In 1969, Debra Matthews was almost 9 years old and looking forward to fourth grade with her friends at Rowen Elementary when her mother told her she would be going to a different school five miles away from her West Oak Lane home.

¡°I didn¡¯t have a choice,¡± Matthews recalled. Rowen had just built a brand new annex building that Matthews had been excited to explore. ¡°I thought I would be going there. I was looking forward to that.¡±

Instead, until she graduated, Matthews, who is Black, rode a bus every morning, about a half hour each way, to predominantly white Northeast Philadelphia. First in a school bus to J. Hampton Moore elementary, then via SEPTA to Woodrow Wilson Junior High, now Castor Gardens Middle School, and then to Northeast High School.

All in the name of school desegregation.

This month marks the 70th anniversary of what is perhaps the most consequential U.S. Supreme Court decision of the 20th century, Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed Jim Crow laws in 17 states that required Black and white children to be educated in separate schools.

As the nation commemorates Brown, Philadelphians are reflecting on their own long and complicated history with school segregation.

Philadelphia was a city where segregation was not de jure, or imposed not by the laws that Brown struck down, but instead de facto ¡ª the result of personal choices, such as where people choose to live, that led to massive white flight.

For some civil rights leaders of the time, Philadelphia was a perfect . While a federal case was never filed, the district experienced more than 40 years of litigation and oversight from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission aimed at integrating schools. This resulted in generations of students like Matthews, almost all of them Black, bused to schools outside of their neighborhoods and decades of court pressure to implement other policies designed to end segregation.

But, today, the city¡¯s students are still largely attending some of the most segregated and under resourced schools in the country. is 50% Black and 14% white, while the are nearly 40% Black and 34% white, reflecting a longstanding pattern of most white families attending private schools. Although the city is home to a few of the most racially-mixed schools in the state, found Philadelphia¡¯s schools overall remain nearly as segregated as they were 30 years ago. White students are concentrated in a little over a dozen mostly special-admissions schools and comprise just a tiny percentage in the vast majority of neighborhood schools, the study found.

In the 70 years since Brown, ¡°Segregation in the North has gotten worse, and the Philadelphia area is no exception to that,¡± said Michael Churchill of the Public Interest Law Center, a legal advocacy group.

Advocates like Churchill haven¡¯t given up on desegregation as an ideal, but they have shifted focus to the new frontier in educational equity ¡ª school funding

¡°The schools that have the most minority children also have the least funding,¡± said Churchill, who has represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking fair and adequate school funding in Pennsylvania. ¡°And as difficult as it may be to fix the physical segregation of students, there is absolutely no excuse why there should be such funding disparities.¡±

The Brown anniversary comes at a time when Pennsylvania¡¯s governor and state legislature are grappling with reforming the state¡¯s funding system in the wake of Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer¡¯s February 2023 decision declaring it unconstitutional. She said Pennsylvania overly relies on property taxes to fund education, depriving students in poorer areas of a ¡°thorough and efficient¡± education. And she , drawing on and testimony, that Black and Latino students are disproportionately located in districts with inadequate funding.

While Philadelphia is surrounded by overwhelmingly white, better-funded suburban districts, the lead plaintiff in the school funding case is the William Penn School district on the city¡¯s southwest edge, itself an example of : after more Black families moved into the district, white families once again left, perpetuating the largely separate and unequal system. Property values went down, tax rates went up, and those who could afford to move did.

And that unequal system has been proven to , Hispanic students, and students from low-income backgrounds by and educating them in and often plagued with lead and , among other challenges.

¡°There is an anti-big city, anti-urban attitude,¡± said Roseann Liu, a visiting professor at Swarthmore College, at an event for her recently published book Why Racial Equity in School Funding Is So Hard to Achieve,¡± which is a case study of the issue in Pennsylvania.

¡°What that really means is anti-Black. ¡­ I don¡¯t think that state legislators are racists, but there is something to be said about people in power holding ideas about the value of different kinds of children.¡±

The history of desegregation efforts in Philadelphia

For decades until the 1970s, the school district clearly designed to segregate its schools.

In the early and mid-twentieth century as they built new schools to accommodate the city¡¯s growing population ¨C including many Black families moving from the South ¨C officials drew school catchment area boundaries to segregate students as much as possible.

And well into the 1950¡äs, the district maintained segregated elementary schools to employ a growing cadre of Black teachers and principals. The white power structure of the day was steadfast in opposition to allowing Black teachers to teach white students and to having Black principals supervise white teachers.

While some practices had eased by then ¨C there were a handful of Black teachers and principals in high schools ¨C discrimination was still very much in evidence in 1970, when the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which had begun monitoring city schools several years before, filed a complaint against the district. The commission, which at the time had the power to enforce anti-discrimination laws, wanted mandatory busing to remedy segregation.

School officials fought any effort to forcibly bus students out of their neighborhoods, especially white students, but they did agree to a voluntary plan in which students like Matthews took part. They also agreed, in the 1970s, to create several new, specialized schools such as George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science in the hopes of attracting a diverse student body.

When Constance Clayton became the city¡¯s first Black (and first female) superintendent in 1982, she and her chief of staff, Penn law professor Ralph Smith, devised a more sweeping plan to satisfy the commission.

Clayton¡¯s plan had two major components. One was to provide extra resources, including free extended day activities and art, music, and technology programming, to mostly Black schools in racially integrated areas as an incentive for white students to attend. Such a school was considered successfully desegregated if it reached 25% white population.

The second component was aimed at the significant number of neighborhood schools that remained virtually all-white, most in Northeast Philadelphia. Under this initiative, the district vastly expanded the voluntary busing program, with the goal of reaching 40% Black enrollment in as many of these schools as possible. Many more thousands of students than was the case in Matthews¡¯ time were bused starting in the Clayton era.

While the voluntary busing did change the demographics of many schools, the commission, which continued to advocate for mandatory busing, took the district to court again in the 1990s. By that time, with more desegregation becoming virtually unattainable, the case evolved to focus on the adequacy and equity of funding.

Commonwealth Court Judge ordered the district to invest more resources in the district¡¯s poorest, ¡°racially-isolated¡± Black schools. But when she also ordered Harrisburg to send Philadelphia more money to help pay for this, the state Supreme Court summarily took her off the case and the state legislature largely ignored her directive.

Around that time, when Superintendent David Hornbeck called the state¡¯s education funding system ¡°racist,¡± Gov. Tom Ridge took umbrage at the comment, an incident that helped precipitate the state takeover of the Philadelphia school district in 2002. The state controlled the district until 2018, an era that saw the rise of charter schools as the primary reform effort to improve the education of low-income, Black, and Hispanic students.

The busing continued until 2009, when the district¡¯s second Black superintendent, Arlene Ackerman, , citing the expense of busing and a waning commitment to desegregation itself for its own sake.

¡®Integration 2.0¡ä

As the nation reflects on the Brown anniversary, Philadelphia educators and policymakers have been pondering what next steps should be.

¡°The other legacy of Brown, is when desegregation did happen it was done at the expense of Black communities,¡± said Erica Frankenberg, who studies the subject at Pennsylvania State University. ¡°It was done inequitably in that it made some communities question the importance of it.¡±

She said she has been ¡°thinking about this idea of what would integration 2.0 look like, integration in a multi racial way, with equitable sharing who has to travel, making sure what is reflected in the curriculum and history classes, integrated teachers. All of that is done in some places, but it is not widespread.¡±

Sharif El-Mekki, a former school district and charter school principal who now runs the , said Brown was invaluable in that it invalidated what he described as an ¡°apartheid¡± system. At the same time, he said, quoting activist Stokely Carmichael, it is not segregation per se, ¡°but white supremacy we should be fighting against. What¡¯s important is that we don¡¯t have government-sanctioned forms of segregation.¡±

El-Mekki, who is working hard to recruit more Black teachers at a time when their attrition rate is greater than that for white teachers, said while the government and institutions should be vigilant about discrimination, they should also be doing more to support ¡°all-Black spaces that are holistic and affirming.¡±

To mark the anniversary, Desire¨¦ Chang, the Director of Education and Outreach at the state Human Relations Commission that pursued the Philadelphia case for so long, said there is still work to be done.

¡°Students living in lower income communities are deprived of the same resources provided to students in higher income communities,¡± she said. ¡°This underfunding has led to crowded classrooms, fewer teachers and outdated schools, textbooks, and an overall unequal education.¡±

In in Black community where Debra Matthews grew up, and still lives, and in others like it, there was long the assumption that schools with white students would be better than the one in the neighborhood. The students taking the opportunity to travel from Rowen to the Northeast filled the school bus.

Matthews, now 63, can¡¯t say for sure how or whether she benefited from her experience traveling far from her home to attend school, having nothing to compare it to. She noted that at J. Hampton Moore, the building was more modern, the gym had more equipment, and the schoolyard was bigger than at Rowen. She recalls that she made new friends and enjoyed ¡°a rainbow of classes.¡±

She remembers that at Rowen she had been on an accelerated track, whereas in her new school she was not. After her mother complained, however, she was switched.

And she recalls that when she arrived, as a nine-year-old, several of the girls in the class had letters from their parents saying that they were not to sit next to any Black students. And the teacher complied.

But, she said, over time, she made friends, even with some of the girls who had the letters. In an era when many students went home for lunch, something the bused-in students couldn¡¯t do, she was invited to go home with a classmate.

¡°I did that one time, and I wasn¡¯t impressed,¡± she said, laughing, recalling that the only difference between her Philadelphia rowhouse and theirs ¡ª down to the plastic covers on the furniture ¡ª was that her friend¡¯s mother didn¡¯t toast their bread.

¡°I thought I was going to see something with more splendor, grandeur. But they were just an average family. And I was missing pizza day.¡±

There were occasional conflicts and awkward incidents, but by fifth and sixth grade she and her girlfriends were sitting around together cutting out pictures from magazines of their favorite idols, which included both the Osmonds and the Jackson 5.

¡°We got along,¡± she said. ¡°Sometimes, if adults just let children be children and stop trying to spread beliefs onto them, it will work out.¡±

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.

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Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

But being awakened in the middle of the night by sharp pains was new for Coreano and their family. Rats had begun to bite them in their sleep. Later that morning, they went to their Kensington school and pretended nothing happened.

Chronicling the life of Corem and two other Puerto Rican students from Philadelphia, author Nikhil Goyal presents harrowing accounts of childhood in his latest book . 

Readers see Corem, Ryan Rivera and Giancarlos Rodriguez grow up overpoliced and underfed. By the time they reached high school, the system threatened to close some 37 schools, and only after , shuttered 24. 

In some cases walking an hour one-way to school without transportation after an eviction left them displaced, Corem, Ryan and Giancarlos give low-income children a human face and serve as a cautionary tale. The Census Bureau has revealed the rate of childhood poverty has doubled, and the country will soon see pandemic-era relief for families, schools and come to an end. 

¡°If we believe that schools should be equitable and humane and child centered, then we’ve got to be willing to fight for an agenda that will end poverty,¡± said Goyal, who for the last two years served as the senior policy advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders on the Senate¡¯s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Budget Committees. 

Their stories illuminate exactly how economic instability and harsh discipline policies impact children¡¯s ability to learn safely, making the case for change, particularly as educators nationwide grapple with how best to support students academically after pandemic disruptions.

Making economic stimuluses like the Child Tax Credit permanent, Goyal added, would mean ¡°the lives of educators and school staff and counselors would be a lot easier.¡± 

Named one of 2023¡¯s best books by the New Yorker, also illuminates how school policies governing students can disproportionately shape entire futures, particularly for students of color who are more often suspended and expelled than their peers. Zero tolerance discipline policies, for instance, put children like Ryan Rivera in juvenile incarceration and harsh schooling isolated from friends for years, after being pushed to light a trashcan on fire at 12 years old.

In conversation with The 74, Goyal reflects on school closures, community schooling, chronic absenteeism, and what policies stand to make a difference for the nearly living in poverty nationwide.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You frame childhood poverty as a crisis to be ¡ª why release this book now? What¡¯s happening?

The Census Bureau released its ¡ª child poverty more than doubled. More than 5 million children are plunged into poverty. It was the single largest increase in poverty in recorded history, just an astonishing development in public policy that I think deserves enormous attention as well as a full-throated response from people in Washington and people in power.?

The increase in child poverty coincides with the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit, economic stimulus payments, expanded unemployment insurance, and a number of other programs that have enormously benefited children and families, whether in terms of food assistance, or housing assistance, or Medicaid access.?

We’re also at this moment where a lot of districts throughout the country are facing dropping enrollments, facing fiscal cliffs with the end of ESSER funds. People are anticipating a lot more consolidations, and possibly something like what happened in Philadelphia where a school system weighed closing dozens of schools. What are some lessons that school leaders might glean from what happened in Philadelphia? 

In 2013, the school district proposed closing some three dozen. The argument was that the district was bleeding in a major fiscal deficit. In the book I cite a major report by Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by the district to evaluate the fiscal state of schools. One of the recommendations was a mass closure of schools. They also recommended a mass firing of teachers and other school staff and a very market-oriented approach to public education. The key recommendation was taken up by the school district, against the wishes of students and parents and educators and unions, who were an incredibly robust coalition.?

Pew Research and others have found that school closures haven’t actually yielded the balance of savings that the architects originally envisioned. They cause a lot of displacement, educational instability. And, and in many instances, students are not actually necessarily attending so-called ¡°higher performing schools¡± after their schools shut down. 

I read about Fairhill School, this extraordinary school in the poorest neighborhood of Philadelphia, which had been serving generations upon generations of children of the working class. This was a school that had been deeply underfunded. And in spite of that, they were still able to provide children with a nurse, a safe environment. 

Their test scores weren’t as good as suburban districts, sure. But does that mean that we should necessarily be closing a school like that which has been an anchor of the community? I don’t think so. I think if we provide public schools with equitable resources, and the type of respect that they deserve, so many of the issues that folks might point you to in public education, I don’t think would exist. 

The charter movement has capitalized on this. But if you go back to the history of charter schools, and you go back to Minnesota and some of the earliest charter schools, these were laboratories of progressivism. We’re gonna bring innovation, bring the best, experiment with interesting ideas in pedagogy and curriculum and instruction and the teaching force. See what works and then bring the best ideas into the public system. That is the model that I would prefer, where charter schools work in tandem with public schools, not as competition.

Something I appreciated while reading is that you give these trends and the political events around them a human face, from the war on drugs and no tolerance policies for violence that led to thousands of incarcerated youth. What¡¯s currently underway that you think might be on track to cause more devastation? Particularly for Black and brown children?

I think there’s a dramatic rise in the privatization movement. We’re seeing a dramatic increase in the voucher schemes as well as charter expansion. In Philadelphia alone, nearly 40% of children attend either charter schools or cyber charter schools. There’s cities all over this country where traditional public schools have become dismantled, and we’re seeing a rise of the private sector intervening in public education. There’s obviously some really amazing organizing and efforts by teachers unions and advocacy groups like Journey for Justice fighting back against those policies all over the country.

What’s at stake, if these models are to continue at the scale that they have? What would be the impact for students, based on your research and experience with Philadelphia?

If we continue down this path, where more and more charters replace traditional public schools, where voucher programs siphon even more dollars away from the public system into the private system, particularly the religious sector, then I think that’s one of the most grave and profound threats to American democracy. I think the foundations of American democracy are found in public education. I think it’s one of the areas of our society that has not been fully transformed and taken over by the market.

Look at health care, look at energy, look at housing. By and large, public education has withstood a number of those assaults over generations, but I think public schools are facing their most serious threats. The pandemic didn’t help. We can debate about school closures, the efficacy of that or not, but I think the reality is that they breed a distrust among parents who were rightfully frustrated about making sure that there was a place for their children to be during the day and be educated. 

One exception to this threat you¡¯ve identified to the traditional public system is the expansion of 3K and pre-K programs in many cities. 

The early childhood education space is very fascinating to me. Public dollars might go to both public providers as well as private providers, and you’re seeing that there’s not a sustained level of federal dollars. A lot of those private providers cannot remain open because their margins are so low. 

There is a growing interest from states all over this country as well as cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they have poured an enormous amount of money into public pre-K. We’re talking about an area of great optimism. I am deeply encouraged by efforts by states and cities to expand early childhood education, because it is not only the right thing to do, it is good for our economy and society.

At one point in the book, you say their story is one of survival, where 18th birthdays are not rites of passage, but miracles. That it’s a story of social contract in tatters. In this reality, where so many children grow up in poverty, what are some best practices for school systems?

I think every school should be turned into a community school, where they have wraparound services, social and health supports. Universal free school meals, extended hours, restorative justice, well paid teachers and staff and modernized infrastructure. 

There are incredible examples of community schools all over this country. I will point to Cincinnati as the gold standard for community schooling, because they’ve converted virtually all of their public schools into Community Learning Centers. I am always struck by the fact that they have dentists and mental health professionals and other medical staff and doctors who are literally based in the school itself to provide care to students. 

We have to recognize that the issues and challenges that young people experience in their homes and in their communities don’t get left behind when they go to school every day. It affects their ability to learn. It affects their relationships with their teachers and counselors, and their relationships with their peers. 

We’ve got to really recognize that poverty and economic insecurity is the root cause of many of these educational inequalities. That schools can be places where children can get access to healthcare and all their social support. I’m very encouraged by that trend across the country. And the research shows that community schools have a positive impact on absenteeism, on truancy, on graduation rates, and student engagement. 

It’s the idea of, meet people where they’re at, provide them with the basic, basic building blocks for dignified life and you will see many of the social problems that once existed, either be reduced or eliminated.

were chronically absent by the end of the last school year, and we’re hearing more and more about school avoidance. What does Corem¡¯s story reveal about this trend and its links with mental health, which is what some believe to be a root cause right now??

It’s a great crisis. I would say that Corem has a harrowing, fascinating story with a lot of lessons. Today Corem uses they/them pronouns. When they were growing up, they lived with their mother who was disabled. They endured consistent housing and food insecurity. They would run out of food. They had to endure evictions. They moved in some years, twice or three times, which meant that they had to constantly switch schools and never really settle into one school. That meant Corem¡¯s academic performance faltered.?

I know they¡¯ve suffered from absenteeism at times, not due to their own failings, but simply because they were deprived of the basic necessities of a decent life. They didn’t have the tools and resources that would allow him to get to school on time every day. There’s one moment in the book where the landlord tells their mother that sorry, we just sold the house and you have to leave immediately. 

That means, in the middle of the school year, they have to walk more than an hour from the new home to the old school. Their mother was able to get them a public transit pass, but it just goes to show homelessness and housing insecurity are huge obstacles to consistent and regular school attendance. 

There’s a lot of research to show that homeless students in particular make up a significant part of the population that is going to be absent. As emergency rental assistance winds down and now we’re more than two years since the end of the national eviction moratorium, our families are really suffering through the housing affordability crisis. And I think we see that play out with children.

For William Gao, his research is personal. Three of his grandparents, who lived in rural China with sparse access to health care, were diagnosed with cancer. 

¡°Poor health care meant late diagnoses,¡± Gao said. ¡°And late diagnoses meant grim prognoses.¡±

During his research, 18-year-old Gao noticed that shortages in pathologists around the world cause long diagnosis times, especially in developing countries. He said this elevates mortality rates in breast cancer patients, for example.

To tackle these health care disparities, the teen from Centennial High School in Ellicott City, Maryland, developed an AI diagnostic tool to support doctors and hospitals in the diagnosis process. Rather than sending tissue samples to a separate lab, with long wait times for results, Gao¡¯s app creates a heat map, then and there, of a biopsied tissue revealing exactly what part of the tissue sample could be malignant.

Knowing where to look in a tissue sample could vastly speed up the diagnostic process, Gao said. And, not only that ¡ª the app ameliorates the risks associated with patient privacy, since it eliminates the process of transferring patient data between institutions.

Gao said that this is a noteworthy step towards offering more equitable health care outcomes, and he sees room to collaborate with the venture and entrepreneur space to scale the app. 

¡°I hope it can be applied in rural areas which can create a real impact and really have an ability to support patients around the world,¡± he said.

Gavriela Beatrice Kalish-Schur knew from an early age that STEM was for her. But it was in high school that she knew she wanted to specialize in neuroscience, ¡°I think because we know so little about the brain,¡± she said.

She also knew that anxiety impacts many young people, and that current therapies aren’t as effective as they could be, or they¡¯re very expensive ¡ª or both.

The 18-year-old senior at Julia R. Masterman High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said she was interested in understanding what¡¯s happening on a cellular level with anxiety to help inform the development of more effective treatments.

Her experiment: Make fruit flies anxious. She targeted a certain brain pathway called IRE1, knocking it down in the flies. ¡°Knocking down is like turning down the volume when you¡¯re listening to music,¡± she explained. 

Then she observed their behavior. And like the proverbial wallflower at a school dance, the fruit flies clung to the wall of the petri dish, rather than spread over the surface as they normally would. In other words, the flies exhibited anxious behavior.

Kalish-Schur discovered that these flies had different protein levels than the control group. Understanding the relationship between the IRE1 pathway and anxiety, she said, can lead to more targeted treatments for anxiety in humans. 

¡±We can use what we already know and new techniques to develop cures for diseases that harm a lot of people,¡± Kalish-Schur said.

One of the first self-directed learning centers for homeschoolers, or what today we might call a microschool, opened just outside of Philadelphia in 1978. has grown and flourished over the past four decades and inspired the creation in 2016 of , a microschool in the Germantown section of Philadelphia that embraces non-coercive, self-directed education for homeschoolers of all ages who attend the center several days a week. 

When I visited Natural Creativity in the winter of 2018, it had about 20 learners in a bright but cramped section of a local church. Now, Natural Creativity has 50 learners ages 4 to 18 in a large, loft-style building a few blocks away from its previous location. Krystal Dillard joined Natural Creativity as co-director in 2020 after seeing a about the center and its embrace of unschooling and self-directed education principles. ¡°I have a Master¡¯s degree in education and never heard about this idea,¡± said Dillard, who taught in public schools in Fairfax County, Virginia and in an inner-city charter school in Los Angeles before moving to Philadelphia and working as a literacy coach in the Philadelphia Public Schools. ¡°There was so much violence and trauma in the schools here,¡± said Dillard, who began to feel that education could and should look different. When she discovered Natural Creativity, it showed her what was possible. 

The story was similar for David O¡¯Connor. He was teaching theater courses at the University of Pennsylvania when he and a group of parents learned about (ALCs), a global network of microschools and self-directed learning communities. The parents had been inspired by the educational philosophy of the , a Sudbury-model school that opened in 2011, but they gravitated to the tools and practices of the ALC approach. The group launched in 2018 with 20 learners in a church basement. 

Today, 50 learners of all ages learn together in a spacious building in Philadelphia¡¯s Bella Vista neighborhood, with a second location at the Awbury Arboretum. 

¡°What shocked me the most at the university level was how much my students had to unlearn in order to have the curiosity again to learn new things,¡± said Philly ALC staff member, Jessie Dern-Sisco, who taught college students at Villanova University for several years during and after receiving a Ph.D. in philosophy there. ¡°Here, we don¡¯t have that problem.¡±

¡°A lot more families are looking for something like this,¡± added O¡¯Connor, who explained that about 16 of the current learners attend Philly ALC as full-time recognized private school students, while the rest attend part-time as homeschoolers several days a week. Tuition is pay-what-you-can and accessibility is a key priority. O¡¯Connor said the average family is paying about $7,000 per learner, with the maximum annual tuition at $11,000. Fundraising and philanthropy, such as the microgrant Philly ALC and other local microschools received from the , help to make these programs even more affordable to more families¡ªespecially in a state like Pennsylvania that has minimal education choice policies. 
It was a VELA grant that helped Lauren Umlauf and Hannah Mackay to grow their program, build community, and begin to find ways to help other prospective founders launch similar spaces in their own neighborhoods. Previously part of the Philly ALC community, Mackay and Umlauf spun-off their self-directed learning center, , in a separate neighborhood where they now serve 18 learners ages 5 to 12, with plans to create a teen program. Both former public school teachers, Mackay and Umlauf wanted a radically different approach to teaching and learning for their own children and others in their community. They piloted their program outside in a public park in 2021 and opened the doors to their dedicated space in a bright and colorful building in South Philly in fall 2023. In addition to The Dandelion Project¡¯s three-day program for homeschoolers, it also offers afterschool programming and vacation and summer camps for local youth.

Beyond Self-Directed Education

While the City of Brotherly Love has seen escalating interest in low-cost, self-directed learning models like those described above, I was particularly pleased to see the growth of other alternative education models that embrace different learning philosophies while placing children first. A diverse, dynamic ecosystem of decentralized education options enables families to find the learning environment that best meets their distinct needs and preferences.

Some of that growth has occurred as a result of the pandemic response and prolonged remote schooling that led parents to consider ¡ª or create ¡ª new educational options. That was how came to be. A local mother of four children began offering a space in her home for local families who removed their children from school in 2020. That evolved into an established non-profit learning cooperative that centers the experience of Black and Brown homeschooling families. Since fall 2023, learners meet up to four days a week in a warm, welcoming storefront location, tucked along a quiet, brick street in Germantown. 

¡°The model of traditional schooling doesn¡¯t fit with kids¡¯ desire to move and have a voice in their day and in their learning,¡± said Jasmine Miller, a mother of three who helps to lead Koku-Roko. Miller was drawn to homeschooling but wanted something more collaborative. As a learning center for homeschoolers with hired educators, Koku-Roko enables Miller and the other founding parents to continue to work as full-time professionals, while taking turns being on-site to help steward their center, which emphasizes family-focused, child-led, project-based learning.

Miller explained that Koku-Roko¡¯s founding parents actively sought a location for their co-op in the largely African American Germantown neighborhood in order to be closest to the families they serve. That was the same catalyst for Imani Jackson and Kareem Rogers, two educators currently working in a traditional private school in Philadelphia who are opening Poinciana Montessori this fall in Germantown. Part of the fast-growing microschool network that emphasizes affordability, equity, and an inclusive, culturally-responsive learning environment, Poinciana will be the second Wildflower elementary microschool in the city, following in the footsteps of Hyacinth Montessori that launched in West Philadelphia in fall 2022.

Philadelphia resident Sunny Greenberg works for the Wildflower network helping to support new and prospective microschool founders. She sees rising interest in microschooling, both in her city and nationwide. ¡°Microschools like Wildflower can meet children where they are more quickly and pivot when necessary,¡± she said. ¡°Because of their size, it is easier to build community and the sense of belonging that can be missing in larger school settings.¡±

It’s breathtaking to witness the expansion of affordable, learner-centered education options in Philadelphia in just six years. Not only have the microschools I visited in 2018 grown in size and space, they have helped to lay a foundation for education innovation throughout the city. 

As Madeleine Nutting, co-founder of Hyacinth Montessori, told me: ¡°The school I wanted to teach at didn¡¯t exist.¡± Like so many other entrepreneurial parents and teachers in Philadelphia and beyond, she built what she couldn¡¯t find.

Upon becoming mayor of Philadelphia, that she will establish a working group on full-day and year-round schooling ¨C an idea she had supported . The group will develop a strategy to keep Philadelphia public schools open for longer hours during the week, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., as well as over the summer, and to provide ¡°meaningful, instructive out-of-school programming and job opportunities for students.¡±

Below, education expert answers five questions about year-round schooling in Philadelphia.

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What do we know about the mayor¡¯s plan?

Parker is proposing to keep Philadelphia public school buildings open longer hours and more days throughout the year. According to Superintendent Tony Watlington¡¯s strategic plan, a year-round and extended-day school calendar will be piloted in up to 10 schools, with the goal of increasing student academic achievement. It does not state how many days or hours will be added to the 180 days Philadelphia currently requires.

This is different from what¡¯s commonly known as , which doesn¡¯t add extra school days but simply moves the existing days around so that there are multiple short breaks instead of a long summer break. For example, students might have 45 school days followed by 15 days of break, or 60 school days followed by 20 days of break.

The Philadelphia school district plan aligns with a recommendation made over 40 years ago, in 1983, in the report commissioned by the Department of Education. The report suggested that the school year should be increased to 200 to 220 days.

How prevalent is year-round schooling?

The length of the school day and year varies around the world. Japan and Australia have school for almost the entire year, while the U.S. has school for only about nine months. In contrast, countries like Finland, Iceland and Ireland have shorter school days and years than the U.S. France has a longer school year but similar total hours per year as the U.S. get a two-hour lunch and do not attend school on Wednesdays.

In Philadelphia, have added a summer extension program. But they still maintain traditional school hours during the school year.

Several states are participating in an initiative this year called the . This three-year initiative involves 40 schools that will add 300 hours to their existing school calendar by having either longer days, longer school years or both.

Can the mayor legally do this?

The current minimum number of days that Pennsylvania schools are required to be open is 180 ¨C similar to . Districts can decide when they start and finish. The Philadelphia mayor can certainly extend the school day and the school hours since she , who in turn control who is hired or fired as superintendent. And, most importantly, the new superintendent is supportive of the mayor¡¯s plan.

A more important question is: Should the mayor do this?

Parker has said that she wants to catch kids up academically to grade level. Only about in Philadelphia public schools score at or above the proficient level on standardized reading tests, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But what are the additional costs? In addition to possible increased student and teacher fatigue and stress, the main cost is money. Keeping schools open and staffed longer requires more dollars.

Despite the hope that longer school days or years will lead to gains in student achievement, there¡¯s .

If Philly does in fact adopt a longer school day or year, even with just 10 schools on a voluntary basis, it could prove difficult to evaluate the effects.

Foremost among these challenges is . Schools that have support to opt in are likely different from schools that do not.

A better evaluation plan would be to first solicit applications for the pilot program from the more than 200 Philadelphia schools. Then, from those schools who volunteer to participate, randomly choose 10 for the pilot and then, at the end of the school year, measure the outcomes and compare them to the schools that weren¡¯t chosen.

What are the potential gains?

The Accelerate Philly plan cites , which suggests that ¡°summer and after-school programming can be effective in accelerating learning.¡±

Adding additional hours for before-school and after-school enrichment, and for more days during the school year, supports parents by providing free and convenient child care. It makes it easier for them to drop off and pick up kids on their way to and from work.

It also provides kids a safe and supportive environment for more hours. Keeping kids at school longer during the day and for more days during the year can . More time in school can mean less time on the streets.

There is still no decision on whether student participation will be mandatory. If it is not, some kids who might benefit may not get their parents¡¯ consent to go to school earlier, stay longer and go for more days over the summer.

What hurdles might year-round schooling face in Philly?

Funding will be a big hurdle. Keeping school buildings open longer requires more energy. Many Philly public schools to be open throughout the hot summer months.

More importantly, this plan requires more personnel ¨C particularly teachers who can stay more hours. A January 2024 report from Penn State University¡¯s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis found that Philadelphia teachers are leaving the profession at ¡°¡± ¨C considerably higher than the rest of Pennsylvania. More Philadelphia teachers are quitting or retiring than those who are being newly trained, according to the report.

It is not clear yet how the to year-round schooling throughout the district or how all the additional hours and programming would fit into the .

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Since January 2021, states have introduced bills and at least 18 have passed laws restricting or banning the teaching of supposed critical race theory. Just states (Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington) have Black history mandates for K-12 public schools. In addition,  , , and have legislated Black history courses or electives during the last two years. But several of the 12 states have new laws on the books that limit their curriculum. 

The Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education at the University at Buffalo has been tracking which states have Black history mandates. The director of the center, LaGarrett King, said it¡¯s important for him and his team to hold teachers and school districts accountable by tracking which states are not only implementing Black history curriculum but actually teaching the lessons.

¡°If we look at the history of Black history education, whenever there is some form of social or racial strife within society, there’s always this connection to increasing Black history in public schools,¡± King said. ¡°You saw that right after the Civil War and after Reconstruction, during the late 19th century. You saw that as well during the lynching era in the early 20th century. You saw that in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, and more recently, you saw that during the Black Lives Matter movement.¡±

Even so, King says that in nearly half of the 12 (Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina), the mandates just seem symbolic, using Florida as an example of a state that has a Black history requirement but new policies that contradict it. Its ¡°Stop W.O.K.E. law¡± restricts how race and gender are discussed in public schools and prohibits teachers from making students ¡°feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex or national origin.¡± 

A prominent component of teaching Black history ¡°is the concept of questioning systematic power and oppression, because that’s part of the Black experience in the United States,¡± King said. ¡°And if you have laws that say, ¡®Hey, you can¡¯t talk about systemic racism, whiteness or concepts that say racism is permanent in our society,¡¯ then I think you’re doing the actual concept of Black history wrong¡­ If your Black history is simply about celebrating heroes, well, here’s the thing: Why are these particular people considered heroes?¡±

In August, the Florida legislature came under fire after a right-wing nonprofit organization called PragerU created a depicting an animated Frederick Douglass referring to slavery as a ¡°compromise¡± between the Founding Fathers and Southern states. The video was meant to be shown in K-12 schools and was paid for with state funds.

In Delaware, a for K-12 districts and charter schools to teach Black history went into effect this school year, but educators may not be ready. Deangello Eley, assistant principal of Appoquinimink High School, told that many teachers are ¡°concerned they don¡¯t yet have the tools for these conversations.¡± Eley believes it will take closer to five years for Black history lessons to be fully implemented.

Some places, though, are doing it right, King said. He pointed to New Jersey and to cities such as Philadelphia and Buffalo as examples of school systems that are working to protect and expand their coverage of Black history.

Though Pennsylvania doesn¡¯t have a K-12 Black history mandate, Philadelphia does, and King said he views it as exemplary both in policy and practice. One of Philadelphia¡¯s biggest priorities is ensuring that teachers have adequate training and resources. The district also prioritizes exposing students to Black history lessons that aren¡¯t typically covered in schools and making sure they can apply these concepts to modern issues.

In 2005, Philadelphia became the first city in the United States to require every high schooler to take an African American history class to graduate. Part of the law included integrating African-American history into all K-12 curricula. 

Ismael Jimenez is the district’s first director of social studies curriculum in nine years. Since stepping into his role last year, he has led a team of three in developing best practices and guidelines for teachers. Though Philadelphia did away with its mandated annual teacher training in social studies a few years ago, Jimenez has instituted a special training just for African-American history teachers called the Africana Studies Lecture and Workshop Series. Teachers are paid to attend these workshops several weekends throughout the year. Scholars and community activists are invited. The district also works with educational departments at cultural heritage museums to offer additional professional development for teachers.

Jimenez and his team have been revitalizing the curriculum, which hasn¡¯t been significantly updated in a decade. They aim to step away from relying on textbooks and are building the curriculum from the ground up themselves. 

Kindergartners begin learning basic social studies concepts like what is a community. Starting in first grade, students are introduced to Black history topics such as the meaning of flags, Marcus Garvey and the creation and purpose of the Pan-African flag. Throughout second and third grade, students are taught about other prominent Black figures throughout world history. In fourth grade, topics include enslavement and the riches that it brought Europeans in the Americas. Those lessons continue through fifth grade.

For the first two years of middle school, the focus is Black history outside the U.S. Sixth graders learn about civilizations in Asia and Africa, such as the Kemet in ancient Egypt, and seventh graders study the role of the Spanish in slave trades in the Western world. Jimenez said the goal is to take the emphasis off Europeans in Western studies, spending only a quarter of the year on ancient civilizations like Greece and Rome and focusing instead on North America and Latin America for half of the year. In eighth grade, the curriculum returns to United States history and includes colonialism and the Civil War.

Students are encouraged to focus less on essay writing and multiple-choice tests and more on what the district calls authentic performance tasks to show their knowledge of course material in creative ways, such as conducting mock trials, writing letters to museums inquiring how they obtained certain African artifacts and contacting school districts and companies that make maps to ask about biases and racism in their creation.

¡°There’s a short video in ninth-grade American U.S. history talking about redlining, and there’s another one about talking about the riots in Miami in the 1980s,¡± Jimenez said. ¡°These little clips allow students to kind of access [curriculum] visually.¡± Ninth graders also learn about the creation of the interstate highway system and suburbanization. ¡°We go over how this identity of middle class was tied to whiteness at the exclusion of black people in America.¡±

In 10th grade, students complete the required African-American history course needed to graduate. The following school year, the curriculum centers on world history, with a large focus on the transatlantic slave trade. In 12th grade, students learn civics and economics, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, affirmative action and current politics.

¡°If we’re not engaging in these conversations related to multi-prospectivity and dialectical thinking involving marginalized and historically excluded voices into the conversation, then by default, the teacher is indoctrinating the students because the teacher isn’t allowing them the ability to challenge what they’re being taught,¡± Jimenez said.

¡°That’s one thing here that we’re going out of our way to try to make sure is not happening. We’re going to bring up these things that you’ve never heard of that we find interesting and other folks find interesting, but then we’re going to bring in the multiple perspectives related to interpreting it and have dialogue and structured activities around it to really go into the depths.¡±

Across the United States, arrest rates for young people under age 18 have been declining for decades. However, the proportion of youth arrests associated with .

According to , K-12 schools referred nearly 230,000 students to law enforcement during the school year that began in 2017. These referrals and the 54,321 reported school-based arrests that same year were mostly for minor misbehavior like marijuana possession, as like bringing a gun to school.

School-based arrests are one part of the , through which students ¨C especially Black and students and those with disabilities ¨C are pushed out of their schools and into the legal system.

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Getting caught up in the legal system has been linked to negative , and outcomes, as well as increased risk for .

Given these negative consequences, public agencies in states like , and have looked for ways to arrest fewer young people in schools. Philadelphia, in particular, has pioneered a successful effort to divert youth from the legal system.

Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program

In Philadelphia, police department leaders recognized that the city¡¯s school district was its largest source of referrals for youth arrests. To address this issue, then-Deputy Police Commissioner a school-based, pre-arrest diversion initiative in partnership with the school district and the city¡¯s department of human services. The program is called the , and it officially launched in May 2014.

Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker named on Nov. 22, 2023.

Since the diversion program began, when police are called to schools in the city for offenses like marijuana possession or disorderly conduct, if that student has no pending court case or a history of adjudication. In juvenile court, an adjudication is similar to a conviction in criminal court.

Instead of being arrested, the diverted student remains in school and school personnel decide how to respond to their behavior. For example, they might speak with the student, schedule a meeting with a parent or suspend the student.

A social worker from the city also contacts the student¡¯s family to arrange a home visit, where they assess youth and family needs. Then, the social worker makes referrals to no-cost community-based services. The student and their family choose whether to attend.

Our team ¡ª the at Drexel University ¡ª evaluated the effectiveness of the diversion program as not affiliated with the police department or school district. We published four research articles describing various ways the diversion program affected students, schools and costs to the city.

Arrests dropped

In our evaluation of the diversion program¡¯s first five years, we reported that the annual number of : from nearly 1,600 in the school year beginning in 2013 to just 251 arrests in the school year beginning in 2018.

Since then, school district data indicates the annual number of school-based arrests in Philadelphia has continued to decline ¡ª dropping to just 147 arrests in the school year that began in 2022. That¡¯s a 91% reduction from the year before the program started.

We also investigated the number of serious behavioral incidents recorded in the school district in the program¡¯s first five years. Those , suggesting that the diversion program effectively reduced school-based arrests without compromising school safety.

Additionally, data showed that city social workers successfully contacted the families of through the program during its first five years. Nearly 90% of these families accepted at least one referral to community-based programming, which includes services like academic support, job skill development and behavioral health counseling.

Fewer suspensions and expulsions

We compared data from 1,281 students diverted in the first three years of the school-based program to data from 531 similar students who were arrested in schools before the program began but who would have been eligible if the diversion program existed.

Diverted students were to be suspended, expelled or required to transfer to another school in the year following their school-based incident.

Long-term outcomes

To evaluate a longer follow-up period, we compared the 427 students diverted in the program¡¯s first year to the group of 531 students arrested before the program began. Results showed arrested students were significantly more likely to be arrested again .

Although we observed impacts on arrest outcomes, the diversion program did not appear to affect long-term educational outcomes. We looked at four years of school data and found no significant differences in suspension, dropout or on-time graduation between diverted and arrested students.

Finally, a cost-benefit analysis revealed that the program saves taxpayers .

Based on its success in Philadelphia, several other cities and counties across Pennsylvania have begun replicating the Police School Diversion Program. These efforts could further contribute to a nationwide movement to safely keep kids in their communities and out of the legal system.

, Assistant Research Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and , Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences,

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In 2020, Egypt Luckey graduated from Building 21, a high school in Northwest Philadelphia affiliated with the Learning Innovative network, which emphasizes real-world learning experiences. For the entirety of her high school career, Luckey never had a public school library available to her, and she thinks it put her at a disadvantage during the transition to college.

¡°I never had a library in school where I could actually go, sit, and enjoy reading because I am a bookworm. I love reading, writing, anything that has a creative expression,¡± Luckey said. ¡°Not having that experience kind of set me back a little bit because I had these situations where I needed help but didn¡¯t know what to do in those moments.¡±

A 2022 study by found that first-year college students who had prior high school research experience, especially those from schools with certified librarians, felt more confident in their academic research skills and performed better in using research tools and strategies, such as information and digital literacy, and the difference between a primary and secondary source of information.

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¡°Our students need to develop the skills to learn on their own. [They need] the thinking skills to be able to discern information that they can believe, in order to become digital citizens,¡± Barbara Stripling, cofounder of the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Libraries (PARSL) said. ¡°They need to be taught these skills, they need opportunities to practice them, and it needs to become who they are. They need to understand the importance of looking at multiple perspectives.¡±

PARSL is a nonprofit organization staffed by retired educators and librarians. It operates without external funding, relying solely on volunteers. The organization wants to improve public school libraries in Philadelphia, aiming to improve academic performance. PARSL produced a white paper earlier in 2023 addressing the link between students¡¯ reading abilities and the shortage of librarians, proposing solutions that involve collaboration with the school district and City Council to secure additional funding.

In the School District of Philadelphia, the number of school librarians has declined over the past decade, from about 57 in the 2012-2013 school year to just one in the .

Marissa Orbanek, communications officer for the Philadelphia School District said that the district does not have enough funds for all the positions that are ultimately needed and desired.

¡°We will continue to advocate for adequate and equitable funding for education so that historically underfunded districts, like Philadelphia, have the resources necessary to provide all students with access to the 21st-century learning environments, including libraries and Instructional Media Centers,¡± Orbanek said.

Inside a Philadelphia classroom

Eric Hitchner, a halftime English teacher and English as a Second Language (ESL) coordinator for grades 9-12 at Building 21 in Philadelphia, has created a do-it-yourself library in his classroom. Some extra books he forgot he had in his car proved a treasure trove for his students, he said.

¡°It was like this light bulb moment,¡± Hitchner said. ¡°There¡¯s a dynamic that when we¡¯re in the middle of a lesson, you¡¯re not going to go to the back and borrow a book, we need that actual dedicated space. So we started creating one, we don¡¯t have a librarian, [and] we don¡¯t have a budget. We don¡¯t have books, those are all things I had to kind of scrounge.¡±

Hitchner has since found donors, visited garage sales, and thrift shops to find books to stock his DIY library. He added he couldn¡¯t have done it without the help of students like Egypt Luckey.

¡°Egypt is one of the amazing students I taught for English and creative writing who volunteered to be a library intern and get the library started all those years ago,¡± he said. With COVID interrupting her high school career, Luckey wasn¡¯t able to complete the work, he said. ¡°But we would have never gotten that far without her help.¡±

Luckey said she did it because she wanted to be a part of something bigger than just Building 21.

¡°We had so many ideas and things we wanted to do, execute, and just talking about the lack of libraries in a lot of the public high schools and public schools in general, just excites me,¡± Luckey said. She¡¯s hopeful that her efforts might inspire others to do the same at other schools.

Other districts around the nation have rebuilt and restored their public school library programs, Former Superintendent of Boston Public Schools (BPS), Dr. Brenda Cassellius worked in the district for three years to restore its libraries. School librarians do much more than just help children check out books, she noted; they¡¯re media technology specialists, and provide social service support for families who may not have internet at home.

¡°The library is the hub of learning in a school environment, and certified librarians know how to curate that learning experience and also offer their expertise to curriculum development, materials, and resourcing to teachers,¡± Cassellius told the Capital-Star. ¡°They¡¯re just an absolute glue to the learning experience that children have.¡±

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

Philadelphia is known for its prominent universities like the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Temple, St. Joseph¡¯s, and others.

Their presence boasts a rich educational and medical landscape. While the abundance of such institutions suggests an ample availability of libraries, this is seldom the case for Philadelphia public school students.

And according to one union leader, the numbers are stark.

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Across Philadelphia¡¯s 217 public schools, there are making the ratio four to 113,000 students, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan told the Capital-Star.

Without staffing ¨C and resources ¨C many of the city¡¯s public school libraries are unable to run at full capacity. While teachers and volunteers are trying to make sure students have access, a number of groups around Philadelphia are also working to make a difference.

¡°Libraries are important for the holistic growth of children and teens in literacy, social skills, collaboration, cooperation, creativity, and more,¡± said Christine Caputo, chief of Youth Services and Programs at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

¡°Library programs are some of the first places that young children can make their own decisions,¡± Caputo said. ¡°Their families bring them for storytimes and then they can choose what books they want to borrow to read at home. This is a very powerful experience for the growth of children.¡±

, that reading at grade level by the fourth grade sets up many students for success and encourages healthy behaviors. A student¡¯s reading comprehension skills impact overall academic success, and ultimately the ability to go on to college.

is an early literacy movement that is supported citywide by more than 150 partner organizations, parents, volunteers, and community members. It provides resources not only to students but parents.

¡°Read By 4th is [one of] the many organizations in Philly doing awesome literacy work,¡±

Gina Pambianchi, who leads the Penn Libraries¡¯ work with public school libraries, told the Capital-Star.

¡°During the pandemic, a lot of the focus was kind of switched around, from like classroom collections [to] building students¡¯ home collections,¡± Pambianchi said.

Universities have been stepping up in the last 15 years as funding across Pennsylvania for public school libraries declined. Pennsylvania ranks sixth among states that have lost the most librarians since 2010.

It¡¯s a loss that usually hits low-income schools hardest because of limited resources and hard budget decisions staff must make, Jordan said.

Temple University has been trying to offer more support for surrounding public school libraries. ¡°Kids in relatively well-off suburban high schools have access to a whole lot more support, and sort of general resources,¡± Temple Dean of Libraries Joseph Lucia told the Capital-Star. ¡°Part of this for us is about trying to do a little bit of equity work, [to] create more access to the things that make a difference when you are curious, or ambitious, intellectually or creatively.¡±

The university¡¯s efforts were stymied by the pandemic.

¡°Part of what we would like to do is bring some of the early grade students into the library for reading story hour type experiences and then allow them to borrow materials, take them away for three weeks, and bring them back. So using our collection to give them greater access to books they may not have in their homes,¡± Lucia said.

A Sign of the Times

The nonprofit , was founded to provide literacy programs to young public school students and today it circulates 45,151 books per month. According to its website, WePAC ¡°is funded entirely by private dollars and provides all of its services at no cost to schools or to the School District of Philadelphia.¡±

Before the pandemic, WePAC had reopened 19 public school libraries. It¡¯s now on track to reopen 13 more, according to Pambianchi and administrators at WePAC.

Executive Director Jennifer Leith said the group receives a lot of support from retired teachers and the University of Pennsylvania. Penn Libraries, staff and students have provided technical assistance with cataloging and helped WePAC acquire new books.?

Leith described the experience as ¡°eye-opening.¡±

?¡°The district does want teachers to have library collections in their classrooms, but the teachers have to fund that themselves. It¡¯s been a little eye-opening. I have to say some of the things I didn¡¯t realize about what was happening behind the walls of the schools. But a lot of expectation is put on the teachers in terms of filling their classroom with resources and tools so that they can in fact teach the kids ¨C so hopefully that will change,¡± Leith said.

Like many others in the district, Leith is hoping for more fully operational, equitable public school libraries, especially after this year¡¯s ruling finding Pennsylvania¡¯s school funding system unconstitutional and its mandate that policymakers fix the system.

The issue isn¡¯t limited to just Philadelphia, Leith said.

¡°I think it¡¯s a sign of the times, not just the district. It begs the question if the school district does, in fact, magically become able to support a certified school librarian in each of its schools, where are those people going to come from,¡± Leith asked. ¡°The larger question is can we leverage some of the people in the greater Philadelphia area who [are] studying library science and bring them into these library spaces? Ironically, Drexel¡¯s program no longer has a track for certified school librarians because there is no need in Philadelphia, there are no jobs for them.¡±

Still, with the recent Commonwealth Court ruling and the need for in Philadelphia, it is unclear whether libraries and librarians will be a priority in the next few years. It was not listed in Superintendent for the district.

Said Caputo: ¡°For communities, public libraries are about the only space remaining that is free, safe, and a place you can come and stay a while no matter who you are and what your background is.? Libraries do not require anyone to buy anything or to be anything [other] than who they are.? Libraries are also very important places for the success of democracy.¡±

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

On a tiny triangular lot in the city¡¯s Belmont neighborhood, kids with their parents for the No. 40 bus can also work on their executive functioning skills, playing a hopscotch variation designed to train their brains.

In Chicago, a mounted on the wall of a laundromat teaches children, in two languages, how to find color patterns in a lineup of detergent bottle tops.

And in Santa Ana, Calif., a basketball court doubles as a giant, real-time .

These are three examples of an unusual model of on-the-fly learning mixed with urban design, one that has emerged from decades of research on the role of play in kids¡¯ lives.

The installations, overseen by the Philadelphia-based , come compliments of a unique team of researchers, educators and urban planners who are exploring how cities can support the learning kids do in school. In the process, they¡¯re experimenting with how to turn ordinary adult-child interactions into opportunities to lift even the neediest kids ¡ª especially those whose parents can¡¯t afford expensive afterschool and weekend activities.

¡°We’re trying to layer on to places and spaces where kids and families already spend time,¡± said , a developmental psychologist and Playful Learning¡¯s executive director. For instance, if a mother and child are already at the grocery store, the network greets them with that encourages conversations around sorting different kinds of produce.

Likewise, the installations don¡¯t demand a lot from adults ¡ª in fact, they often offer a place to rest and recharge while kids take the initiative.

Preliminary research on the effort is promising, with pointing to the efficacy of the approach. The supermarket project, for instance, addresses a problem that besets low-income families: these parents talk informally with their children less often than middle-class parents do. And even when they do, the conversations tend to be shorter. The supermarket project significantly increased both the frequency and length of those conversations, especially among low-income families, showed. Adults were nearly four times as likely to chat with their kids if a store had the signage, bringing their level of conversation up to that of middle-class parents.

Philadelphia¡¯s bus stop installation, designed by architect and known as the , offers several ways for children to play, among them an original twist on hopscotch: When they see one foot on a tile, they put two feet down, and vice versa when they see two. This game of opposites, Lytle said, works kids¡¯ executive functioning skills, ¡°which we know is really important for all kinds of later development.¡±

In the laundromat, an eye-level matching game offers children a chance to place plastic laundry bottle caps according to prescribed patterns ¡ª as with the Philly bus stop installation, Lytle said, to keep the learning playful, kids need to be in control.

¡°An adult might set up the environment for a child, but an important piece of it is that the learning is always directed by the child.¡±

Education in ¡®surround-sound¡¯ 

Playful learning advocates are quick to emphasize that these interventions are limited, not meant to replace school but support it.

¡°The reality is that kids, particularly in their earliest years, only spend about 20% of their waking hours in those formal learning environments,¡± said Lytle. ¡°And so the idea is: How can we capitalize on that other 80%?¡±

That key question long puzzled a pair of researchers in the Philadelphia area: Temple University¡¯s and the University of Delaware¡¯s, who have spent nearly 15 years studying the centrality of play and non-school factors in children¡¯s learning. Much of the bedrock theory for this effort comes from their research.

¡°We are increasingly learning that education is a ¡®surround-sound¡¯ issue,¡± Hirsh-Pasek said. ¡°It’s not an issue that stays behind brick walls, but it seeps out into the community.¡±

Any effort that aims to educate must do three things, she maintains: It should be culturally aligned with families¡¯ backgrounds, follow the science of how children actually learn and measure what matters to families.

Humans learn best, Hirsh-Pasek noted, when we¡¯re active and engaged, usually with other people. School lessons are typically passive, she said, and not really built around meaningful questions. ¡°I mean, frankly, I don’t care if the train is traveling 30 miles an hour and the ball drops off the train. Learning abstract content is important, but we learn more deeply and in ways that ¡®stick¡¯ when examples are meaningful. We can do better.¡±

When it comes to measurement, Hirsh-Pasek said schools typically don¡¯t focus enough on what families want most: Good communication skills, creativity, critical thinking and knowing the basics. They want their kids to be able to learn from failure and cultivate what¡¯s become known as a ¡°growth mindset,¡± persevering in the face of hardship.

Lytle, who oversees Playful Learning work from her office in Seattle, studied with Hirsh-Pasek at Temple in the 2000s. At the time, Hirsh-Pasek was becoming one of the first early childhood researchers to take play seriously, at a time when the larger field of education was focused laser-like on basic skills.

¡°It’s something that serious researchers didn’t get into,¡± Lytle said, ¡°but she thought it was really important. She sometimes says ¡®play¡¯ used to be a four letter word.¡±

The work that followed laid out not only playful learning¡¯s theoretical framework, but helped researchers see how much kids are learning as they play. 

As with the grocery store signage, on the bus stop installation found that families had longer conversations there than at a neighborhood playground, and that they talked more about STEM topics such as numbers, fractions, patterns and measurement. A found that both caregivers and kids put their phones away while at the site.

But as steeped in delight as it is, the work isn¡¯t without thorny real-world challenges, as when Lytle recently gave a journalist a tour of Philly¡¯s Urban Thinkscape, one of the city¡¯s earliest successes from 2017, and one that serves as a model for how educators and developers can transform formerly neglected stretches of pavement.

The space, in a set of busy crossroads, bristles with wooden-plank walkways and activities like the one-foot/two-foot hopscotch, word and picture puzzles built on protective railings, and a steel sculpture that, at midday, reveals shadows of hidden objects on the ground beneath.

But as Lytle showed a visitor around, a neighborhood man approached and asked if she was there to help with the rats.

Not quite sure how to react, Lytle said she was simply touring the space, but the man persevered, saying the ground beneath the installation was ¡°full of rats. Big rats.¡±

Matter-of-factly, Lytle replied, ¡°O.K. That’s good to know.¡± She suggested contacting an official who oversees the property, adding, ¡°I think we’re working on relocating this, actually.¡±

She later said the network has actually begun encouraging communities to keep repurposing spaces like these as they age. 

An idea goes global

Challenges aside, the Playful Learning idea is starting to spread around the globe.

At the moment, five other cities ¡ª Pittsburgh, Chicago, Santa Ana, Calif., Tel Aviv and Lima, Peru, are in the middle of concerted efforts to create these spaces. Other cities are also dipping their toes into the water, including Omaha and Durham, N.C. 

Mostly foundation-funded, they¡¯re also affordable in most cases ¡ª the supermarket signage costs about $60 per store. And a few cities are beginning to work the installations¡¯ management into their annual budgets, with line items for a playful learning coordinator. In Philly, the effort is largely funded by the , which has invested nearly $13.7 million since 2017. 

The expansions got a boost from a 2020 agreement with the, the renowned Washington, D.C., think tank, which is pushing to so that more cities can join, pairing experts in early education and development with those in urban policy.

Brookings¡¯ Jennifer Vey said the installations can have a broader impact beyond improving interactions between kids and parents: They can impact cities¡¯ health. Because efforts like these bring families together in public spaces where they feel safe enough to bring their children, ¡°it helps strengthen the civic fabric of a place.¡± And of course it brings potential economic benefits, supporting the small businesses that surround these social spaces.

It can also enrich public schools¡¯ offerings, said Rigo Rodriguez, a Santa Ana Unified School board member and professor of Latino public policy at California State University-Long Beach. The school board has long sought a new kind of intervention in a district where about 80% of entering kindergartners are English language learners and one-third of students come from families living below the poverty line.

With the help of Andres S. Bustamante, a University of California-Irvine , the district began repainting elementary school basketball courts to create a game he calls Fraction Ball. In the game, a goal from the traditional three-point line earns just one point, with smaller arcs closer to the basket representing shots worth 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 points on one end of the court, and 1/3 and 2/3 points on the opposite end. Fractions line one side of the court, decimals the other.

¡°We want it to be playful and embodied and outdoors and to be more conceptual than procedural,¡± Bustamante said. ¡°You’re getting an idea of what a fraction means.¡±

As part of the game¡¯s debut, researchers tracked student¡¯s math skills in fourth and fifth grades. They found that Fraction Ball led to ¡°¡± in children¡¯s understanding of how to convert decimals to fractions and vice versa ¡ª impressive for an informal intervention that only lasted three weeks, Bustamante said. It encouraged researchers to create an in-class curriculum around the game. 

¡°The reality is that kids do have to learn the procedural stuff,¡± Bustamante said. ¡°They need to know how to find the common denominator and add unlike fractions and all that stuff.¡±

All the same, the achievement data persuaded the school board to bring the game to all 35 elementary schools, Rodriguez said.

¡°There’s a limitation to strategies that just try to reform an educational system, because they depend on people who show up,¡± he said. ¡°It really struck me that what we can do as a district is to support the creation of learning environments across the board, right where every child is.¡±

But Kellam began to change his mind after a local nonprofit presented a new opportunity during a career class last fall: , a new, three-year career and technical education program that not only was free, but paid students for their work.

Though he couldn’t both do Launchpad and earn a bachelor’s degree, the more Kellam learned about the program, the more he thought about changing his path.

¡°After learning that Launchpad was not compatible with a four-year college, I dropped” my plan, Kellam said. “I wanted to do Launchpad more than I wanted to do college because of the opportunities it gives me to get a better job.¡±

Kellam is one of 45 students who were selected last fall among an inaugural group of 90 applicants. Launchpad’s program is presented in four stages. 

In the first, which began in January and lasts through the semester, students attend weekly afterschool meetings to participate in a variety of workshops and activities. Offerings include learning about infotechnology and building a computer; going on private tours with local companies; and creating presentations to teach younger students about the tech industry.

In the second, students take half-days during senior year and the summer after graduation to complete online classes through Arizona State University. They also receive coaching from Launchpad staff and build relationships with local industry experts through networking and observing different companies. 

The third stage is an intensive bootcamp at Launchpad¡¯s Philadelphia office after graduation. Participants will work at least 30 hours a week to learn technical skills, develop a portfolio of completed projects and earn more college credits. In the fourth stage, they transition into a guaranteed paid career with an industry partner, working with real clients. The goal is to place participants in jobs that pay at least $50,000 a year.

Dannyelle Austin, executive director of Launchpad, created the program¡¯s framework in 2022. She said it¡¯s crucial for students to start workforce development and career education early on. ¡°So often, workforce programming waits until young people are disconnected from school and work to try to engage them, as opposed to saying, ¡®We know there are young people that are not going to go to college ¡ª how do we tap into them when they’re still in high school, when they’re still connected and engaged?¡¯¡± Austin said.

Launchpad¡¯s mission is to show students that career success doesn¡¯t require a college degree, she said. 

from the U.S. Department of Education found that by eight years after their expected graduation date, students who focused on career and technical education while in high school had higher median annual earnings than those who did not.

Launchpad was created by , a Philadelphia-based nonprofit founded in 2013 to help traditional schools transition to a competency-based approach, which values student performance levels instead of grade-point averages. The nonprofit uses the framework in two of its own high schools ¡ª Building 21 Philadelphia, which Kellam attends, and another in Allentown, roughly one hour to the north. It also coaches educators and schools around the U.S. to transform their curriculum to be competency-based. 

Austin said she hopes Launchpad can branch out to include more industries, but it¡¯s starting with tech because of the variety of opportunities available.

¡°There’s such a need for tech ¡ª and coders, web developers in our [Philadelphia] community particularly ¡ª  and we also know there¡¯s not a lot of Black and brown folks in tech,¡± Austin said. ¡°We have to think about equity and really help our young people see themselves in this field.¡±

The students will be compensated through Launchpad, eventually earning up to $5,000 for their work and time by the end of the program. Austin said the program is funded by donations and grants.

The initial 45 students come from 10 public and charter schools around Philadelphia that have partnered with Launchpad. One, Belmont Charter High School, has three students participating. Malaun Yuille, Belmont’s director of college and career services, said Launchpad is a great fit for students who are already taking technology classes but might not want to go to college.

¡°Since our school does not currently have a career-technical education program, we look for different organizations and businesses within our community to provide our students with opportunities to gain job-readiness skills,¡± Yuille said. ¡°I like that Launchpad provides them with different opportunities to gain skills as well as being able to find employment.¡±

She said students have told her they are enjoying the program so far and appreciate the hands-on experience.

Manora McCoy, a student at Mastbaum High School in Philadelphia, said her favorite part has been the project they’re working on right now: creating an interactive presentation that highlights local job opportunities in tech. McCoy wants a career in health infotechnology.

¡°My mom is very proud of me for getting into a tech career, because nobody in our family is really interested in that,¡± she said. ¡°This program is amazing.¡±

Chip Linehan, Building21 co-founder,  said Launchpad¡¯s first group of students have been ¡°phenomenal, with amazing energy.¡± They have been ready to learn and are looking forward to the next three years of the program, he said.

¡°We are working really hard to connect these young people to the futures that they deserve,¡± he said. ¡°It is so apparent that for these kids, the sky’s the limit.¡±

As of late last month, as many as five schools in Philadelphia were forced to shut their doors , throwing a wrench into instructional schedules and the lives of parents who suddenly found themselves with kids at home.

Philadelphia Board of Education President Reginald Streater, whose children attend one of the shuttered schools, C.W. Henry Elementary in the city¡¯s Mount Airy neighborhood, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the issues at Henry and other city schools were the result of decades of inattention.

Streater asked parents ¡°for grace as we continue to tackle this issue that has been a hundred years in the making,¡± according to the Inquirer.

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Last week, local leaders from across the state took that effort to Harrisburg, where they called on lawmakers and the Democratic Shapiro administration to spend $5 billion over the next five years to protect students from lead, asbestos, and other environmental hazards.

¡°My children, my grandchildren, and all of Pennsylvania¡¯s children deserve safe schools where they can thrive,¡± Philadelphia City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who led the effort, said in a statement. ¡°With over $13 billion in available funding, we can afford to make Pennsylvania schools safe for all children. We can afford to invest $5 billion over 5 years for their safety and their future.¡±

The money the local leaders are seeking is  that Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed for environmental abatement in the in the $44.4 billion spending plan he rolled out in March.

The Democratic governor¡¯s spending proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes . But faced with a state court ruling declaring Pennsylvania , some education advocates .

Faced with that , one member of Philadelphia¡¯s City Council has said ¡°the moment is now¡± to create an independent authority to handle school building construction and renovation instead of the school district.

Isaiah Thomas, who chairs the council¡¯s education committee,  to hold hearings on creating such an authority, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reported.

Speaking to Chalkbeat, Thomas stressed the urgency of immediate action.

¡°If we can¡¯t get this done in this budget cycle, I¡¯m not sure that we¡¯ll ever get the type of down payment that we need to really put a dent in the issue,¡± Thomas said. ¡°If we wait until June, or July, it might actually be too late.¡±

In Harrisburg, local leaders and state lawmakers also stressed the importance of swift action. Bills before the state House and Senate would restart state funding for ¡°Plan Con,¡± the state¡¯s school facilities funding program, which has not received an infusion of new money since 2016.

¡°Aging infrastructure and decades of inadequate funding have meant that maintenance on schools has been deferred and delayed. But a leaky roof doesn¡¯t fix itself. With billions sitting in the treasury, it¡¯s finally time to invest in our children,¡± said Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, who¡¯s sponsoring the .

On the other side of the Capitol, Sen. Tim Kearney, D-Delaware, is  of the bill.

According to the local officials, two-thirds (66%) of Pennsylvania¡¯s school buildings were built before 1970, and are likely to contain asbestos.

In addition, more than 100 schools in 30 school districts have found lead in their drinking water in recent years. To mitigate those issues, districts have taken on additional debt, or have been forced to close some schools entirely.

A bipartisan trio of lawmakers in the state Senate are circulating a bill  with lead-filtering water stations by 2025.

¡°It is criminal to have students and teachers in an unsafe environment,¡± Allentown school board member LaTarsha Brown said. ¡°This is the time to invest in our youth for a brighter future. We know the funding is there, and we are demanding that you be a change agent for education and support funding new public school buildings.¡±

With the state sitting on an anticipated budget surplus of $8 billion, and another $5 billion in the commonwealth¡¯s Rainy Day Fund savings account, the local leaders said there¡¯s plenty of money to get the job done.

The state money, they argued, would free up local cash currently going to debt service for instructional needs. The burst of construction also would create jobs in their communities.

¡°In 2023, it is unacceptable to still have school buildings that go without air conditioning in the hot months, vital capital improvements that are financially out of reach, and conditions in schools that put the health and safety of our students at risk,¡± Reading school board memberMark Detterline, said.

¡°This union of leaders from across the state proves how far-reaching and immediate the need is,¡± Detterline continued. ¡°We all know that the Commonwealth has the resources and the ability to allocate the funds to remediate these issues ¨C now is the time to do it.¡±

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

I am not just advocating for one public charter school. When it comes down to it, it’s not just about my child, it’s about all kids. Everyone may not have the ability or the privilege to be able to come to D.C. and to advocate. Everyone doesn’t have that, but I do. I naturally have the desire to help and to fix and to be a part of the change that I want to see. I walked into these legislators¡¯ offices hoping that they would hear me say our communities are crying for help. We need more quality schools, and we need to stop gun violence and address the mental health crisis in our schools. 

Across our group of parents and advocates at March 29¡¯s Charter Family Hill Day, we met with the offices of 37 members of Congress. We talked with Democrats and Republicans, with senators and members of the House of Representatives, and shared our call to action. As a parent, I was grateful to be able to choose KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools for my child¡¯s education. All kids and families deserve access to a high-quality public education. That means not only do we need to invest in mental health and keeping our students safe from gun violence; we also need to invest in public education and high-quality public charter schools like KIPP Philadelphia. We all went to Washington, D.C. to tell our families¡¯ stories to Congress. We also got to hear each other¡¯s stories and to learn from one another. 

My story began this fall, when we gladly accepted a founding kindergarten seat at the newest KIPP Philadelphia school. We were excited to put the last two years of home learning during COVID-19 behind us and start life in our new normal. Except, things didn¡¯t feel normal. My 5-year-old didn¡¯t act like other children her age. She¡¯s what I affectionately coined my firecracker child, but a lot like a firecracker, things always explode. 

Our first few months at KIPP were not easy. She struggled with transitions, she couldn¡¯t sit still and sometimes she got so overwhelmed the only place that she felt comfortable was under her desk. As a parent, I felt all types of failure. I felt like because I chose to keep the lights on and not spend more time by her side during those Zoom classes while she was learning at home, that I had set her up to fail. I felt that I had somehow dropped the ball on my biggest responsibility ¡ª my daughter.

It wasn¡¯t until a few conversations with the school social worker, then with the dean of students, which led to more conversations with her pediatrician, that I started seeing things a lot differently. I was able to see that the behaviors that she was exhibiting weren¡¯t a result of my failure, but instead, were signs that her brain works differently than some of the other students. 

I was able to work with the staff at KIPP Octavius Catto Elementary to get a referral to have my daughter receive an extensive evaluation, one that outlined exactly where she¡¯s struggling and identified interventions and strategies that will allow her to thrive in any classroom. For the first time in a while, I was able to breathe. It gave me a feeling of joy that I was able to advocate for my daughter so that her needs would be in the conversations that led to her evaluations.. I advocate for mental health support for students because it is a top priority for me and families across the country, especially as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

During Charter Family Hill Day, I was also able to reinforce my top priorities as a parent: investing in student mental health and keeping our kids safe from gun violence. Our children deserve to feel safe at school. These children have seen more trauma in their short lives than some of us ever experienced. My daughter deserves to live her life. My daughter deserves to be able to walk into a building that she knows she’ll walk out of. She deserves to know that she can be safe, even when I’m not around. 

There is a fire in me that deserves to continue to grow, and with that growth, I’m not only advocating for my child, I’m advocating for thousands of other kids and families across the country. If two days in Washington D.C, is what it takes for me to light some stuff on fire, then give me the two days, let me do it.

Rosemely Osorio is swiftly becoming the educator that, years ago, she wished for.

When, at age 9, she and her family came to Rhode Island from Guatemala, Osorio recalls struggling academically as she navigated an unfamiliar system.

¡°When I came here and I started at the schools, I remember, I didn’t know how to speak any English. ¡­ I didn¡¯t have a mentor who told me, ¡®Hey, it’s really important that you work extremely hard in high school so then your GPA is good.¡¯ I didn’t know what a GPA was,¡± she said.

In 2014, she graduated high school, the first in her family to accomplish the feat, but college remained out of reach because of finances and her immigration status ¡ª Osorio is a DACA recipient, the Obama-era program that provides deportation relief and work permits to undocumented residents brought here as children.

Now, years later as an adult learner in College Unbound and the Equity Institute¡¯s TA to BA program, she¡¯s just a semester away from earning her bachelor¡¯s degree and teaching certification, key steps toward becoming exactly the role model she yearned for as a young person. At the same time, she works as a paraprofessional in the Central Falls high school she once attended, which serves a high share of Central American immigrant students.

¡°They see in me someone that they can count on,¡± said Osorio. ¡°They’re like, ¡®Oh, she knows how to speak Spanish. She looks Hispanic. So I can actually talk to her.¡¯¡±

After only two years in operation, the teacher training program that opened doors for Osorio has scaled up more than six times beyond its original capacity and is launching cohorts in a second city, with talks underway to expand to a third, leaders say.

¡°The program has grown pretty tremendously,¡± said Carlon Howard, who helped launch the TA to BA fellowship and is chief impact officer at the Equity Institute. ¡°There’s a lot of interest in initiatives such as these given that, across our country, schools and districts are challenged to find enough educators to staff their buildings.¡±

The Rhode Island program, which served 13 fellows in its inaugural 2020-21 class, will train 75 paraprofessionals this year. Two new, 10-student cohorts will launch in Philadelphia, where College Unbound already operates other programs, thanks to funding from the school district. Over 40 people remain on the waiting list, said David Bromley, College Unbound¡¯s Philadelphia coordinator. In nearby Camden, New Jersey, the college is working with the teachers union to roll out programs there, too, he added.

“Investing deeply in our staff who already work closely with our students to bring them to the next stage of their career is a shining light of positivity in the midst of a difficult few years,¡± Larisa Shambaugh, chief of talent for Philadelphia public schools, said in an emailed statement to The 74.

¡®Untapped talent¡¯

Many paraprofessionals are highly skilled educators with years or even decades of classroom experience, Howard said, but still may feel like they have a ¡°glass ceiling above their head¡± because they lack college degrees and financial resources.

Participants in the fellowship often study tuition-free thanks to the Equity institute¡¯s ¡°last dollar¡± scholarships covering costs not offset by federal Pell grants.

¡°We target folks who already work with kids ¡­ and all we¡¯re trying to do is help them realize their greatest potential,¡± Howard said.

TAs are an ¡°untapped talent¡± pool from which to recruit and train high-quality educators, agreed David Donaldson, managing partner for the National Center for Grown Your Own educator pipeline programs.

Students take two College Unbound courses a semester, scheduled outside of the work day, plus a lab component specifically geared to prepare them to lead a classroom. Thanks to a process at the college for measuring and awarding credits for prior learning experiences, some students are able to take an accelerated path to graduation. Osorio, for example, will finish in under two years.

¡°It¡¯s been a lot of work,¡± she admits, cramming in classes while also working full time and taking care of family responsibilities. ¡°But I don¡¯t regret it.¡±

Addressing diversity, combatting shortages

Educators like Osorio ¡ª those who reflect their students culturally and linguistically ¡ª are in short supply in Rhode Island¡¯s schools and nationwide. Roughly 1 in 10 teachers in the Ocean State are people of color while 4 in 10 students identify as Black, Hispanic, Indigenous or Asian. Meanwhile, educators of color and those who speak multiple languages improve outcomes for all students, but provide a particular boost to students whose identities they match, research shows.

Classroom aides, on the other hand, tend to be much more racially and linguistically diverse than teachers. The positions generally do not require a college degree and can be more accessible to people from low-income backgrounds. All her fellow teaching assistants, Osorio said, speak Spanish and the vast majority are people of color, whereas the teachers at her school are predominantly white and speak only English.

¡°To be honest, everything we see is all these teachers in the classrooms with a bunch of Hispanic kids, but the teacher doesn’t speak their language,¡± said Osorio. ¡°That’s what my biggest motivation was to apply and getting certified was that students need teachers in the classroom that they can relate to.¡±

David Quiroa is joining the TA to BA fellowship this fall and works as a paraprofessional in his home community of Newport, Rhode Island.

¡°So many TAs who are in the [Black, Indigenous and people of color] community already have been putting in the work for several years ¡­ and they¡¯re never given the opportunity to pursue higher education,¡± he said. ¡°With TA to BA and College Unbound, it really is showing these communities, ¡®Look, we are here, we are federally approved, we have all of the accreditations, we have so (many) established connections here in our community. You guys have been doing the work. We just want to give you your proper salary.¡¯¡±

Meanwhile, districts across the country are facing acute staffing shortages and going to extreme lengths ¡ª including tapping college students or dangling $25,000 bonuses ¡ª to entice new hires.

In this climate, the grow-your-own approach is ¡°getting a lot of attention now,¡± Donaldson said, even though turning to programs that provide a work-based pipeline to train new teachers is a longer-term solution.

His organization recently announced that seven states with existing or emerging apprenticeship programs to train educators launched an all-new National Registered Apprenticeship in Teaching Network. It comes on the heels of a June announcement from Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging states to invest in grow-your-own programs, including those that begin in high school and with apprenticeship programs.

¡°Missouri, like other states, is struggling to address staffing issues created by teacher shortages. The Teacher Apprenticeship is an additional, innovative model to help address this issue,¡± Paul Katnik, Missouri¡¯s assistant education commissioner, said in a release after the network was announced.

The other participating states are California, Florida, North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming.

¡®We got you¡¯

The relationship faculty build with participants is a secret to the program¡¯s success in Rhode Island, and soon in the new Philadelphia cohorts, fellowship leaders and students say.

Osorio¡¯s advisor ¡°has played a big role in the way that I have been able to develop in this program,¡± said the College Unbound student. In addition to checking in academically and emotionally, the faculty member who runs her teaching lab class allowed Osorio to make up credits when she fell behind after a devastating miscarriage. And when Osorio was short on cash to renew her Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and fearing she would lose her work permit, she again asked for help.

¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. We got you,¡± was the response from College Unbound. ¡°And they actually sent me a check home so I could pay for that application.¡±

That support is by design, said Howard, who explained that the program trains its faculty to uplift participants and be there for them. Even as the fellowship scales up, he¡¯s confident the family-like culture among cohorts will remain.

The TA to BA leader believes it¡¯s within the program¡¯s reach to train 200 paraprofessionals into full-time teachers in the next three to five years. If all goes according to plan, he hopes to serve 500 by 2030 and may also add a high school teaching apprenticeship component.

Quiroa, the Newport TA, is ¡°thrilled¡± about the expansion, he said, because there are ¡°absolutely¡± others in his field who could benefit from the opportunity. ¡°Having this organization, this program, thrive ¡­ I think is the best thing we can do to move forward and break a lot of these inequities.¡±

Osorio, for her part, can visualize the impact that seeing someone like her at the helm of a classroom could have for immigrant students. Hispanic role models were vital in her professional life after graduating high school, she said, and now she can finally pass on the favor.

¡°I get how important mentors are so now I can be that for those students.¡±

It¡¯s not how most Black History Month workshops begin. 

¡°I¡¯m streaming live from a hotel bathroom,¡± said Atnre Alleyne, co-founder and CEO of TeenSHARP, a college access program. 

Alleyne was speaking in February via Zoom to dozens of high school students in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Delaware. But his hotel bathroom was in western Ukraine, where, after awakening late that month to the sound of Russian bombs exploding, he and his family fled from their home in a Kyiv suburb. 

With Alleyne¡¯s wife and co-founder, Tatiana Poladko, her 81-year-old father, and their three young children on the other side of the bathroom door, Alleyne loaded a virtual background ¡ª a 1968 of high school students on their way to a memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ¡ª and kicked off the workshop. 

¡°Injustice anywhere, as Dr. King said, is a threat to justice everywhere,¡± Alleyne told the students as he drew parallels between the fight against racial tyranny in the United States and political tyranny in Ukraine. ¡°It is really important to be globally aware, globally conscious, and also to think of ways that you can stand up for what¡¯s right.¡±

The couple¡¯s commitment to their work and their students has been tested in recent years, first through the pandemic, when they transitioned to a virtual program, and then in January 2021, when they moved from Delaware to Poladko¡¯s native Ukraine. The war and the family¡¯s displacement further complicated matters.

But Alleyne, 37, and Poladko, 38, are steadfast. TeenSHARP, they say, is more than just a college access program serving low-income, Black, and Latino students; it is a leadership program. Their goals are more than just getting students accepted to, enrolled in and graduated from college; they are trying to close the gap that, on average, has left Black households with of the wealth of white households.

¡°I was an excellent student, a 4.0 student, but my parents never sugarcoated it. In this country, with the level of corruption that existed, that didn¡¯t mean a whole lot,¡± Poladko said of Ukraine. ¡°What I always tell students is that ¡­ someone sold you a lie in America that this is not also the case for you as a student of color. Your chances of success are as fleeting as mine were, and they are as dependent on luck as mine were. So what I always tell them is that at TeenSHARP, we are trying to diminish the percent of luck, and we do so by following the blueprint that affluent families have been following for years.¡±

Replicating that blueprint with fewer resources was already an uphill battle, requiring intensive work from families and the TeenSHARP staff, particularly Poladko, who serves as the college counselor. Living seven time zones and more than 4,000 miles away heightened the degree of difficulty. 

Earlier this year, before Russia invaded Ukraine, Poladko would start one-on-one meetings with early-rising high school seniors at 5:30 a.m. ET, or 12:30 p.m. in Ukraine. After four hours of consulting on waitlists and competing financial aid packages, including calls that Poladko often took while waiting outside her children¡¯s ballet class or piano lesson, she would continue from 2:30 p.m. ET (9:30 p.m. in Ukraine) to around 8 p.m. ET (3 a.m. in Ukraine). 

¡°They realize that we¡¯re going to go fricking hard for you, and you¡¯re going to go fricking hard for yourself,¡± she said. ¡°We have to show you how privileged America works ¡ª and you don’t know it.¡±

A flight to safety

The couple¡¯s dedication is such that Russian bombs caused only a momentary pause in TeenSHARP¡¯s programming. After the explosions woke the family on Feb. 24, Alleyne and Poladko, who don¡¯t own a car, began searching for ways out. On Feb. 25, they celebrated their daughter¡¯s Zoryana¡¯s 7th birthday. The next day, they crammed eight people into an acquaintance¡¯s Volkswagen Passat. The family only brought sandwiches and their clothes. After a 2.5-hour drive west, they reached the city of Zhytomyr, where Alleyne hosted the Black History Month workshop. 

¡°I couldn’t go to sleep [afterward], I was restless,¡± said Asquith Clarke II, a TeenSHARP alum who logged onto the workshop from Oberlin College in Ohio. ¡°At first I thought to myself, ¡®This is crazy, I’m not sure what I can do to support them, I have college things going on.¡¯ But knowing how much Ms. Tatiana and Mr. Atnre have done for me, am I just going to sit here and go to sleep knowing that they¡¯re in danger?¡± 

For the first time, Clarke wrote to his elected representatives, encouraging them to help Ukraine defend itself. The rising junior posted their replies to Instagram and encouraged his followers to act, too. 

Meanwhile, Alleyne, Poladko, their kids ¡ª 7-year-old Zoryana, 4-year-old Nazar and 2-year-old Taras ¡ª and her elderly father took a train, another train and a car driven by volunteers to get closer to the Polish border. They reached it after a 5-mile walk, Poladko ushering the children and Alleyne assisting her dad, already weakened from a long case of COVID. 

A series of temporary accommodations, some requiring the family to sleep side-by-side, heads next to toes, led them to Warsaw. 

By March, Alleyne and Poladko were able to enroll their children in day care and elementary school and rent a two-bedroom apartment in Warsaw that overlooks a tree-filled public park. Poladko¡¯s father sleeps in one bedroom, and the couple and their children share three mattresses in the other. The family¡¯s furniture is still in their rental house outside Kyiv, so decorations are limited to artwork the kids bring home from school. ¡°You Are My Sunshine,¡± says a handmade painting in the living room.

To work, Alleyne perches his laptop on a bookshelf next to a Paw Patrol puzzle and calls it a standing desk. Poladko turned the dining room table into her workspace. When they have calls at the same time, Alleyne often retreats to the bathroom ¡ª just as he did in the hotel in western Ukraine. 

And when the couple¡¯s Ukrainian nanny joined them in Warsaw, they developed a routine where she fell asleep in their bedroom while Alleyne and Poladko worked. In the early morning hours, after the couple finished up, they would switch spots, with the nanny sleeping on a tan couch in their otherwise barren living room. 

Ukraine meets Ghana in New Jersey

Alleyne and Poladko have been finding a way forward since 2005, when they met at the Camden campus of Rutgers University, in New Jersey while they each pursued master¡¯s degrees. Poladko had earned a full ride through a fellowship that supports students from overseas. She clicked with Alleyne who, after completing his K-8 schooling in New Jersey, went to Ghana by himself to attend a boarding school. He could relate to Poladko¡¯s experience as a non-native student navigating a thicket of challenges in order to reap educational ¡ª and life ¡ª opportunities. 

¡°To understand TeenSHARP, you have to understand Ukraine and Ghana,¡± Alleyne said with a laugh. ¡°We¡¯re tough.¡± 

Together, they decided to apply what they¡¯d learned and help historically marginalized students access college and become student-leaders who are successful, high achieving, and reaching their potential (these traits stand for the SHARP in TeenSHARP). These students face hurdles during the entirety of the college process, from being encouraged to apply to colleges beneath their capabilities to , on average, than white students. 

TeenSHARP launched in 2009 with 10 students in the Philadelphia area, and has since expanded across New Jersey and Delaware, graduating more than 500 students and reaching thousands more in one-off programming. At points, Alleyne has taken on outside jobs, including a stint at the Delaware Department of Education and as the founding executive director of DelawareCAN, part of the that advocates for high-quality educational opportunities for all students, regardless of where they live. His salary from those roles allowed Poladko to donate hers back to TeenSHARP, she said, noting that she has not accepted any compensation from the group she co-founded. 

For TeenSHARPies, as they¡¯re called, activities start in 9th grade. A seven-person team communicates with students and their families, offering sessions on the college application process and financial aid applications and promoting the idea of spending 33 hours a week on schoolwork. 

When the pandemic hit, TeenSHARP made its programs virtual and started serving students from across the United States, including Georgia, Ohio, Oregon and Texas. But the staff soon realized that remote instruction was causing their students¡¯ math skills to falter. Alleyne, who as CEO oversees operations and development, reallocated $130,000 from their roughly $1 million annual budget¡ª a ¡°crazy amount of money,¡± for them, as Poladko said ¡ª to provide small-group tutoring. TeenSHARP is largely funded by a constellation of corporations and foundations that have offices in Wilmington, Delaware, including Capital One Bank and WSFS Bank. 

The heart of the program is the intensive advising that Poladko leads for high school juniors and seniors. While carrying a caseload of more than 70 students, Poladko provides one-on-one and group instruction. She estimates spending five to seven hours working with each student just on their personal statement. 

The goal is to be as well-prepared as a student from a wealthy family. TeenSHARP organizes more than two dozen college visits each year. Students are encouraged to apply early to their first choice, and Poladko is not above getting on the phone with an admissions counselor to lobby for one of her students. Lest they get saddled with debt, she encourages students to enroll in the college that is offering them the best overall package, not the best name recognition.

During the program¡¯s College Signing Day event in May ¡ª starting at 6 p.m. Eastern, midnight in Warsaw ¡ª Poladko passed the Zoom spotlight from one student to another to tick through their acceptances and announce which they¡¯d selected. One student had been accepted by 16 schools. Another by 17. 

¡°And who is getting your talent this fall?¡± Poladko asked. 

Back came the responses. 

Carleton College. 

Princeton. 

Yale. 

Macalester College. 

Poladko knows the acceptances ¡ª and the decision to attend the school that¡¯s the best fit financially ¡ª are hard earned. The program has seen student outcomes remain consistent even through the shift away from in-person support. ¡°Trust-building virtually is definitely not easy,¡± she said. ¡°But it is definitely possible if students and parents see the commitment to students’ success.¡±

The couple took a brief pause in June before ramping up for a month-long summer program in July. In the meanwhile, they are still making rental payments on their house in Ukraine, which is 11 miles from Bucha, where the Russian military this spring . They¡¯re paying partly to support the landlord, who recently sent them a video of the two-story property, their stroller still parked outside the front door, and partly because Alleyne and Poladko still hope to return there when it feels safe. They like the quality of life, and Poladko needs to fulfill a residency requirement for the fellowship she received before she can apply for U.S. citizenship.

¡°We could technically be in our house now,¡± Alleyne said. ¡°You¡¯re just living with this risk of an air strike.¡±

The couple is also ¡ª now more than $35,000 ¡ª that they donate to grassroots leaders and organizations in Ukraine. (Donations are processed through a nonprofit, ; designate Ukraine Grassroots Leaders Fund.)

Wherever they end up, Alleyne and Poladko are confident that TeenSHARP will continue to work with students and families to achieve racial and economic justice. Clarke, the Oberlin student, agrees. 

¡°It¡¯s really hard to stop them from doing what they do,¡± he said. ¡°A pandemic, war, they just keep going. It¡¯s really inspirational. I think to myself, ¡®If they can do that, then I think anyone can¡¯ ¡ª or I don’t see it as impossible.¡±

This story was supported by a reporting grant from The Pulitzer Center.

Tony Rocco, founder and executive director of Philadelphia¡¯s Photography Without Borders, knows his students live in one of the country¡¯s most at-risk neighborhoods.

Their campus, John B. Stetson Middle School, is only a 15-minute walk from the corner of East Allegheny and Kensington Avenues ¡ª the heart of the East Coast¡¯s largest open-air drug market. Every week, they know they¡¯ll need to avoid drug users, dealers and violence during their walks to and from school, acutely aware that this is a reality ¡ª their reality. 

In the shadow of all this, Rocco says his program has become a vital, safe haven for these kids to pursue photography, share passions and build identity ¡ª and a conduit through which both Stetson students and the community find hope through art.

He says photography helps students better understand themselves and their neighbors ¡ª and that empathy shows through not just in the photos but in their growth as individuals and community members as well.

The 74¡¯s Jim Fields and Emmeline Zhao visited Photography Without Borders to see the group in action, and met students whose photographs captured far deeper expressions of self than so many of the selfies we¡¯re used to seeing from middle schoolers.

As you¡¯ll see, the photographers beautifully express their inner lives and document the everyday challenges facing their community. Many of them say that pursuing photography as a form of higher art has in return raised their self-esteem, and offered them a chance to share their lived experiences with adults in the neighborhood. 

As for Rocco and the club, students, parents and the wider community members have enthusiastically embraced the effort. You can see the resulting bridge that¡¯s been built, between student photographers and community elders, when they¡¯re given a chance to showcase their work for the public at an area gallery.

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to both the Weave Project and The 74.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

This heartwarming show takes a comedic, mockumentary approach in tackling some of the most pressing issues around urban education: inadequate school funding, teacher turnover and the misappropriation of school funds. However, one other major theme also stands out for me: the positive impact of Black educators.

Part of what makes ABC¡¯s refreshing and unique is the fact that this majority-Black school is comprised of a mostly Black staff. From the school leader to the janitor, the default in this West Philadelphia school community is Blackness. But, this narrative is far from the norm for many of our nation¡¯s students as they navigate their 13- year public school experience. In fact, the reality is that while Black students make up 15 percent of the nation¡¯s public education system, only 7 percent of our educator workforce identifies as Black. At just under 2 percent, the share of Black male educators is even more disheartening.?

indicates that the presence of Black teachers in the classroom is directly linked to improved student outcomes for all students, especially Black students. For example, having at least one Black teacher early on reduces a Black student¡¯s likelihood of dropping out of school by up to 39 percent. Additionally, when Black students have access to two Black elementary school teachers, they are 32 percent more likely to go to college.?

Principal Coleman, Ms. Teagues, Mrs. Howard and Mr. Eddie demonstrate the importance of ensuring that all kids have access to educators that not only reflect their cultural background, but also share common sociopolitical interests with their students.?

One of the series¡¯s most memorable moments is when Quinta Brunson¡¯s character, the ever-hopeful second grade teacher Janine Teagues, pays homage to the community she and her students grew up in by teaching a lesson on the use of Philly slang ¡ª?from?¡°jawn¡± [basically a substitute noun for any people, place or thing] to ¡°oldhead,¡± [someone older or whose generation came before].?

It¡¯s no wonder that the Philadelphia City Council recently to celebrate the show for spotlighting the many joys and challenges of working as an educator in Philadelphia¡¯s school system.

While the teaching profession has been neglected for so long, this feel-good show beautifully highlights the profound impact teachers, specifically Black teachers, have on their students and their communities. My time spent in the classrooms of Gates Elementary in San Antonio, Texas illuminated some of the same support and tension that the teachers in Abbott Elementary grapple with. Starting a school garden with one of my co-workers, disregarding my own self-care on some days, and being mentored by one of the amazing veteran teachers on campus are just a few of the many shared experiences. I saw a lot of myself in this show, which was both triggering and affirming if I must confess.

As the wise kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard, played by Sheryl Lee Ralph, tells her colleagues: ¡°Teachers at a school like Abbott, we have to be able to do it all. We are admin, we are social workers, we are therapists, we are second parents. Hell, sometimes we are even first. Why? Cuz it sure ain¡¯t the money. ¡­ Want to know my secret? Do everything you can for your kids.¡±

Abbott Elementary is truly the gift that keeps on giving and I hope that we can continue to give Brunson, the show¡¯s creator, producer and star, her flowers for uplifting the narrative around the profound and long-lasting impact that Black educators have on their students. Black teachers, like Brunson¡¯s mother or the namesake of the show, her sixth grade teacher Ms. Abbott, went to great lengths to meet their students where they¡¯re at, while challenging them to reach their highest potential. That¡¯s why we need more of them.?

At the Center for Black Educator Development, we¡¯re partnering with local and national organizations to create a movement around education as a form of activism through the launch of our national campaign. The goal is to raise awareness around the shortage of Black teachers, with hopes of inspiring a new generation of leaders to answer the call to become a changemaker in the classroom. Learn more about the campaign .?

During their reunion on , Joyce Abbott recalled her former student, the gifts she brought to class and those she needed a little help in realizing.

¡°Quinta was an awesome student. When she came into my class, she was really shy, timid. But as I challenged all of my students ¡ª we had to speak in complete sentences ¡ª?I built their confidence that whatever you want in life, you can do it.¡±

What a special thing it is for Black educators to challenge their students academically, while simultaneously making them feel seen and encouraging them to pursue their dreams. Ms. Abbott, Ms. Teagues, Mrs. Howard and Mr. Eddie all prove to us that Black teachers do more than just provide a strong education ¡ª?they empower their students.?

Mimi Woldeyohannes is director of strategic partnerships at the Center for Black Educator Development. She is the former special projects and community manager at The 74.

With a of over 1 million daily COVID cases reported on Monday and more than this week temporarily closed or pivoted to remote instruction, educators and families are being thrust back into the existential struggle over keeping schools open.

The second half of the 2021-22 school year began with a growing list of shutdowns, including major urban districts such as Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland. In Philadelphia, leaders on Monday night announced that on Tuesday, though stopped short of shutting down the entire district.

Other top school systems such as New York City and Chicago have moved forward with plans to reopen in person, but have hit snags along the way: In New York, nearly a third of students did not show up for classes on Monday, and in Chicago, a late night vote Tuesday held by the teachers union demanding to teach remotely Wednesday.

The reactions from weary parents ranged widely. ¡°It¡¯s chaos,¡± National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues The New York Times, pointing out that when schools nix plans for in-person learning at the final hour, it leaves families scrambling for child care options. 

On the other hand, with the Omicron variant rampant post-holiday, Cleveland parent Tiffany Rossman was glad schools stayed closed to start the new year. She and her teenage daughter both tested positive for the virus in December, and she fell quite ill despite her vaccination, she told The 74. The mother worried that opening classrooms after the holidays could lead to infected kids spreading the virus.

Rossman acknowledged, however, that ¡°if I had small children and needed to go into the office then I don’t know what I would do.¡±

While a handful of school systems had planned before the winter break to be remote for short stints in January or to close for testing, the vast majority of announcements were made last minute as record-high COVID case rates came into view. Yonkers Public Schools started classes this week remotely after of students who took rapid tests over the holidays were COVID positive. Detroit announced that school would be closed Monday through Wednesday after rapid testing revealed a positivity rate. Districts are open for in-person learning in and , but officials there had to shut down eight and 12 school buildings, respectively, for lack of staff.

¡°A lot of it was last second, and it continues to be,¡± Dennis Roche, co-founder of the K-12 data tracker Burbio, told The 74.

The , and school systems are exceptions to the trend, he noted, as each district had planned before the holidays to take a handful of days in the new year for students to receive rapid tests. As it currently stands, classrooms are set to open in all three districts in the coming days. Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation¡¯s second-largest, does not re-open until Jan. 10, but has said it intends to test all students before it does.

Over the weekend, Roche watched Burbio¡¯s jump from 1,591 to 2,181, and again on Tuesday to 3,556. Shutdowns were concentrated in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, where current COVID rates are among the .

Amid the chaos, the Biden administration has maintained that schools should keep their doors open wherever possible and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended booster eligibility to two separate groups of children this week.

¡°I believe schools should remain open,¡± the president said during a on the current Omicron surge. And in fact, despite some conspicuous closures, the vast majority of the nation¡¯s roughly 98,000 public schools have returned from the holiday break in person. 

Hedging slightly in a conversation on Fox News Sunday, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona added: ¡°We recognize there may be some bumps in the road, especially this upcoming week when superintendents, who are working really hard across the country, are getting calls saying that some of their schools may have 5 to 10 percent of their staff not available.¡±

¡°For anyone who has gone remote, we want to similarly keep on engaging with them, and make sure that they can come back as quickly as they can,¡± a senior White House official told The 74 Tuesday.

Federal policymakers underscore that districts can draw on American Rescue Plan dollars as well as multiple other devoted to helping K-12 facilities stave off COVID through purchasing tests and other mitigation measures.

To help schools stay open, the CDC in December endorsed ¡°test-to-stay¡± practices allowing students and staff who may have been exposed to the virus to remain in the classroom if they test negative for COVID. 

The federal agency also took the controversial step on Dec. 27 of reducing its recommended quarantine timeline for infected individuals, including teachers and students, from 10 to five days. The move divided many health experts, leaving numerous observers to wonder whether the CDC was after .

But several school officials appreciated the chance for teachers and students to return more quickly to the buildings.

¡°Anything that will help the schools to stay open is welcome,¡± Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, told The 74.

Nationwide, pediatric COVID and are at a pandemic high. But top infectious disease experts say that the vast majority of serious infections are among unvaccinated youth. Under a quarter of children ages 5 to 11 have received a single dose of the COVID vaccine, and just over half of adolescents ages 12 to 17 have been fully immunized, according to data published by the .

??¡°Most of our pediatric population is still undervaccinated,¡± said Kristina Deeter, a physician at Renown Children¡¯s Hospital in Reno, Nevada. Even though the Omicron variant has generated more breakthrough infections, the pediatrician assured that the vaccines continue to be successful at their key function: preventing severe illness and death.

¡°We¡¯re still so much safer having received the vaccine,¡± she told The 74.

For youth who have received both shots and are ready for a booster, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday and, on Tuesday, the CDC recommended an extra shot for , five months after the initial two-dose series.

Amid the widespread concern and flurry of new pandemic policies, a bit of good news regarding the giant spike in cases also surfaced on Sunday. In South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first identified, the surge in infections driven by the hyper-transmissible strain has , giving health experts hope that the U.S may follow a similar course in the weeks to come.

Still, other mutations of the virus may arise further down the road, Deeter pointed out. The only long-term path to move beyond the pandemic, she said, is getting immunized.

¡°If there¡¯s a light at the end of the tunnel, it¡¯s going to come through vaccination.¡±

In just 10 months, more than 20 New York City children have been victims of gun violence, doubling data from the same time period just two years ago, according to the New York City Police Department.

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The harrowing incidents of violence are constant.

A 14-year-old boy was shot getting off an MTA bus in Harlem earlier this month. The teen, who police say was the intended target, ?was grazed in the head by the bullet.

The shooting death of a 10-year-old Queens boy became part of the political landscape when mayoral candidates attended a peace vigil to end gun violence this summer.

¡°Too many of our young people have been deprived of the chance to grow old and to lead the lives they deserve because of gun violence,¡± said U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke, who represents central brooklyn, on Jan. 30 after record high levels of gun violence in her district. ¡°Our communities, our culture, and most importantly our youth, have all suffered.?

New York City¡¯s increase in shootings involving teens and children is not unique.

Across the country, teens and children have been victims of shootings, with killed this year ¡ª?surpassing past years¡¯ numbers and comparable to 2020¡¯s record-high stats.?

Hundreds of teens have been gunned down in Philadelphia and Chicago alone.

According to , 362 kids have been shot this year. Forty-three of the shootings were fatal. They are teens like 16-year-old Kierra Moore, a high school basketball star who died in a drive-by shooting on Oct. 14.?

¡°The pandemic is undoing any progress we had been making in reducing young people¡¯s involvement in gun violence,¡± said Monica Bhatt, a Senior Research Director at the University of Chicago Education Lab and Crime Lab. Youth homicides were down almost 50 percent between 2016 and 2019, Bhatt said.

More than 170 kids have been shot in Philadelphia in the past 10 months, according to .

One 13-year-old was killed right outside of an elementary school in Philadelphia this month.?

Across the country, sidewalks and street corners have become sites for vigils and memorials as communities gather to remember young lives lost ¡ª like the ¡°well-loved student and athlete,¡± Xavier Louis-Jacques, who was shot and killed in April at the basketball courts near his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A memorial sits at the scene where? 6- and 7-year-old sisters were shot in August after leaving their grandmother’s home in Chicago.?

But even vigils have become locations for violence: Just last week, a 16 year old was shot in Philadelphia during a vigil for another young gun victim.

Experts said the pandemic triggered the growing gun violence nationwide.

¡°The pandemic brought on a lot of stressors that lead to mental health issues,¡± said Christopher Herrmann, an assistant professor at and a former NYPD crime analyst. ¡°An increase in mental illness will spark the violence.¡±

Community members and anti-gun violence advocates are looking for answers. GoodKids MadCity, a youth organization, implored Chicago Public School officials to create plans for students¡¯ safety and mental health care. A Chicago schools spokesman said a plan would be released Oct. 25.?

Bhatt said programs that use cognitive behavioral therapy can work to directly reduce students¡¯ violence involvement.?

has been working with Chicago Public Schools to identify, test and scale promising programming to reduce students¡¯ gun violence involvement and criminal justice exposure and support their success in high school and beyond.

¡°The average student spends about 20 percent of their time in school and 80 percent of their time outside of school,¡± Bhatt said. ¡°Teachers and school staff are the frontline for those that have to address the effects of trauma exposure ¡ª including the impact of gun violence ¡ª without being able to directly reduce that exposure themselves.¡±

The Children¡¯s Hospital of Philadelphia responded to the alarming rate of gunfire with additional counseling services for youth victims, CBS Philly .

In New York City, parents and community members rallied outside of City Hall on Oct. 10, demanding an end to gun violence.

Eve Hendricks, who lost her son to gun violence, asks for increased school safety so students can learn without worrying about being attacked.?

Hendricks said kids should be able to go to school without worrying about being shot, and had a question for the parents of perpetrators.??

¡°Parents,¡± Hendricks said at a recent rally, ¡°how dare you raise monsters that take the lives of our kids.¡±

In the last several weeks, a slew of showing students vandalizing and stealing paper towel dispensers, printers, projectors, microscopes and even urinals. In one clip, a student is shown pilfering a fire extinguisher from a classroom right in the middle of a lesson. The video-sharing social media platform is known for copy-cat posts by young people hoping to score their 15 minutes of fame.

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The shenanigans come as K-12 campuses struggle to reopen amid a pandemic that left many of them reeling financially. Keeping school facilities clean and in good working order has been a stretch for district officials in numerous parts of the country long before COVID or viral videos. In Washington, lawmakers have that would distribute some $82 billion for school infrastructure, and a massive $3.5 trillion spending bill, which is still being negotiated, could earmark billions more for school construction projects. Such spending is , new research suggests.

To Bryn Hennessey, a 17-year-old senior from Vermont, many of the TikTok videos seemed silly at first, she said. But then she realized the impact the phenomenon was having on students¡¯ learning environments. She said the boys bathroom at her high school was recently closed for repairs after students smashed ceiling tiles and stuffed them into the toilets and vandalized the sinks.

¡°It’s just not a place to vandalize like that, especially in a bathroom that is a facility that everyone needs to use everyday,¡± Hennessey said. ¡°The janitors do a really, really great job and it¡¯s actually sad to have them walk into the bathroom and see all of this wreckage everywhere.¡±

In response to the trend, districts across the country have warned parents that students could face discipline for damaging school property. At Clark-Pleasant Middle School in Greenwood, Indiana, educators noted in a Facebook post that they were taking ¡°additional measures to address this inappropriate behavior¡± after restrooms were thrashed. In Diboll, Texas, the district announced that a student had stolen a stapler from a teacher and another one had swiped a soap dispenser from a restroom. Officials said that students could be subject to ¡°disciplinary consequences and monetary restitution¡± for participating in this ¡°destructive challenge.¡± The Van Buren, Arkansas police department went a step further, announcing that students could be ¡°arrested for theft of property,¡± and urged teens to consider ¡°the consequences of these actions, and the effect it can have on your school career.¡±

TikTok, the Chinese social media platform that¡¯s hugely popular among children and teens, announced that it was removing content that violates its policies ¡ª and pleaded with students to ¡°please be kind to your schools & teachers.¡±

We expect our community to create responsibly – online and IRL. We’re removing content and redirecting hashtags & search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior. Please be kind to your schools & teachers.

¡ª TikTokComms (@TikTokComms)

Districts spend about $110 billion annually on building maintenance, operations and construction, according to by the 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit that promotes school facilities improvements. Yet nationwide, there¡¯s a $46 billion annual funding shortfall between that investment and the levels needed for the maintenance, operations and periodic capital improvements necessary to ensure the country¡¯s ¡°good stewardship of its schools.¡± That underinvestment was particularly pronounced in rural towns and those in low-income communities, researchers found. Years of data suggest that student¡¯s .

Predating TikTok becoming an online sensation, the 21st Century School Fund ¡ª both the good and bad ¡ª to raise awareness about national inequities in school facilities and how many students were forced to learn in classrooms in a state of disarray. Unlike the ¡°devious lick¡± trend, the project had students using their photography skills in a positive way to document challenges in their schools, said Mary Filardo, the group¡¯s executive director.

¡°Maybe we could get students capturing this, rather than stealing stuff!¡± she wrote in an email.

A similar effort is underway in Philadelphia, where decrepit school buildings have been the subject of damning newspaper investigations and parent outrage. For the last several years, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, the city teachers union, has encouraged educators and students to submit photographs and other information about infrastructure issues through a mobile app with the goal of encouraging district leaders to take action. The has received more than 3,000 submissions across 165 schools highlighting issues like water damage, mold, peeling paint and pest droppings.

With the help of school staff who documented settings and took samples from inside some of Philadelphia¡¯s most rundown schools, a series of local newspaper investigations in 2018 revealed how students were being exposed to unhealthy lead levels, asbestos and other toxins ¡ª dangerous conditions that were perpetuated by a long pattern of neglect. In one school, students reported frigid classrooms without heat, burst pipes and pest infestations ¡ª including a cockroach that was observed crawling out of a milk carton.

Jerry Roseman, an environmental scientist for the teachers union who manages the app, spends much of his time evaluating potentially hazardous conditions within Philadelphia¡¯s public schools. Across the city, those school buildings are still ¡°largely inadequate by any assessment,¡± he said.

Rather than contributing to the problem through theft and vandalism, Roseman urged students to be part of the solution by documenting the dire need for repairs through services like the Philadelphia app.

Stealing and destroying school property for the sake of internet notoriety ¡°increases the deficiencies already there,¡± he said, and could compound their future degradation. If a school is repeatedly vandalized, maintenance staff could halt future repairs ¡ª a reality that he said is already true in many places. ¡°You have thermostats that don¡¯t exist, you have bathroom conditions that are atrocious, you have drinking water outlets that are trashed, and you¡¯ve got lots of broken, missing stuff.¡±

When these issues are caused by vandals ¡ª?whether capturing their malicious mischief on video or not ¡ª he said, conflicts brew between custodial staff and educators who are accused of failing to keep kids in line.

¡°It can really play into and accelerate the broken windows syndrome,¡± he said. ¡°You know, ¡®One toilet is broken, the handle is missing, I¡¯m going to kick in the other two.¡¯¡±

Founded in 2000 and historically utilized for instructional materials that teachers would either have to pay for out of pocket or go without, like auxiliary books, kits, games, and technology, the platform and its district partnership model have enabled teachers to raise over $670,000 in funds for warmth, care, and hunger needs for students since January 2020, according to DonorsChoose¡¯s public relations team.

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New York elementary teacher Laurie Gurdal at P.S. 245 in Brooklyn, for example, wrote a project to for her low-income students. ¡°Our families are facing food shortages at this time,¡± the project reads, ¡°it is hard to learn when you are hungry.¡± Two donors donated $1,108 between March 8 and April 5, 2021, fully funding the pantry in under a month.

The New York City Department of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Philadelphia City School District joined DonorChoose¡¯s in 2020, which more than 180 districts now participate in, representing over 10,000 schools nationally.

Though individual LAUSD teachers have utilized the platform since about 2005, district partners are offered added support and communication. Principals are notified whenever a new project is started at their school to get a better sense of community need, and when companies offer donation matches for projects. Partners are also provided resources for training teachers to use the platform and data for district leadership.

Austin Buetner, who ended his three-year tenure as superintendent of the country¡¯s second-largest district this June, told The 74 that LAUSD¡¯s participation is part of an effort to engage the broader community in schools, particularly as housing and food insecurity becomes more widespread.

¡°We have to expand the scope of support for public education. There are philanthropists who can write large checks, there are active and engaged individuals who can bring intellectual capital to a school or volunteer their time. And there are others who say well actually I have limited means, but I really want to know what that classroom needs ¡ª it turns out, a $10, $20 or $30 donation can make a difference.¡±

Since March 2020, 34 percent of all projects in have funded technology needed for virtual learning, food, clothing, and hygiene, up from their all-time average of 28 percent. The trend is similar in , where about 32 percent of pandemic-era projects have requested technology, food, clothing, and hygiene resources, up from their 25 percent all-time average.

This month, Philadelphia¡¯s returning teachers will attend DonorsChoose hands-on classes as a part of their professional development training. ??Michael Sonkowsky, the district¡¯s deputy chief of the Office of Grant Development, says teachers have been requesting support for fundraising platforms for years.

As their small office adapted to a surge of pandemic-related needs ¡ª including preparing school buildings for students¡¯ safe return ¡ª the formal partnership enabled them to streamline communications with teachers, particularly about company-match opportunities.

¡°We who work in development have seen a truly inspiring surge in philanthropy ¡ª both via crowdfunding platforms and via more traditional avenues ¡ª during the pandemic,¡± Sonkowsky said in an email to The 74.

Currently, there are 976 projects on the site within the warmth, care, and hunger category that support classes with majority low-income students. The push to provide young learners with basic needs, from workable laptops to hot meals, was one felt across the country as districts rushed to adapt to hybrid and virtual learning environments and families experienced unemployment and uncertainty.

Economists now refer to the pandemic-era recession as K-shaped: high income families bounced back and, in many cases, have become more wealthy, while low-income families, typically involved in the hard-hit service industry and in-person labor, have experienced devastating economic losses. Teachers like LAUSD¡¯s Diane Yokoyama, who serves predominantly low-income children, have witnessed the recession¡¯s toll on students.

¡°Many of my parents work two jobs just to make ends meet. My students come to school with the bare minimum,¡± Yokoyama told The 74 via email. ¡°I had projects funded for clothes, food, backpacks, umbrellas, shoes ¡­ things that I could never afford on my own.¡±

With $120 billion in American Rescue Plan pandemic relief funding heading to schools to ameliorate some of these inequities, states are proposing major investments in mental health, well-being, tutoring and data systems.

With an influx of funds, California will begin the nation¡¯s largest , regardless of family income. But in the months states and districts were planning how to allocate relief dollars, student needs were mounting.

For Yokoyama, DonorsChoose provided a path to meet urgent calls for meals, technology, and pandemic safety protections. In some cases, projects were fulfilled within weeks. Once funded, dry food, clothes, cleaning supplies, and PPE were mailed to her school, where she picked up items and delivered them to students’ homes.

¡°I wanted to reassure the parents and children that it would be OK to return to school,¡± she said, reflecting on her efforts to get materials into students¡¯ hands.

Yokoyama has , but the platform offered her ¡°a new way to teach¡± during hybrid and virtual learning. Donors funded a second monitor and portable whiteboard for her home, making virtual lessons more accessible.

The projects and subsequent data given to district partners has also provided a gauge of where needs are left unmet by pre-existing budgets. Superintendent Buetner dubbed teachers¡¯ projects, ¡°the voice of the classroom, which we can learn from.¡±

¡°The best perspective of what students’ needs are comes from the front of the classroom,¡± he said, ¡°not from some distant central office building.¡±

It¡¯s a Tuesday morning in March, and 14-year-old Sloan Williams and two of her friends are cracking each other up over Zoom.

¡°It¡¯s yellow!¡± Williams blurts out.

¡°Yes, and¡­we call it a Banana Car Seat!¡± her friend replies, before the three eighth graders from Charles W. Henry Middle School in Mt. Airy burst into another round of laughter.

It¡¯s all part of an exercise the students are doing through , a program created by recent Wharton grads Meera Menon and Philip Chen. Goofy as this particular workshop¡ªin which students were tasked with acting out a fake commercial to sell an imaginary product without any script or prep¡ªmay sound, it¡¯s rooted in the mission of increasing students¡¯ communication skills, self-confidence, and team-player mindsets.

¡°Improv has been shown to have all kinds of benefits,¡± says Menon. ¡°For any improv game, you can gear it towards whatever skill you want students to practice. What we choose to focus on are mistakes, and reframing people¡¯s relationships with failure.¡±

Williams says that the program helped her break out of her comfort zone and empowered her to feel more comfortable speaking up in class. And she¡¯s not alone: 88 percent of the 146 students who participated in The Unscripted Project in the fall semester reported feeling more confident in front of their peers than they did before the program. Pre- and post-program surveys revealed that there was also a 15-percent decrease in the number of students who screened positive for social anxiety.

In addition, social self-efficacy¡ªor, how students understand their interpersonal relationships¡ªincreased in 65 percent of students; emotional self-efficacy¡ªhow students understand their emotions¡ªincreased in 58 percent of students. The benefits of improv are well-documented enough that Wharton is even beginning to offer improv classes to business executives, grad students, and MBA students.

These outcomes are among the myriad reasons Menon and Chen were named President¡¯s Engagement Prize winners by Penn president in April of 2020; the duo was awarded $100,000 to implement their idea and scale it to reach more than 300 middle and high school students throughout the School District of Philadelphia.

¡°We feel very strongly that theater and improv should be a part of K-12 education because it is such a powerful tool to build interpersonal and social-emotional skills like being confident, understanding different perspectives, adapting to new people and situations, as we had experienced ourselves,¡± Menon says.

While their original intention was to launch in-person, forced them, like everyone else, to pivot the program to a virtual format. Since launching last fall, 359 students will have participated in the program by the end of the school year, with the support of five teaching artists, 10 volunteers, and Menon and Chen; they worked in nine and one charter school, meeting with students anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes via Zoom, one day a week.

Intersecting Passions

Many youth-focused programs throughout Philly already use arts¡ª, , , and , for example¡ªto nurture and support students. But the decision to use improv, a decidedly less traditional performative art, as a vehicle for empowerment was natural for Menon and Chen.

Chen, originally from Melbourne, Australia, and Menon, from the Bay Area in California, collided on their first day of college at Wharton, when the two were placed in the same group for a freshman scavenger hunt; they¡¯ve been friends ever since. They both had a background in the theatrical arts and improv, and continued to stay involved in theater at Penn.

One afternoon during their sophomore year, they were at a meeting of the Penn Social Entrepreneurship Movement Club, when they brainstormed the idea for The Unscripted Project as a perfect way to blend together the worlds they were equally passionate about: business and theater. It wasn¡¯t until their senior year, however, that The Unscripted Project became more than an idea, as the two decided to apply for the President¡¯s Engagement Prize to implement it.

¡°We got the opportunity to turn this idea into something tangible when we heard about the President¡¯s Engagement Prize, and throughout our senior year we worked on building out the idea, key partnerships, infrastructure, and proposals,¡± Menon explains. They found out they won the prize last April, and started working on the project full-time later that month.

Part of the project¡¯s success stems from how resource-light improv is: There are no tools or tech required. The classes consist of lighthearted improv games that foster a safe space, a sense of community in which students can chat, laugh, be silly. In fact, one of the only rules in improv is that students are encouraged to make mistakes and be comfortable making them.

¡°Nothing is a mistake in improv,¡± says Menon. ¡°It¡¯s more like a gift, and you get to decide what you want to do with that gift.¡± Improv, Menon explains, is all about imperfection, and making people step out of their comfort zones to develop communication and community skills. Their program specifically focuses on reframing people¡¯s relationships with failure and developing growth mindset¡ªthat idea, made popular by , of rewiring your brain to think of failures as an area of growth and an outlet for improvement.

Improv also teaches people to be team players, a skill that is important for success in high school, college, and the workforce. One of the key tenets of improv, after all, is the phrase ¡°Yes, and¡­¡± which encourages improv teammates to adapt on the fly.

If, for example, someone says ¡°Here¡¯s this chocolate cake,¡± and you respond ¡°No, it¡¯s not,¡± well, that puts a kibosh on further conversation. If, however, you respond by saying ¡°Yes, but I like vanilla cake,¡± that demonstrates being open to further dialogue, and opens the door to building off of the moment to create something bigger.

On top of the data Menon and Chen have documented, they¡¯ve been particularly encouraged by the anecdotal evidence of the program¡¯s benefits. They¡¯ve watched more introverted students feel more comfortable in group settings. They¡¯ve seen one student¡¯s stutter vanish.

¡°I noticed that, whenever they would introduce themselves or when we would do a prepared question and answer activity, the stutter would come out. But, when we would go to improvise with this student, the stutter sort of disappeared, and it was sort of this magical moment,¡± says Menon. ¡°I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s any scientific basis for this phenomena¡ªit could be just this crazy thing that happened in our classes¡ªbut it was really cool to watch.¡±

Their Next Act

For all of the success of the program so far, Menon acknowledges the limitations of running it in a virtual format, particularly one year into online learning. Sometimes students are not at their computers when they¡¯re scheduled to be; other times, teens have jobs or household responsibilities that they have to fulfill.

Ever mindful of equity, the staff models the same flexibility they¡¯re hoping to impart to students, as they adapt games to be available with or without video, or via chat instead of audio, to account for students¡¯ capabilities and capacities.

¡°I think our biggest concern is always equity. We really try to make sure that there are some ways for students to participate, even if it¡¯s not fully over video and voice in Zoom. There¡¯s so much that we can¡¯t control, which has been tricky for us to manage, but we decided that we will work the best we can with the students that are able to and then continuously invite other students into the program,¡± says Menon.

The will fund the nonprofit through the middle of 2021, so Menon and Chen are already seeking continuance funding. Their projected annual budget is $150,000. In December, they held a fundraiser that generated $25,000. They¡¯re looking into the prospect of offering programming for a fee to private schools and organizations, to offset the fee for public schools. Having secured nonprofit 501c3 status in October 2020, they are preparing to generate additional sources of funding, so that they can reach as many schools throughout Philadelphia and beyond. By the fall, they¡¯re striving to be in 20 to 25 Philly public school classrooms.

Williams, reflecting on her time in the program, adds, ¡°I would definitely recommend this program to other students. I think my favorite thing was being able to create a scene and being able to have the audience visualize something that you¡¯re visualizing, but that isn¡¯t really there. It made me be more open and communicative, and I think a lot of students could use that.¡±

¡°Anyone,¡± says Menon, ¡°can benefit from the power of improv.¡±

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This article was originally published by and published in partnership with the . 

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in the case of Thursday, ruling 9-0 that a Catholic social services agency, which believes marriage is between a man and a woman, has a right to exclude same-sex couples from becoming foster parents and that the city violated the organization¡¯s First Amendment rights when it froze an existing contract due to the policy.

The unanimous decision, coming one year after a split ruling in the Espinoza case involving religious schools and scholarship programs, reinforced the court¡¯s continued trajectory towards supporting the protection of religious freedoms. The Fulton decision could also have possible implications for the participation of religious schools in voucher programs ¡°because religious schools often discriminate based on sexual orientation or other protected characteristics,¡± said Alex Luchenitser, associate vice president and associate legal director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The Fulton case ¡ª and its implications for similar lawsuits now working their way through the courts ¡ª became a key talking point surrounding President Trump¡¯s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. As we reported back in September:

John Bursch, senior counsel at the far-right Alliance Defending Freedom ¡ª which has paid Barrett to deliver a lecture ¡ª said that the outcome of Fulton could affect an education case in Maryland. A Baltimore-area Christian school is suing Maryland state Superintendent Karen Salmon, arguing that the state revoked its eligibility to participate in a voucher program because the school lacks a nondiscrimination policy that protects LGBTQ students. ¡°Both cases involve a government entity making false accusations of bigotry against a religious organization because of its beliefs about marriage,¡± Bursch said. ¡°No religious school should be forced to give up its Biblical beliefs to participate in a government program that provides educational assistance to low-income students.¡±

By a decisive 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court this year also upheld the ¡°ministerial exception¡± that allows religious institutions to disregard the antidiscrimination policies that apply to secular organizations. The decision would be relevant in any future cases involving religious schools with anti-LGBTQ workplace policies that participate in school choice programs. The Fulton ruling could also influence the outcome of cases involving LGBTQ students, such as those in which teachers cite religious objections when not referring to transgender students by their preferred names or pronouns, said Sharon McGowan, chief strategy officer and legal director for Lambda Legal.

See Thursday¡¯s full Fulton ruling: