelphia’s latest contract provides
a modest $1,500 annual bonus for teachers
in shortage areas like science, as well as tuition reimbursement and other incentives
for working in 24 hard-to-staff schools.
Union-district collaboration
As calls for performance pay accelerated, some districts, including Colonial in
Montgomery County, tried and failed to
tie bonuses to test scores. More enduring
have been union-district collaborations
like that in Denver. Obama, in touting
performance pay, says that any such plans
should be developed jointly with teachers.
The American Federation of Teachers has taken the position that while
“teachers should not be evaluated using
a single test score,” differentiated pay
can work if it is voluntary, schoolwide,
and promotes collaboration.
But in a paper featured on the AFT
Web site, its late former president, Sandra
Feldman, argued that individual performance pay could be used as a quicker path
to competitive compensation for ambitious
young teachers who might otherwise leave.
Besides disagreements on individual vs.
group rewards – unions argue that individual
rewards lead to resentment – other points of
contention are whether student test scores
should be used at all to evaluate teachers
and whether paying extra for “knowledge
and skills,” such as those developed through
the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, has value.
Walsh suggested that research on
performance pay is mixed because “early
experiments have been modest, limited,
and not nearly as ambitious as they need
to be to have an impact on teacher quality and teacher retention.”
Bolder plans – such as Washington,
D.C. Superintendent Michelle Rhee’s call
for teachers to trade tenure for the chance
at much higher salaries based on performance – have been highly controversial.
Experiments fizzled
Philadelphia’s history is littered with
failed compensation reform attempts.
Twenty years ago, District and union
negotiators created the category “senior
career teacher,” with higher pay for accumulating 60 credits beyond a master’s and
obtaining dual certification. In return, they
were supposed to assume additional duties,
including mentoring younger teachers.
This was touted as a major advance
in what was then a nascent movement.
However, the District exerted no control over what courses teachers took
to get the additional credits and never
specified job duties for the senior career
teachers. As a result, it became little
more than an additional pay step.
A recent report for the District by
Education Research Strategies concluded
there is no evidence that the $63 million
paid to teachers for additional coursework
– $28 million of that for the “senior career
teachers” – is yielding benefits.
Then, in 2000, the District and the
union negotiated another “breakthrough,”
a proposed plan coordinating compensation with “skill and knowledge in subject content and classroom practice” that
would be mandatory for new teachers and
voluntary for others.
A District-union committee was established to work out the details, but disbanded after a year of fruitless effort.
Most recently, Philadelphia qualified for one of the initial federal grants –
$20.5 million – under the Teacher Incentive Fund. Philadelphia’s proposal called
for 20 schools to implement the Teacher
Advancement Program, an intense evaluation system in which master and mentor
teachers work with colleagues and high
performance is rewarded.
However, again after months of negotiation, the District and PFT could not
agree on terms, so the District decided to
work with 11 charter schools instead.
Contact Contributing Editor Dale
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celebrates 25 years of keeping children in school.
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Middle Years Program
Culinary and Hospitality Program
-Finance
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Summer 2009
teacher excellence
Evaluation
struction looks like. Short of toting up test
scores, they study examples of student work
and the quality of teacher assignments.
“Teachers need to understand the
benefit of having rigorous, fair evaluations
that their peers contribute to,” said Thomas Toch of Education Sector, who recently
completed a study of teacher evaluation
nationwide and concluded that most are
“superficial and capricious.”
Peer evaluation is also a way to promote professionalism and create a career
ladder for teachers.
The best programs, Toch said, are
expensive but reap other benefits. One of
the oldest and best known is in Toledo,
Ohio, begun in 1981 in collaboration with
the union. There, trained expert teachers
observe their peers, participate in intervention, and serve on panels that decide
whether a teacher should be retained.
Toch said that the system in Toledo
weeds out about 10 percent of new teachers and the worst-performing veterans.
A more recent model, developed in
South Carolina by the Milken Foundation,
is the Teacher Advancement Program, or
TAP. Teachers are evaluated at least three
times a year against a set of standards by
teams of mentor and master teachers and
administrators that TAP trains in special
rubrics. Team members meet before and after the observed lessons to give the teachers detailed feedback, and coach them
regularly until the next evaluation.
In addition to uniform, agreed-upon
standards, effective systems require the use
of multiple evaluators, Toch said, which
ease teacher fears of arbitrariness. Many
Philadelphia teachers complain that principals can and do use the system punitively.
Jordan said that more content-area
specialists should be involved because
principals often don’t have enough knowledge in some disciplines.
In addition to cost, the challenge to
implementing such an overhaul of the system, Toch said, is the need to change the
culture so that people believe evaluation
systems aren’t just to weed out the poorest performers, but “can help them become
better teachers.”
Contact Notebook Contributing Editor Dale
Ron Whitehorne is a member of the Notebook editorial board.
Some schools have full site selection,
if they are newly created or the faculty
votes for it, and these have fewer vacancies, Armstead said. Last year, 16 percent
of site-selected schools had vacancies midway through the school year, compared to
33 percent of those without site selection.
Armstead added, however, that site
selection itself will not solve the problem.
“A part of what’s critical,” he said, “is
being able to create an environment that
people want to come to.”
Meghan McHugh, a member of the Notebook editorial board, is on the staff of the
Children’s Literacy Initiative.
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Summer 2009
and school scenarios are also elements of
the screening process.
Both organizations monitor the effectiveness of teacher interns based on
student achievement data and are committed to tweaking their selection model based on the findings. Nationally,
88 percent of TFA members complete
their two-year commitments, while 83
percent of Philadelphia Teaching Fellows are still on the job after two years.
There is little independent research
to validate the screening instruments
examined here. But one recent University of Michigan study found a significant
correlation between high marks on the
Haberman and student achievement.
Both TFA and NTP have data to support
their claim that their teachers are effective, in some cases more effective than
traditionally certified urban teachers.
Some critics argue that testing for
attitudes is purely subjective, and we
should stick to measures like degrees,
grades, and test scores when screening
candidates. But another view would
question the value of a 4.0 grade point
average in a prospective math teacher
who doesn’t think inner-city children
need to learn algebra.
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Successful schools have these resources.
Every Philadelphia child deserves them.
The PFT has advocated for equal educational opportunities
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every child to have access to programs proven to raise
achievement. Working with parents, community groups,
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children the resources they need.
Jerry T. Jordan, President
www.pft.org
sportsstories
Back on track
Swenson Arts and Technology’s
4x100 girls relay team
overcomes obstacles to shine
on day one of the Penn Relays.
by Benjamin Herold
Inside Franklin Field, girls from
more than 300 high schools are bouncing around in anticipation of the 4x100
relays. But as each team makes its way
from the crowded paddock towards the
storied track, the girls’ easy confidence
turns into nervousness.
Swenson Arts and Technology’s
4x100 team is no exception. After
three years and two state titles, seniors
Anthonia Ballard, Vanessa Mack, and
Khristy Neou, and juniors Jayee Wright
and Shanae Bailey would like to believe
they have seen it all.
But injuries, disappointing performances, and a lack of practice time
have been taking their toll. Now, the
blustery April weather is making the
girls’ lack of warm-up time a worrisome
new concern.
By the time Wright takes her mark,
Swenson coach Dean Lent is almost too
nervous to watch.
rrr
“I love running relays,” says senior
Anthonia “Mouse” Ballard.
“You have three other people feeling the same pain you’re feeling.”
Lately, it has been Swenson’s opponents who have suffered. The twotime defending state AA champions
set a new Pennsylvania AA state meet
record in 2007, then broke their own
mark in 2008.
This year, they are focused on defending their title on May 22 at Shippensburg University.
A third consecutive state championship would be the culmination of an
amazing rise for the small high school
in Northeast Philadelphia. The girls’
track team was in its infancy when the current seniors
started 9th grade.
Of the three girls, only
Mack had a strong track
pedigree.
Ballard had run only
briefly. Neou “couldn’t walk
and chew gum” as a 9th
grader, jokes Lent.
But the girls had potential, and the arrival the following year of Wright and
the ultra-talented Bailey
completed an impressive
nucleus.
Lent also had an established record of success.
An accomplished runner,
Lent started coaching track
at Father Judge in 1988
before moving on to Nazareth Academy and Ursinus
College. At Swenson since
1995, he is also the school’s
dean of students and athDave Tavani
letic director.
After taking the baton from senior Khristy Neou, junior
The biggest challenge Shanae Bailey runs the anchor leg for Swenson Arts and
in building Swenson’s pro- Technology’s 4x100 relay team at the Penn Relays.
gram, he says, was developvolunteer assistant.
ing a culture of success.
From there, the two focused on get“We really had to change the mindting the team into weekend meets and
set of the kids to stay after school, to
invitationals. The excitement of travelpractice every day.” The first step was
ing and the improved competition proconvincing Philadelphia coaching legvided extra motivation to the girls.
end Tim Hickey, who oversaw William
Lent says that in 2007 it became
Penn’s outstanding teams for almost 40
years, to come out of retirement as a
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Summer 2009
Back on Track
clear that the coaches “had a group
of kids who could run with anyone in
Pennsylvania.”
Jayee Wright began that year unaware that Swenson even had a track
team. Within months, she found herself starting the 4x100 relay team at the
state championship meet.
Ballard was the second leg, followed
by Mack. Bailey anchored the team.
“We dropped the baton in the prelims,” Wright recalls.
The most difficult part of the sprint
relays, baton exchanges, require tremendous practice and trust. Mack and
Bailey, who had run together in the
Great Valley Relays and leaving Mack
unavailable for the Penn Relays.
This meant the critical final baton
exchange was in the hands of fill-in
Khristy Neou.
But rain early in the week left little
practice time.
Come race time, the team managed
to cast these worries aside.
Exploding out of her start in the
seventh lane, Wright caught two runners that were inside of her.
On the first straightaway, Ballard
began pulling away.
Neou, running the third leg, knew
she had been staked to a big lead and
that she just had to secure the exchanges.
Though admittedly nervous, she
track club scene, have a natural chemistry. For the rest of the girls, however,
the exchanges were not automatic.
Normally, a dropped baton means
elimination. But Swenson was able to
recover quickly enough to secure the
last lane in the final.
There, they set their first state AA
meet record.
rrr
At the start of this year, Swenson
seemed poised to dominate the 4x100
again.
But a lingering groin injury weakened Bailey, keeping her out of some
meets and practices.
Then, Mack aggravated a hamstring injury, leading to the team’s disappointing third-place finish at the
ran flawlessly. By the time she cleanly
passed the baton to Bailey, only the
margin of victory was in question.
Bailey closed strong, crossing the
finish at 49.24 seconds – good for first
in their heat, 16th place overall, and a
spot in the Tri-State race on the closing
day of the Penn Relays.
There, bad luck reappeared. A fall
by Ballard led to a last-place finish and
yet another injury.
“We haven’t been able to catch a
break all year,” Lent says after the impressive day one performance. “But on a
day when there was every reason to run
slow, we ran as fast as we could.”
Editorial board member Benjamin Herold
writes about sports for the Notebook.
8H7D9>OUT WITH A
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION DEGREE$
?dijhkYj_edWbI_j[i_d
D[m@[hi[oWdZF[ddioblWd_W$
ÒEARN YOUR DEGREE AT A SITE NEAR YOU.
CdkVHdji]ZVhiZgcJc^kZghînÉh;^hX]aZgHX]ddad[:YjXVi^dcVcY=jbVcHZgk^XZh^hproud to serve the region with our Doctor of Education degree
at various instructional sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Plus, we will continue to offer our associate's through master's degrees online.
I]Z9dXidgd[:YjXVi^dc:Y#9#d[[ZghhijYZcihVbZcj"Yg^kZcVeegdVX]idXjhidbô^c\i]Z^gYdXidgVaegd\gVblî]c^cZXdcXZcigVi^dchVcY&'b^cdgh!
ÓZm^WaZXjgg^XjajbX]d^XZh!VcYbjaiêaZ^chigjXi^dcVaYZa^kZgndei^dch#
Ò:E9JEH
OF EDUCATION DEGREE CONCENTRATIONS INCLUDE:
- Educational Leadership
- Health Care Education
- Higher
Education
- Human Services Administration
- Instructional Leadership
- InstructionalTechnology
and Distance Education
- Organizational Leadership
- Special Education
- Speech-Language Pathology
Ò 9edjWYj ki je en roll today$ Ò 6 0 9 # 3 9 2 # 2 4 3 4 Ò < _i Y^b[hIYê e b$ delW $ [Z k% P enns yl va n i a
CdiZ/I]Z9dXidgd[:YjXVi^dcegd\gVb^hcdiYZh^\cZYidbZZii]ZCZl?ZghZn9ZeVgibZcid[:YjXVi^dcegd[Zhh^dcVahiVcYVgYh[dghX]ddaaZVYZghdgegd[Zhh^dcVahiVcYVgYh[dgiZVX]Zgh#I]Z9dXidgd[:YjXVi^dcYZ\gZZ^hcdihncdcnbdjh
lî]VXZgi^ÒXVi^dcegd\gVb#EgdheZXi^kZhijYZcihXdch^YZg^c\egd[Zhh^dcVaa^XZchjgZh]djaYbV`Z^cfj^gZhidi]ZCZl?ZghZn9ZeVgibZcid[:YjXVi^dc[dgi]ZXjggZciXZgi^ÒXVi^dcgZfj^gZbZcih#
CdkVHdji]ZVhiZgcJc^kZghînVYbîhhijYZcihd[VcngVXZ!Xdadg!hZmjVadg^ZciVi^dc!VcYcVi^dcVadgZi]c^Xdg^\^c# CdkVHdji]ZVhiZgcJc^kZghîn^hVXXgZYîZYWni]Z8dbb^hh^dcdc8daaZ\Zhd[i]ZHdji]Zgc6hhdX^Vi^dcd[8daaZ\ZhVcYHX]ddah
&-++Hdji]ZgcAVcZ!9ZXVijg!<Zdg\^V(%%((")%.,!IZaZe]dcZcjbWZg/)%)"+,.")*%&idVlVgYVhhdX^ViZÉh!WVX]ZadgÉh!bVhiZgÉh!ZYjXVi^dcVaheZX^Va^hi!VcYYdXidgVaYZ\gZZh#
Summer 2009
opinion
Dungee Glenn advocated for children with passion, commitment
by Blondell Reynolds Brown
public meetings and behind closed doors
to examine and expand access to School
Sandra Dungee Glenn is a champion
District of Philadelphia contracting opfor children, an advocate for inclusion, and
portunities for minority businesses – as a
an activist for urban America. I am proud
matter of simple fairness. In a majorityto have worked with her for decades, and
minority city, every effort should be made
applaud her efforts on the occasion of her
to include contractors of color in the Disrecent departure from the School Reform
trict’s multibillion-dollar budget. Thanks
Commission.
to her firm stance, contracts to people of
From her first days as a School Recolor increased to 25 percent. form Commissioner in JanuAs the turmoil of the
ary 2002, Sandra diligently
early SRC days settled down,
and consistently fulfilled her
Sandra took up a decades-old
duties during a controversial,
struggle to mandate African
challenging period. In a time
American history for all
of public outcry, media glare,
students. Again, simple fairand staff disgruntlement, Sanness – not to mention good
dra carefully absorbed the incommon sense in the age of
tricacies of public education,
a global economy – was the
making informed policy deciimpetus as she helped drive
sions, contacting lawmakers
Harvey Finkle
the District’s decision to fiin Philadelphia, Harrisburg,
Sandra Dungee Glenn
nally require all students take
and Washington, and opening
an African American history course to
dialogues with virtually every interested
graduate. Bravo!
group in town.
She stayed the course during her apHer advocacy remained focused like
pointment in August 2007 as chair of the
a laser beam on meeting classroom needs
SRC after James Nevels resigned.
and impacting children’s lives for the betAs her unpaid work at the SRC exter. She took to the airwaves whenever
panded, she remained committed to fulfillpossible to listen and explain the thinking
ing her duties as president of the American
behind her decisions, to let individuals or
Cities Foundation, which aims to develop
families tell their stories, and to reassure
and implement a new national urban polilisteners and callers both that she wanted
cy. The organization has promoted the innothing more than the best possible teachclusion of all communities in environmeners, schools and programs, everywhere in
talism and energy conservation within and
the city for every child.
for cities, largely through events Sandra
Sandra kept up the pressure both in
conceived and executed.
I commend her deference to and
admiration of those pioneers who came
before her, in education, advocacy, and
politics. Whenever she’s praised in public,
she brings up past leaders like Constance
Clayton, Ethel Allen, and Dorothy Rush
as a way to show she’s standing on the
shoulders of legends. Blondell Reynolds Brown is a member of the
Philadelphia City Council.
What’s YOUR opinion? We want to know!
Write a letter to Philadelphia Public School Notebook
E-mail: notebook@thenotebook.org
Web: www.thenotebook.org/contact
3721 Midvale Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19129
Fax: 215-951-0342
-
Some of our Programs include:
Families and Schools Together (FAST): provides parent education and family support services to parents and children by working with schools, mental health and substance abuse providers,
and community leaders in order to strengthen families through
building partnerships and promoting increased success in school.
The Family Project: assists families with young children through
home visiting with a blend of supportive counseling, case management and direct assistance.
Turning Points for Children is the newly
formed nonprofit organization created when the
Children’s Aid Society of Pennsylvania
(CASPA) and the Philadelphia Society for
Services to Children (PSSC) merged. We
provide proven and innovative programs that
nurture families with children who are
struggling against difficult odds. Our approach
includes after-school family programs, teen
parent education, and assistance to relative
caregivers.
We provide the critical resources, life
skills and supportive partnerships needed to
create strong families and raise children with
the hope for brighter futures.
Kids n’ Kin: supports families in which children’s biological parents
are absent and children are being raised by an extended family
member or family friend; services include home visiting, case
management, family therapy, legal assistance, and supportive
services for incarcerated parents.
Madeira Family Center (MFC): Since 1990, this Family Center, located in North Philadelphia, has been the hub of our organization’s community outreach. Programs that operate from MFC include Family Night – a parent education and support program
built around a communal family meal; and The Emergency Food
and Formula program, one of the few local emergency assistance programs that consistently stocks infant formula.
Time Out for Teens and Tots™ (TTT): is a special 20-week parenting education & support program for pregnant & teen mothers
who want to learn how to be the best parent they can be.
For more information on our programs and services, please call (215) 875-3400 or visit
our website www.turningpointsforchildren.org
Summer 2009
quicktakes
Checking in with students
How can you tell that your teacher is doing a good job?
Edward Cappio
2nd grade
Southwark School
Qawi Morris
2nd grade
Edward Gideon School
If something bad
happens in class,
our teacher
always solves it.
He really helps
me calm down so
I can do my work
instead of thinking about what
happened.
Maria Arenas
Diana Lyga
I know she
cares about us
because when
someone takes
too much time
in the bathroom,
she sends at
least two people
to go look for
them.
I’m a word collector, and my teacher
helps me improve
my vocabulary. I
started with the
dictionary, and I
even taught my
teacher what
“boisterous”
and “spoof”
mean.
2nd grade
Southwark School
Because I’m
the best math
student in both
second grades.
My teacher gave
me an award that
says so.
Margaret Bordley
2nd grade
Edward Gideon School
Learning my times
tables was the
hardest thing we’ve
done this year, but
our teacher showed
us everything we need
to know
about math.
Interviews and photos by Benjamin Herold
2nd grade
Watson Comly School
Peter Marcellino
2nd grade
Watson Comly School
We get to use our
imaginations. I wrote a
myth called “Why The
Earth Spins,” about a
cheetah that was hired
to run around the earth.
You never know what
you can make when
you get a chance
to try.
WWW.THENOTEBOOK.ORG/JOIN-US
Summer 2009
GRADUATE DEGREES
Master of Education
Master of Education (M.Ed.)
with Thesis
Master of Education (M.Ed.)
with Certification
CERTIFICATIONS
Elementary Education
Secondary Education
Special Education
Reading Specialist
Principal Certification
The Center for Graduate
and Professional Studies
For more information:
Call 610-902-8500 or visit www.cabrini.edu/med
Summer 2009

PDF - Philadelphia Public School Notebook

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