Naomi Johnson Booker, president of Philadelphia Charters for Excellence, took the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer to talk up a recent documentary on the problem of education in the U.S. -- and the charter schools that she promotes as a solution.
Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for 'Superman,' a documentary highlighting the seemingly unprecedented challenges facing education in the U.S. today, opened to Philadelphia audiences on Friday.
She notes a number of positive indicators suggesting that charter school education is improving the lot of young students in Philadelphia. Booker writes:
Philadelphia charter schools are succeeding where traditional schools fail. More than 70 percent of the city's charters met the state's Adequate Yearly Progress standard, but that is not the only measure to which we hold ourselves accountable. Nearly 100 percent of Philadelphia charter students go to school every day, excited to learn, excited about the possibilities their futures hold. In most of our high schools, 95 percent or more are graduating and going on to college.
But these data are fresh. Charter schools in Philadelphia can trace their history back to the late 1980s, when Philadelphia educators introduced the "schools-within-schools" model. John Skief, an early promoter of the charter-school movement, founded one of the city's first charter schools in 1997. Though the state reduced the number of school charters after it took over the Philadelphia school system in 2001, former School District of Philadelphia CEO Paul Vallas introduced dozens of charter schools in 2002 when he privatized some 40 schools.
Most of Philadelphia's charter schools are elementary schools. There are 29 of these to the city's 6 middle schools, 16 high schools and 4 special schools. The Philadelphia charter schools comprise the majority of the state's 90-odd charter schools. But the number of Philadelphia charters, Booker notes, is capped by the Philadelphia School District.
The Associated Press reported in April that the city controller's office had investigated dozens of leasing and staffing arrangements at 13 charter schools -- and had discovered conflicts of interest, record-keeping problems and issues regarding nepotism.
It's a bit premature to say whether the charter school system is Philadelphia's Superman. But innovation -- as in the growth of Philadelphia's charter school system -- cannot help but reveal a solution.
