December Newsflash
Proposed change in admission policy reaches SRC
>by Sheila Simmons
While the “Center City Schools” website no longer touts “priority status” for students from Center City seeking to attend any elementary school in their region, members of the School Reform Commission are finally considering a plan for regionally based admissions preferences.
The District proposal now goes by the name “Secondary Regional Catchment Area Admission/Transfer Policy.”
The policy would give students who live in a particular region of the School District an advantage in obtaining available transfer slots in any school within that region – not just the school in their immediate neighborhood catchment area.
SRC members were recently presented by District staff with a written proposal on the idea, which could affect not just students in Center City, but ones in the other nine geographic regions throughout the city -- and could raise issues of racial and economic equity.
Having reviewed the draft, the SRC advised the District to gather community input on the policy, District Chief Academic Officer Gregory Thornton said in a recent interview.
“They wanted more outreach on this,” Thornton said, explaining, “This is a major paradigm shift for us with respect to regional priority or regional catchment admissions.”
The proposal draft -- a copy of which was obtained by the Notebook -- seeks to amend Board policy on “Assignment Within the District” by adding an additional paragraph with three elements:
1. Neighborhood children have the right to attend their catchment area schools within the region.
2. Children who apply using an EH 36 (transfer application) within the Region will be admitted in the following order:
-a. Transfers consistent with the current Desegregation Policy
-b. Children who reside in the Region
-c. Children who reside outside the Region
3. Information regarding size of enrollments in schools may be given to parents or other persons only by the regional office.
The new policy would appear to give first preference at racially imbalanced schools to transfer requests that would improve the racial balance. But the policy would advantage students transferring within regions, such as Center City, to those transferring from outside that region.
District officials have maintained that the proposed policy is part of an effort to offer students in every neighborhood greater choice, particularly with a host of new high schools coming on line with unique and specific themes that may or may not interest all students in their neighborhood.
But the Center City District and the Central Philadelphia Development Corp., who partnered with the School District to form a “Center City Schools” initiative, have been looking to the policy change as a way to market Center City to well-educated professionals with young families as a viable residential location with multiple public school options.
The Center City Region would be the first region to implement the policy, beginning Fall 2006, Thornton said. He said an SRC vote is anticipated in January.
Several elementary schools in Center City are among the most sought after in the District, and Center City Schools has been touting the “priority status” of its residents in seeking transfers within Center City since April.
In the September 2005 Newsflash, the Notebook reported that the SRC would take up the admissions proposal in October. But the November 18 deadline for all students to apply for school transfers came and went, with only an education advocate, in testimony to the SRC at its November 9 meeting, mentioning the policy proposal publicly.
Len Rieser, co-director of the Education Law Center, told the SRC, “I want to recommend that the Commission create a more open process when it comes to developing admissions criteria in schools.” He added, “When you change admissions patterns in one area, it affects other areas.”
In his testimony, Rieser expressed concern about the new high school at 11th and Catherine Streets, called The Academy at Palumbo, that was designed to model the city’s acclaimed magnet, Central High School, and its admissions criteria.
The school is considered a special admissions magnet school, requiring nearly all As and Bs and at least an 88th-percentile ranking on citywide TerraNova exams. But other literature about the school’s admissions refers to a neighborhood preference.
A brochure distributed at the District’s high school fair in late October stated “Admission to The Academy is limited to academically focused students living south of Market Street or in Center City.” Meanwhile, a more extensive information packet on Palumbo said that 75 percent of students would be drawn from the area south of Market Street, with the remaining 25 percent open to all students. (CAO Thornton said in an interview that the configuration allowed for distribution of students between Palumbo and Central High School. Central is six miles north of Market Street but admits students without regard to neighborhood).
“I am not here to say that those decisions are wrong,” Rieser told the SRC. “My point is that those decisions have important consequences.”
Rieser reminded the Commission that the District was still under “court order” to deal with issues of racial equity, and should consider whether its new admissions criteria would improve or worsen inequities in educational opportunity.
Historically, many children from other areas of the city have looked to Center City school transfers as a route to escape the troubled schools in their own poor, often racially segregated neighborhoods.
“As we open new schools, I think it is important that we not repeat history,” Rieser testified. He called an open process “the best way to avoid distrust and legal challenges,” but said that the District had missed opportunities to “share with us what was on the table.”
Following Rieser’s November 9 testimony, all the commissioners in attendance at the meeting declined to offer their views on the potential policy, citing lack of knowledge on “preferred choice.” That is the term the District had previously applied to the policy, rather than referring to a “Secondary Regional Catchment Area.”
“At this point, I’m waiting to be briefed on it,” said Chairman James Nevels. “We had a preliminary hearing, a preliminary discussion this morning about it. We’re looking to the Chief Academic Officer to brief us fully on it.”
Of the mention of “priority status” in admissions for Center City residents on the “Center City Schools” website and at a “Center City Schools Fair” held at the Convention Center October 22, Nevels offered, “I’m not aware they advertised that.”
Other commissioners at the November 9 meeting also seemed unaware of details about “preferred choice” or any Center City “priority status.”
“News to me,” Commissioner Daniel Whelan said.
Commissioner Martin Bednarek noted, “I just heard of (“preferred choice”) this morning. The staff is going to brief us next week.”
Echoed Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn, “I’m just being briefed on it. It’s news to me. That’s all I can say.”
Contact the Notebook at 215-951-0330 x107 or flash@thenotebook.org.