A Philadelphia Primer

Although many School District of Philadelphia staff members, students, parents, community members, and friends have invested themselves in the educational process, virtually no institutional knowledge exists on how to radically transform present practices into system-wide exemplary programs. Instead, the District suffers from a system-wide lack of coherence, coordination and communication that invalidates attempts to achieve meaningful standards, effective teaching and learning, and powerful accountability to students, parents, and the larger community. The School District of Philadelphia must effect fundamental change if it is to offer all its children a public education system with the character, climate, conduct and content to fulfill our promise to prepare them for their future. The children, and the City, deserve no less.