After 4 years, Philly's small high schools earn passing grades

THE DAY before Constitution High School's Class of 2010 graduated last week, Doriean Jackson, Marquis White and others in the school's first class of graduates said that they were proud to be pioneers in Philadelphia's small-schools movement.

They were part of history, they said, as the founding class that launched the Center City school in September 2006, in partnership with the National Constitution Center.

"We came in as freshmen and we had free rein," said Ashley Brown, 18, from the Northeast. "There were no upperclassmen to worry about. And our class was so small, we all just got to know each other really well."

The sense of personalization that small schools provide, where teachers know all the students by name, was a factor when the School District of Philadelphia joined the small-schools movement several years ago.

Big-city school districts began promoting small schools as a way to improve learning and create calmer school climates, believing that they would curb fighting and attack soaring dropout rates, urban-education experts said.

Constitution High, at 7th and Market streets, was one of four small schools to open in 2006. They all started from scratch, each with just a single ninth-grade class, and each had a unique theme.

The three other schools launched in 2006 were: the Academy of Palumbo, a small, South Philadelphia version of Central High School; the Science Leadership Academy, a Center City science and technology school operated in partnership with the Franklin Institute; and the High School of the Future, in Parkside.

But as the first class of small-school graduates got their diplomas this month, a number of research studies are giving mixed reviews on how much small schools enhance student achievement.

A study from Research for Action, Going Small: Progress and Challenges of Philadelphia's Small High Schools, found that small schools initially created a better school climate, where both students and teachers felt safer, and students described the schools as having caring and supportive teacher-student relationships, the study said.

"We found that small size, in and of itself, is not a panacea - it's not a cure-all - for improving schools," said Rebecca Reumann-Moore, a co-author of the study that examined all of the small schools in Philadelphia between 2006 and 2008.

She said that small schools don't automatically lead to academic improvement, and that schools need additional support and opportunities for the teaching staff to collaborate over curriculum and other issues.

Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman praised most of the new small schools, but said that it is not a good time for the district to create additional small schools.

"Small schools have a place in school reform," Ackerman said. "But they represent just one strategy. . . . [We] need to have a balance. We have a great quantity of high-quality small schools, but, in Imagine 2014, we are focusing on improving the comprehensive high schools which have suffered in the wake of the small-school boom."

Since 2003, about 25 new small schools opened in the city under then-chief executive officer Paul Vallas, by converting some large high schools with 1,000 or 2,000 students into smaller schools. The district also converted some middle schools into small high schools.

In all, there are 31 small high schools - where students number between 400 to 700 - in the district, the Research for Action study said.

Ackerman acknowledged that small schools have had some success, especially in creating environments where students feel as if the school has a family-like feel. She also praised partnerships with institutions like the Constitution Center and Franklin Institute.

"But there's no reason we can't have those kinds of partnerships in high schools across the school district," Ackerman said.

Already, Dennis M. Wint, president and CEO of the Franklin Institute, who had high praise for the students at Science Leadership, said that he'd like to see the school's model expanded "either by opening a second school or merging the program into an existing school."

"We now have a proof of the concept," Wint said. "This is a school that has been able to produce a tremendous number of very capable students who are going on to college."

Science Leadership principal Christopher Lehmann said that 116 of the 117-member senior class at the school, at 21st and Arch streets, graduated last week. The one student who didn't graduate will get a diploma after completing a summer course.

"I'm very proud of what the kids have done," Lehmann said. "We hope we have built a school that matters."

At the Academy at Palumbo, at 11th and Catharine streets, principal Adrienne W. Chew said that all 119 members of the Class of 2010 graduated on June 11.

She added that "100 percent are going on to four- or two-year colleges."

The success has parents clamoring to get their children into the small schools. Palumbo will have an incoming freshman class of about 240 next year, Chew said, and Thomas R. Davidson, principal at Constitution High, also has seen a sharp rise in interest in his school.

About 100 students started at Constitution High four years ago. The class numbered 85 at graduation.

"Now we have 1,000 [eighth-graders] who have applied for 100 spots in next year's ninth-grade class," he added proudly.

Ackerman said that she values the small-school learning environment, but would like to "do it in a reasonable way, that's fiscally viable, so that some of the comprehensive high schools don't lose out."

In a crucial finding, the Research for Action report said that Philadelphia students with the "greatest academic needs" tended to be concentrated in larger neighborhood high schools.

The report said that 73 percent of city eighth-grade students applied for a spot in the ninth-grade class for 2006-2007 to a high school other than their neighborhood school.

But fewer than half, only 49 percent, of those who applied to a different school were actually admitted.

Furthermore, the study said that nearly 70 percent of the city's students are enrolled in large and small neighborhood schools - as opposed to special-admission schools. It concluded: "Reform of neighborhood high schools is critically important for creating an equitable high-school system in Philadelphia."

"One choice is to have more good options," Reumann-Moore said. "We have to improve the neighborhood schools in this school district to help all the kids."