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Charter Schools

Citified

3 Huge Problems With the Charter School Movement

[Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from PIDC.] Philly.com has a story this week that distills many of the troubling qualities of the charter school movement […]

Citified

School Closings Are Hugely Controversial, But a New Study Suggests They Boost Student Performance

The two most polarizing words in Philadelphia education might be “portfolio model.” The phrase has induced hunger strikes, enraged Diane Ravitch and paved the way for two dozen Philadelphia public school […]

Philadelphia School District Building
Citified

The Brief: How Some Charter Schools Keep Out the Riff-Raff

1. How Some Charter Schools Keep Out the Riff-Raff The Gist: This is an important, well-reported story from WHYY’s Kevin McCorry, that’s not easily condensed […]

City Life

Former Teachers Sue SRC Over Free Speech at Charter Meeting

Three women identified as former Philadelphia school teachers are suing the School Reform Commission, saying they were deprived of First Amendment rights when they had […]

City Life

Live: SRC to Decide All 39 Philly Charter Applications

https://twitter.com/hollyotterbein/status/568144459474571264 [UPDATE] The SRC has approved 5 of 39 new charter school applications — with conditions. [ORIGINAL] As promised, the School Reform Commission will be […]

School District of Philadelphia
Citified

A Plea to the SRC: Evaluate Each School on Its Individual Merits

(Editor’s note: This is an opinion column from a Citified insider.) At Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School in South Philly, students are offered majors in music […]

Philadelphia School District Building
Citified

Inside Take: New Charters Should Be Unacceptable to All

(This is an opinion column from a Citified insider.) Conditions in the School District of Philadelphia have hit a new low after four record breaking […]

School District of Philadelphia
City Life

SRC to Rule on All 39 New Charter Applications at Special Meeting

The School Reform Commission has scheduled a special meeting to approve or reject each of 39 applications to start new charter schools in Philadelphia. The […]

School District of Philadelphia
Citified

Too Good To Refuse?

Yesterday, the Philadelphia School Partnership made what seemed, at first blush anyway, like an offer too good for the School District to refuse: $35 million, […]

Citified

Charter CEO: Whiter and Wealthier a “Blatant Misrepresentation”

(Editors note: The following is a response from MaST CEO John F. Swoyer III to a controversial column this week from Citified insider Andrew Saltz. Citified […]

Citified

Are the Best Charters Actually Whiter & Wealthier?

Yesterday, English teacher (and Citified insider) Andrew Saltz argued that the highest-performing charter schools do as well as they do in large part because they enroll […]

Citified

INSIDE TAKE: Time for Real Talk on Charters

(Editor’s note: This is an opinion column from a Citified insider.) (Note: This story has been updated to correct an editing error in the graphic that […]

School District of Philadelphia
Citified

Twitter Fight of the Week: Can All Schools Actually Be Great?

Sure, Twitter is an ephemeral, terse medium. Yes, it is better suited for pithy one-liners and insults than for substantive policy debate. But every so […]

Philadelphia School District Building
City

Philly Charter School Shuts for Good Today

North Philadelphia’s Wakisha Charter School is closing for good today, a rare shuttering of the school in the middle of the year. The school served […]

City Life

District Overwhelmed by Charter School Applications

The Notebook reports that the Philadelphia School District has received 46 applications to create new charter schools in the city — with days left before […]