Philadelphia is top recipient of federal turnaround grants

Few other school districts are doing so many charter conversions. Most of the dollars are going to less aggressive approaches.

by Katrina Morrison

Photo: Harvey Finkle

Olney High School, now managed by ASPIRA of Pennsylvania, received a $5 million federal grant to support charter conversion this year.

When it comes to school turnaround, Philadelphia is developing a national reputation for its aggressive use of nonprofit charter providers such as Mastery Charter Schools to spearhead overhauls of low-performing schools.

The District has also poured millions of dollars into the other component of former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's Renaissance Schools initiative: Promise Academies, which bring in new staff, leadership, and a highly structured educational program to overhaul schools that stay within District control.

These are the most visible elements of a School District strategy to align itself with the Obama adminstration's education policy and the emphasis that the U.S. Department of Education has placed on radical change in chronically underperforming schools.

What is not so well known is that in 2010 Philadelphia was the largest recipient of the federal funds earmarked for turnarounds – known as School Improvement Grants (SIGs) – of any city in the country.

The first two rounds of these three-year grants have netted Philadelphia commitments that could total $65 million.

But most of that money goes not to Renaissance Schools, but to the less drastic form of school turnaround known in federal jargon as "transformation" – an intervention that doesn't involve wholesale replacement of staff.

For the 2010-11 school year, Philadelphia received 27 SIG awards worth $17.4 million. Sixteen of those, totaling $10.5 million, were for the transformation approach. This requires the replacement of any principal who has been in place for at least three years, and it underwrites standard reform practices including an extended school day and summer programs.

Here, that money was mostly spent in so-called Empowerment Schools, those that had failed to reach federally mandated learning goals for at least five years.

"If you look at the school transformation option, it is the easiest option to do," said Justin Cohen of Mass Insight, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that promotes and consults on school turnaround. "It is the one that requires fewest political tradeoffs."

Of the other 2010 SIG awards, four were for Promise Academies.

The other seven went to the schools that were converted to Renaissance charters – what the federal government calls the "restart" model.

Although the transformation approach gets most of the federal grant money, Cohen did commend Philadelphia for being "more strategic about using outside providers."

"Philly is in front of a lot of places in terms of using charters in the turnaround space," he said.

"Restart involves partnering with outside organizations, which many districts view as impossible politically," Cohen said. Restarts are often harder to achieve due to union opposition, he added, because charter conversions involve shifting staff out of the collective bargaining unit.

Where the dollars go

Tara Feiner, executive director of the District's Title I office that manages federal grants, said that while less controversial, transformation is indeed a "radical intervention" because the principal is removed.

Feiner said that SIG funds supported summer programs in all the District schools that got grants. The money also paid for extended learning time – a longer day and Saturday school – in three of the Promise Academies that got grants.

Otherwise, the money supported additional personnel called for in the Empowerment School model, including school-based instructional specialists who worked with teachers in their classrooms to improve their practice. It also paid for special counselors to work with students to develop Individual Learning Plans. And, in elementary schools, it supported the high cost of Reading Recovery teachers, who work virtually one-on-one with struggling readers.

In two schools, SIG funds supported an infant-toddler center for children of students. SIG funds also supported two Newcomer Centers for immigrant students

"In general, SIG awards allowed schools to accelerate and expand upon Imagine 2014 initiatives," said Feiner, referring to Ackerman's strategic plan, which includes a grab-bag of reform measures.

Around the country, SIG money has been put towards similar initiatives.