Advocates for public education in Philadelphia dismiss the significance of a state tool for assessing school performance, saying changing public schools for the better won’t happen without adequate funding.
Local advocates say a ranking of 71 Philadelphia public schools released last week only strengthens their argument, with some critics hammering away again at a loss of $1 million in funding over four years under the administration of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
A former teacher and a strong advocate for public schools, Helen Gym, executive director of Parents United for Public Education, said schools shuffled positions in a ranking that showed nothing substantially new about progress in educating children.
“Students with more resources do better,” she said. “Students with fewer resources do worse. The School Performance Profile is mostly based on standardized test data. They don’t add more to the conversation about how we understand school performance and progress. It’s just one data measure number, of many, that we should be looking at.”
Pennsylvania Education Secretary Pedro Rivera saw the School Performance Profile scores in a different light, saying the ranking indicates public schools around the state are on task in preparing students for college and career.
“Pennsylvania students are working toward college and career readiness, and posting School Performance Profile scores for schools with an 11th grade demonstrates school-level results in meeting that standard,” he said in a statement.
An extract of school performance profile scores, provided by the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, shows schools with higher numbers of students requiring services beyond basic education tend to see lower scores, falling in line with research that children in those households face challenges that can affect their focus and impact academic performance.
However that’s not always the case.
Central High School was ranked number one with the percentage of gifted students and students qualifying for reduced lunch running at about 30 percent.
George Washington Carver High School of Science and Engineering had 37 percent of students qualifying for reduced lunch, and Freire Charter High School had an even higher number, 48 percent. Both schools finished in the top half of the ranking.
However, many neighborhood comprehensive schools finished in the bottom half of the rank. The percentage of students qualifying for reduced lunch ranged from 56 percent to 78 percent at six high schools: Benjamin Franklin High School, Overbrook High School, Abraham Lincoln High School, Martin Luther King Jr. High School Promise Academy, John Bartram High School and Strawberry Mansion High School Promise Academy.
Experts say students face a host of issues that can affect their ability to do well in school, supporting the family, caring for younger siblings, witnessing violence or threats inside and outside the home, healthy meals or support of someone looking after them, helping with homework, disciplinary issues, custody issues, foster care and even homelessness.
“It’s very difficult to put a lot of stock on state measures about student performance because of the purposeful lack of investment the state has put into public schools,” Gym said. She pledged to continue her advocacy for public schools as an elected official. She won election to a city council at-large seat earlier this month and is scheduled to be sworn into office on Jan. 4.
“There needs to be a restoration of basic services in schools. We have children who come to school sick without a school nurse,” she said. “We have children who witness trauma in their daily lives without a counselor. We have young people who really need to feel special and loved and are going to overcrowded schools.
“And none of that is possible,” she said, referring to chronic losses of funding that have forced layoffs of key personnel and reductions in service across the board.
Gym blasted former governor Corbett for funding cuts that were vigorously defended by his administration, saying state spending on public education had soared to record levels during his tenure. She also mentioned funding disparities that have hurt urban school districts across the state, Philadelphia included.
“We’re going to try to figure out a restoration agenda and focus with laser-intensity so that young people get the type of resources into their schools that’s going to change the game for them,” said Gym, who was instrumental in creating an online clearinghouse for complaints from students and staff about inadequate services in schools, from shortages of nurses, counselors, teachers and support staff to cutbacks in academic programs and extra-curricular activities, for investigation by the state Department of Education.
Lauren Hitt, spokesperson for Mayor-elect Jim Kenney, stated in an e-mail response, “The rankings make clear two things: one, that we have to invest much more in our schools so that every neighborhood has a quality school at its center and, two, that we already have some success stories that we need to do a better job of telling.
“While there are any number of factors that may have contributed to a schools particular ranking, including mergers, the most impactful factor is funding,” the e-mail stated.
Jane Roh, spokesperson for the city council president’s office, said council President Darrell Clarke supported the return to a weighted school funding formula, reinstating a state budget line for charter school reimbursements and expanding community schools throughout the city, which falls in line with Mayor-elect Jim Kenney’s campaign platform on education.
“Any standardized test or measurement of public schools must be viewed through the lens of Pennsylvania’s school funding and resource allocation, which according to federal data is the most inequitable in the nation,” according to an email from Roh. “It is deeply unfair to assess what is happening in our schools based solely on standardized test scores outside of the context of millions of state dollars withheld from Philadelphia schools the last four years.”
Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers union, said he was hopeful a new Democrat governor in Tom Wolf would translate into more public aid for the city’s school system. “Schools are under-resourced. You can’t expect student performance is going to get better,” he said.
The union head applauded Wolf, endorsed by the teachers union, for his commitment to direct more funding to public schools and attributed the current Commonwealth budget stalemate, in part, to his insistence on proposals for funding schools. That included a plan to eliminate school district property taxes for thousands of households with senior and disabled persons.
He also recalled the days of Democrat Gov. Ed Rendell in office, when state funds were distributed on the basis of a weighted funding formula. It was also a time when schools were better resourced and had smaller class sizes, more support for students in need of remedial help and for extracurricular activities. Critics say the current method favors schools with higher community wealth, to the detriment of school districts supported by a smaller tax base.
Layoffs hamstrung programs with few personnel left to administer all but the most critical programs. Academic support and extracurricular activities were frequently targeted for budget cuts. The current method of funding hurts schools with higher numbers of students eligible for reduced lunch.
Without such programs, Jordan raised a rhetorical question: “What are you going to get? Kids aren’t going to do well.”
Under the Rendell administration, Jordan said schools flourished with more funding and observers saw class sizes shrink and academics improve.
A spokesperson said school district officials had no comment at this time, citing that the new school performance profile scores were still being reviewed.
Gym added, “I will neither accept standardized tests as an excuse and refuse to rely on the sole measure by which we judge families, an overwhelming number in poverty.”
Public Citizens for Children and Youth issued a statement saying turnaround schools run by the school district or private companies need adequate funding support for education reform. And PCCY said demographics of student enrollment are strong factors.
“It is noteworthy, though, that district schools must try to succeed with a much larger share of at-risk students including low income, minority, English Language Learners, child welfare system involved, homeless students or [those] in need of special education services,” according to a statement posted on PCCY’s website. “The experience with charters and the district-run schools clearly demonstrates that achieving the desired results requires more than a management change.
“For these schools to succeed they must have sufficient funds, well-trained teachers and an effective and long-term, committed principal with the skills to make the school work,” according to the statement.
In Harrisburg, Wolf called for an end to the status quo, calling outright for debt reduction and added tax on utilities in order to shore up public education expenses without burdening taxpayers with fixed income.
“If we do not fix our deficit, our credit rating will be downgraded to junk status and we will be forced to cut more funding from education. More education cuts will lead to the layoffs of more educators, further increases to class sizes and skyrocketing property taxes. We must get Pennsylvania’s financial house in order and invest in our future,” Wolf said.
The Philadelphia Tribune – November 17, 2015 – Read article online