School District of Philadelphia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The School District of Philadelphia is a school district

School district

School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.-United States:...

based in the School District of Philadelphia Education Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, that includes all public schools in the city of Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the eighth largest school district in the nation.

The School Board was created in 1850 to oversee the schools of Philadelphia. The Act of Assembly of April 5, 1867, designated that the Controllers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia were to be appointed by the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. There was one Controller to be appointed from each ward. This was done to eliminate politics from the management of the schools.

Eventually, the management of the school district was given to a school board appointed by the mayor. This continued until 2001 when the district was taken over by the state, and the governor was given the power to appoint a majority of the five members of the new School Reform Commission.

Demographics

Enrollment
184,560 as of mid-October 2005, including early childhood programs as submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Number of Students by School Type

4,525	Head Start & Preschool Schools
97,466	Elementary Schools
24,890	Middle schools
47,960	High Schools
4,679	Vocational/Technical Schools
1,113	Programs
3,927	Special Schools
184,560	Public School Total
25,872	Charter Schools
210,432	Grand Total

Percentage of Students by Ethnicity

Ethnicity	Public Schools	Charter Schools
Black	64.4%	65.3%
Asian	5.6%	2.3%
Hispanic	15.8%	13.3%
Native American	0.2%	0.2%
White	13.3%	18.9%

As of 1998, the district had 213,000 students. Of them, 12% were Hispanic and 5% were Asian. The entire School District of Philadelphia student body, as of 1998, spoke over 70 languages, including Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, Khmer

Khmer language

Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...

, and Vietnamese

Vietnamese language

Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...

. There were more Khmer and Vietnamese speakers than Chinese speakers. In 1998 increasing numbers of non-English speakers enrolled in the Philadelphia schools. 10,000 students received English support. 98 schools had special programs for non-English speakers.

Transportation

Each day, the School District provides free transportation for students who meet the eligibility requirements. In 2005-2006, 39,755 students received free school bus service. This included 19,250 public school students, 10,104 private and parochial school students, 9,496 charter school students and 905 early intervention students. The District also provided free student tokens for 13,089 students who also meet the eligibility requirements. There were 10,697 public school students, 811 non-public school students and 1,581 charter school students who receive free tokens. In addition, for students who do not meet the eligibility requirements, reduced fare tokens that are subsidized by the District may be purchased. Based on figures from last school year, approximately 19,700 students purchased subsidized tokens. This figure includes 12,700 public school students, 4,200 non-public school students and 2,800 charter school students.

Food Services

On an average school day, the district serves approximately 117,000 lunches, 52,000 breakfasts, 4,200 after-school snacks and between 5000 and 8000 CACFP "at-risk" dinner meals through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). A study by Temple University shows that 76 percent of the District's students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

Schools

There are 291 public schools in the School District of Philadelphia:

174	Elementary schools, including Lamberton (K-12)
39	Middle schools
45	High Schools
5	Vocational/Technical Schools
9	Special Schools
19	Programs

There are 55 charter schools in Philadelphia:

29	Elementary Schools
6	Middle schools
16	High Schools
4	Special Schools

Organization

The district is organized into 11 regional offices, each with its own Superintendent. Nine of these are geographically determined regions. The Alternative Education and Comprehensive High Schools Regions were created in 2008, replacing the CEO/EMO Region.

Alternative Education Region - Ben Wright
Central - Marilyn Perez
Central East - Francisco Duran
Comprehensive High Schools Region - Michael Silverman
East - Gregory Shannon
North - Lucy Feria
Northeast - Lissa Johnson
Northwest - Pamela Brown
South - John Frangipani
Southwest - La Verne Wiley
West - Diane Hathaway, Interim

Governance

The School District of Philadelphia is governed by the five-member School Reform Commission. The commission was established in December 2001, when oversight of the district was taken over by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Governor of Pennsylvania appoints three of the members, and the Mayor of Philadelphia appoints two members of the commission.

Leadership

The following is the current district leadership.

Superintendent of Schools - Dr. Leroy Nunery (Acting)

Deputy Superintendent - Dr. Leroy D. Nunery

Associate Superintendent of Academic Support - Tomás Hanna

Associate Superintendent of Academics - David Weiner

Associate Superintendent of Schools - Penny Nixons

Chief of Talent & Development - Estelle Matthews

Chief Finance Officer - Michael Masch

Michael Masch

Michael J. Masch is a former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Budget. He is a graduate of the Fels Institute of Government . He also served as Secretary of Administration from 2004-2005. he resigned in 2008....

Associate Superintendent - Diane Castelbuono

School Reform Commission

Robert L. Archie Jr. , Esq. - Chairman

Martin G. Bednarek

Denise McGregor Armbrister

James P. Gallagher, Ph.D.

Joseph A. Dworetzky

Pre-1990s

In 1967, high school students demonstrated

1967 Philadelphia Student Demonstrations

The 1967 Philadelphia Student Demonstrations was a student strike and subsequent police riot which took place on November 17th, 1967. The demonstration was part of a larger trend of racial tension and unrest in the United States during the 1960s.-Causes:...

in front of the Board of Education building, demanding better treatment, especially for African-American students, and better funding. The demonstrators were met with force by the Philadelphia Police Department, and the resulting riot left 22 injured and 57 arrested.

Takeover by the state

The state takeover of the District had its roots in the chronic low test scores of district students and a history of inequitable financing which left the District with substantial and perpetual deficits. In 1975, Pennsylvania provided 55 percent of school funding statewide, in 2001 it provided less than 36 percent. An analysis determined that increased district spending was limited by a state system which relies heavily on property taxes for local school funding. As a result, wealthier school districts with proportionately more property owners and more expensive real estate have more funds for schools. The result is great disparities in school system expenditures per student. In 2000, the Philadelphia school district spent $6,969 a year per student. Seventy percent of Philadelphia’s students are at or near the poverty line. This contrasts with expenditures per student in wealthier suburban school districts: Jenkintown, $12,076; Radnor, $13,288; and Upper Merion, $13,139.

In February 1998, then-superintendent David Hornbeck threatened in February to close the city's schools if the state did not provide the funds needed to balance his proposed budget.
State lawmakers responded to the threat with fast moving legislation, Act 46, on April 21, approving a school funding package that included a takeover plan for the nation's sixth-largest school system. The legislature’s plan was a reaction to Hornbeck’s threatening to shut down the schools because of a financial crisis.

"Holding students and their parents and teachers hostage in an effort to gain additional funding is certainly bold but not very wise", commented Representative Dwight Evans
Dwight E. Evans
Dwight Evans is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 203rd District . He currently serves as Majority Appropriations Committee Chairman.-Early life and education:...

, Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Committee and prime architect of the takeover bill.

Two lawsuits were filed by the city and the Philadelphia School District in 1997 and 1998 to address these inadequate funding levels. The first, filed by the school district, the city and community leaders, contended that Pennsylvania did not provide a "thorough and efficient" education; it was dismissed outright by the state court. The second case, a civil rights suit filed in Federal District Court, by the district, the city, and other interested parties, contended that the state's funding practices discriminate against school districts with large numbers of non-White students; The School District of Philadelphia was a key complainant in this case. The city agreed to put this case on hold when Mayor Street negotiated the "friendly" state takeover of the District, with the promise of additional funding from the state.

In June 2000, under increasing pressure to find a solution to the fiscal and academic problems facing the district, school superintendent, David W. Hornbeck, ended his six-year tenure. Hornbeck resigned saying he did not have the financial support of state and city officials to continue his school reform program (and a year later launched a statewide advocacy organization, Good Schools Pennsylvania, to mobilize citizens in support of improved state funding for public education). Merrow called improving public education "one of the great civil rights battles of this generation."
The Board of Education then implemented a new management structure, replacing the superintendent's position with two new positions, a chief academic officer, Deidre Fambry, and a chief executive officer.

In 2001, the district had a projected deficit of $216.7 million in its current $1.7 billion budget. There was a crisis in making the school payroll and paying $30 million in vendor bills. In recognition of the assistance, Mayor Street agreed to postpone for three months a 1998 federal lawsuit brought by the city claiming racial discrimination in the way the state funds the Philadelphia school district. In a study released in July by the Harvard Civil Rights Project, Pennsylvania was ranked as having the sixth most segregated schools in the United States. Under the legislation enacted in 1998, in 2001 Governor Mark Schweiker

Mark S. Schweiker

Mark Stephen Schweiker is a businessman and politician who served as the 44th Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 2001 to 2003. Schweiker, a Republican, became Governor of Pennsylvania on October 5, 2001, when his predecessor, Tom Ridge, resigned as Governor of Pennsylvania to assume...

moved to take control of the schools. The state takeover of the fifth largest school district in the United States was seen as the most radical reform ever undertaken in a large urban school district. This move was opposed by Mayor John F. Street

John F. Street

John Franklin Street was the 97th Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. He was first elected to a term beginning on January 3, 2000, and was re-elected to a second term beginning in 2004...

and many members of the city of Philadelphia. The negotiations dragged on because of the state’s insistence that the city pay its fair share, while the city fought to retain some control over the governance. Also at stake was the control of patronage jobs controlled by the mayor in the district’s central administration.

In the end, the city put up an additional $45 million for the schools instead of the $15 million initially offered and the state provided an additional $75 million. In return, the mayor gets to appoint two commission members rather than just one under the governor's initial plan.

The schools were clearly failing, but the state and the city could not agree on reform and local governance issues. As negotiation continued, a coalition of labor unions and community groups called the "Coalition to Keep Our Public Schools Public", filed a lawsuit to stop the state from signing a contract for Edison Schools

Edison Schools

EdisonLearning Inc., formerly known as Edison Schools Inc., is a for-profit education management organization for public schools in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1992 as The Edison Project, largely the brainchild of Chris Whittle...

to manage city schools. The state backed off on a hostile takeover and negotiated with the city. One of the chief concerns was the complete privatization of the school district.

The reform plan was opposed by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers because of the loss of beneifits and rights they would suffer. Protestors like J. Whyatt Mondesire

J. Whyatt Mondesire

J. Whyatt Mondesire was a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer during the early years. He now owns the Philadelphia Sun newspaper, and is president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP....

of the NAACP vowed "... to shut down the streets", in protest. Members of the NAACP and a group of black ministers blocked an intersection in front of City Hall during rush-hour traffic. The day before, several hundred students walked out of classes. And earlier a crowd consisting mostly of unionized district employees marched on City Hall, where they disrupted the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony and drowned out the choir with their chants.

On December 21, 2001, Secretary Charles Zogby of the Pennsylvania Department of Education

Pennsylvania Department of Education

The Pennsylvania Department of Education is the executive department of the state charged with K-12 and adult educational budgeting, management and guidelines. As the state education agency, its activities are directed by Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education, Gerald L. Zahorchak...

signed a Declaration of Distress for the Philadelphia School District. This triggered the state takeover of the school district from the City of Philadelphia. The state of Pennsylvania formed the School Reform Commission to oversee the troubled public school system.

This action was the end result of a months long negotiation under the legislation enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly

Pennsylvania General Assembly

The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times , the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. Since the Constitution of 1776, written by...

in April 1998. The takeover plan had six main elements: putting the district under the control of a School Reform Commission; hire a CEO; enable the CEO to reform the teaching staff by hiring non-certified staff, reconstitute troubled schools by reassigning or firing staff; allow the commission to hire for-profit firms to manage some schools; convert some schools to charter schools; and reallocate and redistribute school district resources.

At the time of the takeover, it was expected that Edison Schools, Inc.

Edison Schools

would be one of the prime beneficiaries of the partial privatization. It had been involved in developing the plan for privatization commissioned by then governor Tom Ridge

Tom Ridge

Thomas Joseph "Tom" Ridge is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives , the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania , Assistant to the President for Homeland Security , and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security...

. Edison was not given as many schools as it had hoped, primarily because of conflict of interest concerns Youth organizers from the Philadelphia Student Union

Philadelphia Student Union

The Philadelphia Student Union is a non-profit organization led by youth that builds power among Philadelphia high school students to demand a high quality education...

staged protests, and engaged in civil disobedience to prevent the School District from handing over control of the central administration to Edison. Youth leaders were ultimately successful in preventing a takeover of the central office, and also prevented the take-over of any high schools by for-profit companies. As of 2007 the company had not delivered the promised improvements.

After the state takeover, the district adopted what is known as the “diverse provider” model, turning over the management of some of the lowest-achieving schools to for-profit and nonprofit organizations and two local universities and providing additional resources to the private managers.
The most controversial of the 2001 reforms the partnership program saw "educational management organizations" (EMO) Edison Schools

Edison Schools

, Foundations Inc., Victory Schools, Universal Companies, Temple University

Temple University

Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

, and University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

brought in to manage some of the District’s lowest-performing schools.

To date, the schools managed by private providers were doing neither better nor worse than district-wide achievement trends. District-managed schools given additional resources but no specific intervention were likewise doing about as well as other schools in the district. In contrast, district-managed schools given additional resources and a “restructuring” intervention showed larger achievement gains in mathematics.

Strategic Plan

Under the leadership of the former superintendent Arlene Ackerman

Arlene Ackerman (educator)

Arlene C. Ackerman, Ed. D. is an educator who was the former superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District and the former superintendent of Philadelphia Public Schools..-Washington, D.C.:Ackerman was superintendent of the D.C...

and with approval from the School Reform Commission, the district implemented, at the end of 2008, a five year strategic plan. The strategic plan, call 'Imagine 2014' outlined many measures to accelerate student's academic achievement. The plan seeks to achieve by 2014

"a great city system of schools in which teachers, principals, parents, staff, policymakers, and the entire community collectively focus all energy, efforts, planning and development, resources, and initiatives on building a 21st–century culture of achievement … where children come first, excellence is the norm, talent is nurtured, opportunities are made equal, and success is measured by the steady improvement of teaching and learning in classrooms system-wide … resulting in accelerated student progress … a school system in which all students succeed, families have many quality choices, the staff is great, adults are accountable, and world-class operations support the entire enterprise.

The major components of the plan revolve around increasing accountability, restructuring schools and school support systems to provide more choices for parents, and augmenting parent and community engagement. The school district releases semi-annual report to gauge the progress of the plan.

Classifying Schools

The Philadelphia School District rates and categories schools based on performance. Vanguard schools are considered the leading performing schools within the district and requires special admission process for students. Non vanguard schools that make adequate yearly progress are considered traditional district schools. Empowerment schools are schools that are struggling. Traditionally failing schools are privatized and are called renaissance schools.

Staff Hiring and Performance Measure

Under the strategic plan, the district allows principals to hire teachers and staffs and create incentives for high performing teachers and schools, such as tenure. The district also created tracking tools, performance indicators, to gauge the progress of schools and how schools effect student achievement. The district increased the staffs and accessibility of its call centers to provide services and allow parents and community to report directly to the main headquarter.

Parent and Community Engagement

The district's many parent and community engagement policies are combined in a central office called the Office of Parent Family, Community, Engagement, and Faith-Based Partnerships. One such programs, the Parent University of Philadelphia, offers a variety of free courses to parents, such as basic computer skills, lessons on legal rights of parents, English as a second language, and other evidence-based knowledge and skills enhancement courses. Parent University is funded heavily by Federal Stimulus grant. The district also set up city wide resource centers where parents can get resources seek help from the district on issues that could not be resolved at the school, such as bullying problems or complaints. The number of Parent Ombudsmen, school based staff who works directly with parent, were increased to serve 173 schools. Many of the programs have received local and national attentions for pioneering the field of parent engagement.

Physical condition of campuses

A 2002 entry of NewsHour Extra's editorial page features a Central High School student stating that funding for non-magnet schools in Philadelphia is sub-par http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/speakout/editorial/philly_schools.html.

Art in the public schools

The school district has an art collection with an estimated worth of between $5 million and $30 million.

External links

School District of Philadelphia
An Examination of Philadelphia 's School Desegregation Litigation
A History of School Libraries in Philadelphia, 1874 to 1964
Neighborhoods, Troubles, and Schooling: The Ecology of Philadelphia's Public Schools." The National Center on Education in the Inner Cities
Imagine 2014 Strategic Plan
School District of Philadelphia facilities map

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Demographics

Schools

Governance

Pre-1990s

Takeover by the state

Strategic Plan

Classifying Schools

Staff Hiring and Performance Measure

Parent and Community Engagement

Physical condition of campuses

Art in the public schools

See also

External links