Karen Heller: Phila. schools a problem for all

This week, Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman announced "Imagine 2014," a radical approach for the city's schools.

She decided to basically detonate up to 35 of the worst schools, an approach similar to what HUD did with its disastrous high-rises.

"If it doesn't work," she said, "don't keep it up." The poorest schools will be shut. Though they are not yet identified, there's fierce competition for the honor. New schools will be managed by organizations with successful track records. Many will become charter schools.

It's a bold admission that, despite a $2.3 billion budget, what's being done isn't working, and outsiders might do a better job.

You'll be shocked to learn that Ackerman's plan was immediately met with criticism. "I feel very strongly that teachers are being scapegoated," says teachers' union president Jerry T. Jordan. "Some restructured district schools have outperformed privately managed ones."

"I think it's a sellout, and another plan for failure," says Overbrook High junior Markeeta Hudgens. "Instead of shutting us down, they should listen to us."

The district's student population, now at 167,000, is shrinking, but issues such as safety have grown. At 50 percent, the dropout rate is brutal. Two out of three students test below proficiency in math and reading. Only 15 percent become college graduates.

"Arlene Ackerman has real courage," says Mastery Charter Schools CEO Scott Gordon. "The house is on fire. Time is urgent."

There are good charter schools, and disasters. Gordon's four Mastery schools are considered models. Is he set to take on 35 others?

Myesha Spry and Kevin Tolbert offer a tour of their Mastery charter, the Pickett campus in Germantown, which they have attended since before its 2007 conversion. The security guards are gone, as are the fights. Halls were widened, walls brightened, skylights added to transform the concrete jail-like hulk.

Kevin was reading below his grade level in seventh grade. Now, in ninth grade, he's reading above. "Before, I wasn't eager to learn. I'm proud to go here."

"Eighty percent of the school culture is who is in front of the kids all day," Gordon says. Myesha and Kevin like their teachers, most of them young and motivated. Pennants of the teachers' alma maters hang outside classrooms, the suggestion being, "Do well, and you can go to my college, too." The place thrives on order and achievement.

The halls are papered with performance graphs, individual and group. Sometimes it seems the legacy of No Child Left Behind is No Test Left Untaken.

Markeeta and fellow members of the Philadelphia Student Union are wary of charter schools, but critical of their current situation. "They teach us to take tests," says Sayre senior Candace Carter, who is tested weekly. "It's too much pressure," Markeeta echoes. They have good teachers, but not enough.

These students are motivated to improve their schools and secure a better education. For all the talk about choice, they've had little. Mastery's campuses draw from neighborhoods, the luck of residence.

For all the conflicts, there's agreement that smaller classes and schools work better, and more guidance counselors are needed. "I agree with almost everything in the district report," the union's Jordan says.

In recent years, teaching has drawn dedicated college graduates, a trend likely to continue. In a recession, education is one of the last industry segments to trim jobs.

Teachers and administrators complain about insurmountable family issues and a lack of parental involvement, but Gordon's not buying. Change the culture, he argues, and parents and students become willing, active partners. "Competition works everywhere else as a business model, why not in education?"

What we know is that a city full of poor, poorly educated citizens becomes a problem for us all.