7/27/2005
Schools team up with businesses
By Susan Snyder
Philadelphia Inquirer

The project, which will stress democracy and citizenship, is the latest new high school venture between the increasingly entrepreneurial school district and an outside organization.

Seven other new or remade high schools are set to open in the next few years, with big-name partners such as Microsoft, the University of Pennsylvania, the Franklin Institute, and the College Board, the creator of the SAT and Advanced Placement program.

The effort continues the district's overarching goal of creating smaller, theme-based high schools. All the schools will have well under 1,000 students, several of them as few as 400.

District officials say the partnerships mean the schools can better capitalize on corporate and community resources as education funding gets tighter.

"Urban districts cannot do what we owe kids without bringing the best minds, money, resources that are out there," said Ellen Savitz, the district's chief development officer.

The district also maintains that the new options will retain middle-class families and lure them back to the schools, while giving poor neighborhoods new choices.

"These are like private school options being offered by the public school system," she said.

Each partnership works a little differently, but usually the groups provide expertise and time, help customize the curriculum, and participate in selecting a principal.

Microsoft's $50 million School of the Future aims to create an international prototype for the best and most cost-effective use of technology in education and school operations. That school, being built in West Philadelphia, will open in 2006.

Other large urban districts, including those in New York and Chicago, are engaged in similar partnerships as they overhaul high schools, national experts say.

"It comes out of a real understanding that we can't tinker around the edges with high schools," said Rochelle Nichols-Solomon, a former Philadelphia high school reformer now with the Academy for Educational Development in New York.

Savitz said the partners had expanded the district's reach. Her team recently went to a Microsoft conference with representatives from 30 countries, including Japanese software developers whose product might be used at the new school. "It's great for Philadelphia.

The world is watching," said Mary Cullinane, Microsoft's project manager. Most of the schools will draw some students from their neighborhood and some citywide, with varying criteria.

The Constitution Center will look for students with at least a C average and good attendance and behavior, while the Franklin Institute may require higher grades in science and math, Savitz said.

All schools may use essays or interviews to gauge interest.

Financial arrangements vary among the partners. The district provides the buildings and pays for staff and operations.... continue to page 2