Where is all this heading?
Activists, educators, and officials weigh in on how turnarounds will reshape the system in the coming years.
by Dale Mezzacappa
Gratz High School is one of the latest crop of school turnarounds in Philadelphia. Gary Ray (center), a 10th grader, waits outside the school, now known as Mastery-Gratz, on the first day.
With turnarounds proceeding rapidly in Philadelphia and established providers eager to continue taking over low-performing schools, it is likely that the School District will look very different in five years.
In 2010 and 2011, 13 District schools have been converted to charters, including three high schools. Another nine have become Promise Academies, remaining within the District, but receiving mostly new leadership and staff, as well as expensive new programs. In the first two years of the Renaissance Schools program, the District is averaging 11 turnaround attempts per year.
The Notebook asked several officials, activists and educators to discuss their
Panel talks about education reform in communities of color
According to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Black and Hispanic 17-year-olds are achieving math at the level of White 13-year-olds.
This is just one shocking statistic about the achievement gap and overall educational attainment among students of color that was shared at a convening of more than 50 education leaders Wednesday at Community College of Philadelphia.
At the gathering, called The Education Agenda and the Impact on Communities of Color, advocates and reformers talked about strategies for obtaining high academic achievement and for building coalitions for grass roots advocacy that will impact national policy.
