Full district response to Assault on Learning
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
Full district response to Assault on Learning
Kristen Graham
Some readers have said they're having trouble accessing the district's full response to our Assault on Learning series. I will reprint it in its entirety here. The district's blog can be found at http://www.phillyeducationblog.com
The response reads:
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Over the past year, we have given the Philadelphia Inquirer nearly unprecedented access to both our records and District staff as they worked on their recently launched series focusing on school climate and violence in our schools. For months, on a weekly basis, staff compiled data, responded to questions or sat for interviews with the writers on the project. As the articles are published this week, we can only hope that there will be accuracy and fairness in the reporting.
No child should feel threatened as he or she travels to or from school, or while in a school building. Parents should be able to trust that their young people are in safe environments that are fostering academic growth in their children from one year to the next. Superintendent Dr. Arlene C. Ackerman arrived to the District in June, 2008 well aware that there was a school climate issue that had to be addressed if the students in her charge were to succeed. Prior to her arrival, never before had more than 50% of city school children scored proficient or better on the tests given annually by the Commonwealth. Today, that milestone has been achieved.
Dr. Ackerman launched Parent University, which to date has served more than 20,000 parents, helping many learn to read for the first time, earn GED’s and even go on to earn Associate’s Degrees with the hope of going on to earn a 4-year degree. Parent University wasn’t launched on a whim. It was launched to help parents feel more empowered and involved in what is happening with, for and to their children every day that they attend school in the District. Parental involvement is one of the greatest deterrents to many of the violent incidents occurring in our schools and this is something that the District is committed to—making parents feel empowered--because it is one of the greatest factors in making a “bad” school good and a good school great.
This past November, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Safe Schools was co-convened by Dr. Ackerman and Mayor Michael Nutter, so that parents, teachers, students, community activists, law enforcement officials and other stakeholders could come together to address the issue of school safety and focus on solutions. In just a couple months, the recommendations of that group will be released, and implemented, as soon as possible.
The Inquirer would like to parse numbers, but whether violence is down 29% or 22% over the past two years, the fact remains, it is down. Efforts like the Blue Ribbon Commission on Safe Schools and other initiatives launched since Dr. Ackerman’s arrival are making a positive difference and we expect that there will be additional growth as we move forward.
This week, we will feature articles and essays from some of our principals, teachers and other members of the community and outside of the community to shed some light on what’s really happening in our schools. As the Inquirer pointed out in the first article in the series, much of the violence is being perpetrated in a small number of our 257 schools. As we work with parents, the community and other stakeholders to get the students in those few schools what they need to regain their academic footing and turn away from violence, it is important that we also focus on some of the good things that are happening in our schools to create positive, safe and nurturing environments for our students. It is also important that we look to a growing body of evidence that the issue of school violence is much greater than a school discipline problem. It is, in fact, a public health problem as recognized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and others in the field of education research. Take a look at this Understanding School Violence Fact Sheet from 2010 that the CDC released with the stats that show how large this issue truly is.
Dr. Lisa Barrios of the Centers for Disease Control wrote this in a September, 2000 article entitled, Preventing School Violence: A Time for “Hard, Solid Thinking:
Violence is not amenable to easy or quick solutions. Behavioral, biological, social, and environmental factors all are associated strongly with the development of violent behavior. These factors have been addressed, using many primary and secondary prevention approaches, by the fields of criminal justice, social services, mental health, education, social sciences, and public health. No single discipline alone can prevent violence. A complex problem such as violence must be prevented through a combination of approaches.
As we go through this week, the intention is not to pass blame, but more to point out that this issue is bigger than, “the District is failing” to do this or to do that. It is about the greater problem affecting not only the students in our schools, but those affecting their parents, grandparents, siblings, neighbors, and anyone else who has had the misfortune to be swept up into a cycle of poverty that has laid waste to the hopes and dreams of countless Philadelphians over the decades. As a community, we have to do better by our young people and we have to put our heads together to focus on solutions to the problems that exist instead of this constant finger-pointing. Their future, and our own, demands that we do this.
Check back here often this week as we share some other perspectives and feel free to leave comments! We hope that this will be a vehicle to develop a dialogue on the issue and we look forward to your feedback.
I dare anyone who believes that the Phila. School District is doing a righteous job at educating and protecting our students and teachers to spend the day at any empowerment school in the city.
Each day things worsen as people get their lay-off emails. Heaven forbid the District waste a stamp on the dismissal of one of their employees. Can you imagine the culture and moral of an already overburdened staff? Shame on you 440 as you stand naked in the wind.— magenta divine- Why does it seem like everytime Ackerman's people open their mouths, they are trying to make her look good? Violence is down? It is not! 50% graduation rate is considered improvement? And all the initiatives they have started that they deemed good. How about getting a third party company to do an assesment of all the projects they have ran?
Seems like everyone on the Ackerman payroll is just doing their part to collect their paycheck (cannot blame them). She needs to do something drastic because whatever little meaningless thing she is doing, is not working! Stop trying to pad your resume and meaningless merits and meeting the quota for your bonus! HELP the kids!— penncrow19 - This excellent series has indeed painted a bleak picture. Violence in and out of schools is a societal issue, and perhaps it is a public health issue. Out of the many peripheral issues raised, the most imperative in my opinion is freedom of speech. Honest disclosure of facts and honest and open discussion are necessary to address any problem facing us as a society. Without the ability to speak freely about the deplorable state of things affecting our students, teachers and schools, we cannot change them.
My concern is that freedom of speech is almost dead within the SDP. Everyone I know is afraid to speak out for fear of ultimately losing their job. And they are correct. I'm certain this feeling is pervasive in the district. Ms. Ackerman made a good example of the whistle-blowers, and attempted to do as much with Hope Moffet (who I am so thankful stood up- they did NOT expect that). But for the rank and file, who do have responsibilities and families to support, speaking out and putting our heads on the chopping block is not an option.
In spite of that,I called the SDP to register my complaint about the atrocious remarks made by Benjamin Wright in regards to pregnant teachers, and was kindly advised that it would be "safer" to communicate my feelings via this comment section or to contact the authors of the series. I got the message.
So here I am, commenting anonymously, because I too need my job. What a sad statement on the way things are.— foxglove - All these stories read like a snowball rolling down a long hill...as the story unfolds, this mess keeps getting bigger...the truth has been told, but is anyone really listening? Obviously, Governor Corbett got the message and told the Queen...'Off with your head"...and since he couldn't banish the queen, he slashed her budget. Ouch!!!— ezlisner
Comment removed.- The people who run the Philly School District, partnered with the terrible parents of many students, and crippled the district beyond belief. There is no fixing this.
All the scum bag parents out there are mostly to blame for this. The people running the district have zero common sense and don't actually care about teachers who deal with this on their own.
Not only that, but they added two days to the end of the school year to make up for two snow days. Do you know what will happen at the end of June, for two extra days?
1. Barely any students will be present.
2. Since no one is there and grades are done, teachers will show movies or do crafty projects because barely any children have shown up.
3. It's like 900 degrees in most schools at that time, which is another reason teachers will show movies and do crafts because it's just too damn hot, and when inner city youth are sweating - they can't focus on anything.
But none of that matters because the people adding two pointless days to the school year will be in their nice air conditioned office.
Again - bad parents and people with no common sense running the district have burned this district to the ground.— theupsetteacher - FYI... I hear that schools have "In-School Rubber Room" since the Hope Mofett case fell through.— liltreefrog
- These articles really show a very sad and scary side of the Philadelphia School District. Obviously, the programs in place currently do not work. I do believe that a large part of the responsibility of raising children and teaching them right from wrong lies with the parents, not the schools. Parents have to be willing to recognize the problems their children are having and attempt to rectify them in conjunction with the schools if possible instead of fighting with the schools and blaming the schools for all the problems. If I were a teacher or principal I would be very upset about Wright and Ackerman trying to blame all of the problems on poor classroom management etc. instead of recognizing the flawed system. If my children had to attend one of these schools I would be fighting to place someone in charge who was willing to take some responsibility instead of blaming the powerless people under her control.— COLLRN
- Lets see, my wife was assaulted last year and the district pressured her not to go to court, we did with the unions help, and the district changed the failing grade of a senior that never stepped foot into her classroom into a passing one after she submitted it. Why are we all pretending like this is all on the up and up?— ADLER
- I just found out yesterday there is something called a "serious incident report." I've been teaching here for 3 years!! I've been attacked, threatened, etc and reported all of it. Never once until now did an Administrator tell me about or ask me to fill out the report. Obviously, the don't want things reported so the numbers don't make them and Ackerman-who should be fired-look bad.— phil80
- Congrats to the Inky for their series on school violence in Phila. For every situation or incident presented, the response from the school district is: "Oh, that really isn't the case"- or "I don't think it really happened that way." - or "We did address that issue." All denials and lies. CSAP was nothing more than a "CYA" for the SDP after they were sued by a parent who claimed that the school didn't provide her daughter with the proper help and assistance - and the school district lost the case because they had no documentation to prove otherwise. CSAP is just about being able to document every possible situation with a blizzard of paperwork. Ackerman says it works 100% ? She doesn't have a clue of what she is talking about. As for her other minions, like Benjamin Wright, being clueless doesn't even begin to describe this blowhard !— cgraham
- "Over the past year, we have given the Philadelphia Inquirer nearly unprecedented access to both our records and District staff as they worked on their recently launched series focusing on school climate and violence in our schools. For months, on a weekly basis, staff compiled data, responded to questions or sat for interviews with the writers on the project."
This means nothing. Unprecedented access has only occurred because there was minimal if any access before. I don't know how many more documented examples of absolute failure can occur before this administration is removed.— mjc1 - “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
I'm sorry, but this from an organization whose prime directive is to drill kids in test-taking techniques until they're able to fill in the appropriate dots? Whose mandate to Empowerment schools includes teachers reading scripts instead of teaching?— Jame - FIRE HER ALREADY!!!!!!— legend1
- Ackerman blames her staff for of all her BAD decision. She later lies and finds a fall guy to take the heat. Principals do her dirty work. They do NOT want teachers to report assaults, because they will ripped into pieces at their meetings. The PSD NUMBERS LIE because assaults are UNDER reported and it is ACKERMAN who is responsible for that. NO one ELSE!!! She is the worst Superintendent in the history of the Philadelphia School District. She eliminates programs that work and then wonders why the schools are in the shape they are in. She has demoted EVERY latino on her staff and then says that we need to reach out the latino children. She eliminated all bilingual programs while she promised under Imagine 2014 to create more programs. She is responsible for creating the situation at South Philly High because SHE eliminated the bilingual Chinese program. This forced those students into the regular population without preparation or support! SHE is A LIER!! That is the saddest, scariest part of this. She LIES to EVERYONE!! Thank GOD that the INQUIRER is asking the right questions and making HER accountable for HER BAD decisions and dangerous policies!! THANK YOU on behalf of all the Dedicated Teachers and Good Families & Children of the Philadelphia School District! They deserve better! They deserve to be safe. They deserve to be heard.— liltreefrog
- The truth in my high school is that you call security for help. They say they'll come and then they rarely do. It's a scary feeling, facing an enraged teen and knowing you're on your own.— I Teach in Philly
- I'm not worried. By the time these punks are old enough we'll have more prisons ready for them. Or they'll end up killing each other. Either way problem solved.— ChiefClancyWiggum
- emaleigh you've said a mouthfull of truth. With the best teachers,best principals, best schools, the child that goes home unsupervised and undisciplined uncared for will always fall through the cracks in a district as large as Phila. Because people mostly educators feel defenseless or defeated talking about this part of the child's foundation, suggestions, programs, $$$$ keep getting thrown at the problem but don't mention in public forums how hard if not impossible it will be to properly educate a child from these most unfortunate backgrounds. Ignoring this problem has gotten public education nowhere close to making a dent in the impending disaster.
I say from reading the report things aren't looking up and anyone that would fix their lips to say different hasn't accepted this article as a reality.— Lyrra - Thanks for this series. In response to an issue reported in Part 4 published today: "The school system is also overwhelmed with young students living amid poverty, violence, and disorder, some of them largely unparented." A school cannot be responsible for caring for / parenting / and educating a child. It's just too much. How can there be success when the number of students living in horrible home environments is so great. The problem of violence in schools is much, more more than a school issue. I happen to live on a street where the majority of the children on the block are completely unsupervised. It's no shock to see kids as young as 5 years old outside on a school night at 9, 10, 11pm and sometimes past midnight! How does that child succeed in school the next day even if he/she attends the BEST school with the BEST teachers and the BEST principal?— emaleigh
- Of course violence is down, teachers are punished for reporting it!! Painting the water stain does NOT fix the LEAK!! Until the strong black man comes back to Philly, this violence will continue. Hey, strong black man, WE NEED YOU!!— no doubt
- the parents need more education than the students do. they have no clue how to parent a child.
it's sad that the inner city kids think its normal to have 8 kids by the time you're 23 and collecting welfare because you don't want to do anything but make more babies to live in the house that's already filled to the brim with babies.— theupsetteacher
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
