Great Expectations

Join us for this April 5 event focusing on citizen-expert dialogue.

This event will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at The Inquirer building, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. Registration and refreshments will begin at 5:45 p.m.
This program is being co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Cross City Campaign for School Reform. It is intended as a preparatory session for the mayoral candidates forum to be co-sponsored by Great Expectations and the Cross City Campaign on April 12.

Hello everyone. My name is Carolyn Davis and I'm a writer for the Inquirer editorial pages. My beats include education and other issues about children, topics I have covered for longer than I care to remember. This forum, called "The Philadelphia Schools: Progress and Problems, is part of our Great Expectations project on the city's mayoral election.

This gathering is being held in what we call the public room at the Inquirer. If you've ever walked by 400 N. Broad St., it's the room with the giant windows at street level. There probably are about 100 people here now along with the panel members. Our guests are Michael Masch, the Pennsylvania budget director who also used to be on the School Reform Commission; Sharmain Matlock Turner, president of the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition; Michael Casserly who heads the national education group, the Council of Great City Schools; Darlene Callands Curry with the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Alliance for Educational Options; and Jolley Bruce Christman, founder of the group Research for Action, which has done numerous studies on Philadelphia school reforms. Chris Satullo, editorial page editor and my boss, is brilliantly describing this forum and project (I told you he's my boss, didn't I?) Well, I'll let Chris finish with the housekeeping announcements and return with my first report of what the panelists are saying.

Michael Casserly attended Villanova University, so he has that all-important Philly connection. Urban school districts nationwide are under tremendous pressure -- in the court of public opinion and the court of history, to improve the academic progress of students. He is saying that the results across the country are improving, though urban school districts are far from perfect.

"But the trend lines, fragile though they may be," indicate urban education is on the right track, he says.

Casserly is listing the changes that have been put into place in Philadelphia schools, including standardizing curriculum districtwide, increasing the percentage of highly qualified teachers, and longer summer school and school days.

"The reforms the school district is following are consistent and in some ways better than other districts you will see across the country. What sets Philadelphia apart is the many reforms it is doing at once and the diverse provider model," Casserly is saying.

Jolley's first slide shows that more Philadelphia schools are making the Adequate Yearly Progress standard that is required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act with an increase districtwide in proficiency in grades five and eight. High school, including the graduation rate, is still a big problem.

Now she is getting into the instructional management system, which is an unexciting name but has an important function.The system is made up of a core curriculum -- which may itself be responsible for academic gains made -- benchmark assessments, SchoolNet, and something else I didn't catch before she moved on to the next slide.

Michael is recalling the condition of the district before the state takeover. It isn't a pretty stroll down memory lane. There was an acute financial crisis that left the district teetering on bankruptcy and students with scores that were as poor as the district's coffers.

Besides being a founding member of the School Reform Commission (SRC), Michael also was on the old school board. He's describing how Mayor Street and then-Gov. Ridge slowly moved together toward a state takeover. Masch is emphasizing that, originally, Gov. Ridge wanted a full state takeover. But counter to what many people think, what took place was a partnership between the city and the state. The mayor and the governor both appoint members to the SRC. Street helped shape the takeover structure.

Michael is now trying to put the current Philadelphia school money troubles into perspective. He's making the case that the absolute number of dollars spent isn't as important as how they are spent. Actually, I think both are important.

Here's some state context:

Sharmain is talking about how parents hunger for school choices. People who can afford it can select a top-notch public school, private school or religious school for their kids. People with less money rely on the public system yet still want choice.

She's making the interesting point that the Philadelphia public schools has a long history of school choice. Three prestigious magnet schools have been around for decades. Central High was established in 1836 (what do you know, it's the second-oldest public school in the country), Girls' High began in 1848 and Masterman in 1958. But those choices were available mainly to people who had good connections or students who were high achievers.

Today there are 30 special admission high schools with 15,558 kids and six middle with 2,374 students enrolled. Nearly 27,301 students requested transfers and 8,339 of those requests were approved. Sharmain's conclusion is that more choices are needed for all parents. Today, one out of every seven Philadelphia students attends a charter schools. She disagrees with those who say charter schools and the funding directed to them are ruining the district. The public schools are a collection of students and parents -- and many parents are choosing charters and other alternative schools.

Darlene is a product of Philadelphia public schools and now her children are in them. She has made use of choices to put her kids in good schools and now one of her daughters is a blossoming poet.

A lot of parents ask Darlene to explain the district's educational options and how to use them. She hears parents time and again saying, "enough." Enough excuses, enough of a culture of failure. School choice is a road map for academic success.

Kids are still being left behind because of a lack of variety in schools and the possiblity for low-income parents to match their child's abilities with the right school.

"The reality is if you have money in America, you have choice. If you have status in America, you have choice." School choice is widespread unless you're poor. "Who loses and who chooses?" she asks.

Anything other than a quality education is child abuse, Darlene is saying. Her passion for choice in education is obvious; her pulpit-style delivery is stirring.

"We as parents are tired of waiting. And enough is enough."

Amen.

We're back together. After the panelists finished their presentations, the audience split up into small groups to discuss Philadelphia schools. Now we're at the last part of the evening. The audience has submitted questions in writing to the next set of guests, School Reform Commission Chairman Jim Nevels and SRC member Sandra Dungee Glenn.

Question: What is the district doing to counter violence in schools?
Nevels: The SRC worked with district CEO Paul Vallas to draft a tough new code. Large, comprehensive high schools, where much of the violence occurs, are being split into smaller schools. He is working with Vallas to make sure the student conduct and disciplinary codes are enforced fully and consistently.
Glenn: She seconds what Jim said, but adds that kids need stability, not uncertainty. Schools need to have a stable climate -- and that takes action from school administrators, teachers and central office staff.

Today, the Citizens Agenda for Philadelphia's Future, the culminating product of the Great Expectations project for this year, was published online at www.greatexpectations07.com.

Also, the first installment of a six-part presentation of the Agenda in the ink-and-paper Inquirer appeared in the Sunday Currents section. During the week, the issue by issue rollout of the Agenda will appear on the local Commentary page, B2.

Every day as the Agenda is unveiled, we'll post an open thread for your comments on the issues covered in that day's print Inquirer. (If you want to comment on other parts of the agenda ahead of their print publication dates, that's fine, too. Go ahead. And don't forget the Citizens Convention to review the Agenda next Sunday at the Convention Center.http://www.greatexpectations07.com/convention)

Today's issues in Currents were Education and Knowledge Economy. They were paired for obvious reasons; together, they speak to the fact that any vibrant region is focused on providing educational opportunity and skill training to its citizens at every point from preschool to post-college. We expect the Education agenda to stir some debate; in the end, we chose not to go with the popular notion that the city should take its schools back fully from the state.

Citizen blogger Whitney Hoffman continues her report from the Citizens Convention:

The first break-out session I attended was one on Education. The ideas of finding a leader, getting better financing, and looking for after-school programs all were welcomed as great ideas. But it felt like that was a very top-down approach to education, which seems best managed from a more bottom-up approach because nothing motivates people like how to best educate their children.

We spoke about making neighborhood schools integrated into the community, and about how they become centers and hubs for community activity, bringing in not only parents but also residents otherwise unaffiliated with the schools. Community open houses or meetings with City Councilpeople at the local schools were discussed as ideas to help people identify the neighborhood school as an important part of their community, whether they had school-age children or not.

Citizen blogger Whitney Hoffman wraps up her take on the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention:

In the session on the knowledge economy in Philadelphia, participants seemed to have many concerns. One concern was making Philadelphia an attractive and affordable city to young graduates, which meant affordable housing for people starting out in their first jobs. Another prong of the discussion dealt with providing internship opportunities with local unions and local businesses beyond formal co-op programs, to let students take off a semester and get more experience as well as needed funds to afford higher education.

One of the most compelling suggestions was to make Philadelphia a leader in alternative energy, or make it a center for telecommuting, and invest in the regional wi-fi net that would allow people to live and work from here, anywhere, in the emerging global economy. We spoke about providing more e-learning for continuing education.

Philadelphia-area blogger and podcaster Bill Rowland discusses his impressions of the Great Expectations Citizens’ Convention held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Sunday December 2nd.

In this program, Bill covers the event including the welcome session, as well as discussions of three of twelve key issues found in the draft Citizens Agenda. Specifically The Knowledge Economy, City Services and Crime.

Listen in to Bill's podcast

Margit Olsen joined the Great Expectations citizen blogger team for the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention. She's 25 and preparing to go back to school in order to become a special-education teacher. She moved to Philly three years ago from Delaware and currently lives in West Philly with her girlfriend, dog and three cats.

Margit writes:

I held “Great Expectations” for the day. I came in pumped to talk about real issues. I signed up for my first topic, Transportation, and I took my seat. I have been in Philly for the last three years, and I have grown to have a deep love for the city and its people. I thought long and hard about the other two topics I wanted to delve into. I made my decision: poverty and education. I thought to myself, “I will do what I can.”

Transportation: I am not a daily Septa rider. I don’t claim to be. I am not because I think that it is a flawed system. I appreciate the ease of taking Septa from my house in West Philly into the city when I want. I love that the trolley stops right outside my door. I hate a lot of things about Septa, too. I hate that the trains stop running pretty early. I hate that its fare keeps increasing. I also hate that from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. right now they are doing construction outside my house.

Albert Yee moves on to Arts & Culture in his second installment from the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention. He writes:

The biggest issue in the Arts & Culture session was the creation of a regional fund to support the arts. The group of 20 was split into two groups that did not come back together to discuss as a whole. The side I was in did not come up with the how to get that money. People were confused as to where it would come from. It could come from tax money, a pledge of 1% of the city's budget, somewhere else. Taking the leap of faith that hundreds of millions of dollars would be poured into Philly's thriving arts scene, where would it go and what would it do?

An artist, Sue, was concerned that much of the money would end up going to administrative costs. She said that usually, 80% of monies end up going to admin costs and a trickle ends up in the pockets of the artists themselves. She stressed that the message must be clear that artists cannot create art for free and they must be paid for their contributions to the city. Sue added that the old Office of Arts & Culture (it currently doesn't exist, but I believe Nutter has pledged to reopen it) did not do anything other than organize artists around Christmas time to create displays around City Hall. She said that a revived Office of Arts & Culture must actively act as a liaison between all of the arts groups in the city. A well designed website would be a huge step; the group agreed.

Citizen blogger Albert Yee weighs in on the District 4 "Presenting the Agenda" forum. In Part 1, he writes:

Approximately 50 people gathered for Feb. 25 Great Expectations District 4 agenda forum at the North Light Community Center (175 Green Lane) in hilly and narrow-streeted Manayunk/Roxborough. I sat down at a table with 5 locals, most who had been to a previous Great Expectations meeting. Barbara was especially pleased she attended the Citizens Convention in December and was looking forward to seeing how the Nutter administration does over the next year in regards to the agenda laid out by the citizens through this project. The ongoing basketball games next door in the other gym kept a steady beat throughout the night for the group to work by. The fluorescent lights kept things difficult for me to take photos. We were told that 4th District Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., 40 days into office, would be attending and hopefully At-Large Councilwoman Bondell Reynolds Brown would make it too.

Citizen blogger Jennifer Yuan attended the "Presenting the Agenda" community forum in the 8th District. Jennifer's personal blog, A Thousand Times No, can be found at http://1000timesno.net).

She writes:

Snow fell over Mount Airy on Feb. 20, the evening of the Great Expectations District 8 agenda forum. Despite the weather, nearly 60 people from neighborhoods throughout the district, including Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill, filled a large conference room at the Lutheran Theological Seminary on Germantown Avenue. In this setting, project director Chris Satullo kicked off the evening with an apt description of the Great Expectations Citizens Agenda as an act of faith: “It’s an act of faith in our city; it’s an act of faith in the citizens of the city and the power of civic dialogue. It is also an act of faith in our leaders: a belief that if we are better citizens — that if we are ready to step up with our hearts, our minds, and our muscles to make this a better city — they will also be better leaders."

After the opening remarks, people broke into three smaller discussion groups, focusing on separate clusters of issues addressed in the Citizens Agenda.

Citizen blogger Albert Yee brings us the final report from our "Presenting the Agenda" neighborhood forums. He writes:

My final Great Expectations agenda forum was in District 7 - the home turf of freshman Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez. The forum was held in Holy Innocents Church in Junianta. Along with about six staffers were about 40 participants. Councilwoman Sánchez and Councilman Bill Green made it out to hear their constituents discuss the agenda.

I sat down with the breakout group that discussed Budget & Taxes, Leadership & Reform, Transportation and City Services more in depth. This group was definitely the most subdued out of the four I've sat down with in the past month or so, but still had some lively conversation on some points. The discussion started with transportation. Duane wanted to see incentives for not taking cars into Center City like in some other large cities. Adan, a church leader from Norris Square, wanted to see how the city could become greener and address the issue of clogged streets in one fell swoop. James, a PhillyCarShare advocate, wanted to try new ideas and see if the worked out. He wanted smaller vehicles to run late at night instead of the large double-length buses, which run up and down Broad Street with single-digit passengers. John was worried about privatizing I-80. He definitely wanted more money to fund mass transit, but thought that this option would bust the unions and lead to crony appointments.