West Philly HS – Dissing the community
by Ron Whitehorne on Mar 15 2010
Last month upwards of fifty people came out to West Philadelphia High to tell School District officials they wanted to keep the current team in place and build on the progress the school has made over the two years. Parents, teachers, students, and community leaders all went on record praising the dramatic improvement in school climate and expressing confidence that Principal Saliyah Cruz and a newly energized staff could deliver academic gains as well.
Participants were responding to the District’s expressed commitment to involve the community in the process of school turnaround currently underway.
But, based on what’s happened since, this promise seems pretty hollow.
"You will have an opportunity to decide what change looks like,” Arlene Ackerman told concerned parents and community members last week. But the District rejected an application by Principal Cruz and a community-supported team that would have positioned them to run the school if it is “Renaissanced,” using the Innovation model. Instead, indications are that the school will probably be made a Promise Academy, the Renaissance model run directly out of Arlene Ackerman’s shop. Both these decisions clearly run counter to community sentiment and have prompted protest.
The School District defends this course of action by pointing to West’s low test scores. Ben Rayer, the District’s Renaissance czar, told the Inquirer, "We are not going to back down from needing to make dramatic changes in schools where kids are just not reading, writing, and doing math at a level that allows them to get a job or go to college,” a theme he also repeated at the community meeting.
No one, certainly not the West Philadelphia community that has been historically victimized by the school’s failure, is going to deny the urgency of fixing the school.
But, as I see it, there are two problems with Rayer’s “no backing down” posture. First, is the failure to recognize how important the achievement of renewal at West has been. A school where violence was spiraling out of control, where staff morale was dreadful and students lived in fear, is now a place of hope with a rare degree of community involvement. The same forces that achieved this change should be given the opportunity to tackle the task of improving instruction and learning outcomes.
Second, if we look at the data it is clear that West is not in a markedly different place than most other schools that have a similar demographic profile. This is what the District’s convoluted performance index masks. Sure we can rank all these schools but what is the difference between the rankings?
The chart below compares West with nine other schools with similar demographics. All these schools are high poverty, neighborhood schools with populations that are upwards of 92% African American and large numbers of special education students.
Two schools stand out from the pack. Strawberry Mansion posts numbers that are above the state average in the percentage of 11th graders testing proficient or better in math and reading (why aren’t we talking about what’s going on in this school?). Rhodes also does respectably in comparison to the other schools.
The other schools are all sitting in the PSSA basement. What is striking is not the differences, but the common portrait of failure. In this lower tier, three out of eight schools are on the Renaissance Eligible list. From this perspective, the targeting of West seems arbitrary.
Finally, the rejection of the West team as turnaround providers is troubling because no teams of District educators were approved, and all the turnaround work is being given to outsiders. While all of the groups that were approved can point to some successes, some of them also have major blemishes (for example Universal’s management of Vare Middle School, which has been mired in Corrective Action II for years).
Giving West a chance to turn itself around would have strengthened that possibility of real partnership with the community. It would also have sent a positive signal to District principals and teachers who might be thinking about organizing turnaround teams. Too bad if it's off the table.
Comments (14)
Submitted by Disheartened Parent (not verified) on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 14:23.
Not one innovation...hmm sounds to me like what happened in 2001. The idea of a community opinion being respected never happened because the community said they wanted to have the school keep the same personal and cut out the few bad teachers they had. Just goes to show how major reform is always too top heavy and doesn’t respect the voice of the community. No wonder way most of the Renn. Schools were taken over by EMO's in 2001. So to the students of west and future students of west enjoy being moved around amongst the cycle of politics.
Submitted by Annonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 15:16.
There is a lot of competition for "bottom rung" for high schools as far as test scores. Why wasn't Edison, the 3 Kensington, etc. high schools selected? (Kensington CAPA and Business have lower math scores than West and Univ City). It just seems too convenient that 2 or the 3 high schools are near the Univ. of Penn...
Also, I'd love to hear how Strawberry Mansion gets high PSSA scores. Rather than the School District sponsoring workshops with SM teachers demonstrating what they do, it remains a mystery. Many assume because what is done at SM is not on the "up and up..." Teachers who have left SM have said as much. Based on what I've heard from teachers at Rhodes, the place is all about test prep. It also has students from 7th grade and up so they have a longer time to prep them for the test. That said, Rhodes scores are probably more on the "up and up" than SM.
Submitted by Ron Whitehorne on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 16:09.
Your point about Strawberry Mansion is important. If the test scores reflect genuine innovations in teaching and learning than we should be studying what's happening there. Persistent rumours of irregular testing practices need to be investigated. If they are untrue then they unfairly tarnish the good work going on at the school. If they are true then some serious corrective action is needed.
Submitted by Teacher (K.R. Luebbert) (not verified) on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 19:56.
Rhodes is also all girls--this makes it a completely different demographic than a coed high school. Unfortunately, the African-American male demographic is usually the lowest scoring. There are many entrenched and sad causes for this, but this is the group that is really the most "in trouble" of all the groups.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 20:26.
This is disheartening. I started teaching 4 years ago and remember reading about West Philly High and the problems it had then. West has made tremendous progress in community involvement and school climate (from what I've been reading) - two things that are needed most before academic progress can truly be made. I am currently teaching at an "empowerment" school. I feel I can draw an easy comparison between my school and West: We are easy targets where we are on the cusp of being model schools of academic progress...the district sees this and is being opportunisitic (sp?) in putting their stamp on us - so they can take the credit and make us "models" of their Rennaisance schools....disgusting...
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 20:51.
Last week I was walking into West and started talking to one of my former students who is now a senior. She was telling me how she'd been accepted to two colleges (including her first choice) and was waiting to hear from three others. Should I report this to Ben Rayer so he can have the colleges withdraw their acceptances as it is obviously impossible in his view that this girl actually got a good education at West?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 23:14.
It is really a bummer that West's innovation plan was rejected. There is a lot of data to back up the claim that West is on an upward trend. If every other "provider" is being given 5 years to prove what they can do, then why is West being shaken up after only 3 years with the current leadership team, when all signs point in the wrong direction. The emotional impact of the change was felt as soon as the list was announced. The shifting of staff positions and the status of the school is probably going to mean that scores are going to trend back down next year and possibly beyond that, instead of continuing steady upward progress. So what does that mean for the "urgency" argument? West could have been an excellent model for the district to point to of an internal turnaround team - but seemingly arbitrarily, that won't be the case. Take West off the list!!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 23:34.
If West remains on the list and becomes a Promise Academy, the community, media, and all those concerned with the future of Philadelphia Schools must hold Arlene Ackerman accountable for what happens at West if the school regresses instead of pushes forward as it has been doing the past few years. If this happens, not only will Ackerman have failed at turning around a school that has shown no sign of hope, but she will have taken a school that was going in the right direction and destroyed that hope that had been created the past few years. I hope the Superintendent thinks about this and takes West off the list to see if the current staff, students, and community can bring about the change that seems to be happening. If she doesn't and her changes fail, the entire Renaissance plan needs to be shutdown.
Submitted by nikki123 on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 06:16.
A broken promise already. It's almost as if Ackerman is afraid of what West Philly HS has achieved. This was a school that a few years ago made the afternoon and evening news for all the wrong reasons: repeated acts of ARSON. The fact that a principal, by sheer force of will and personality, turned around a school persistently marked by plainly criminal (actually felony) acts is astonishing. If this wonderful adminstrator and her team of parents and teachers are not central to any push for academic acheivement at the school, I have very little hope of success.
This principal identified right off the bat that climate, safety and control of the school had to come first. She was right. Every competent teacher knows that classroom management must be the first element addressed or learning suffers. It took a few years but look where the school started? Arson is a serious crime. I haven't even discussed assaults on teachers and students. West Philly is on the right track. It's such an insult to the people who put in the time to improve this school for them not to be given a chance to continue their excellent work.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 09:39.
there never was going to be real community engagement. in this district, reform is top down - always! at least we know who to blame when this reform fails.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:38.
Here's the saddest thing of all-teachers who are truly committed to teaching high needs students are being driven into other professions or into schools that serve populations who are not so high needs. We all realize that being devoted to students like the ones we serve at West yields very little other than punishment.
The true losers in all of this will be the students.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 15:13.
Let's see the Innovation plan that received a 2.8 when a 3.0 would have made the cut, so that we can all judge for ourselves if it was worthy of being rejected or not. Just like our students are made to feel less than for not devoting their lives to getting better at filling in bubbles, two tenths of a percentage point have evidently kept West from having its plan approved. Make the Innovation Plan public, and make the rubric used to judge the plan public as well.
Submitted by Lauren Gordon (not verified) on Sat, 04/03/2010 - 13:11.
Hello all,
I read through everyone's comments and am deeply interested in the subject. I am a writer for Philadelphia Neighborhoods, which is a Temple University program for students to complete before they graduate with their B.A. I am doing a story on this specific topic. I was wondering if maybe any of you would like to be interviewed? I do not need to take your pictures or anything, just name and contact information? Thank you all!
Lauren Gordon
Submitted by Ron Whitehorne on Sat, 04/03/2010 - 16:28.
Lauren, I would suggest you post an email where people can reach you. I would be glad to talk to you but while I am a supporter I am not a member of the West community. If you email me at ronw292@gmail.com I'd be glad to suggest a few people.
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