Letters
Equity, community input needed in District’s new school choice plan
ELECT program for teen parents provides academic, social supports
Out-of-school youth: much work lies ahead
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Letters to the Editors
Equity, community input needed in District’s new school choice plan
To the editors:
According to the Notebook’s September 2005 Newsflash, the District is considering a “preferred choice” plan that will give Center City students preferential access to certain schools. Special restrictions have also been put in place for several new schools expected to open next fall; in some cases, the requirements are so demanding that only a small fraction of the student population will meet them.
“Preferred choice” and special admission requirements can be attractive when you’re one of the “preferred.” The problems come, however, for those who do not make the cut and end up with poorer facilities, less experienced teachers, and less challenging courses. In Philadelphia, we’ve been there and done that – as years of studies and court decisions confirm.
This is not to say that all schools must be open to all comers, or that preferences can never be appropriate. Nor is it to detract from the efforts of the District, and of teachers and families, to improve all schools, including those with open admissions.
But when it comes to deciding which students will have access to which schools, we need a comprehensive plan. Because our system is an interdependent web in which policies implemented for one group of students have an impact on others, the plan should cover the city as a whole – not just a region here or a school there. Most importantly, the plan should ensure that all students have equal access to high-quality programs.
Finally, parents, teachers, students and community members should be part of the design process. Plans that are “rolled out” without being exposed to the light of debate and discussion are unlikely to succeed, and may take us backward. Having made a historic commitment to the goal of achieving equity for all students, the School Reform Commission needs the best thinking of this community on how that goal can be reached.
Len Rieser
Education Law Center
Philadelphia
ELECT program for teen parents provides academic, social supports
To the editors:
Your Fall 2005 edition on out-of-school youth mentioned the ELECT (Education Leading to Employment and Career Training) program, a partnership between the state Departments of Education and Welfare that works to aid pregnant and parenting teens in completing high school and becoming self-sufficient adults. A little more background information on the program might be helpful.
Communities In Schools of Philadelphia, Inc. (CISP) has administered ELECT in partnership with the School District since 1993. CISP is the local affiliate of the largest stay-in-school network in the nation, celebrating its 20th anniversary in Philadelphia. Its mission is to “champion the connection of needed community resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life.”
In 2002-03, the ELECT program became the ELECT/Cradle to Classroom (CTC) program by adding an additional home visiting component utilizing a child development curriculum. In 2004-2005, 27 ELECT sites across the state collectively reported that 75 percent of seniors who were eligible to graduate completed their high school education by June of that year; in Philadelphia 98 percent of eligible seniors graduated in their final year. There are reams of amazing success stories and outcomes throughout the years.
The ELECT/CTC program
depends on community support to help pregnant
and parenting teens receive the academic
and social supports they need. With more
support for effective school-based programs
like ELECT, students like Stephanie Jackson
(GED student featured in the Fall
2005 issue) might have a different
story to tell. For more information on
CISP and ELECT/Cradle to Classroom, call
267-386-4600.
Jennifer M. Pitt
ELECT Manager
Communities In Schools of Philadelphia,
Inc.
Out-of-school youth: much work lies ahead
To the editors:
I want to thank everyone at the Notebook for the broad and incisive coverage of Philadelphia’s school dropout situation (Fall 2005 edition). You did an excellent job of introducing the issue in all its complexity and portraying how serious a problem it is, while also sharing the humanity of youth who end up labeled “dropout.”
Still, as one who has been working for many years to get public attention for this issue and to get public commitment to do something about it, I want to push you to do even more. The truth is that Philadelphia will need to make changes in how we think about our responsibility for youth in order to dedicate the resources needed to re-engage thousands of youth.
Yes, out-of-school youth are now “on the agenda,” but there are still very few opportunities available. All of us who work with this population receive calls from youth and their families – and many of these youth end up on waiting lists, not re-engaged.
The Philadelphia Youth Network and the Youth Transition Funders Group will support Philadelphia’s efforts to design a system, but ongoing, long-term change will require a substantial commitment of local funding. The School District has recently opened several alternative schools that give dropouts an opportunity to enroll in rapid-credit-retrieval programs, but it was unable to fund a projected expansion of these schools this year.
As long as the needs of school dropouts are competing with the needs of youth who stay in school, it will be difficult to leverage sufficient resources. After all, it’s hard to take away from youth who are ready to take advantage of opportunity.
While it’s true we need more information about dropouts, we know that some models work, and we need to be consistently pushing for investment in these models – so that the current generation of out-of-school youth is not lost as we “build the system.”
Philadelphia needs to decide that allowing thousands of youth to drop out or be pushed aside is just not acceptable.
Taylor
Frome
Executive Director
Youth Empowerment Services