Chalkbeat

Gov. Josh Shapiro awarded $1.5 million to grow Pennsylvania’s special ed workforce, but Philly’s public schools didn’t apply

2024-08-15T20:12:01+00:00

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A new $1.5 million state grant offered school districts and universities across Pennsylvania a chance for funding to grow their special education workforce. But, despite a dire special education teaching shortage, the Philadelphia school district chose not to apply.

The Developing Future Special Educators Grant, awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, provides school districts and universities with up to $20,000 over a two-year period to establish “experiential learning” programs for high school and college students interested in pursuing a career in special education.

Overall, 77 districts, charter schools, and universities will receive the funds including Pittsburgh public schools, but the only Philadelphia schools on the list are Lindley Academy Charter School and several private universities: Saint Joseph’s University, Chestnut Hill College, Holy Family University, and Eastern University, which has a campus in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia school district said because the grant amounts were relatively small, it is instead focusing on applying for larger grants dedicated to improving its aging buildings.

“It seems like a grant geared more for smaller [local education agencies],” Monique Braxton, a spokesperson for the school district, said in an email to Chalkbeat. “When this grant application was due, we were very busy with applying for much larger grants from the state for facilities upgrades.”

The quality of the district’s schools has been in the news for the last few months following student protests for better facilities and school closures related to the lack of air conditioning.

Educators say the ongoing teacher shortage is putting a strain on existing classroom teachers and school staff, resulting in larger class sizes and heavier workloads.

Tatyana Williamson, a special education teacher at Frankford High School, had to take over a science course after a teacher left in the middle of the year. Retention rates are so bad that Williamson says she waits until November to gauge if a teacher is leaving or staying.

Often, Williamson said, kids will ask, “Miss, are you going to be here next year?”

Recruiting and retaining teachers has been a struggle in Philadelphia. Teacher attrition rates in the city have skyrocketed since 2018. In 2022, 13% of traditional public school teachers and 23% of charter school teachers left the classroom, according to research by Ed Fuller at Penn State’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis. Some of the shortage stems from a lack of preparedness, low salaries, inadequate support, and more.

As a result, many schools in predominantly black neighborhoods have a high influx of inexperienced teachers and emergency certified teachers.

“We desperately need all teachers,” said Nicole Wyglendowski, a learning support teacher in North Philadelphia. “I’m wondering why when presented with solutions and money which is what we need more than anything is the funding why aren’t we helping ourselves. Why aren’t we taking the opportunity to help ourselves when we have such a big need?”

In June, the district had around 450 open teaching positions, with special education producing the highest vacancy at 150 open positions. Over the past few weeks, the school district has boasted about filling 95% of its teaching positions, but a spokesperson for the district did not immediately respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about how many, if any, of the 150 special education spots have been filled.

More than 400 open positions will mean thousands of students will start the school year without a full-time certified teacher.

Philadelphia has been trying to combat its teacher retention problems for some time – developing a pipeline for paraprofessionals to get their certification to become full-time teachers, offering student teachers stipends, and more.

In addition, the district has held hiring fairs all summer to bring in new teachers, sometimes offering interviews on the spot.

Many teachers say these attempts are futile without increasing the pay.

“There’s a lack of respect for the profession and it’s shown by the need to increase salaries. They need to give them more support in the schools themselves,” said Arthur Steinberg, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

In February, the Board of Education ratified an agreement between the union and the district that gave a 5% pay raise for teachers that will take effect in September. For teachers at the beginning of the pay scale, this increase can feel small.

Pay for a full-time special education teacher in Philadelphia starts at $52,516 — a 5% raise would equate to roughly $55,000. With the rising costs of living, many say it isn’t enough.

Wyglendowski has been asking for donations on social media to pay for supplies for her classroom. And she’s not the only one. Teachers around the country have started asking their followers to contribute to their Amazon wishlists and or donations.

“It shouldn’t rely on what kind of community resources that you have to see whether or not your kids get the resources they need,” said Wyglendowski. “Sometimes it’ll be mid-year and I’ll have to do another fundraiser because I’m like ‘guys we run out of pencils, I got no erasers, like I have a kid who needs uniforms … it’s crazy that I have to rely on that.”

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.

Philadelphia officials and advocates urge school district to do more to help homeless students

2024-08-08T21:35:09+00:00

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As Philadelphia prepares for the new school year, members of the City Council and others are putting serious pressure on the district to do more for students experiencing homelessness.

Advocates and local community groups stressed the urgent need for programming to better help youth who are experiencing or at risk of housing insecurity during a City Council public hearing last week at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center. The discussion grew heated at times, such as when Councilmember Isaiah Thomas had an impassioned exchange with Rachel Holzman, a school district representative.

“We’re funding you blindly at this enormous level,” said Thomas, who chairs the City Council’s Education Committee and organized the July 31 meeting. “I’m wondering why no one has ever come to City Council, gone to Harrisburg [the state capital], and said, “‘Listen, this system we have doesnt work. We’re not able to properly identify young people who are homeless because we don’t have the proper staff.’”

Homelessness is far from a new issue in Philadelphia, but statistics indicate the problem is getting more acute for the district, which identified 6,217 students as homeless in the 2022-2023 school year. That’s a nearly 46% increase from the 2018-2019 school year. For the 2023-24 school year, district officials told council members at the hearing their initial counts show the number of homeless students increased by 20% over the prior year.

“If that’s not an emergency I don’t know what is,” Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said.

Although the district has taken steps to provide more support for homeless students, there are still gaps in what schools can provide or point students and their families to — the district does not have designated staff positions for homeless liaisons, for example. Philadelphia’s school counselors and teachers who are often already overworked frequently end up serving as de facto school liaisons for students experiencing housing insecurity.

Homelessness and housing insecurity can impact everything from students’ behavior and academic progress to nutrition. Currently, Philadelphia students who are identified as homeless are offered a number of services including transportation, enrollment support, emergency funds, and more.

“Many of the students I worked with who experienced homelessness struggled with their education because for many of them where they were going to sleep, their next meal, the well-being of their parents or siblings was their priority, not Algebra I or English 3,” said Debora Carrera, Philadelphia city government’s chief education officer, in her testimony before the council.

At the hearing, Oriana F. shared her own story about moving around often as a child. (Chalkbeat is withholding her last name due to concerns about privacy.) Because of the changes in schools and neighborhoods, she was put on medication for anxiety and behavior.

“When I was experiencing homelessness I wished I had more support than I had back then,” she said. “Someone I could talk to without [being] a necessary reporter and actually talking to me and programs for people my age would help a lot.”

Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, offered a number of solutions at the hearing to combating the issue: expanding youth-focused housing for those who’ve aged out of foster care, providing school services for children in shelters, and creating centralized hubs in schools to track homeless students, and more.

Despite critiques from the city council, Rachel Holzman, deputy chief for the district’s Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities, maintained the district has made great strides in addressing the issue. Holzman mentioned additional teacher training, a podcast for adults to see warning signs of at-risk students, and the district’s creation of a teen program to give them a voice.

The district has also partnered with various homeless organizations to better track the number of homeless youth.

Yet the hearing highlighted ongoing frustrations with the current system.

Thomas told Chalkbeat in an interview after the hearing that “we have a lot of work to do” to see how the city can help schools address the issue.

And Councilmember Kendra Brooks also had strong words for the district on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, saying that school counselors “are already responsible for too much. We can’t ask them to be case managers for homeless youth as well. Who is responsible for connecting homeless students with needed resources?”

Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act, every school district and charter school must appoint a local homeless education liaison to identify students experiencing homelessness and connect them to services.

Holzman told Brooks at the hearing that every school counselor in the district “is considered a homeless liaison.”

In their comments at the hearing, some youth voiced a need for more resources to be offered to at-risk students.

“I am able to be my best self when I have a community in my corner and not just at a desk or on the phone,” said Kymirah B., a youth advisor and board member at Valley Youth House. (Chalkbeat is withholding her last name due to concerns about privacy.)

She highlighted the Synergy Project, an outreach program helping students who are homeless or facing similar challenges, and how it supported her during her time of need.

Under Philadelphia’s mandated reporter training, school staff are required to alert protection services if a student tells them of anything potentially concerning. This can lead to complicated situations, such as students losing trust in staff. But many of the women spoke of feeling like people only talked to them because it was their job to do so, not because they really cared.

“I needed a mentor and not just someone with a title,” Kymirah B. said.

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.

New campaign to improve Philly children’s reading skills relies on time-tested song

2024-07-25T20:20:32+00:00

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Efforts to improve Philadelphia students’ reading skills aren’t confined to classrooms. One of the latest such campaigns to bolster literacy is Right2ReadPhilly — and it relies on a tool rooted in Black history.

The campaign began in early June and is run by Mighty Engine, a local creative agency. The group is building access to reading resources and sign language for children as young as six months old. It works hand in hand with many other groups — including the city’s “reading captains” — that are united in the pursuit of getting Philly kids to read as early and often as possible.

“We know families can play a crucial role in turning around our city’s early-learning crisis, furthering recent early literacy gains. But [if only] we could grab their attention with fun, free, proven things that they can do together with their children,” Heseung Song, CEO of Mighty Engine, said in a statement. “The campaign was designed to prove this is possible.”

The backdrop for this work is the school district’s shift to a new English language arts curriculum for the upcoming school year. It will use teaching techniques and materials based on the science of reading and world knowledge. Education officials and advocates hope this change will positively affect outcomes: While students’ scores on last year’s state tests in English language arts improved in some respects, just 34% of students in grades 3-8 achieved proficiency, and fewer than one-third of third graders reached this benchmark.

Although it officially started in June, Right2Read has been hosting small neighborhood events in the city for months, according to a spokesperson. Among other strategies, it has been teaching families the “Alphabet Song” that was taught in Freedom Schools, as well as “simple signs,” which are American Sign Language phrases for young learners.

Although the song’s tune comes from the widely known “I Don’t Know, But I’ve Been Told” melody, it encourages children to say the sound a letter will make — “ah” for A, “buh” for B, “kuhh” for C — instead of just its name. This phonics-centric method forces children to learn the sounds of letters rather than only memorizing the names and orders of letters.

The “Alphabet Song” originated from Freedom Schools, which became popular in the 1960s as a way to provide Black families not just an education, but social, political, and economic liberation as well. Those schools were part of a long line of efforts to educate Black children, including clandestine schools for enslaved Africans.

Sharif El-Mekki, CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development in Philadelphia, said the “Alphabet Song” is linked to reading techniques he remembers learning as a kid in West Philly and that people sang it on porches in his neighborhood.

The song “was a part of this comprehensive pedagogical framework to teach young black children how to read,” El-Mekki said. “Not only were we learning this alphabet song, we were learning: What does it mean to put these blends of sounds together?”

The song resonates with people doing similar literacy work in the city. Elaine Wells, who is a reading captain in Philadelphia and founder of Tiny Trekkers, a local trail and nature group for children, said her 7-year-old granddaughter struggled to learn to read.

“She could recognize ‘oh that’s an A or that’s a D’ but in trying to put the letters together to make a word, she definitely struggled,” Wells said.

But after she learned the song, according to Wells, “She has just been adamant about reading any and everything that she can and she’s been reading so much better.”

Building that kind of phonics-based foundation is crucial, said Marie Clarke, a third grade teacher at Philly’s Henry C. Lea Elementary, even though it’s not the only approach children can lean on to improve their reading skills.

“Context clues will help, that’s a strategy, but they still need the foundation of doing their sounds,” Clarke said.

Right2Read encourages people to put their own creative twists on the “Alphabet Song,” as long as such remixes still teach letter sounds (and are appropriate for all audiences). It even encourages doing double dutch while singing the song. And there are even prizes on offer.

The group takes a multi-faceted approach to helping children’s language skills as early as possible. Right2Read encourages teaching American Sign Language’s simple signs to young learners because doing so “can boost overall language capacity, including speech, and early learning,” according to its website.

“I think it’s important for children to feel both connection to their caregivers as well as confidence to express their wants and needs as early as possible,” said Sara Novic, author and consultant for Right2Read’s sign language component.

In addition, the organization’s website connects families to everything from ways to get free books, to how to incorporate “playful learning” in everyday urban settings.

The group’s impact is on track to stretch well beyond literacy and instructional circles.

Wells said she’s going to go over the “Alphabet Song” at every Tiny Trekker event. That way, she said, she can help instill it “as an easier way not just to recognize what the letter name is but what the sound is.”

Correction, July 26, 2024: This article has been corrected to reflect that Mighty Engine is a local creative agency. It has also been corrected to include the name of Right2ReadPhilly, the spelling of the name of Mighty Engine’s CEO, and the melodic basis for the “Alphabet Song.”

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.

Philadelphia schools will get a $232 million increase in the new state budget

2024-07-12T19:14:57+00:00

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Pennsylvania’s new $47.6 billion budget includes an historic increase in education funding. But advocates and school officials say it falls short of the transformational change Philadelphia schools need.

The new budget, signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro late Thursday night, includes $1.1 billion more for K-12 education — the state’s biggest one-year increase for school spending in history, according to Shapiro. That increase includes $232 million more for Philadelphia schools.

The budget also includes funding for solar projects at schools, $20 million more for student-teacher stipends, $17.7 million more for early childhood education, a $100 million increase in special education funding, and $100 million to reimburse school districts for payments they make to cyber charter schools.

The accompanying school code bills that passed along with the budget also create a funding stream for lockable cell phone pouches, require every school district in the state to employ a school security officer, and establish a certification pathway for non-U.S. citizens to become teachers in Pennsylvania.

The budget deal reflects a compromise between Shapiro, the Democratic-controlled House, and the Republican-controlled Senate. It leaves out many far-reaching programs and reforms that the governor and lawmakers pushed for during various phases of budget negotiations.

There’s no Jay-Z-backed school voucher program. There’s no seven-year timeline to move the state towards closing its unconstitutional funding gaps between wealthy and less affluent school districts. There’s no wholesale reform of how cyber charter schools are funded and monitored. And there’s no new money to fund grow-your-own teacher recruitment programs.

A bipartisan early literacy bill that would have aligned school district curriculum and teacher training statewide with the science of reading also did not survive budget negotiations. However, Philadelphia schools will start next school year with new English Language Arts curriculum district officials claim is research-backed. The district approved the new curriculum as part of its budget process.

For many public education advocates, the budget’s failure to establish a plan or timeline to close the so-called “adequacy gaps” in per-pupil spending between the state’s wealthy and low-income districts was a major misstep that will hurt Philadelphia significantly. Advocates say without such a timeline, the legislature will fail to fully satisfy a Commonwealth Court judge’s ruling in 2023 that declared Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional.

In earlier drafts of the budget, lawmakers proposed raising state education funding over a seven-year span. That represented an effort to gradually close “adequacy gaps” in per-pupil spending between districts, but also cushion the one-time impact on the state’s rainy-day fund and reduce the possibility of big education increases one year and major cuts the next.

“The same budget legislation that admits the scope of the Commonwealth’s constitutional shortfall still leaves nearly 90% of that hole to be filled by some undefined date in the future, or not at all,” the Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center said in a joint statement Friday.

Philadelphia schools Superintendent Tony Watlington said in a statement Friday that the budget deal is the first step toward closing the adequacy gap – “a first step that has been decades in the making.”

But Watlington also noted that while “this budget is the beginning of amending the impact of cyber charter school funding,” it does not go far enough.

The state’s fiscal 2025 budget is coming at a pivotal time for Philadelphia families and educators.

Federal COVID relief funds for schools are sunsetting this year, putting many school resources in jeopardy. Philadelphia’s aging school buildings still need billions of dollars in repairs, the city is struggling to recruit and retain teachers, Mayor Cherelle Parker and Watlington are embarking on a plan to create year-round educational opportunities. And the district has projected budget deficits in the coming years if state spending doesn’t continue to increase.

The Philadelphia Board of Education adopted its $4.5 billion budget in May, with an assumption that the district would get an estimated $240 million increase in state aid. That prediction turned out to basically match the final budget signed by Shapiro, a Democrat. However, the state’s Basic Education Funding Commission determined that Philadelphia is underfunded by at least $1.4 billion annually.

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg said in a statement Friday the final budget package “falls short of transformational reform of Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional and inequitable system of funding public education.” He added that “the wild west of under regulated cyber charters also went untouched.”

State Rep. Morgan Cephas, a Democrat who represents Philadelphia, said in a statement that the budget is far from perfect but represents “a solid compromise.”

“Philadelphia students will soon be able to look across the city limits and see that they have the same facilities, opportunities and possibilities as the kids in neighboring, suburban counties,” Cephas said. “Our kids deserve this.”

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.

Philly students rally for more school funding at state capitol as budget debate grinds on

2024-07-01T22:57:48+00:00

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Students from 17 Philadelphia high schools rallied at the state capitol in Harrisburg last week to demand that lawmakers provide adequate support to their underfunded public schools.

The roughly 40 students who participated in the rally were part of a Youth Leadership Fellowship at PhillyBOLT — which stands for Building Our Lives Together — to learn how to create change in their communities through field trips and curriculum. They also went on a similar trip to the city in May to stress the importance of school funding.

“Schools all over the city don’t have adequate central air systems; they have worn down books and school supplies, and the buildings are literally collapsing at the seams,” said Mecca Patterson-Guridy, who spoke at the rally about her experiences as a coach with PhillyBOLT.

The rally on Thursday came as debates about the Pennsylvania budget for the next fiscal year focused in large part on funding for public schools. State legislators have struggled to decide how they will spend on public education — and how much to spend on schools.

One factor complicating the issue is a controversial new private school voucher proposal that most Republicans and some Democrats in the statehouse want to see enacted. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has previously backed vouchers.

Lawmakers have missed a June 30 deadline to approve the state budget.

The most recent budget proposal, approved by the Pennsylvania House and awaiting action in the state Senate, would increase public school spending by $5.1 billion. Philadelphia schools would get more than $242 million more in basic education aid next year and nearly $1.4 billion more over the next seven years, if the budget proposal is adopted as written. They could receive additional funding if lawmakers also adopt controversial changes to how cyber charter schools are funded.

But Republican lawmakers have balked at the proposed increase. They say the state should be cautious about how much of its $15 billion surplus it spends in one year.

The students with PhillyBOLT say if the state has that money, it should be spent on improving public education.

Students with the community group PhillyBOLT are calling on state lawmakers to ensure state education aid meets the needs of Philadelphia schools.

“We hope people do pay attention to the need for funding for public education. I mean actually take action on it,” said Hillary Do, founder and executive director of PhillyBOLT. “Because our schools are very underfunded. It’s a problem across the state, not just in Philadelphia and we want to make sure that our young people get the chance to thrive and that starts in many ways with our public schools.”

Some of the school improvements the students want to see include better school lunches, no asbestos, new sports equipment, and extracurricular activities available for all students.

The possibility of private school vouchers remains controversial amid the tense budget talks. Proponents of the proposed Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (or PASS) scholarships — including the philanthropic arm of rapper Jay-Z’s Roc Nation — say they would not impact public school funding and would help low-income families access schools with smaller class sizes and more resources.

Voucher opponents however say any taxpayer money going to private schools is money that could be going to help fulfill needs like those laid out by the students in PhillyBOLT. Critics also say private schools are not as open to students as public schools.

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.

Philly school district combats summer slide with new summer camp

2024-06-26T20:51:03+00:00

Rows of Philadelphia students lined up in the Solis-Cohen elementary school backyard on Tuesday morning, ready to start their first day of summer camp. But this year, they’ll be getting much more than traditional camp activities through the school district’s new Summer Achievers program.

The district is offering 13 summer programs across the city for students of all grades with approximately 23,000 students taking part. The Summer Achievers program, in particular, provides students with academics as well as fun. The free program, open to all Philadelphia students in grades 1 - 8, will offer math and English classes in the mornings and enrichment activities in the afternoon, including field trips and sports.

Programs like the Summer Achievers are central to Mayor Parker’s push for year-round schooling. There’s a possibility programs like these could become the new normal with the city’s new budget featuring millions in new education funding Parker says will go toward expanded after school and year round programming in 2025.

“This is a great opportunity for our students to continue to learn and expand on that learning so that we can minimize … that summer slide,” said Deputy Superintendent of Academic Services Jermaine Dawson.

Summer slide refers to learning lost during the summer months. While many teachers and education advocates suggest that students continue to read over the summer, that’s often not enough. A 2020 study found that U.S students lost more than half of what they learned in school over the course of five summers. Concern about learning loss and maintaining students’ academic gains has only grown since the COVID 19 pandemic.

To close these gaps, students attending Summer Achievers will receive additional support in academics from their previous grade — often from educators they already know.

Malik Johnson, a counselor at Solis-Cohen School, is one such staff member. On Tuesday, he greeted a girl named Envy with a smile as she made her way to the orange cone where his group of students were lining up. He complimented another on their shoes.

“This is the first year we are truly expanding programming to touch more students and to make sure our programs are easily accessible to students and families since we know that was a barrier in previous years,” said Randi Davila, Assistant Superintendent in the district’s Office of Student Life.

Students raise their hands to show they're excited at the Summer Achievers program at Solomon Solis-Cohen School.

Summer Achievers along with Young Entrepreneurs, which is for high school students, are the only two new summer programs being offered by the district.

Summer Achievers “has been in the works for several years and is a model for what summer programming can look like in a full-day, year-round School,” said Ayana Williams, Deputy of Communications for Mayor Parker, in a written statement.

The district will roll out a year round school pilot program in 20 elementary schools starting this fall. These schools will provide families with before and after school care.

“This is what summer is all about. It’s about catching up on your academics, but it’s also about having fun,” said Jessica Shapiro with The Office of Children and Families.

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.

Philly needs to hire more than 450 teachers, with the worst shortage in special ed

2024-06-24T19:37:49+00:00

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Brittney Whitehead, assistant principal of the small, innovative high school in Northwest Philadelphia called Building 21, came to the Philadelphia School District’s educator hiring fair last Friday with one goal: She wanted to recruit certified special education teachers.

But Whitehead left disappointed.

At the end of the two-hour event, held at the district’s headquarters at 440 North Broad Street, she had only found one possible candidate for those positions.

“I thought that this Grow your Own pipeline … would have made a lot more of a variety of people, but we didn’t really have many,” she said, referring to a district program that supports paraprofessionals to get full teaching certification.

“You can definitely feel the impact of a teacher shortage and on top of that a special ed teacher shortage,” she said.

As of now, the district needs to fill at least 452 vacancies among its nearly 9,000 teaching and counseling positions before school starts at the end of August, according to a list distributed to attendees at the hiring fair. But it is always a struggle to fill all available jobs – and the problem is getting worse. There have been more than 400 vacancies reported in each of the last two years, meaning that in any given year, thousands of students could face a revolving door of substitutes during crucial times in their development.

And by far, the biggest shortage is among special education teachers. Of the 452 vacancies, about 150 were special ed. That’s one-third of the total.

“Nobody can find enough special education teachers,” said Edward Fuller, a professor of educational studies at Pennsylvania State University who researches the teaching profession. “It’s staggering how bad the situation in special ed is.”

And the vacancies now don’t fully account for the high rate of teachers who leave, many after the school year starts. Fuller’s latest report found that 13% of district teachers quit their jobs in 2022.

While not limited to Philadelphia, he said, the shortages are most acute in high-poverty districts with majority Black and Hispanic students. Schools are also struggling to find teachers of English language learners, he said.

“There are no more vulnerable child populations than these two, and that’s where our vacancy rates are highest,” Fuller said. “This should not be acceptable.”

Thousands of Philly students go without a permanent, certified teacher

As a rule, Philadelphia fills 98 to 99% of its teaching positions in any given year, said Amanda Mitchell of the district’s educator recruitment team. While that sounds high, it still can leave thousands of students without a permanent, certified teacher.

In 2022, the district started the school year with some 200 vacancies. Last year, the number was nearly twice that, with just a 95% “fill rate” weeks before school started.

Neil Geyette, principal of The U School, talks with a prospective teacher, Nakia Hagans.

Of the 200 people who registered for last week’s event, 149 showed up, said Mitchell. They included teachers who are new to the profession, teachers with experience elsewhere, and current district teachers seeking a new assignment.

The number of people graduating with teaching certificates in Pennsylvania has declined 67% over the last decade, Fuller said. And many people are working in schools with emergency certifications.

Under those certifications, people have a bachelor’s degree but not a teaching degree, or have a teaching degree in an unrelated field. They have three years to earn the proper credentials.

In the meantime, they have to prove that they are enrolled in a certification program. Sometimes, though, the person leaves before the three years are up, a scenario that essentially perpetuates the use of non-certified teachers.

Fuller said that, based on his latest research, 24.4% of teachers in Philadelphia have emergency certification – compared to less than 3% in Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties. In Delaware County, which includes Chester-Upland and William Penn, it is 8.5%.

At the hiring event, applicants could speak to representatives from 70 of the Philadelphia district’s more than 200 schools, each of which advertised the positions they needed to fill.

A growing number of students with special needs

For the past year, Neil Geyette, principal of The U School, which he founded in 2014 to serve marginalized students, said he had to hire a teacher for an emotional support class through an outside recruiting firm. Many people who wind up in the district under these circumstances come from related fields, such as social work, and have experience working with children – but not as teachers.

The person had an emergency certification, and he worried that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. But, he added, “she did a great job.”

That isn’t always the case. And as Fuller’s numbers show, city schools are increasingly relying on emergency certifications to fill all their jobs, especially in special education, said principals and others who sat at tables waiting for potential recruits to stop by.

Emergency certification “is starting to become the norm,” said Whitehead. “It’s harder to find people who have traditional education backgrounds not under emergency cert or that have been in education for longer than three years.”

Complicating matters is that in some schools, and especially since the pandemic, the special education population is soaring. Geyette said up to 36% of the students in his school receive special education services, compared to a districtwide rate of 19%. That figure is also trending upward; as recently as 2020-21, it was 17.4%.

Geyette said he found one or two potential hires at last week’s event.

“More students have been identified as special education since the pandemic,” said Ayanna Walker, principal of the Workshop School, which has a project-based curriculum and, like Building 21 and the U School, was created for students seeking alternatives to large, neighborhood high schools. She said that at Workshop, if all the prospective ninth graders who have signed up actually enroll, the special education rate next year will be 47% – nearly half the student body.

Some eager teachers can’t find positions

Justin Avery at the Philadelphia school district's recruitment fair. There were not many openings for social studies teachers like him.

While attendees at the hiring fair who were certified in special education had dozens of choices, teachers trained in other fields found their options limited. After special education, the next biggest category to fill was for elementary teachers, with around 100 openings at schools with grades kindergarten through sixth.

But for some teaching categories, there are very few openings, as Justin Avery learned. Avery is certified to teach social studies – not a high-demand field. Of all the vacancies on the district’s list, less than a dozen specified social studies.

Fewer than 2% of teachers nationwide are Black males – the number is closer to 5% in Philadelphia – but Avery has been out of work for a year after being laid off due to budget cuts in his previous district in South Jersey. He has two master’s degrees and 18 years of experience.

“I guess I’m overqualified,” he said.

But after talking to representatives from several schools at the event, he thinks he might have a chance of picking up a position as a writing teacher.

He’s hopeful. Still, he said, “It’s been a challenge.”

Chloe Pyle searches for potential music teacher openings at the teacher hiring fair.

As a student-teacher while getting her master’s degree in music education from University of the Arts, vocalist Chloe Pyle she experienced two extremes of city education: Friends Select – small, Quaker, private, and in Center City; and Frankford High – big, old, in a gritty neighborhood and forced to temporarily relocate most students due to asbestos problems.

She fell in love with Frankford.

“It was so different from my own high school,” said Pyle, who grew up in rural Delaware. “It completely changed how I viewed education. Some of those kids live lives that the kids in the other school would never understand.”

Backstories aside, she said, “they were all just students in music class.”

Whitehead, from Building 21, said more than 40% of their students have Individualized Education Programs, and that the school has increased its special education staff from four to nine teachers, and there are still two vacancies.

At the end of the event, educators like Whitehead often didn’t have many more options than when they started. She interviewed several career-changers, she said, including a former banker who wanted to teach English learners. But that was one need her school doesn’t have.

Stll, Whitehead noted, the shortage is palpable and whether candidates are new to the profession on emergency certification or seasoned veterans with the right credentials, “they’re all needed.”

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.

Jay-Z’s organization’s involvement in Pennsylvania’s school voucher debate raises ethics questions

2024-06-15T00:36:58+00:00

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Inside Beckett Life Center, a North Philly community center, families on Wednesday gathered around catered sandwiches and salads listening to several young volunteers laud a proposal that would pour millions of state dollars into vouchers to help them escape their underperforming public schools.

It was one of 10 “dine and learn” events this month organized by Team Roc, the philanthropic arm of entertainment mogul Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, as part of the rapper’s high-profile involvement in the polarizing issue. Families were greeted with signage promoting the pending voucher proposal – known as Pennsylvania Award for Student Success or PASS – by name and had access to stacks of form letters to send to lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro in support of the initiative, also known as Senate Bill 757.

At the PASS It Forward "dine and learn" event sponsored by Team Roc, families encountered stacks of form letters addressed to PA lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro urging them to support the PASS initiative.

Those details about the “PASS It Forward” events led to questions about the ethics of Team Roc’s efforts and whether they have crossed from activism about school choice generally into lobbying for this legislation specifically.

Roc Nation spokesperson Didier Morais initially told Chalkbeat Thursday that the organization was not a lobbying group but “concerned citizens.” And a search of the public lobbying directory did not list Roc Nation, Team Roc, or Jay-Z as registered lobbyists in the state.

Hours after Chalkbeat published this story, Morais responded saying the organization had registered its lobbying paperwork. A copy of the paperwork showed it had been filed the same day the story published.

An expert told Chalkbeat that the signage and form letters available at the informational events could fall under the “indirect communication” portion of the state’s lobbying law, which describes efforts to encourage the general public to take action to directly influence legislative decisionmaking.

“That is classic lobbying,” Adam Bonin, a lawyer and lobbying law expert said about the form letters and efforts to encourage citizens to contact their legislators. “Entities which are involved in such efforts should register and should disclose their activities.”

Bonin added there’s nothing wrong with lobbying and it’s a protected First Amendment activity. But, he said, “the public has a right to know … how much is being spent on these efforts, what areas the entities are involved in, and in the case of coalitions who are the key funders behind these efforts.”

Hours after Chalkbeat published this story, a spokesperson responded saying the organization had registered its lobbying paperwork. A copy of the paperwork showed it had been filed the same day the story published.

Jeffery Frankenburger, deputy executive director at the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission, said he couldn’t comment on the specific case, but he did point to a lobbying disclosure manual that provides examples of lobbying through “indirect communication,” which include “communicating with others asking them to contact state officials or employees” and “drafting letters for a letter writing campaign to be sent to various representatives.”

The PASS It Forward PA website, the official website of Team Roc’s campaign which lists all of the events, only makes reference to Team Roc in small font on its “terms and conditions” page. The website also features a “take action” button directing readers to “Call your local house representative and state senator and urge them to vote yes on PASS to make educational options available to those who need it most.”

Morais told Chalkbeat Thursday that “there was no specific bill promotional language at the event nor did anyone sign anything that references a specific bill.” When informed there was signage promoting the PASS scholarship program and blank form letters available for families to sign and send to their legislators urging them to support PASS, Morais said he would need to look into the issue further.

Signage at the "dine and learn" events featured details about the PASS scholarship legislation and how it would work if enacted.

Workers in black “PASS it Forward” t-shirts staffing Wednesday’s event told Chalkbeat they were instructed not to speak to the press. A Team Roc spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer those volunteers were receiving stipends from Roc Nation.

Frankenburger also said lobbying law states “any person who makes an expenditure for indirect communication,” even if they are not a registered lobbyist, must include disclosure language that “clearly and conspicuously states the name of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the communication.” The form letters did not include any such disclosure language or any reference to Roc Nation or Team Roc.

Frankenburger noted individuals or lobbying firms have 10 days from their lobbying activity to register with the state. Roc Nation’s first community event in Philly was June 10, and they first announced their “campaign” to support the initiative on June 7th. According to Team Roc’s lobbying registration, the group’s lobbying activities commenced June 4 — ten days before they filed.

A political tug-of-war with families in the middle

Philadelphia families attending these “dine and learn” events — especially those from low-income backgrounds — are locked in a political tug-of-war over their educational options. High-profile, monied lobbying groups like the Commonwealth Foundation and now Team Roc are ramping up efforts to tell local families how they would benefit from a state taxpayer-funded voucher program that aims to give students the options to leave underperforming public school systems. Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro also has said he supports the effort.

“We must prioritize student-first solutions—programs like [PASS] Scholarships that immediately expand educational freedom for kids in our state’s worst-performing schools,” Commonwealth Foundation Director of Legislative Strategy Kevin Kane said in a statement. “Bipartisan initiatives like these will provide the options families need to find the best educational fit for their children now.”

Lawmakers and advocates across the education spectrum are concerned about Philadelphia’s persistently low standardized test scores but don’t agree on the solution.

Philadelphia politicians including City Council members Kendra Brooks, Isaiah Thomas, Jamie Gauthier, and Nicolas O’Rourke have strongly opposed any type of voucher program. Philadelphia’s city council approved a resolution Thursday condemning private school vouchers as “harmful to the School District of Philadelphia.”

“Vouchers put public money in the pockets of the rich while draining resources from public schools in our communities,” said Brooks in a statement. “Vouchers will not benefit the children in our communities or fix Pennsylvania’s unfair funding system. Instead, they will deepen the economic and racial divides in Pennsylvania’s school system and widen the gap between the rich and the rest of us.”

Signage at the "PASS It Forward" event instructed families how to apply for PASS scholarships. The bill creating the PASS program is still being considered by state lawmakers.

What would the PASS program do?

The PASS program is a voucher program being negotiated as part of the state budget process.

If approved, the PASS program would offer low-income families up to $10,000 in scholarships to attend private schools. To qualify, students must attend a state-designated “low-achieving” school, and their household income must be 250% of the poverty line, which is $75,000 for a family of four.

This bill is not the first of its kind. Arizona, Tennessee, Indiana, and New Jersey are also grappling with voucher legislation.

Public school advocates like Laura Boyce, executive director of Teach Plus Pennsylvania, have said diverting public money to private institutions stands in direct opposition to a recent court ruling that Pennsylvania has been unconstitutionally underfunding its public school system for years.

A well-funded, fairly-resourced public school district would benefit all Philly students and their communities, Boyce said.

Boyce and other voucher opponents also say that unlike public schools, private schools can choose not to admit students based on their special education needs, gender identity or orientation, or academic remediation needs.

Mayor Cherelle Parker and Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Tony Watlington have declined to comment on the voucher proposal.

Monique Braxton, a school district spokesperson said in a statement: “The Pennsylvania public school funding system has inadequately and inequitably funded low-wealth school districts for decades.” She said the district is “continually forced to parse insufficient resources, resources which cannot meet the varying needs of our students and staff.”

Families at the Beckett Life Center in North Philly ate sandwiches and salads at the "PASS It Forward" events while Team Roc volunteers provided information about the PASS initiative under consideration in Harrisburg.

What does voucher research show?

Increasingly, studies of voucher programs nationwide show wealthy families who may have already enrolled their students in private schools are driving much of the demand.

Voucher research more broadly tends to demonstrate low-income students do not boost their test scores from attending private schools. But there is some evidence that shows those who attend private schools are more satisfied with their school cultures and feel safer.

The research in Philly is limited.

The Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia, an advocacy group that provides scholarships for low-income Philly students to attend private, tuition-based schools, published a report this year that shows their students outperformed their public school peers on math and reading standardized tests.

However, their report has some limitations. The report isn’t a direct comparison: For example, the CSFP report compared fourth- and seventh-grade scholarship recipients’ test scores to the scores of all children attending a public school. The private schools also administered different tests than the standardized exams public schools administer, which meant the CFSP data analysts sorted and converted the private school test data into a form that would be comparable to the state’s PSSA test — though not exactly the same.

But for parents like Keyzett Brockington-Ham, mother of three who also attended the Wednesday event, politics comes second to educational opportunities for their children.

“When I saw this I knew this was my time,” said Brockington-Ham about the PASS scholarship event.

Her daughter attends Meade School in North Philly, and her son attends ASPIRA Bilingual Cyber Charter School but Brockington-Ham thinks a private school would be a better option.

“This would be a great opportunity for my children.”

She voiced numerous concerns about her children’s schools like the bullying both experienced as well as little time spent on enrichment like art, music, and gym. Private schools would provide them with more resources they don’t have in the school district, Brockington-Ham said.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Azia Ross is a summer intern for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. You can reach her at aziaross@chalkbeat.org.