The Notebook

Renaissance Schools

This page is your spot for the most up-to-date info on Renaissance Schools, Philadelphia's school turnaround initiatve.

Benjamin Herold and the Notebook are reporting all year on the “turnaround schools” that are in their first year as charters or Promise Academies under Superintendent Arlene Ackerman’s Renaissance Schools initiative. With the Obama administration having set a goal of turning around 5,000 failing schools nationally in the next five years, the Notebook is committed to tracking what happens on the ground in these schools locally.

This year is the second year of the Renaissance Schools intiative.

The Notebook's coverage in the 2010-11 school year is being conducted in partnership with WHYY's NewsWorks with financial support from the Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Fund and from NewsWorks.

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Renaissance Schools news and info

Four schools' fates

Posted in Summer 2012 Edition | Permalink

While the plan for Creighton is still to be finalized, three other District schools are being converted to Renaissance charters next fall:

Cleveland Elementary in Tioga will be run by Mastery Charter Schools, Inc.
H.R. Edmunds Elementary in Frankford will be run by String Theory Schools.

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Creighton: Exception to the Renaissance rule?

by Bill Hangley, Jr. Posted in Summer 2012 Edition | Permalink

For three of this year's four Renaissance Schools, the selection process is over. The public meetings are complete, the School Reform Commission has voted, and barring any unforeseen complication, next September they'll open as neighborhood charter schools.

But at Creighton Elementary in the Lower Northeast, supporters of a unique plan for a teacher-led administration are holding out hope that their school can buck a very big trend.

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Creighton supporters stave off charter conversion - for now

Submitted by Benjamin Herold on Thu, 04/19/2012 - 23:18 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Benjamin Herold
for the Notebook and WHYY/NewsWorks

Responding to passionate support from parents, community members, and teachers for an “outside-the-box” plan to keep Thomas Creighton Elementary under District control, the School Reform Commission decided Thursday evening to delay a planned vote to convert Creighton into a Renaissance charter.

“I agree with my colleagues that we should table this motion at this point,” said Commissioner Wendell Pritchett.

“We have a lot of schools to turn around, and we need to take advantage of every opportunity to engage with our teachers to do that.”

Listen to Benjamin Herold's radio report for WHYY from Thursday night's meeting.

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SRC votes not to renew three charters

Submitted by thenotebook on Thu, 04/19/2012 - 15:41 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Oscar Wang

The SRC took a first step tonight to shut down three charter schools: Arise Academy and Hope Charter, both of which have a mission to serve severely at-risk students, and Truebright Science Academy.

As representatives from the three schools made their cases for renewal, the SRC asked tough questions. The answers provided did not persuade the commission to reverse the three non-renewal recommendations made by the District's charter school office.

Commissioner Wendell Pritchett challenged all three charters to clearly outline a plan to turn their schools around. Implementation of good ideas is key to success, he said, not just the ideas themselves.

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Renaissance vote tonight: How the budget figures in

Submitted by thenotebook on Thu, 04/19/2012 - 14:32 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

NewsWorks and Notebook freelancer Bill Hangley provides important background to today's vote on four new charter conversions: What effect do the District's budget troubles have on turnaround models? Research suggested that the charter school model and the District-run Promise Academy model were equally successful, but Promise Academies were not an option this year.