Reforms in Urban Education, Youth Development and School-to-Career Transition
Philadelphia, PA
An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — March 23-24, 1995
Superintendent Hornbeck explained the status of his reform agenda, the Children Achieving Action Design, a four-and-one-half year strategy to ensure that Philadelphia's young people achieve at high levels. The Children Achieving agenda involves setting high expectations for everyone and using this assumption to drive all policies, planning and decisions; designing accurate performance indicators to hold everyone accountable for results; shrinking the centralized bureaucracy and letting schools make more decisions; providing intensive and sustained professional development; making sure that all students are ready for school; providing students with the community supports and services they need to succeed in school; providing up-to-date technology and instructional materials; engaging the public in shaping, understanding, supporting and participating in school reform; and ensuring adequate resources and using them effectively.
School-to-career transition is an element of this reform agenda, especially the extension of partnership academies as they create small learning communities for youth. We visited two partnership academies--the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Academy, a four-year career development program for high school students that combines basic academic studies with training in the hospitality industry; and the Academy for Fitness, Health Promotion and Sports Education, which in addition to basic academic studies, offers training and field experiences in recreation, physical fitness, health education, sports medicine, coaching and officiating. Here, we were able to see small learning communities and understand how groups of teachers can develop very special and personalized learning programs for youth. We were also able to see the contributions made by the business community in the form of equipment, curriculum support, and work experiences.
The students we met at the Fitness Academy were not only toning their bodies, but developing a commitment to health and wellness that should persist throughout their lives. They were studying a range of science courses, developing wonderful portfolios of their experiences, and making realistic plans for postsecondary education. Among the many capable and motivated young people we met, we particularly remember Jonathan Weathers, an all "A" student, athlete and young father who had worked at a law firm and had very definite college plans.
We were very impressed with the strong and emerging partnerships we saw and the strides that Philadelphia has made in bringing to scale high quality career preparation for large numbers of students. Approximately 4,500 students are enrolled in partnership academy programs administered by Philadelphia High School Academies, Inc., a non-profit corporate entity in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and the business community.
We were able to observe another business partnership during our visit to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, work site for HEALTH TECH 2000. We met a number of Health Tech 2000 students engaged in a variety of hospital occupations and their adult mentors--health care providers and administrators--actively involved in designing student learning experiences on the job, advising about educational options and areas in need of strengthening, and taking a hands-on role in helping to shape each student's education and career plans.
One student explained some of the activities of the public relations department and her role there. Another was rotating through a number of clinical areas. Others were working with dietitians and managing patient nutrition or in labs. All were well-focused and bent on continuing their education. The hospital CEO, Calvin Bland, a product of the Philadelphia public schools, has fully committed his organization to the education and development of the city's youth and sees his organization's involvement in providing work-based learning experiences as a true investment in the future workforce of his hospital.
Another type of partnership was illustrated during our visit to a West Philadelphia Improvement Corps (WEPIC) site, Shaw Middle School. WEPIC seeks to create comprehensive university-assisted community schools that are the educational, social, and service delivery hubs for the entire community. Shaw Middle School students are involved in neighborhood improvement and a number of in-school programs with University of Pennsylvania students, faculty and staff, such as mentoring, career exposure, environmental science, and conflict resolution and violence prevention.
At Turner Middle School, we saw how the WEPIC school and university partnership functions to the benefit of both. In each classroom, University of Pennsylvania students were involved, not as aides, but as active participants in helping to create and implement exciting and enriching experiences. These experiences were designed to expand the knowledge base of the entire community. The Turner thematic focus on improving health and nutrition is helping to change the food culture and nutrition of a neighborhood. The university students were not solely engaged in altruism but, in linking with the middle school students, were conducting university-level research and developing products essential to their own area of study and of benefit to the community.
We learned about the extended day and Saturday community school program at Turner. It appears that many Philadelphia schools are indeed becoming beacons of service to and involvement with the broader community.
Our final visit was to YouthBuild Philadelphia, a partnership of city agencies, a community-based non-profit corporation, and programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Corporation for National and Community Service. YouthBuild provides intensive academic remediation and on-the-job training in construction for high school dropouts. Participants learn skills and improve their self-esteem by rehabilitating abandoned houses. At the end of ten months of training, participants have basic construction skills, earn regular high school diplomas, and see low-income families move into the houses they rebuilt.
YouthBuild allowed us to view the continuum of youth education and service offerings from the perspective of an alternative learning environment. The visit included a walk through several houses being rehabilitated on High Street for low-income families and an opportunity to witness a neighborhood block being reclaimed from blight and disrepair. We talked with young people (mostly African American males) who had dropped out of Philadelphia schools but who were finding new meaning and focus in their lives, completing their education and developing useful occupational skills. We were happy to learn of the involvement of Philadelphia Public Schools in providing teachers for the program and the close relationship between the schools and YouthBuild; these inspiring young people actually earn a full high school diploma and can participate in many high school activities.
Conclusions
The WEPIC success story served to confirm our findings from other locations about the importance of critical linking mechanisms in bringing about true educational change and reform. We also saw this linking function in Philadelphia High School Academies, Inc., which bridges the school and business community. Finally, we were pleased to know that the school system has joined with community based organizations, such as YouthBuild, to collaboratively address the needs of youth.
The hour we spent with Superintendent Hornbeck discussing the challenges of implementing urban school reform helped to pull all these pieces together. Although Hornbeck felt that after five years, his reforms would result in only 40 percent of students reaching and performing at high standards, we felt we were witnessing a number of major, positive changes in urban education. The consensus of field trip participants--Congressional aides, federal agency program managers, and association representatives--was that the vision and understanding for creating a system of quality public education that includes school-to-career transition existed in Philadelphia and would help bring to fruition our dreams of quality education and employment preparation for all youth.
Contact Information
Mr. Calvin Bland
Chief Executive Officer
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
Erie Avenue at Front Street
Philadelphia, PA 19134-1095
(215) 427-5000
Mary Jane Clancy
Coordinator
Office of Education for Employment, Program Planning, Development and Implementation
The School District of Philadelphia
John F. Kennedy Center - 6th Floor
734 Schuylkill Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19146-2397
(215) 875-3801
Taylor Frome
Executive Director
YouthBuild
619 Catharine St.
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(212) 627-8112
Ira Harkavy
Director for Community Partnerships
University of Pennsylvania
133 S. 36th St., NW, Suite 519
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 557-4402