Remaking Shoemaker Middle School

For years, Shoemaker school, on Media Street in West Philadelphia, was one of the district's most troubled schools, plagued by low test scores and violence. In September, it was reborn as the Mastery Charter School-Shoemaker Campus for 208 seventh and eighth graders, with plans to grow to 714 students in seventh through 12th grades. The district turned to Mastery to take on Shoemaker because of its success the last five years with high school students at its Center City campus. Can they do it?

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» View video: Mastery Charter School's "Promotion Day"

» View slideshow: "Year's End"

School celebrates hard-won success: Mastery's Shoemaker campus marks a turnaround.

Fourth in an occasional series. Annette Hayes squeezed into a seat near the stage for the eighth-grade promotion at Mastery Charter School's Shoemaker campus in West Philadelphia because she just knew she was going to holler and cheer for her son, Leroy.
A lesson learned: W. Phila. charter making the score: Even as violence flared at West Philadelphia High School, students at another West Philadelphia school calmly took standardized tests last week, their confidence boosted by months of preparation including Saturday classes.
'It's not just academic skills': At Shoemaker, a key strategy is teaching students "social emotional learning."At Shoemaker, a key strategy is teaching students "social emotional learning."

"What happens when you miss school?" Nadirah Sulayman asked the eighth graders sitting in a circle in her classroom. "How does it affect you? How does it affect your classmates, teachers?"
Success is put to the test: Model program has Shoemaker off to "1,000 percent better" start.

Quiata Whaley, 13, marvels at the changes at the Shoemaker School in West Philadelphia. The rooms and the hallways have been brightened with pastel paint. Students are wearing school uniforms. There are new rules and a new staff. No more food fights in the cafeteria, no scuffles in the hallway. And when it's time to change classes, students walk in single file behind a teacher who escorts them.

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