Some Philly classrooms are getting new teachers a month into the school year. Here’s why.

Kaiya Wong-Shing has spent a month getting used to classroom routines, and she loves her teacher at Henry Houston Elementary in West Mount Airy. But on Monday, everything starts over, as two Houston fifth-grade classes collapse into one and she gets a new teacher.

“I’m not that happy,” said Kaiya, 10. “I don’t want to have a big class.”

Chalk it up to leveling, a controversial Philadelphia School District practice that happens about a month into the school year, shifting teachers based on actual enrollment.

Schools that have unexpectedly large classes get new staff, and at schools such as Houston, where fewer students than anticipated show up, teachers are cut and moved. (The alternative would be to leave smaller class sizes at underenrolled schools, and hire extra teachers for those with bigger-than-expected numbers of students.)

Leveling doesn’t happen in the majority of school districts, though Philadelphia is not the only one in the country that uses it.

In fact, the district stopped leveling in 2021-22, using federal relief funds to pay for extra teachers. Though the stimulus money was still around, the district went back to the practice last school year because the nationwide teaching shortage meant it couldn’t find enough people to fill open jobs, let alone new ones.

Leveling worries Christina Jackson, Kaiya’s mother.

“It’s a jolt. I’m concerned about a larger classroom,” said Jackson, who has two children affected by leveling: Kaiya’s twin brother, Guari, is also a Houston fifth grader. “A teacher barely hanging on is going to be less attentive.”

Though final numbers are not yet available, school system officials, who now refer to the process as “enrollment-driven resource review,” noted that the district prevented leveling at 45 schools, retaining 93 teachers who would otherwise have been moved.

Systemwide, 59 schools lost teachers — an 88-position reduction — and 50 schools gained them, for the addition of 66 teacher positions.

Leveling-related movement will continue through Thursday, said district spokesperson Marissa Orbanek; when that’s complete, the district will be able to say how many teachers were moved.

“We know that providing students with consistent access to a highly qualified teacher plays a significant role in student learning and academic achievement,” Orbanek said in a statement. “We will continue to refine our processes, including seeking to more accurately project student enrollment at each school and grade level prior to the start of the school year so that mid-year staffing adjustments can be avoided as much as possible.”

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan said leveling was a complex issue.

“We recognize the challenges presented by leveling, and we also recognize the importance of allocating teaching positions based on enrollment,” Jordan said in a statement. “As we continue to fight for fully equitable school funding, we hope that the additional, necessary resources will ultimately eliminate the need for leveling.”

Houston parents are so concerned about leveling that dozens rallied Wednesday after school, carrying signs that said “leveling disrupts learning” and “leveling hurts teachers.”

It’s not just about Houston, said Emily Pugliese, mother of a fifth grader, it’s about the practice in general, and the other schools losing teachers and enduring disruption. (No list of affected schools was available.)

Last year, the Houston fifth graders were also squeezed into a single class; at 32 students — one less student than the district maximum. It was “a very difficult year,” said Pugliese. The teacher was amazing, but “it’s hard for kids to learn with that many other bodies in the classroom. My son said there were so many distractions.”

This year, with the class split into two in September, her son reported that learning was much easier. As for what’s next?

“We’re panicking,” said Pugliese. She loves the community at Houston, the teachers, the principal, the parents.

“But the stuff that’s coming out of the district is really difficult to manage, and it feels like we’re constantly putting out fires just to give our kids the bare minimum,” she said. “Houston doesn’t offer algebra. We’ve dealt with lead paint. We don’t have air-conditioning. You can swallow a lot of things, but at some point, it just feels like too much.”

Aja Davis, another Houston parent, agrees. She doesn’t have a child in fifth grade, but said leveling has an effect on the entire school.

Houston’s principal, and many of its parents, have made efforts to talk up the school in the neighborhood. It feels as if their work gained momentum, Davis said, with a growing group of equity-minded families sending their children or pledging to send them to Houston — even though those families have the resources to make other educational choices.

Leveling threatens that, said Davis, a district graduate herself who remembers being affected by the process when she was in high school.

“People are kind of starting to burn out, and it’s really sad,” said Davis. “Because there are so many of us that don’t have options for sending our kids elsewhere.”

It’s especially galling that while leveling is considered a necessary inconvenience in Philadelphia, it’s unthinkable a few miles away, in districts that are better resourced, with fewer students who are Black and come from underresourced families, said Jackson, Kaiya and Guari’s mother.

“This is a very public school problem that is really only happening to the kids who are bearing the brunt of our funding being unconstitutional,” Jackson said.