The Notebook

Stories tagged: school improvement

District has new model for handling students' academic and behavioral problems

Submitted by thenotebook on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 13:54 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Charlotte Pope

The School District has begun to roll out a new system for responding to poor classroom performance, bad behavior, and truancy in students.

The West Philadelphia Parent and Family Resource Center, in collaboration with the School District of Philadelphia’s Parent University, held the second of four parent workshops Thursday to introduce a new system called RtII, or Response to Instruction and Intervention.

Will the system really decentralize?

Posted in December 2012 Edition | Permalink

Response to the October 2012 edition article “A new blend of public and private”

I think the decentralized approach to school management that is a component of the portfolio model is questionable due to the lack of actually decentralizing.

Morton McMichael School library re-opens after two decades

Submitted by thenotebook on Fri, 10/12/2012 - 10:53 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

By Kofi Biney

For 25 years, Morton McMichael School has operated without a library, not unlike many schools throughout Philadelphia. But today students at the West Philadelphia school celebrated the library's re-opening.

Investigación sobre fraude continúa; puntuaciones bajan en la mayoría de las escuelas

por Dale Mezzacappa Posted in Octubre 2012 Edition | Permalink

El Departamento de Educación de Pensilvania (PDE) y el Distrito Escolar de Filadelfia continúan investigando un posible fraude en los exámenes estandarizados en 53 de las escuelas del Distrito de acuerdo con evidencia forense – en su mayoría, hojas de respuestas de los años 2009, 2010 y 2011 en las que aparece un número estadísticamente improbable de respuestas incorrectas borradas para ser cambiadas a la respuesta correcta.

District downplays punishments in new student code of conduct

by Charlotte Pope Posted in October 2012 Edition | Permalink

After years of youth organizing groups making arguments against the District’s “zero-tolerance” policy, members of the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools achieved a victory in August.

The School Reform Commission voted to adopt a new student code of conduct, which gives principals more authority to handle disciplinary cases and puts more emphasis on intervention and prevention rather than punishment.

Cheating investigation continues; scores decline at most schools

by Dale Mezzacappa Posted in October 2012 Edition | Permalink

Pennsylvania’s Department of Education (PDE) and the School District are continuing to investigate possible cheating on standardized tests at 53 District schools, based on damaging forensic evidence – primarily answer sheets from 2009, 2010, and 2011 that show statistically improbable numbers of wrong-to-right erasures.

Hite takes a tour with the teachers' union

Submitted by thenotebook on Tue, 10/02/2012 - 00:12 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Paul Jablow

The Philadelphia School District will ask for additional concessions from the teachers' union because "we're going to ask for concessions from everybody," Superintendent William Hite said Monday. But he spent his morning underscoring his interest in working with the union.

Notebook edition on 'A portfolio of schools' now available

Submitted by Dale Mezzacappa on Thu, 09/27/2012 - 13:21 | Permalink

Hot on the heels of our Fall Guide to High Schools, the Notebook's October-November edition, available now, takes a look at portfolio management of schools and what it means in Philadelphia for parents, educators, and policymakers.

The print edition will be distributed to schools, libraries and other locations starting on Friday. Next Tuesday, we will begin posting full stories online, along with a radio piece by Benjamin Herold that chronicles one mother's search for the ideal school for her son.

Choosing a high school keeps getting more complicated

By Dale Mezzacappa Posted in Fall Guide 2012 Edition | Permalink

The always daunting process of getting into high school has a new twist this year.

In a system where studies have found that parents are already befuddled by the process, students and their families have a dizzying array of high school choices – small schools, large schools, themed schools, charter schools, themed charter schools, neighborhood schools that have become charter schools – the list goes on.

'Won't Back Down' screened in Philadelphia Wednesday night

Submitted by thenotebook on Thu, 09/20/2012 - 11:52 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

By Benjamin Herold
for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner

Mayor Nutter and Pennsylvania State Sen. Anthony WIlliams joined more than a hundred Philadelphians on Wednesday night for a special advance screening of Won’t Back Down, a new movie about education reform that is provoking sharp criticism from teachers' unions.