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Public School Students Mobilize around Corrective Action II
by
Nijmie Dzurinko, Philadelphia Student Union | 10.14.2007
Press Release: Public School Students Mobilize around Corrective Action II Students are sounding the call to parents and community members to begin mobilizing proactively around Corrective Action II. This is the designation given to schools that have failed to make “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) for 5 consecutive years on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) test. Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), schools in Corrective Action II for more than one year are to be restructured. Sixty-six Philadelphia public schools have been in Corrective Action II for 2-5 years. An additional seven schools are in their first year of Corrective Action II, bringing the total number of schools potentially impacted to 73. Private companies and other educational management organizations are surely waiting in the wings to make bids for these schools. But after five years of experimentation, the 45 schools that the School Reform Commission handed over to for-profit providers such as Edison and others (both for-profit and non-profit) have not performed better than district-run schools, despite receiving additional resources of up to $881 per pupil in the case of Edison. What many parents and community members may not know is that 21 schools that were restructured in 2002 and remained under district management outperformed the outside providers as well as other district schools. These restructured schools received an additional $550 in per-pupil funds as well as teacher coaches and intensive and ongoing professional development. The Office of Restructured Schools was closed in 2005, but the gains made by their schools continued in 2006. “Our schools should not be taken away from us. We don’t need anymore never-ending short cuts and experiments with our futures. West Philadelphia is in Corrective Action II and students, parents and community members are already creating a plan,” said West Philadelphia High School senior Lawrence Jones-Mahoney. “The problem is that we don’t have enough money. We need more state funding, and we need equity within the district as well. School districts with enough resources are not dealing with these pressures and there’s something wrong with that,” stated Ruth Kodish-Eskind, senior at the High School for Creative and Performing Arts. “We don’t want a situation where schools that are already struggling have to take resources and give it to private companies in order for them to make a profit off of educating us. That’s an insult,” remarked Nyziah Miller, Sayre High School junior and PSU organizer. The action will feature a larger-than-life ‘menu of options’ for what happens to these schools that students, parents, and community members will create. Students, parents and others will articulate demands for an inclusive and open process for what happens to the schools, and present evidence of proven reforms. The list of affected schools will be distributed along with a statement and a call to action. The action will bring together students from a diverse array of schools to highlight the disparities already within the district and to call for equity across the district. |
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