When a Turnaround is not the fix

This month has been filled with scheduled community meetings at 11 Philadelphia Public Schools that have been pegged to be changed as a result of their School Progress Report, an evaluation that scores schools on a scale of 1 to 100. The evaluation is based largely on academic factors but attendance and climate is also rated. On October 27th, Newsworks published an article by Dale Mezzacappa and Avi Wolfman-Arent, which discussed the differences between the meetings that occurred at Kensington Health Sciences Academy and Benjamin Franklin High School.

There were vast differences in the level of engagement. Kensington had about 150 in attendance and Benjamin Franklin had 10. One is a smaller school with a staff and principal that have been there longer, and Benjamin Franklin has a new principal who has been bounced around to a few places. At the end of the day regardless of the level of engagement at any of the 11 meetings, The higher ups at the School District of Philadelphia have a plan for all 11 schools. And they usually enact their edicts with little to no input from the school communities. How many times have we seen organized rallies and protests at schools begging the administration to look beyond the test scores? How many times have we seen charter school conversions occur despite the opposition of the community? The answer is time and time again. And when they place a new model over an existing school community they seldom increase the funding or supports, they just make the changes and wait for it to crash and burn. So then they can come back and say, "See, this IS a failing school." It is exhausting to watch and it is discouraging when you know that there are actually no good intentions hiding in the wings.

They had meetings several years ago about, "What makes a high performing school?" Remember how well those went. At the center of this debacle are children and families. That is what is most important. If the higher ups never ask, "What would I want for my child and family?" Then a conversation is doomed from the start. And if a decision has already been made then what is the true purpose of the meetings in the first place?