In this article, veteran journalist Dale Mezzacappa reviews the tumult in Philadelphia and interviews people who have known the issues for 20 years or more. Given the high poverty in the district and the state’s neglect, not much has changed for the better.
Mezzacappa says there are more choices than ever. But the district is in terrible trouble:
“The state took over the District’s governance. Charter schools proliferated. Dozens of neighborhood schools were closed, including such landmarks as the 99-year-old Germantown High.
“Despite the state takeover, the District’s financial condition has only become more desperate.
“State and federal pressure to intervene in schools with consistently subpar performance mounted; standardized testing became the major driver of school rankings. ”
“All these changes have happened within larger shifts – demographic, political, social, and economic. Philadelphia has become the country’s most impoverished big city, with 13 percent of residents – an astonishing 200,000 people – living in deep poverty, or on less than $9,700 for a household of three.”
“As income and wealth inequality have worsened, the dividing lines in this region by race and income are starker than ever. Philadelphia school enrollment is mostly Black and Hispanic and low-income, while the surrounding districts are mostly White and middle- or high-income. Spending gaps between wealthier and poorer districts have never been bigger. Philadelphia schools struggle harder to overcome the effects of concentrated poverty – all while the District’s funding base has crumbled.”
Now charters and district schools compete for limited funds. Schools are stripped to bare essentials.
Read what the veterans say.
Lots of reform. Not much progress.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Lots of reform. Not much progress.
This is the whole story of NCLB and, now, Son of NCLB. MASSIVE DISRUPTION OF OUR SCHOOLS. MASSIVE WASTE OF RESOURCES. NO RESULTS.
We are spending money on tests and new textbooks instantiating new “standards” that will make no difference whatsoever, being variations on the same old groupthink in the state standards that preceded them. We are doing this in a time when 40 percent of African-American children live in poverty.
The deformers keep pointing to international test scores. Well, when you disaggregate those scores by socioeconomic level, you find that our kids who aren’t living in poverty do as well or better than kids anywhere in every subject area.
As Ira Shor pointed out on this blog recently, we could be spending these billions on giving kids warm clothes to wear in the winter, eye exams, safe and nurturing places to go to play and study after school, and much, much else.
But we spend our billions on making Pearson richer, on tests and more tests and more tests and demoralizing and invalid evaluation systems–on a whole lot of crap that has made NO DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!
WHEN WILL WE LEARN!!!!!
Teachers, it is time to give these slow learners some remediation.
I’m still amazed that the biggest advocates for public schools in Philadelphia are a group of volunteers.
How many ed reform orgs are there? How many paid staff do they have? There’s a big public school system crashing and burning and the only advocates are working for free?
It’s inspiring as hell, but what’s wrong with this picture? Where are the people who are paid to “advocate for children”?
Smash and grab, smash and grab…
Philly, NOLA, Chicago, Bridgeport..all have one thing in common:
PAUL VALLAS
It is all following the plan. We will have the rich and the poor. My husband retired from education with 32 years. He tried one year to live on his retirement, but it was clear we were not going to make it financially. We still had 1 child in high school. So, he got his CDL and went back to work. I am set to retire in one more year. I have already started working on my Associate’s degree to get a new job when I retire. The evil people are trying to destroy our profession, but the sad thing is that our pay is so low that if you still have dependents when you retire – you can’t make it financially. We even had our house paid off. But, $4 a gallon gas, high priced groceries, utility bills, trying to raise children…sadly, you can’t hardly live on the retirement the pitiful profession leaves you with. It’s ironic that they are after us, when our pay and retirement pension is not that great. That shows how greedy they are – they want it all.
I enjoy this blog. It really helps to read what others are going through. The fact is: Not many kids will go into this toxic profession with no respect. I had 2 students job shadow me in the spring…I was honest with them…Don’t ever go into teaching..You will be miserable…Get an associate’s degree and go into something else. You will make more money, get overtime, and you will be respected. I love teaching my subject, I love my students, but I could nevert stand seeing my students suffer like I am suffering…No way…I am vocal to my students about staying away from our profession. It would be like walking into a buzz-saw.
Yes. I tell I love teaching but hate education. It is no longer valued either at the K12 nor post-secondary. I tell my own kids to pick something else for a career. It makes no sense to be $50,000 in debt for a job clearing $25,000/yr with no future. And with many friends having worked hard for advanced degrees relegated to McAdjuct positions paying poverty wages, the idea of more college seems irrational.
These two statements are connected.
“The state took over the District’s governance. Charter schools proliferated. Dozens of neighborhood schools were closed,..”
“Now charters and district schools compete for limited funds. Schools are stripped to bare essentials.”
Anyone with half a brain might have predicted that charter schools would suck money and resources from the districts. It was all part of the plan to privatize education. Instead of trying to fix the schools we have, the state does a slash and burn. We hire more administrators to find ways of cutting costs. We get rid of “non-essential” staff. Then we wonder why unmonitored children act up.
By the way, how many administrators do we need???
I’m all for getting rid of bad teachers. I had a few. But first we need to make sure that teachers have the tools they need to properly educate the next generation. If not, we are lost as a country.
Hartford to regain control of [charter] school after sharp rift with charter group
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-hartford-jumoke-milner–20140616,0,4826789.story
Time to conduct a full scale audit to see where and how the $ is being spent. With the billions being handed to the charters their should be a task force to randomly audit charter schools.
…there…
There is much talk of school reform, but most of them require extra costs and change in the way teachers teach which automatically creates resistance to the reform. In our book on creating a high performing school culture, there are no costs and little resistance. There are four phases to the reform. Phase I reduces discipline problems, Phase II improves school climate and culture. Phase III changes the power structure and gives teachers and students more power. Phase IV brings the parents and community into the school community.
The most important phase creates a process where students control themselves and each other. The reduces time off task by 75% which effectively adds 30 days of instruction per year. In a typical inner city classroom teachers have to stop teaching to correct students five or more times in each class. This disrupts the learning process 2-3 minutes on average causing 10 minutes of instruction to be lost in each class or about one hour a day. In a 180 school calendar, that is 180 hours a year or about 30 days of instruction.
If you would like to hear some radio talk shows on how this can be accomplished log onto this site:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search?q=Bulach