by Christopher Paslay
Out of America’s 50 largest city school districts, guess which one improved their average graduation rate the most over the last 10 years?
Philadelphia.
It’s true. According to Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap, a report prepared for America’s Promise Alliance by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, the Philadelphia [...]
by Christopher Paslay
I went to 12 years of Catholic school, so when I read Monica Yant Kinney’s recent article, Here, uniformity just might not fit, I had to chuckle.
The golf shirts and khaki bottoms required at Friendship Elementary School in Chester County is a sad idea of a uniform, if you want to know [...]
by Christopher Paslay
In the Philadelphia School District, teachers are often evaluated on their use of technology in the classroom. Administrators want to know if we’re using laptops and Smartboards—if we’ve completed the latest training to bring us up to speed on Governor Rendell’s Classrooms For The Future—and if we’re taking full advantage of educational resources on [...]
by Susan Cohen Smith
It has been said that, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As news of the School District of Philadelphia’s new leadership team and windfall budget sinks in, it would be prudent to recall lessons learned from the past.
When the School Reform Commission was formed in 2001, the [...]
by Christopher Paslay
In his recent blog, Does reforming high schools require starting with a new staff?, Philadelphia Public School Notebook blogger Eric Braxton explores the idea of overhauling teachers in failing city schools by replacing them, or by making them reapply for their jobs in order to prove their commitment to education.
As I have [...]
by Christopher Paslay
“Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom.”
These were the words of Barack Obama in his first education policy speech last month. He believes that performance pay is the spark needed to [...]
by Christopher Paslay
Philadelphia public schools and their teachers have been getting quite the media exposure this week. On March 31st, the Inquirer ran a story headlined, “Group urges improved teacher quality in Philadelphia”.
The gist of the story was that as a whole, the Philadelphia School District lacks “quality” educators, and that too many of [...]
