Nonprofit offers $3.8 million in grants for effective schools

The Philadelphia School Partnership announced Thursday that it had awarded $3.8 million in grants to support successful district, charter, and private schools.

"Great schools come in all different types but share key characteristics, chiefly high expectations and the belief that all students can learn," said Mark Gleason, the partnership's executive director.

The nonprofit partnership, established in October 2010, is seeking to raise $100 million in five years to accelerate the pace of academic reform in city schools.

The latest grants are:

$2 million to String Theory Schools to help them convert the low-performing Edmunds School in Frankford into a Renaissance charter school. String Theory operates the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School in South Philadelphia.

$1.3 million over three years to assist the Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School, a private, college-prep school for low-income students that will open in North Philadelphia in August. Schools in the national Cristo Rey network require students to participate in a work-study internship program to help cover their tuition.

$350,000 to Freire Charter School, a Center City high school, to help it expand to add a middle-school program in the fall that will enroll 500 students in grades five through eight.

$175,000 to help the Sustainability Workshop develop plans to expand from a program at the Navy Yard with 30 seniors from district schools in South Philadelphia to a 300-student high school in 2013.

Gleason said that the partnership analyzes applicants' academic performance, leadership, and finances before awarding the grants.

Last fall, the organization inaugurated its grants program by distributing $2.4 million to three local charter operators that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission had selected to convert low-performing district schools into Renaissance charter schools.

Gleason said the partnership was pleased to be able to give grants to a more diverse group in this round of grants and expects more awards will be announced in the fall.

"Seven or eight schools are in the pipeline right now," he said.

Gleason said that the funding for the grants announced Thursday was in place before the William Penn Foundation's recent announcement that it would give the partnership $15 million over the next three years to support innovations in Philadelphia public, private, and charter schools.

In all, Gleason said, the partnership has collected more than $20 million in funding and expects to be able to announce additional support in the coming weeks.