The Notebook

Stories tagged: middle schools

Cartoon Network urges students to stand up to bullying

Submitted by thenotebook on Fri, 02/22/2013 - 11:55 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Kofi Biney

A child is bullied every seven minutes, and 85 percent of the time no one steps in to help.

It’s a statistic driving the Cartoon Network’s “Stop Bullying: Speak Up” initiative. At Harding Middle School on Wednesday, the network's president, Stuart Snyder, joined U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in a flag-raising ceremony to kick off the national campaign to empower kids to stand up to bullying.

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.

Ethics complaint questions legitimacy of BCG reform plan, school closures

Submitted by thenotebook on Thu, 12/06/2012 - 14:06 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Bill Hangley, Jr.

With the shadow of dozens of possible school closures looming in the background, a group of public school advocates has formally filed an ethics complaint challenging the legitimacy of the dramatic reform plan developed for the School District of Philadelphia by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the William Penn Foundation.

Deadline for high school applications fast approaching

Submitted by thenotebook on Wed, 11/28/2012 - 16:31 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Charlotte Pope

The deadline for applications to attend citywide admission or special admission high schools, or to transfer to District neighborhood schools is Friday, Nov. 30.

All students in grades 8 through 11, including English language learners and children with disabilities, may apply to neighborhood high schools outside their neighborhood attendance area and citywide and special admission high schools.

Test security: Philadelphia gets strictest treatment

by Paul Jablow Posted in December 2012 Edition | Permalink

Heightened security measures are expected to again be in force throughout the School District of Philadelphia when state standardized tests are administered next spring. Changes are unlikely at least until current cheating investigations are brought to a close, according to Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) spokesman Tim Eller.

Clemente celebrates its new fitness center

Posted in December 2012 Edition | Permalink

Students at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Hunting Park try out equipment in their new state-of-the-art fitness center. In May, the school was named a “National Champion” for its efforts in encouraging physical fitness innovation and healthy living standards among their students. Jake Steinfeld, chairman of the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils, visited the school in September to help students and staff celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and test drive of their new $100,000 Live Positively Center.

Comments (5)

Coalición reúne opiniones de la comunidad sobre planes de reforma

por Charlotte Pope Posted in Diciembre 2012 Edition | Permalink

Este otoño los defensores de la educación trabajaron para asegurar que se tomara en cuenta la opinión de la comunidad en la discusión sobre el futuro de las escuelas de Filadelfia: la Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools (PCAPS) llevó a cabo dos foros y circuló una encuesta dirigida a padres, educadores, estudiantes y otros que apoyan la educación pública.

Reaching out in print and online

by Wendy Harris Posted in December 2012 Edition | Permalink

Notebook readers can still find the bimonthly print publication at 750 distribution sites throughout the city, including all District and charter schools. But to increase access to the paper, the Notebook has contracted with the delivery company CCN to set up honor boxes at strategic spots on the streets around town.

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.

Cheating: Time for answers

Posted in December 2012 Edition | Permalink

For nine years in a row, up through 2011, every summer brought cheery news that test scores went up in Philadelphia schools. Sure, performance wasn’t where it should be, but things were on the right track. More and more students scored proficient and many schools met their adequate yearly progress targets.