News in brief
New anti-violence efforts include conflict resolution
It’s a free bus ride – but with a few glitches
Educators put spotlight on African American males
Mayoral task force finds progress, public skepticism
Media clubs funded at 24 Philly high schools
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News in brief
New anti-violence efforts include conflict resolution
A week devoted to conflict resolution is one of several new initiatives to tackle continuing problems of school safety in Philadelphia.
A recently released state report on the 2005-2006 school year tallied more than 12,000 reported incidents of misconduct in Philadelphia schools, including more than 4,000 assaults and 2,634 arrests.
But District spokesperson Felecia Ward said anti-violence initiatives are showing success, pointing to a decline in the number of incidents in the past year.
October 15-19 was the first-ever official Conflict Resolution Week for the School District. Initially proposed by Mayor John Street, the purpose was to bring awareness about conflicts and how to peacefully resolve them. Each day, students were asked to write journal entries addressing conflict and nonviolence and related lessons and activities were offered. While the week may be over, Ward said District efforts to eliminate violence are continuing.
“This is not a one-shot deal,” added the District’s Director of Health, Safety, and Physical Education, Bettyann Creighton. “This is a citywide reminder that this is something we’re responsible for teaching.”
The first weekend in November, the District celebrated the Fifth Annual Student Anti-Violence Movement. This year’s “Knock Out the Violence” events included educational workshops and religious services throughout the city to foster conversation about eradicating youth violence.
The District has also launched a program at 40 schools to take a more holistic approach to school safety. These “Single School Culture” schools received extra staff and training that involves the whole school community in finding solutions to school violence.
-Anne Ha
It’s a free bus ride–but with a few glitches
Since September, thousands of middle and high school students have been able to take public transportation to and from school for free – but the new system is not problem-free.
SEPTA now provides weekly TransPasses for Philadelphia public, charter, parochial, and non-public students in grades 7 to 12 who live at least 1.5 miles away from the school.
However, many students who were eligible for the passes were still paying for their rides the first few weeks.
“We had so many students whose school and address changed over the summer,” explained Fred Farlino, interim chief operating officer for the School District.
Schools needed time to figure out which students met all the requirements and apply for passes for them, Farlino said. About 58,000 students throughout the city now receive free transportation.
Last year, roughly 32,000 students took public transportation, and only 14,000 of those rode SEPTA at no cost.
Staff at several schools told the Notebook that things have run smoothly since they received the updated eligibility list. One outstanding complaint is that students in fifth and sixth grades who do not attend their neighborhood school must now pay the full adult prices for public transportation unless the school is designated a “desegregated” school.
Linda Carroll, principal of Northeast High, said compared to the token system, the school has to invest more time to distribute the passes to 1700 students.
“We’ve experienced quite a disadvantage as a result of the TransPasses,” Farlino acknowledged and added that in some ways the token system “was a better system for us.”
Farlino pointed out that the passes aren’t usable after 7 p.m. or on weekends, which affects athletes and may limit student participation in weekend events.
-Anne Ha
Educators put spotlight on African American males
“African American Male Academic Success” was the topic of this year’s Urban Education Fund conference in Philadelphia on October 27, and will be the focus of a series of follow-up Saturday workshops in 2008.
Keynote speaker Courtland Lee of the University of Maryland pointed to the issuance of a December 2006 report by a “Task Force on the Education of Maryland’s African American Males,” commissioned by Maryland’s Department of Education, as an indication of growing attention to the issue. That task force unanimously found that “school, itself, is an at-risk environment for African American male youth.”
Lee said one key way to nurture promise among African American male youth was through stories of “African American men of distinction.”
Workshops at the October conference also explored male mentoring and leadership programs, single-sex schooling, and the role of hip-hop culture in Black masculinity.
For information on the Urban Education Fund’s series of sessions on academic achievement of African American males, call 215-877-4950.
-Paul Socolar
Mayoral task force finds progress, public skepticism
While the School District has made significant improvements “by almost every measure” since the state takeover, according to a report by Mayor Street’s Education Advisory Task Force, it “has a long way to go in generating widespread confidence and praise from Philadelphia’s citizens.”
The task force report, issued November 1 after a year of research and discussion, cites public confidence, along with budget deficits, as major challenges facing the District. A poll conducted on behalf of the task force found that only 16 percent of residents are satisfied with the quality of the city’s public schools, while 58 percent are dissatisfied. In addition, the report notes the continued migration of students from District to charter schools.
Task force recommendations, drawn from the work of five committees, include:
- increased support for professional development, including the restoration of funding for new teacher coaches.
- reduced class size to improve both achievement and school climate.
- expansion of afterschool programs providing holistic support for children.
The task force also calls for restoration of local control of the School District by 2010, and it questions the provision of extra funds to schools run by education management organizations.
The full 96-page report is available online.
Media clubs funded at 24 Philly high schools
Students in up to 24 Philadelphia public high schools this year will have the opportunity to create a radio show, online publication, or a newspaper through $500,000 in grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to set up after-school media clubs.
The grants, to the School District and to Prime Movers of George Washington University (GWU), were announced at a press conference on November 9 by Eric Newton, vice president for journalism programs at the Knight Foundation.
GWU professor Dorothy Gilliam established Prime Movers, and Inquirer editor emeritus Acel Moore runs the program here. Professional journalists and interns from Temple University work regularly with the students and their teacher-advisers in the schools, which range from the Academy at Palumbo, a magnet school for high achievers, to the Youth Study Center, for students charged with delinquency or other crimes.
The media club at Germantown High School has already published the first issue of the revived Germantown Clipper, a longtime fixture at the nearly century-old school that stopped publication six years ago.
“Journalism is a great tool for students to improve their writing, learn to think critically, be involved in civic engagement and tell the stories of their communities,” said Moore.