Top city HS gets funds to fuel expansion

One of the the city's top high schools just got more support for its newest venture, a middle school launching in the fall.
Carver High School for Engineering and Science, which is expanding to serve 120 seventh and eighth grade students in September, was awarded $200,000 from the Philadelphia School Partnership.
That's on top of a $147,000 grant PSP, a deep-pocketed nonprofit, already awarded to Carver to fund planning for the middle school.
The newest award will support more planning as the school develops, Principal Ted Domers said.
"There's a void of meaningful STEM \[science, technology, engineering and math\] education in the city and across the country," Domers said. "We think this is an opporunity to doing something that no one else is doing."
Carver middle school students will take engineering and computer science classes from the moment they walk in the door. They'll take algebra as eighth graders. Eventually, that will mean more advanced classes for them as high schoolers.
"The only reason our kids can't accelerate quicker is because we can't expose them quickly enough," Domers said.
Going forward, there's no reason a sophomore Carver student won't be able to take a class like Advanced Placement computer science as a sophomore, Domers said.
By their senior year, students who start at Carver in middle school should be able to spend more time on independent study or internships outside of the classroom.
To date, PSP has spent $35 million on schools of all types in the city, including $20.6 million on charter schools, $11.9 million on district schools and $3 million on private schools.
PSP is regarded warily in some education circles, regarded as anti-teachers union and pro-charter at the expense of traditional public schools.
But it has money to spend, and real influence.
PSP officials said they were pleased to invest in Carver, a district school with a proven record of innovation.
"Carver serves predominately low-income students in Philadelphia who don't often have enough opportunities to explore the sciences, so we are thrilled to give more students access to this opportunity at an early age," said Jessica Pena, director of the group's Great Schools Fund. "Principal Domers engaged thoughtful planning partners — including teachers, taff and families — in developing the vision and curriculum for the new middle school. We are excited for the school to welcome new students and families this fall."