We have some great news: Last night, the SRC voted to approve three new charter schools – Esperanza, KIPP and Russell Byers (all PSP grantees) – giving 2,000 more families the opportunity for a high-quality education. The latest votes also underscore the importance of our continued fight to put quality schools above political interests. The SRC denied nine other …
Updates from Our Team
PSP invests $1.8 million in two neighborhood schools
We’re excited to share some news with you: 500 more students in West Philadelphia will get the opportunity to receive a high-quality education with the support of a $1.8 million grant from our Great Schools Fund. Our investment supports the expansion of Powel Elementary, one of the highest-performing neighborhood elementary schools in the entire city, and …
SRC votes to transform three schools
Last night, parents from Germantown stood up to years of systemic failure and compelled Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission to override Superintendent Hite’s recommendation to preserve the status quo at Wister Elementary School. Read about it here.As Dr. Hite put it in this morning’s Inquirer, “The SRC just felt the weight of the parents.”Following hours of impassioned …
School achieves 100% college acceptance!
We just learned some exciting news: Every student in Cristo Rey High School’s first graduating class has been accepted to a 4-year college! You can watch the news coverage here. Cristo Rey was one of the first Great Schools Fund grantees. The $1.3 million startup grant helped the school open its doors to low-income students in 2012, and …
Two students share their perspective
In Philadelphia, too often the voices of adults drown out what really matters to students.But in today’s Daily News, two recent graduates of Simon Gratz High School tell us how the district’s “Renaissance” turnaround program put them on the path to college and a successful future. The students describe how the school – once notorious for its …
Inquirer: 5 new charter schools to get $10.5M in grants
By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer The Philadelphia School Partnership announced Wednesday that it was awarding nearly $10.5 million to help charter school operators open five schools in the fall and expand them later. The School Reform Commission approved the schools earlier this year. The operators that received the grants currently have other high-achieving schools …
Our grants to help open five new schools
We are excited to share some big news: today we announced that we are investing more than $10 million to power the launch of five new schools that will give 3,700 more Philadelphia students access to a great education. Read about it here. The new schools will be run by Freire, Independence, KIPP, MaST and Mastery – …
Thousands joined us for the 2015 High School Fair
This past weekend, more than 12,500 Philadelphia students and families attended PSP’s “GreatPhillySchools 2015 High School Fair.” The event was a chance for students to find, compare and apply to high schools across the city using GreatPhillySchools. Watch this short clip from ABC6 for highlights. Families took advantage of the new GreatPhillySchools mobile website and High School Guide books to …
Our latest grant to a Catholic elementary school
Today we announced a new $1.4 million investment to support the transformation of St. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic elementary school serving a diverse student body made up mostly of students from immigrant families in South Philadelphia. You can read about this timely news in today’s Inquirer, as Philadelphia readies for the Pope’s visit this weekend. The grant …
Position paper calls for closure of low-performing charters
This morning our sister advocacy organization, Philadelphia School Advocacy Partners (PSAP), released a policy brief calling for stronger charter school governance in Philadelphia. The paper makes several recommendations including the closure or transformation of low-performing charters coupled with the expansion of high-performing schools. You can read about it in today’s Inquirer.Specifically, the paper endorses PA Senate …