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Some parents say they choose charters because they are safer, provide a more varied curriculum, or offer a diverse student body. But other parents charge that a Wild West atmosphere has taken root, allowing bad schools to sprout up with little oversight – and achieving meaningful accountability seems an elusive goal.
The Notebook convened a roundtable of parents to ask them about their experiences with charter schools, their reasons for choosing charters or staying at traditional public schools, and the possibilities and shortcomings of these publicly funded institutions managed by nonprofit boards.
Parents in the Annandale area have been asked to study overpopulation at their children's schools and offer solutions to alleviate what is being called "critical" crowding in multiple buildings.
Angry parents protested a falloff in test scores at a meeting of a citywide education panel on Monday night, prompting its members and the schools chancellor to walk out.
Immigrant parents in South Philadelphia have been vocal in advocating that their families’ needs be addressed as the District rolls out its plans to overhaul some of its lowest-performing schools.
Over the next three years, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman’s Renaissance Schools plan would shut these schools down and reopen them under the management of organizations with a proven record of turning schools around.
A child’s emotional state can have a profound impact on his or her ability to learn, as any classroom teacher knows. Emotional issues often lead to problem behaviors.
With many of the District’s 167,000 students coming from stress-filled environments, the District and the city Department of Behavioral Health have been collaborating to increase access to school-based behavioral health programs for District students.
Today, almost 100 schools have teams of behavioral health staff, and more than 11,000 students received school-based services last year.
Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has embraced the framework known as Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) as an approach to improving school climate in Philadelphia, embedding the program in her strategic plan, Imagine 2014, and decreeing that all schools adopt its key elements.
This is both good news and bad news for the people who have worked the hardest to bring PBS to the city since even before Ackerman arrived.
When Benjamin Wright, regional superintendent for alternative education, spearheaded the District’s initiative to open two new schools for expelled students this fall, he envisioned small, nurturing environments.
So far, that’s exactly what he’s getting.
Just ask Shaquil Jones, a junior at Philadelphia Learning Academy South (PLAS).
“It’s smaller and my teachers care more about the students than at the other school,” he says.
Babies: Books are great first toys for babies.
Begin with books that:
Toddlers and pre-schoolers: Toddlers are just able to sit and listen to a complete story. Try books that:
Immigrant parents in South Philadelphia have been vocal in advocating that their families’ needs be addressed as the District rolls out its plans to overhaul some of its lowest-performing schools.
Over the next three years, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman’s Renaissance Schools plan would shut these schools down and reopen them under the management of organizations with a proven record of turning schools around.
With the recent creation of many new, themed high schools and the continuing growth of the charter school movement, students in Philadelphia have more public high school options than ever.
But more options haven’t meant that most students are getting into the schools they prefer, or that the available choices meet students’ needs.
The School District has stepped up its work around its much-debated Renaissance Schools plan – an initiative to transform chronically failing schools – appointing a 50-member panel to help drive the process.
Dubbed the Renaissance Schools Advisory Board, the group has three subcommittees consisting of educators, business and community leaders, District staff, parents, faith-based representatives, and youth advocates.
Ninth grade didn’t finish the way Corey White had hoped.
The high-achieving teen’s final grades at Academy at Palumbo High School included Cs in English and biology.
Concerned, Corey’s mother and great-grandparents moved him out of their Southwest Philadelphia home and in with his grandparents.
It’s the reverse of the move that White’s mother, now 28, made at his age.
“I had Corey when I was 13,” says Robin White, who dropped out of Thomas Middle School in 8th grade.
Over the summer I have been thinking a lot about parent involvement in high school reform.
I continue to believe that involving more parents in multiple ways is critical to turning our schools around. Parents need to be not only supporting their own children, but also holding schools accountable for providing quality education.
The School District of Philadelphia celebrated the opening of its Parent and Community Resource Center on January 28.
With a staff of three, the center offers eight computers with Internet access, core curriculum guides for grades K-12, printer and fax services, a reading corner for kids, and a series of workshops on such topics as student re-enrollment, financial aid, and becoming a better parent.
The center also has a multilingual component, with literature in Spanish. Other languages will be included.
Advocates for English language learners (ELLs) say they are pleased that the School District has honored a commitment to expand the number of bilingual counseling assistants (BCAs) who provide interpretation services for non-English-speaking parents. Now they are trying to make sure the new staff is used effectively.
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