Charter Schools In Philadelphia: Educating Without A Blueprint
This is final story in a three-part report on Philadelphia schools in crisis.
Shayna Terrell is in a good mood: It's report card night at the Simon Gratz Mastery Charter high school in North Philadelphia, and parents are showing up in good numbers.
Terrell, Mastery's outreach coordinator, welcomes parents. Her goal on this night is to get 40 percent of Gratz parents to come to the school, meet teachers face to face, and get their child's report card. It's part of the effort to make Gratz a positive hub for a community long challenged by high rates of poverty and crime.
A few short years ago, Simon Gratz was one of Philadelphia's most troubled, violent and academically underachieving high schools. Today, Gratz is very much on the rebound.
Aaliyah Mont, a 17-year-old senior, was here before and after the charter takeover. She remembers when the rules suddenly got a lot tougher.
"You could see everybody rushing to school, because nobody wanted the consequences of getting a demerit," she says. "Or your house getting called. A lot of stuff that we weren't used to."
This is still North Philadelphia: There are still security guards, locked corridors, and spot-checks on the students during school time. But there's a fresh coat of paint on the walls, and a far more substantive change.
"Previously when you walked in you were greeted by school police and passed through a metal detector," says Mastery Charter CEO Scott Gordon, who had the metal detectors removed.
"There's now a reception desk. You're greeted by someone who smiles and says hello. We still have security for safety, to make sure kids are safe. But the idea was to change it to a place where you are welcomed."
Through the city's renaissance program, a committee of parents chose Mastery Charter Schools to lead the effort to pull Gratz out of the muck. It's still a neighborhood school, and about 65 percent of the kids are from low-income families. But now it's run by Gordon's private nonprofit, not the school district. He likes to say Mastery's track record shows poverty is not destiny.
"I think if you spoke to folks prior to the turnaround, some would have assumed [in] a school like Gratz, kids couldn't achieve," says Gordon. "For lots of reasons: 'There's a culture of violence in the school; kids aren't prepared.' And it turns out not to be true. While poverty creates real obstacles, obstacles that require resources to overcome ... our kids are smart, resilient, and given the right circumstances and support, will fly and succeed."
On the academic side, Mastery reduced class size and added tutoring programs and specialized reading classes. It also revamped the curriculum. And robust intervention — whether addressing reading, truancy or poverty — has proved essential: If a student stops coming to class, Mastery will send a social worker to the house. Teachers are in frequent touch with parents, even helping link them with social assistance if they need it. The school has set up GED classes for the community, as well as free legal clinics and tax prep help for parents.
Once a week, Craig Goldman works with a local nonprofit to turn the Gratz gym into a free food pantry for anyone in the neighborhood. It's the charter school's attempt to reach families beyond the classroom.
"I think we are doing something that there's no blueprint for," says Terrell. "To fuse education with community engagement, I think is a big mindset change and a big concept."
It's a very different model from the classic public high school in Philadelphia, and they've gotten results: In just over two years, Gratz's state math and reading test scores are up 12 and 9 percent respectively. Graduation and college enrollment rates are up as well. Incidents of violence are down 84 percent. And the percentage of students who withdrew or left school has been cut nearly in half.
But this is just one charter school, and many have long waiting lists. Critics say Philadelphia can't charter its way out of its school crisis.
"Are some of the experiments successful? Yes," says University of Pennsylvania historian and sociologist Tom Sugrue. "Have they proved to be that silver bullet for transforming urban public education? No."
Sugrue says many kids can't get into charter schools and feel trapped in a large underfunded district whose support is unfairly pegged to local property taxes. He says the district gets less money overall than nearby suburban schools, especially given the huge number of high-risk, high-poverty kids it serves.
"The funding formula is, along with persistent racial segregation, is a formula for disaster," says Sugrue. "Concentrate poor, disadvantaged, minority students together in school districts with crumbling infrastructure, with large classes. And then give them less money to do the job."
Sugrue and others question whether successful charters are really scalable: They argue that replicating this kind of turnaround is simply too expensive and hard. Mastery Charter raised more than $1.5 million from private sources, including foundations, to improve Gratz.
Historian Diane Ravitch doesn't think it's money well-spent: she says nationally the data show charters are proving no more innovative or academically successful than their public school counterparts. "What the charter and choice movement has done is sell the line, 'All you have to do is look out for your own child.' So escape if you can and leave everyone else behind. Public education is a civic obligation," she says.
It's estimated there are about 2 million students enrolled in charter schools across America. Charters vary widely across states and within school districts. Ravitch and other critics say charters — in Philadelphia and elsewhere — are creating an unfair, publicly funded dual-track system. For every successful "turnaround" school, she says, there will be scores of "dumpster schools" where underachieving students are mired in mediocrity.
Foundations insist that charters are creating pockets of success, and in many cases are helping at-risk minority and low-income kids.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has praised charters as a chance for students in cities like Philadelphia to have more choice. He says they have in some cases "debunked the insidious myth that poverty is somehow destiny."
And at Gratz, anyway, 17-year-old Aaliyah Mont says the changes saved her. New teachers, her basketball coach and others, she says, motivated her to make the school's motto — "Excellence. No Excuses" — more than a slogan.
"They pushed me," she says, "and made me better."
9(MDE1MTIxMDg0MDE0MDQ3NTY3MzkzMzY1NA001))
Transcript
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.
So far in our series on Philadelphia's troubled school system, we have heard about the enormous challenges of inadequate financing, budget cuts and poverty - obstacles all of America's largest, urban school districts are grappling with. Today, we look at what one camp in the school reform movement sees as a key solution: charter schools. These are taxpayer-funded schools typically managed by private nonprofits.
In Philadelphia, charter enrollment has soared. But are charters there doing any better than their regular, public counterparts? NPR's Eric Westervelt takes a look.
SHAYNA TERRELL: Miss Harris - oh, you brought your baby. Hi, mama.
ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE: Shayna Terrell is in a good mood. It's report card night at the Simon Gratz Mastery Charter High School in North Philadelphia, and parents are showing up in good numbers.
TERRELL: Hi. What grade?
WESTERVELT: Terrell, Mastery's outreach coordinator, welcomes parents.
TERRELL: Tenth grade, yep - just go through the red door, and stay to your left. OK?
WESTERVELT: A few short years ago, Simon Gratz was one of Philadelphia's - and the state's - most troubled, violent and academically underachieving high schools. Today, Gratz is very much on the rebound.
Terrell's goal for this night is to get 40 percent of Gratz parents to come to the school, meet teachers face to face, and get their child's report card. It's all part of the effort to make Gratz a positive hub for a community long challenged by high rates of poverty and crime.
TERRELL: More engaging, more inviting, different strategies that we use; so like, personal phone calls, invitations, incentives for kids - hey, if your parents come, you get a free sneaker pass.
WESTERVELT: Seventeen-year-old senior Aalliyah Mont was here before and after the charter takeover. She remembers when the rules suddenly got a lot tougher.
AALLIYAH MONT: It was like, 8:01, you're late. And we were like, huh? How are we late? And you could see everybody rushing back to school 'cause nobody wanted the consequences of getting a demerit, or your house getting called - like, a lot of stuff that we weren't used to.
WESTERVELT: This is still North Philly. There are still security guards, locked corridors and spot-checks on students during school time. But there's a fresh coat of paint on the walls, and a far more substantive change.
SCOTT GORDON: Previously when you walked in, you were greeted by school police, and passed through a metal detector.
WESTERVELT: That's Mastery Charter CEO Scott Gordon.
GORDON: What we did to change that was, there's now a reception desk; you're greeted by someone who smiles and says hello. We still have security for safety, make sure our kids are safe. But the idea was to change it into - as a place where you're welcomed.
WESTERVELT: Through the city's Renaissance program, a committee of parents chose Mastery Charter schools to lead the effort to pull Gratz out of the muck. Today, it's still a neighborhood school, and about 65 percent of the kids are from low-income families. But now it's run by Gordon's private nonprofit, not the school district. He likes to say Mastery's track record shows poverty is not destiny.
GORDON: I think if you spoke to folks prior to the turnaround, some would have assumed that a school like Gratz, kids couldn't achieve for lots of reasons - there's a culture of violence in the school; kids aren't prepared. And it turns out not to be true, that - while that poverty creates real obstacles, obstacles that require resources to overcome; that our kids are smart, resilient, given the right circumstances and support, will fly and succeed.
WESTERVELT: On the academic side, Mastery reduced class size, added tutoring programs and specialized reading classes. They've also re-vamped the curriculum. And robust intervention - whether addressing reading, truancy or poverty - has proved essential. If a student stops coming to class, Mastery will send a social worker to the house. Teachers are in frequent touch with parents, even helping link them with social assistance if they need it. The school has set up GED classes for the community as well as free legal clinics and tax-prep help for parents, and more.
CRAIG GOLDMAN: I talked to Miss Shayna Terrell, and she was - opened up arms up to us, and gave us access to the gym every Wednesday. And we definitely appreciate that.
WESTERVELT: Once a week, Craig Goldman works with a local nonprofit to turn the Gratz gym into a free food pantry for anyone in the neighborhood. It's just wrapping up as the parents file in for report card night.
GOLDMAN: We have pastries, we have some olive bread; some bread they can stuff the turkeys in.
WESTERVELT: It's the charter school's attempt to reach families beyond the classroom. Shayna Terrell...
TERRELL: I think we are doing something that there's no blueprint for. To fuse education with community engagement - I think it's a big mindset change, and a big concept. I think we all agree that it's important; we all know it's important.
WESTERVELT: It's a very different model from the classic public high school here and so far, they've gotten results. It's been just over two years, but Gratz's state math and reading test scores are up 12 and 9 percent, respectively. Graduation and college enrollment rates are up as well. Incidents of violence are down 84 percent. And the percentage of students who withdrew, or left, schools has been cut nearly in half.
But this is just one charter school, and many have long waiting lists. Critics say Philadelphia can't charter its way out of its school crisis.
TOM SUGRUE: Are some of the experiments successful? Yes. Have they proved to be that silver bullet for transforming urban public education? No.
WESTERVELT: That's sociologist and historian Tom Sugrue, with the University of Pennsylvania. He says too many kids who can't get into charters here feel trapped in a large, underfunded district whose support is unfairly pegged to local property taxes. Sugrue says the district gets less money overall than nearby suburban schools, especially given the huge number of high-risk, high poverty kids it serves. He says outsourcing turnaround won't fix those systemic school failures and gross funding inequities.
SUGRUE: I mean, the funding formula is, along with persistent racial segregation, is a formula for disaster: Concentrate poor, disadvantaged and minority students together; and school districts with crumbling infrastructure, with large classes; and then give them less money to do the job.
WESTERVELT: Sugrue and others question whether successful charters are really scalable. They argue that replicating this kind of turnaround - with its broad, wraparound outreach and support structures - is simply too expensive and hard. Mastery Charter raised more than $1.5 million from private sources - including foundations - to improve Gratz. Foundations insist that charters are creating pockets of success that in many cases, are helping at-risk minority and low-income kids.
And at Gratz, anyway, 17-year-old Aalliyah Mont says the changes saved her. New teachers, her basketball coach and others, she says, pushed her to make the school's motto - Excellence, No Excuses - more than merely a slogan.
MONT: They came to me saying, you know better. You've got more potential than this; you need to show it. And the one line I always hated, that people told me, was, you're a leader. Y'all want me to lead other people - people don't listen to everybody. And everybody was like, but they listen to you; they follow you. I didn't notice it, but they did.
WESTERVELT: They pushed me, she adds, and made me better.
Eric Westervelt, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad