What percentage of those young men are African-American boys? 132 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
Eighty percent of all of our -- more than that, probably 85 percent of all of the kids in the programs are African-American. So my guess is that would be reflected in the demographics of males and females. I can get you all the numbers, but by and large, we serve a predominately African-American population of students.
So are we hearing that there is a willingness to reexamine or consideration for a policy shift to tackle that particular constituency given the realities we've heard around truancy, dropout and crime rate?
I think we should absolutely be targeting our resources where there's the greatest need. And I also believe we should be 133 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 building a continuum so that while at one side we're looking at where there's the greatest need and, as we said before, tailoring our interventions to really meet the needs of the specific demographics and populations of kids we're serving, we also need to not forget about the fact that if we're successful doing that, we need the Lockheed Martin programs and we need all of these other programs at the other end of the continuum, because you need kids to be able to move through into those opportunities. They may not start there, but our hope is they end up there.
And so we have to build from across an entire continuum of programs and opportunities so that kids can move between and among them successfully.
And as an employer, it just seems, in our experience, that the girls, no offense to 134 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the Councilmen here today, but the girls are interviewing better. And so when I talk to a member of my staff who is responsible for the interviews and she gives me four girls, I have to go back and say, I want to see some young men. Because I think it's a maturity issue. You know much better than I do. But the girls are interviewing better than the boys are, so we have to make a concerted effort to ask the question we need some balance here, some gender balance.
Thank you. It reminded me that we 135 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 mentioned the reentry program and I see my colleague, Councilman Wilson Goode, that helped me with a significant hurdle. Now that the budget process is in front of us -- and this is to my colleagues -- I'm going to need some help, because I have an interest and Councilman Goode does on a program that I identified, the worker release -- the inmate program. We have men and women incarcerated that have been processed, have gone through a thorough background check and thorough look at them to allow them to leave the jail during the day or evening to go work. Unfortunately, there's no jobs. As you know, we have the tax credit for the reentry program, and Councilman Goode was able to communicate with the Administration -- Am I right, Councilman? -- (continued) and include the worker inmate program and qualify for the tax credit. So we have 85, 90 inmates that sit in the jail every day that have 136 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 no jobs. And we have convinced the Fairmount Park Commission. The Zoo is looking at an opportunity to employ the inmates. We're not talking about just sending people down there. I want to send these inmates -- when they leave incarceration, I want them to leave there with some money in their pockets so they possibly don't go back to what got them there. So we are going to need -- and we're not talking a lot of money. We're talking less than $200,000 in the next budget to get this program working and hopefully to get the inmates that are sitting there with no opportunities that could be there 17, 18, 19 months with a job. The professionals up there have told me that people that get a job after leaving incarceration rarely come back. It's the ones that come back that don't have a job. So if they can get 137 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 experience working in the Fairmount Park, the Zoo, working with some of the subcontractors, they will have job opportunities, especially when an employer can see their performance during the time that they're in the program. So my colleagues, I'm going to be asking the Administration to put money in the budget to make sure that this works. And we're not talking about a lot of money. The program initially was going to be funded by an individual or at least help get it started, and that individual is ill now and unfortunately not able to contribute that money that was going to get the program started. So the Administration keeps saying to me, Well, we need the money. Well, we're going to have to work to get that money for that program, because I think it will be so valuable to help a hundred inmates up there to be able to leave, go to work, come back at night and prepare them for when they do eventually reenter. 138 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
Please pull your microphone up. We can't hear you. Identify yourself again.
I'm sorry. Madam Chairman and members of the Philadelphia City Council, my name is Tracee Hunt. I am Vice-President of Human Resources at the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company and I currently serve as the Chair of the Philadelphia Youth Council. I'll add in there at this point that we employ over 1,200 people in the Philadelphia region and we do have a predominately male workforce. So I'll just make sure that that is added there. The Youth Council is mandated by the federal Workforce Investment Act as a subgroup of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board and makes 139 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 recommendations on the allocation and expenditure of approximately million 4 in youth workforce development funding 5 each year. 6 The Youth Council has two 7 primary objectives: WorkReady 8 Philadelphia, the City's system to 9 coordinate existing youth workforce 10 programming and to expand the overall number of high-quality workplace experiences, and Project U-Turn, a citywide effort led by the Youth Transitions Collaborative to resolve Philadelphia's dropout crisis. Both of these initiatives focus squarely on preparing Philadelphia youth to become our City and region's highly skilled workforce of the future. Like my colleague, Pamela Crawley, whom I succeeded as Youth Council Chair, I strongly believe that our young people are the keys to our City's social and economic success. As Youth Council Chair and as an employer of 140 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 young people, again, as I said, predominately male, through WorkReady Philadelphia, I have had the opportunity to see the potential of our young people and to observe firsthand the absolute importance of providing high-quality opportunities that enable them to apply their academic learning to real-world workplace experience. I'm proud that the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board and its Youth Council are recognized as national leaders in providing these types of high-quality workplace experiences. But despite these efforts, each year we are forced to turn away as many as 3,000 young people who seek high-quality workplace internships due to a lack of resources. This situation is likely to be exacerbated beginning this coming summer due to the recently enacted changes in the minimum wage law. The additional cost that it represents will cause a significant reduction in the 141 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 number of available internships, which will force us to turn away even more youth. In fact, we could lose between 1,200 and 1,700 employment opportunities, as Laura already expressed to you, this year. We know that these workplace experiences are extremely important for our youth. They offer them the potential to increase academic performance by demonstrating how learning is relevant to careers. Research tells us that low-income urban youth have less access to these valuable workplace experiences than their more affluent suburban peers. These youth are all around us, working hard to overcome barriers and striving to get the skills they need. Some are still in classrooms moving towards graduation, post-secondary education and careers. Others who left school without a diploma, however, in my opinion, have found the courage to reconnect to learning opportunities 142 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 because they have come to the realization that education is the key to economic self-sufficiency. As an employer, I can tell you firsthand that our City and its economy desperately need young people who are preparing themselves to become the greater Philadelphia region's highly skilled 21st century workforce. There's plenty of opportunity for such young people, but most will need a helping hand to turn their lives around and to become the active and productive citizens we want and need them to be. Workplace internships can provide the kind of transformational experience that makes education relevant, as well as providing them with mentoring opportunities.
So it's critical that while we are working to build high-quality learning opportunities for more of our young people, we must also provide workplace opportunities that give form and substance to their academic 143 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 work. It is for these reasons that I urge Council to support workplace internships for our young people. Our request would offset the loss of slots associated with minimum wage increases and also expand the number of available opportunities, enabling us both to reduce our waiting lists and also to dedicate internships to the vulnerable young people returning to school. Thank you again, Madam Chairman and Councilmembers, for the opportunity to present testimony this morning on such an important topic. I look forward to working with you to create new opportunities for our young people.
Thank you very much, and thank you, Madam Chair. Councilman Goode.
Thank you. Who currently covers the costs of the program? 144 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
The Youth Council actually is mandated by the federal Workforce Investment Act as a subgroup and they allocate the expenditures of that $10 million that I spoke about earlier on.
There's three partners to it. There's federal, U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Investment Act money, there's state TANF money and then there's about $2.8 million in private money from foundations and the corporate sector, and the School District for the last few years has put in an additional between 6 and 8 hundred thousand dollars. 145 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
So do the employers themselves actually pay for any of the internships?
And they are eligible for federal tax credits for that?
No. Actually, the way it works is, they are either subsidized or they're unsubsidized.
So the WorkReady program is unsubsidized. These are commitments from the corporate community to hire these children, young people, young adults.
That was not how it was designed, according to my 146 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 understanding, from the beginning.
Whether it's how it's designed or not, what makes it ineligible for federal tax credits?
I don't know that it is ineligible. When we put WorkReady together, it was really about looking for unsubsidized investments in our youth. So that's why we put it together that way. I think the Chamber is now addressing the tax credit issue and trying to get more people involved. So there is going to be --
I was starting with the federal tax credit. I was about to move to the state tax credit. But they're not ineligible for a federal tax credit?
If they meet the criteria, if the kids who are in the placements meet the various criterias; for instance, living in empowerment zones or there's various qualifications that the employee itself would have to -- him 147 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 or herself would have to meet.
Some of the companies take advantage of it and some of the companies -- the biggest tax credit we find that employers take advantage of is the state tax credit around the education improvement tax credit. That's the one that most companies who work with us have utilized.
The work opportunity tax credit for youth, do you know what that is?
And the state credit that the Chamber is advocating for covers what percentage of the businesses' costs?
So the state 148 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 tax credit would cover 70 percent of their costs and then on top of that they may be eligible for a federal tax credit?
I believe they would be eligible for both. And if they were hiring an ex-offender who happens to be a youth, they'd possibly be eligible for a City tax credit as well.
Thank you, Councilman. Any further questions for these witnesses? (No response.)
Thank you all very much. You're doing a fine job. We appreciate it.
We're going to ask that the next person to testify be our only youth who is left at this 149 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 point -- all the other youth left -- is Brad Johnson, and he has to leave at 12:45 for a job. So we want to let him go on. Thanks.
Thank you. Brad Johnson, we welcome you, and we're sorry everybody else had to leave. Time is always an issue at our hearings on these very important subjects. Brad, welcome. Please identify yourself for the record, and we're happy that you are present. We understand that Traci Money, Andrew Broggins and Dolores Shaw had to leave. So you represent everybody.
Good afternoon, members of Philadelphia City Council. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify at today's hearing. Let me 150 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 start by saying I'm an individual in the City that has been through many trials and hardships. I have done things and have seen things that most people my age can only dream of doing. I'm much different from anybody any of you have ever encountered and yet I have a trait of everybody in this room. Who am I? My story is different. I'm not a high school dropout. I'm a high school kickout. I didn't leave by choice. The only thing I chose to do was get away from my own pain. I was just trying to survive. I found school boring and easy, so I unfortunately chose to live my life by fighting. I fought students, teachers and security guards. You name them, I've punched them. Some of the things that I hear that the City is trying to do is build on the outer appearance of schools to make them look presentable to the outside world. What we need is more books and 151 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 qualified teachers to instruct us. We need better equipment. We need things that students will actually use. Without the school being challenging or interesting, we're only there to show that people have jobs, nothing more. Most of us drop out of school either from boredom, peer pressure, stress or parenting. My opportunity came when I applied to Job Corps where I was referred to the E3 center at Parkside branch. But how did I just out of the blue want to change? There's a moment in every person's life that inspires them to change. For me it happened when I found out I was going to be a parent. So now that I'm a father and I've been connected with many positive programs, I plan to go far with my life. I'm scheduled to take the GED test next week. I'm confident I'm going to pass. I'm currently ranked No. 2 on the Adolescent Career Employment Services 152 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 program, and my immediate goal is to take the No. 1 spot. My long-range goal is to own a technical engineering conglomerate where you can bring any mechanical appliance and get it fixed. For out-of-school youth like me programs like Job Corps and the E3 centers are very important. The E3 center helped get my life on track. I will no longer get kicked out of anything. And so I ask the Philadelphia City Council to consider supporting the provision of case management services to pregnant and parenting teens by expanding the Health Department's contracts with community-based programs. Thank you for listening to my story.
Thank you for coming to bring it. May we ask how old you are?
My goodness. All that and you're only 18. 153 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Let me say that we thank you. We look forward to working with you in any way we can. We're willing. You've heard Councilman Goode talk about his work with youth and at-risk youth. And certainly you can come to any of us in our offices and we're happy to support you and work with you in any way we can.
Thank you very much. Ruth Nield. Did I pronounce your name correctly?
Ruth Nield, okay. Ruth Nield, John Hopkins University. Thank you. And after you, 154 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 we have Heather Frattone. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
Yes. Good morning. My name is Ruth Curran Nield. I am a Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University and an Assistant Professor on leave at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. I am one of the authors of "Unfulfilled Promises," which is the report --
Sure. I'm one of the authors of "Unfulfilled Promises," which is the report on dropout in Philadelphia that was issued by the Philadelphia Youth Network in October 2006. I've also asked Dr. Liza Herzog to join me. She was here for the hearings anyway, and some of the questions that were brought up earlier 155 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 about truancy, particularly when truancy begins to spike in children's educational careers, made me think that she might have something important to contribute to the discussion. She's done quite a bit of research on truancy, particularly in early adolescence. So what I would like to tell you about are some highlights of the research that has been reported in the report that was published by the Philadelphia Youth Network. And so far in the testimony we have been talking about solutions, what kinds of things could be done to reduce the dropout problem, and I'm going to be talking about some of the dimensions of the problem. I don't want us to feel like in some way we're kind of stepping back from the solutions, going back to sort of admiring the problem, and so the way I'd like to frame it is that some of the research that we'll be talking about really emphasizes the particular groups 156 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that are at high risk of dropping out. And I think that the themes that have come out already about ways in which services and supports need to be targeted are themes that I would like to continue, and I hope you'll sort of pick up as I proceed with my testimony. We used data for this report from the Kids Data Infrastructure, which is at the University of Pennsylvania's Cartographic Modeling Lab. What's very unique about this dataset is that it merges data from a number of City agencies and it produces de-identified data so that individuals cannot be identified but that we can learn many new things about dropout. So, for example, we were able to get data from the School District of Philadelphia, from the Department of Human Services, from vital statistics, and we were able to learn a lot of new things that hadn't been known about dropouts before. Here are some of the things 157 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that we found: We found that in a single school year, about ten percent of the students in grades six through twelve either become official dropouts or they attend so infrequently -- and, that is, less than 50 percent of the time -- that for all practical purposes, they really are dropouts. Some of these students return to school in a subsequent year, but most of them do not. We also examined some cohorts of students. These are students who begin ninth grade together, and you examine what percentage of those students complete high school within four or five or six years. And in none of the six cohorts that we examined did we find that more than 60 percent of the freshmen who started high school together had graduated six years later. Over six cohorts from 2000, the class of 2000, to the class of 2005, about 30,000 of Philadelphia's youth dropped out of high school and we have no record of them 158 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 earning a diploma. We found that while there are differences in the rate of dropout among Philadelphia's neighborhoods and among Council districts, high school dropout affects every neighborhood and every Council district. It affects every racial or ethnic group in the City. It affects males and females. In many cases, the similarities are more striking than the differences, although I don't mean to underplay the differences at all. Contrary to what many people might have thought, most high school dropouts were not in foster care during high school. They did not have a substantiated case of abuse or neglect during high school. They did not receive the juvenile justice system's most severe sanctions; that is, an out-of-home placement, and they did not give birth, for females, to a baby within four years of starting high school.
They may have had many struggles and difficulties in 159 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 their lives, but as a group, they would not rank as the City's most severely troubled or difficult to reach youth. So, for example, only three percent of the dropouts have a substantiated case of abuse or neglect in high school. Seven percent of the dropouts had a foster care placement during high school. Twenty-three percent of the male dropouts had an out-of-home juvenile justice placement during high school. And that's not to minimize that that's almost one quarter, but it is to say that it's not the majority of dropouts, which I think was a surprise to many people who didn't know much about the dropout situation in Philadelphia. And 33 percent of the female dropouts gave birth within four years of starting high school. While those who are agency involved are not the majority high school dropouts, there are some who are under the care or supervision of City agencies 160 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 like the Department of Human Services while they were in high school, and we found that dropout rates for these students were extremely high. And this is where we sort of get back to the idea that there are some students who really need targeted services, that these different subgroups are very important. Of those who had a substantiated case of abuse or neglect during high school, we found that 70 percent did not complete high school. Of those with a foster care placement, 75 percent did not complete. Of those with a juvenile justice placement, 90 percent dropped out. Of those who gave birth within four years of high school, 68 percent dropped out. So while those students who had those agency involvements or had that kind of characteristic were not the majority of dropouts, of those who did have those characteristics, the dropout rate was extremely high. 161 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 I want to be very clear -- and we tried to be clear in the report -- that we are not saying that being involved with an agency caused high school dropout. There is a correlation, obviously. There's an association, but we're not saying that that caused it. However, young people who become involved with City agencies often already have many characteristics that put them at risk of dropping out of high school. What the data do tell us, however, is that the current level of support being offered to these students is not sufficient to allow them to earn a basic academic credential that they will need for economic survival and participation in civic life. We also found that about half of the dropouts, agency involved or not, were giving strong signals of their path to dropping out prior to entering high school. More than half of the students who eventually dropped out had earned a 162 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 failing grade in either math or English during eighth grade and/or they attended school less than 80 percent of the time. An additional 30 percent of the eventual dropouts did not fail math, they did not fail English in eighth grade, they attended school more than 80 percent of the time, but they had a very difficult time in ninth grade, which is known as -- the transition to high school is known as a tough year, particularly for students in urban areas. And these students that earned very few credits and they attended less than 70 percent of the time. By using just these criteria, the criteria in eighth grade and the criteria in ninth grade, we can identify 80 percent of the dropouts, 80 percent of the students who would eventually drop out by the end of their first year in high school. These data tell us several things. First of all, the dropout problem in Philadelphia's public schools 163 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 is real and it's severe. It is not a new crisis. The dropout rate has been approximately stable over the past ten years.
And Philadelphia is not unique among large cities in its high dropout rate, but like other cities with these sorts of educational outcomes, Philadelphia cannot be an economically and civically vibrant city of the 21st century with continued educational outcomes like these. The data also tell us that there are some ways to tackle the problem. We can start by figuring out how to support the education of students who are under the care or under the supervision of City agencies. We can use data -- and, of course, as a researcher I like to talk about data and I think it's important. We can use data to discover baselines to set goals and benchmarks and to measure our progress over time against these benchmarks. And I think we could do this for particular groups of students 164 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 who are at risk, and there's a number of ways that those subgroups could be defined and their progress could be measured and followed over time. Second, we can work on identifying adolescents who are at risk of dropping out. Now, whenever we mention high-risk adolescents and identifying them, somebody always says, Well, wouldn't it really be better to invest in early childhood and elementary education? And, of course, we agree. That is very important to make those investments to get students on the right path, but I think even if we have those kinds of investments, adolescence is always going to do a number on some students. And not all students are going to get the skills that they need in elementary school. Therefore, we need to have interventions all along the way. We need to be able to tell students, It's not too late for you. It's not too late if you're an eighth grader who has failed 165 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 a major subject. It's not too late for you if you're a ninth grader who has failed every course. And it's not too late for you if you already dropped out of school. In fact, it's your time, and here are some options for you. Thank you.
Thank you. Very important testimony. My late husband used to say -- I've said this before -- that if you're and you drop 13 out of school, he used to say drop back 14 in at 17, because you could have been 16 15 five times. So we agree. Very 16 important. We have to have something for everybody at any age. Thank you. Important testimony. Ms. Herzog.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, members. I'm Liza Herzog and I'm the Senior Researcher at the Philadelphia Education Fund. And a little bit about the Ed Fund: For the past 21 years, we've been providing 166 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 educational program and research on behalf of young people in Philadelphia, and we thank you for your continued attention to a critically important issue that touches the lives of all of us. We know the by-products of dropping out of school can make for a severely distressed city. So I'm going to talk about our research that we've done together with Johns Hopkins and to which Mr. " We were lucky in this research to have the uncommon advantage of having both local and longitudinal data. These are our kids, our Philadelphia kids, over time. So we were able to track sixth graders in Philadelphia public schools forward eight years, to a year beyond their expected graduation. We designed it in this way because reported annual dropout rates can be difficult to understand, as we know, and compare, 167 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 because, first, dropout status changes over time. We know that some students who initially drop out drop back in, reenter at some point, sometimes at multiple points to complete their degree requirements. And until we have a uniform definition of "dropout," different bodies, be it School District, state agencies, researchers, will continue to develop their own operational definitions. Our design allows us to look at what happens to the same group over time and gives us what we believe to be a very reliable picture of what's happening to our students. A little bit about the design: We surveyed more than variables, 19 outcome variables -- test scores, whether 20 the students were overage, course grades, their attendance patterns, suspensions, behavior marks, special ed designation -- to see which, if any, could identify who was at the highest risk for falling off track to graduation. We looked for those 168 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 with a high yield, meaning 75 percent or more of the kids with this particular characteristic did not make it to the twelfth grade with their class, and we found the most powerful predictors of the Philadelphia kids for falling off track to graduation to be attending school 80 percent or less of the time in the sixth grade, receiving a poor final behavior mark in the sixth grade, failing math in the sixth grade and failing English in the sixth grade. In other words, the odds of a sixth grader making it with his or her class if she has one of these risk factors, if you're a low attender, you have just a one-in-five chance; poorly behaved, a one-in-four chance; failed sixth grade math, one-in-five chance; failed sixth grade English, a one-in-eight chance. What we were able to do is identify 40 percent of eventual dropouts. Ruth talked about with the research that she's done with Bob Balfanz of Johns 169 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Hopkins and the Project U-Turn report, they were able to identify 80 percent of eventual dropouts by the ninth grade. What we did, knowing that and knowing that we could identify up to 40 percent in the sixth grade, who of these at-risk sixth graders were also in the group of at-risk eighth and ninth graders, and we found that about two-thirds of them were the same youth. Ruth also talked about adolescence as being a particular troubling time for our children, and we found that the nexus of adolescence being 11 or 12 years old and living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty has a very deep, negative impact on a student's relationship to school, which is why supports at that stage is so critical. The best thing about doing this work for me is applying it, and at the Ed Fund we have the opportunity to turn these findings into real supports for 170 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 real kids.
So we're currently in our design year in the north region and are working with schools to co-design interventions for sixth graders who are at risk of dropping out. Our work with schools there corroborates our finding that there are significant numbers of sixth graders who are really struggling. In fact, what we found in the research was that each year between 1,000 and 2,000 sixth graders in Philadelphia has each one of the big four risk factors, and it's become alarmingly clear that we really need to work -- "we" as the Ed Fund -- need to work together with principals and their teams on these tiered supports, whole school supports for the entire sixth grade, targeted supports for groups of 10 to 15 students who need more targeted attention, and intensive supports, which are very expensive but which are one-on-one, to increase the chances that these kids will make it to graduation with their 171 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 classmates. I'd like to say that these patterns, these at-risk patterns, are in place well before our kids show up at the high school door. And students who enter high school, we know from Ruth's research, two or more -- if they enter high school two or more years behind grade level in math and literacy, they only have a 50/50 chance of making it to the tenth grade on time. And repeating ninth grade is one of the strongest predictors for dropping out. So it just compounds as kids move up the pipeline. So what we think is what amounts to an early identification system that triggers appropriate supports as early as possible is vital to student success and will help us shrink this pool of children who are at extreme disadvantage the minute they walk through the door. So I think what we can do as a city is help schools and cross-sector 172 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 partners use this information effectively, take the lead in providing in- and out-of-school supports for the youth of Philadelphia beginning in the sixth grade or if they're out of school, at the age at which they would be in the sixth grade. And we would advocate for increased public awareness, continued public awareness about the dropout crisis by continuing to hold hearings and speak to your constituents, track progress of the children as they move through school so that our schools remain places where your youth can grow and learn and enjoy. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Have you done any work or be interested or know of someone who has on children who take Ritalin and behavior-altering drugs? It's been an issue I've been interested in for many years, and as you know, the students who go to charter schools and other schools, 173 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 this is a group that it's kind of on the parent or the grandparents or whomever to deal with it as an issue, and I really think it's part of a great question and I don't know how much research there is on it.
I'll answer first. I personally have not. I think it is -- it goes to why -- and this behavior mark has since been done away with, and there is a series of variables that are reported by Teachers Narrative that now supplants that behavior mark, but what really goes into that behavior mark, what is causing -- what is behind being at risk. And I think that is an interesting question that we can look more into, and whether or not a child is taking Ritalin could be a very significant part of that work. I have not had any experience doing any work. Have you, Ruth?
We've 174 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 been interested in it for a long time because, as you know, when a child hits puberty, if their drugs don't change, they become suicidal and such. It just changes everything. And there are so many complications with this, and the pharmaceutical company, Chad, that gets it and children get a lot more money, their patients do, if they can get SSI if they're taking these drugs as opposed to just getting a welfare check. So there's so many complications, and I've not over the years -- oh, I don't know, 15 years or more -- been able to really get somebody other than the pharmaceuticals who benefit to deal with this as an issue and how it affects young people. So I'd appreciate it if you could just -- (Applause.)
-- consider it, if you would. Thank you very much. Councilman Goode. 175 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Nield, in your testimony you state "contrary to what many people might have thought, most high school dropouts were not in foster care during high school, did not have a substantial case of abuse or neglect, did not receive the juvenile justice system's most severe sanction; that is, an out-of-home placement, and did not give birth to a baby within four years of starting high school." How many have prior arrests?
We do not have access to juvenile justice data involving arrests, for example, that did not result in an out-of-home placement. The only information we were able to have was about individuals who had a placement. So I think what you're tapping into is that there's other individuals who had some sort of interaction with the law that are not being picked up here, and 176 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that's right.
It's probably a huge number if the data you present says that percent of male 6 dropouts had an out-of-home juvenile 7 justice placement during high school when 8 that seems to be only one out of four, 9 but of those in juvenile justice 10 placement, 90 percent dropped out. The 11 appearance is definitely that there are 12 any number of people with prior arrests 13 that are already caught up in a system, 14 without blaming anyone of where they're 15 caught up in the system, that essentially 16 that continues to contribute to their 17 dropping out. 18
Right, and one 19 of -- that's exactly right, and one of 20 the things that we're trying to do going 21 forward is to look exactly at that issue 22 for the same reasons that you're 23 articulating. So the Kids Dataset at the time we were doing the research did not have an agreement so that we could access 177 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 arrest data or anything other than these out-of-home placements. But we recognize that this is a huge issue, and it's a huge issue for males in particular clearly, although females also have these out-of-home placements as well.
Because I did not cite arrest data for the murder victims and perpetrators because I didn't think it was totally germane to this hearing, but we do know that 80 percent, around 75, 80 percent, of those who were killed or did the killing last year had prior arrests.
Right. That makes sense. And I think that the word you used earlier in a related question was "correlation," and that's exactly the right word to be using, because you see this association between these two things. What's, I think, challenging is to find -- to estimate in some way what's the effect of legal involvement as opposed to some of the other kinds of 178 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 factors that propel students initially into being involved. In other words, there's a whole lot of factors that go into somebody ultimately becoming involved in the legal system. Some of those are related to what happened in high school, some of those things are related to what happened years and years and years and --
My ultimate goal is not to paint a picture of cause and effect but of correlation and the fact that there is a cycle, and the biggest reason to try to focus on that is to be able to identify people for intervention. And so essentially we need as much data as possible.
Yeah. That's exactly right. And what Liza was talking about is trying to find indicators where if you happen to have this characteristic, you have a very high risk of dropping out. And one of the reasons for trying to get that high threshold is 179 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 to be able to target resources appropriately. So that's another reason why looking at individuals who have an out-of-home placement -- and it may be true for kids who have arrests, too. We just don't know this, but you can look at those kids and say, If we don't do something with these kids, they've got a nine-out-of-ten chance of dropping out of high school. And so it's a good way of targeting -- you know you're using your resources, you're at least targeting in the right direction rather than maybe spreading them over individuals who might not have that same level of risk.
Thank you very much. Thank you both for your testimony. Heather Frattone. And I understand you're going to bring Paul Vallas' testimony. After Ms. Frattone, we'll have the Alternative Pathways panel, Courtney Collins-Shapiro, School 180 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 District; Meredith Malloy, YouthBuild; Marcus Delgado, Principal, Fairhill Community High School; Judi Taylor-Dunn, Center for Literacy. Are you all still here? (Yes.)
Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for your patience.
Good morning. My name is Heather Frattone. I'm the Executive Director for Policy and Planning at the School District of Philadelphia. First, I'd like to apologize for Mr. Vallas not being here today. As you may have heard, we had a District staff person killed in a bus accident this morning, so Mr. Vallas was attending to that. I am going to read his testimony for the record and then do the best I can to answer any questions that you might have. 181 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
Good morning, Councilwoman Blackwell and members of the Committee on Education. I appreciate the opportunity to testify this morning on ways in which the District working with others can work to stem the dropout crisis. In my brief testimony, I will outline the importance of a systemic approach, necessary preventative and intervention methods, and recommendations for the Committee's consideration. The Youth Transitions Collaborative represents a citywide, cross-sector partnership focused on data collection and program development needed to make progress towards reconnecting struggling students and out-of-school youth to high-quality educational options. The District is a lead partner in the Collaborative and has been committed to the work of the Collaborative from the beginning. 182 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 You have heard from many members of the Collaborative today, but let me simply say that the Collaborative is precisely the kind of citywide, cross-sector partnership that is needed to make true progress towards reconnecting struggling students and out-of-school youth. The Collaborative is supporting our efforts by improving our capacity to analyze and act on data; identifying the state and local policies that contribute to the problem and recommending changes that would better support our young people; supporting our efforts to build new high-quality educational programming and bringing the public, including young people and their families, directly into the process of planning and shaping these efforts. Other members of the Collaborative are here to talk to you about the work of the partnership and the data collection and analysis. I will focus my remarks on the District's 183 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 current dropout prevention and recovery initiatives and the components necessary to take these initiatives to the next level. As you have heard this morning, early intervention and parental engagement are critical to a student's academic success. The District provides educational, social service support and parenting skills training to pregnant and parenting teens, as well as pre-kindergarten programs for students ages three and four. The District has standardized its curriculum for grades pre-K through twelve to increase instructional time on task and provide students with the skills necessary to maintain grade level achievement. In Philadelphia, experience has taught us that addressing the needs of struggling students and out-of-school youth must be an essential component of our overall secondary school reform 184 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 efforts. These efforts include a variety of approaches aimed at disconnected youth, such as multiple pathways, which you'll hear more about from Courtney Collins-Shapiro, that are intended to provide equivalently rigorous academic programs in a variety of settings and an array of pedagogies. Let me give you a few examples. Research tells us that some students do not fare well in large high schools that too often create a sense of isolation and alienation. To address this issue, we're in the midst of a major construction and renovation effort that will create dozens of new smaller high schools either by dividing our large comprehensive schools into two or more separate administrative units or by building entirely new schools. In the long run, we believe that these small schools will provide for more supportive environments and pave the way for rigorous and innovative teaching 185 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 approaches that will engage more of our young people and move them successfully towards graduation. As a part of our high school reform, the District is also working to provide more opportunities for seniors to graduate early, earn college credits while in high school, gain work experience through paid internships and receive more college scholarships.
As you also know, the District partners with the Department of Human Services, Philadelphia Police and SEPTA to combat chronic truancy. The truancy reduction initiatives include the use of parent truant officers, truancy courts and truancy pick-ups. One of the things that we've started to focus on is also prevention and recovery initiatives. So through funding from the Philadelphia delegation of the Pennsylvania Senate Democrats, the District launched the Middle Grades Accelerated Program in all regions of the 186 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 City to focus on creating special schools within a school for overage eighth grade students. The programs place an intense focus on reading and math, interactive instructional materials and intense wrap-around supports to address social needs. The District has been recognized as a national leader in developing alternative education programs. We have Twilight Schools, which are now called Educational Options. They were originally designed to provide credit recovery during non-school hours for overage undercredentialed youth who were behind in school or who had already dropped out. The Educational Option program currently has the capacity to serve about 2,000 students. The lessons learned from these efforts are now helping to shape the redesign of our next generation of high-quality educational options for young people who return seeking a diploma. And Courtney can 187 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 speak to you a little bit about some of the stuff that we're doing to redesign the Educational Options program to better meet the needs of our students. Another important issue for many out-of-school youth is their distance from graduation and their need to accumulate credits as quickly as they can. To address this issue, in 2004-2005 the District launched three accelerated high schools to enable hundreds of overage and undercredentialed youth, many of whom are former dropouts or are involved in social services or juvenile justice systems, to earn the credits they need to graduate. We added an additional program this year and we currently have the capacity to serve 775 students, and we have long waiting lists at each of the programs. Again, thanks to the support of the Philadelphia delegation of the Philadelphia Senate Democrats, the District is in the process of placing 188 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Dropout and Recovery Specialists in seven high schools with the highest dropout rates in the City. These specialists will handle a caseload of students at risk of dropping out and will serve as a liaison for students returning to school from dropping out. New research is suggesting that it's possible for out-of-school youth to succeed in classrooms that actually blend secondary and post-secondary coursework. In late 2005, Community College of Philadelphia and the District received funding support from national foundations to replicate the nationally recognized Gateway to College program, pioneered at Portland Community College, that enables out-of-school youth to attend community college where they earn credits toward both a high school diploma and a post-secondary credential. The program eventually will serve 400 students over the next three years. The Collaborative has developed 189 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 policy and funding recommendations for consideration by the City, so I will leave the fuller discussion on these matters to other speakers. I would, however, like to offer two recommendations for the Committee's consideration as you deliberate on these important issues. I suggest expanding the City's commitment to alternative education funding in ways that would enable the District to create and tailor programs to meet the individual needs of young people who are currently not succeeding in a traditional classroom. The District currently serves approximately 2,800 students through the Educational Options program and the transitional high schools.
With increased alternative ed funding from the City, the District will work with the state and workforce development agencies to braid other funding streams to serve 5,000 students through these programs. 190 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 I also suggest appropriating funds to sustain and expand workplace internships for youth in Philadelphia. As you may know, the City is expected to lose 1,200 youth internships due to the higher costs associated with the new minimum wage increases. With an appropriation from the City, we could sustain the current number of youth internships and possibly create new workplace opportunities, including dedicated slots for former dropouts who enroll in School District diploma-granting programs. Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony before the Committee this afternoon. The importance of ensuring that all our young people graduate from high school ready for college and careers has never been greater. Thank you. I also have responses or general responses to some questions that 191 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 were raised earlier when Ted Kirsch was testifying. One of the questions was around the cost for reduced class size, and I have some general figures, and we can provide you with a more detailed analysis in writing. But we believe it will take close to 900 teachers, about 876 additional teachers, to move us to 10 kids in a classroom for grades K through 11 eight at a cost of somewhere between $70 12 and $80 million. And we can provide you 13 with a detailed analysis of this, but I 14 did want to give you the general numbers. 15 There were also some specific 16 questions about the number of vocational 17 schools. We have eight vocational 18 schools, and we have vocational -- or 19 career and technical education courses in 20 all of our high schools, and the programs 21 currently serve approximately 14,000 22 students. 23
Thank 24 you. Do you have any information on 25 defining "truancy"? 192 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
Yes. I mean, 80,000 is what? Is it 80,000 people, cases or what; do you know?
The report I think you were speaking from this morning was the Safe and Sound report that was issued last year. So I don't know the criteria that they used, but I can talk to you a little bit about what we do. Ted Kirsch was right. After three absences, we do fill out the -- we start interventions for students who are truant after three unexcused absences. So we start with the form that Ted Kirsch talked about. I believe that the next intervention level is five absences, then eight absences, then ten absences. But I can get you sort of a summary of what interventions students receive at what level. But we do start at three absences.
And 193 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 what the 80,000 means. Is that cases, people, whatever.
Yeah. I mean, we can work with Safe and Sound to better understand their methodology on that.
All right. And we will make available -- in fact, we met with Mr. Vallas as recently as Friday, and we're concerned about two programs, one in new West Philadelphia High School -- Thank you, Mr. Bichner, who is here, Al Bichner. And thank you, Leigh Whitaker, who is here. And so we have a letter ready for him that I will give you today so that maybe when we deal with the budget in April -- April 24th you're due back -- we can have some discussion, because there's some issue over funding and also for a community center, Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center between Sulzberger and Martha Washington that would enable the Board to make Sulzberger 194 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 High School and Martha Washington K to eight before September when we'll have a lot of pressure with the work at University City High School. Al Bichner knows. And I'll just make my letter available to you and we'll have further discussion on that when budget time comes. Thank you. Councilman Goode.
Just going through some statistics again. Last year there were 406 murders in Philadelphia. Over 60 percent of them were black males, and over 60 percent of those black males were under the age of 25. I thank the District for providing the data that I asked for, or at least one piece of the data that I asked for, regarding the murder victims and the perpetrators. And 195 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 based upon that data, for those that we do have information on, we know the graduation rate for those murdered was less than percent. I believe it was 6 24 percent. And we know of those who 7 were the accused perpetrators, we have 8 data for 127 of them. Only 23 graduated. 9 That's about 18 percent. 10 Is the District now willing to 11 admit that there is some correlation 12 between dropout rate and the murder rate? 13
I think what 14 you've heard today, the testimony from 15 Ruth and from Laura, is that there are 16 many factors that contribute to students 17 dropping out, and I think Ruth's 18 testimony, especially around the 90 19 percent of students that are involved in 20 the -- who have been in a delinquency 21 placement eventually drop out of school. 22 I think, yes, there is a correlation. 23
Actually, 24 let me restate the question because 25 actually I've been stating the question 196 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 wrong about there being a correlation between the dropout rate and the murder rate. I guess the way I should ask the question, is there a correlation between the murder rate and the dropout rate, is a better way to ask the question. Of those people who are being murdered, we know that most of them are -- most of the murders are victim specific, that the people actually knew each other. So, in fact, if the epidemic within this City in terms of murder rate is related to victim-specific crimes and we then look at the data related to the victims and the perpetrators and see that the overwhelming majority of both dropped out and know the overwhelming majority of both had prior arrests, is there a way to better address this problem with that new information and with that new focus?
Well, I think one of the things that we are currently doing with the City, at least as far as with the delinquency system, is working 197 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 very closely with the new after-care program through RETI-WRAP, which is the transition program that students have to attend when they're returning from delinquent court placements, to do a comprehensive assessment of them, so not only of where they are academically but also of what some of their social service needs may be so that we can then work to find them an appropriate school placement. I mean, one of the things that we worry about when a child is returning from delinquent placement is if they go back to the school where they were before or back into the community without the additional supports that they need, they may fall back into those old behaviors. So we have been working very closely and we will continue to work very closely with our City partners in assessing the students and doing the best that we can to get them the supports they need and put them in appropriate 198 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 educational programs. So it may be that going back to a more traditional high school environment isn't the right place for them; they need to enroll in one of the transition high schools. It may be that a program like Job Corps might be more appropriate for them, and really looking at the individual student to assess what might be the appropriate placement for them.
There were two requests for information that I made at the last hearing. One was for graduation data for the victims and perpetrators of murders last year. The other was for a tracking of performance, academic performance, of young black males. That information has not been forthcoming.
You didn't get the stuff on the academic performance of African-American males?
We can get that 199 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 for you.
Thank you. Lastly, you began to explain and I may have interrupted you. Please tell me what is the School District's position now in terms of the correlation between those people who were murdered last year, committed murders last year and their graduation rates, which is the best way I can phrase it.
Yeah. I'm not all that clear on the question and I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer it. I mean, I think as we learn from the research, there are many factors that contribute to a student dropping out of school. We learn that it isn't just one event or one cause, that we really have to look at all of the circumstances for that individual to figure out how to better program for them.
Actually, I did turn the question around. I didn't use the word "dropout." I said does the 200 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 School District know yet or have a new perspective yet on what it means that those people who were murdered last year and who committed murders last year share extremely low graduation rates, between and percent, as compared to the 8 overall graduation rate of the School 9 District at 56 percent? I mean, does 10 that mean anything to the School 11 District? 12
The best I can 13 say, I think the School District has long 14 participated in the Youth Homicide Review 15 Committee, which has been looking at the 16 young men and women under the age of, I 17 think it's, 14 to 25, or whatever, who 18 are murdered or commit murders in the 19 City of Philadelphia and what their 20 circumstances are, so what systems were 21 they involved in, how successful were 22 they in school. 23 So the best way that I can 24 answer that is that the School District has always been aware of a student's 201 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 academic progress and how that academic progress may impact what happens in the future of their lives and specifically around murdering or being murdered in Philadelphia. We've been an active participant in that and will continue to do so.
Yes. I mean, my understanding of the committee, and I can confirm this, is that it deals with any person between the ages -- it's either 14 to 25 -- it goes up to 25, who was murdered or murdered someone in the City, and it's a cross-sector group that looks at those individuals, and it helps inform, I believe, some of the YVRP and AVRP stuff that the City has been working on over the last couple of years.
So I guess the better question is, so based upon the activity you've already been involved in, 202 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 where are you?
You said the School District has been involved in this activity in terms of reviewing data. What does that tell you at this point? Where are you in terms of --
Well, I think it tells us what we've always known, which is a young person's academic success or lack of academic success has implications on what will happen for them in the future, whether it's being involved in the adult prison system, murdering, being murdered, being able to find employment, being able to pursue career opportunities. I think it's a more comprehensive look that we've been trying to make.
So a more comprehensive look at it, but what conclusions have you drawn, what new approaches are you taking? I notice in 203 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Mr. Vallas' testimony the first highlighted area is the importance of a systemic citywide approach, and I'm assuming that that is toward the 56 percent graduation rate, not the much lower graduation rate associated with those people killing and being killed.
Around our students who are returning from delinquent court placement or who are involved in the delinquency system, we do work very closely with DHS and the after-care system to figure out for those students not only what an appropriate educational placement would be but what other social supports those kids need, those young people need.
That was part of my previous question. So is your work really just associated with those students who are still within the School District, or how are you involved in terms of out-of-school youth?
Well, I mean, 204 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 some of those students returning from delinquent court placement may have been out of school before they were placed and they come back to us when they return from placement. I believe that for the ones that are under years of age, a 8 condition of their probation is that they 9 enroll in school. It may be -- I don't 10 know if Candace is still here. She may 11 be able to answer that question. 12
I guess my 13 question is also related to those 14 out-of-school youth that are not required 15 by age to be in school. 16
Right. So 17 that's why we're a part of this. And we 18 are using -- one of the big parts of Project U-Turn is to increase awareness and outreach to students who are out of school, to young people who are out of school, and to create not only ways for them to find out what is available for them but to also create more opportunities, more appropriate 205 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 educational placements for them.
The disciplinary schools, I know there are a number of incidents where students get put in a disciplinary school when they, for example, have a weapon. Sometimes they at least make the argument they didn't realize they had the weapon, it was dad's coat or something like that. Do you know if being put in those schools, has that sometimes -- obviously inadvertently on the School District's part -- pushed them totally out of the system; in other words, pushed them into the dropout category? Do you know? 206 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807
We have -- so as you may know, the District has a number of disciplinary schools. They are now run all by outside providers. We used to run some of them ourselves and we determined that we could find providers to do it better than we did. Our largest provider is Community Education Partners, and we did -- Temple University, through the Laboratory for Student Success, did a longitudinal study on the students at CEP and how they did while they were there and how they did when they went back to their schools. We would be more than happy to provide you with a copy of that study. We are taking a closer look at students who -- and hopefully we've started to talk through the Collaborative about how we may be able to do some of this through the research with the University, with the Kids Dataset and Johns Hopkins and Ruth to really assess. So the kids who don't make it all the way 207 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 through the disciplinary program and they end up dropping out, what happened, where did we lose them, was it because of something that happened at the program, was it because of where they were academically, was it because of something else that happened in their lives, and how do we find ways to reconnect them.
Because the reason I ask that, in my previous life as a staff member, I used to hear from a lot of parents who were saying, You send my kid to this school, he or she is going to be scared, they're not going to stay there. And I guess that's what I'm getting at. Have you seen, without going into a lot of specifics, have you seen that that's a problem? And I guess the second part, if it is, is there any possible solution to it?
I think the problem may be perception more than reality. I mean, we encourage families 208 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 who have those concerns to at least give the school a try, to go and enroll their child so that they can see if in fact that is true for them or not. One of the other things we do is that if we have a specific request from a family that this school is too big or this school is too far away, we try and work with them and place them in another alternative environment that may be more appropriate for them.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Frattone. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much. Any further questions? (No response.)
The Alternative Pathways panel, if you are still here. Again, Courtney 209 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Collins-Shapiro from the School District; Meredith Malloy, YouthBuild; Marcus Delgado, Principal, Fairhill Community High School; and Judi Taylor-Dunn, Center for Literacy. Welcome. Thank you for your patience. Is Candace Bell here today?
Okay. You're next. Thank you for your patience. Good afternoon. Would you identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
Good afternoon, Councilwoman Blackwell and members of the Committee. My name is Courtney Collins-Shapiro and I'm the Director of the School District's Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation. As you heard Heather Frattone deliver Mr. Vallas' testimony, I'm going to explore some of the things that the 210 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 School District has been doing to address the out-of-school youth and at-risk youth problem within the District. I'm going to really talk about five promising programs that we've begun or retooled within the past months. 8
Please 9 pull your mike up. It's hard to hear 10 you. 11
Sure. 12 So the first type of program we 13 have are our accelerated high schools. 14 You talked earlier when Councilwoman 15 Reynolds Brown was here, she was talking 16 about hearing from the students who have 17 been here for some of the violence 18 panels, about students speaking about the need to get back into school, that they're there, they want to get back in but they don't feel like there's an option for them. We've created accelerated schools within the District that focus on meeting the needs of students, remediating literacy and math 211 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 deficiencies, and moving these students through the coursework required for graduation at an accelerated pace. These schools focus on high school dropouts ages to who are at least one full 7 year behind in school. In many cases, 8 they're two or three years behind 9 academically. They also many times have 10 literacy deficiencies, where they're 11 reading at third, fourth or fifth grade 12 levels. 13 This year, 775 students from 14 all sections of the City are enrolled in 15 four accelerated high schools. However, 16 right now we have more than 800 students 17 who are on voluntary wait lists for these 18 schools, and we get more than 20 phone 19 calls every single week on our Project 20 U-Turn hotline from students and parents 21 looking to get into an accelerated school. We believe that with new funding earmarked for accelerated school expansion, the members of the Youth Transitions Collaborative could fill 212 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 2,000 seats in these schools within 30 days of opening. This is the most significant thing we can do to see a drop in our dropout rate immediately, get these students back into school and on the road to success. The second program I want to talk about is the Educational Options program, formerly known as Twilight. Again, today we're serving 2,000 youth and adults ages to 65 in this 13 afternoon and evening program in ten 14 different locations across the City. The 15 goal of this program is for students to 16 earn their diploma. Most students are 17 coming to us a little bit farther along, so they maybe dropped out when they were a junior or a senior in high school and now they just need to complete their diploma. Low literacy remains a key issue in this program. So a student may have dropped out at junior year, but unfortunately they're still reading two 213 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 or three years below grade level. So this year, with the assistance of the William Penn Foundation and the Center for Literacy, we're launching a low literacy hub within one of our programs. We're starting that program actually next week, where we will be focusing on students who have taken literacy exams and tested several years below grade level and working with them on an individual literacy instruction program to see if we can help increase their literacy gains. We're proposing within the District that we expand both the seats and the locations of these programs so we can, again, have more seats across the City for students who are looking to reconnect to school. The Gateway to College program is the newest program that we have for out-of-school and at-risk youth. This program currently enrolls 100 students who were formerly dropouts. They are 214 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 enrolled completely at the Community College of Philadelphia. They take all their classes there, and they count for both high school and college credits. Most of these students will not only earn a diploma but will earn most or all of their credits towards an Associate's degree. And we're seeing high demand for that program. One of our challenges is, that program requires an eighth grade reading level. So many of the dropouts who are looking to reconnect and see that program as a very impressive option are far below the literacy level needed to participate.
So we're starting to create concepts for sort of a bridge to the Gateway program so we can focus on literacy for students who want to be enrolled in that program. In all three of the above programs, we know the potential applicant pool to be much larger than the current combined capacity of 2,800 seats. Using Dr. Nield's research and current School 215 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 District data, the current pool of students includes roughly the 8,200 students that drop out of school every year, and right now on the rolls we have 7,100 students ages to who are 7 enrolled in high schools but who are 8 overage for their grade and are at least 9 one full year in credits behind. These 10 students are in the next class of 11 dropouts if we do not act immediately to 12 find them and help them be successful. 13 The remaining two strategies 14 for students who are currently on the 15 verge of dropping out are preventative in 16 nature. The first I'll touch on are the 17 Student Success Centers. Again, with 18 help from the William Penn Foundation, 19 the District created these one-stop centers within eight neighborhood high schools with some of the highest dropout rates in the City. By leveraging resources and staff from the School District and other partner agencies, we've been able to provide comprehensive 216 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 college, career, academic and social support services for all students within these schools. So you've heard many speakers talk about providing those wrap-around supports that students need beyond just the academic preparation, and we do that through these centers. These centers are a logical hub for dropout prevention services and are easily replicable within accelerated schools and other neighborhood high schools. In fact, we've been invited to New York by the Annenberg Center at the end of this month to talk about New York City public schools replicating this model there. For students who are considering dropping out, the promise of assistance with college preparation, a trained adult to help them addressing personal problems or linkages to paid employment through internships are strong incentives to stay in school. Included 217 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 in the Youth Transitions Collaborative request to Council for additional funding to support internships for youth is the funding to bolster the workforce development aspects of this model and to connect the students most at risk of dropping out directly to the workforce. When Councilman Goode had spoken earlier about how do we know that we can guarantee we're going to target those most at-risk students for those jobs, those students who are juvenile offenders, I can guarantee you that if you target those funds and attach them to accelerated schools and our at-risk youth in the high schools, they're going to be those students in those populations. It's going to be children aging out of foster care, it's going to be teen parents, it's going to be students who were once in delinquent placement, because that's who is in our accelerated schools. This effort will support the 218 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 success in our model that's already in place. It will expand similar student employment models for our accelerated high schools, and I strongly urge Council to consider funding a portion of the citywide youth internship and workforce development program that is linked to accelerated and neighborhood schools as a significant way to attract dropouts and at-risk youth back to school. Finally, our Dropout Prevention Specialists. Social workers with a background in working with at-risk teens began working in seven neighborhood high schools with high dropout rates just this month. These specialists are targeting the students most at risk of dropping out using the data that we know to be the most sort of the target factors from Dr. Nield's research.
So we're pulling monthly drop-downs of data so we can target the students who are absolutely at risk of dropping out in these schools. In addition, they'll be charged 219 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 with creating a support network of caring adults in these buildings for each of these youth to help increase their chances of on-time graduation. A similar program in Boston is showing promise of early results in helping students return to school, stay in school and connect to the services that many of these students need outside of school in order to remove barriers to participating in education. I am joining other members of the Collaborative in asking Council to consider our request to provide funding to put at least one Dropout Prevention Specialist in every neighborhood high school to stem the tide of dropping out as soon as possible. In closing, I'd like to share that Philadelphia is being viewed as one of the leading cities nationally on the issue of dropout prevention and recovery. The District and the members of the Collaborative are doing everything we can within our limited fiscal means to create 220 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 new, viable educational pathways for this very important group of youth. We are now asking the City to join us by providing us with some of the fiscal resources needed to turn the dropout problem around and to really become the national leader on this issue. These youth live in every councilmanic district and they are out there in our communities asking for more educational pathways to success. Tangible things like more slots in accelerated high schools, Dropout Prevention Specialists and internships for at-risk youth are immediate ways that the City can invest in its future and make an immediate impact on the lives of thousands of young Philadelphians. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.)
Hi. My name is Judi Taylor-Dunn and I'm the Director of Education Services for the Center for Literacy. I'm actually reading the testimony of JoAnn Weinberger, our President, Executive Director. On behalf of the Center for Literacy, I am pleased to be here today to discuss the needs of youth at risk of dropping out of school or those who have already dropped out because of low literacy levels. During the 2005-2006 fiscal year, CFL worked with over 1,000 young people ages to 21. These were 16 high school dropouts, both male and female, representing all races. These young people came to CFL with goals, wanting a high school diploma or GED. " Who are these youth? They are under 21, and 77 percent were reading below a sixth grade level. Eighty-seven and a half percent had math skills below 222 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the sixth grade level. Some were in special education, while others were low achievers. Many have adult responsibilities as parents and workers and need support as they search for housing and strive to overcome barriers. In many instances, their case worker or parent calls CFL or the School District to find out about the opportunities available to them. The Center for Literacy's citywide programs are open to these youth in the neighborhood centers, in community programs and in family literacy programs. Some of the classes are designed particularly with youth in mind. In others, the youth are integrated with adult learners of all ages. Starting in July 2005, literacy coaching was available in the E3 centers. At the same time, the Center for Literacy was developing a Toolkit for Serving Out-of-School Youth with Low Literacy Levels as part of the City of 223 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Philadelphia's response to the challenge of working with struggling youth using funding from the Youth Transition Funders Group collaborative. The research and professional literature were analyzed for this project and it can be summarized as follows: Serving the literacy needs of out-of-school youth, particularly those reading below the sixth grade level, is a complex task. Adolescence is a time for upheaval for the vast majority of people, and it is made more difficult by the kinds of situations that require youth to leave school early and require further literacy training. However, if teachers serving the out-of-school youth population come to better understand how adolescents develop, how they are different from adults and how to provide quality reading instruction to meet their needs, these learners will be better served regardless of the educational setting. In implementing this toolkit 224 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that we created, we found out two items. First of all, in order for students to be successful in diploma-granting programs, they must first be equipped with the necessary skill base. Without these foundational skills, they are likely to once again become disengaged. Second, to enable these youth to continue in the program, they require a system of providing caring adult guidance. The underfunded adult education system does not enable the small class size or the supportive case management that these youth require. The School District needs to both, A, welcome them back and, B, provide options or what is being called multiple pathways. The E3 centers and other special out-of-school youth programs, including a literacy hub model and a bridge program, offer great promise in getting into place the critical elements that lead to success for these youth. There is a great deal of work 225 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 ahead for all of us if we are to provide hope to the thousands of youth who need our help. We believe that collaborative partnerships are essential in creating, implementing and bringing to scale the educational options being discussed.
We implore the leadership of Philadelphia to reflect on the impact low literacy has on our region's economic health and the power of literacy in helping youth contribute to the future of our great city. We know that a high school graduate will earn on average over $7,800 more per year than a dropout. We know what it takes to provide quality services that will enable these students, who have made a conscious decision to return to an educational program to improve their skills and be successful, but we need your support. Today, I specifically thank you for holding this hearing and ask you to, one, increase public awareness about the dropout crisis by continuing to address 226 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 this issue by tracking progress and, two, create high-quality workplace internships for Philadelphia youth, including the overaged and undercredentialed. 5 million invested in these internships have the potential to improve academic achievement while increasing access to adult mentoring and job readiness. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions? (No response.)
My name is Meredith Malloy and I'm with YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School. YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School is an innovative academic and job-training program that reengages young adults who are 18 to 21 who have dropped out of high school and puts them on the path to 227 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 future success. Students spend half of their time on the work sites learning job skills as they rehabilitate abandoned houses for low-income families and the other half in the classrooms where they receive individualized academic attention as they work toward their high school diploma. Students also provide hundreds of hours of community service every year. Our students have rehabilitated over 60 houses since its inception. Our program has successfully mobilized at-risk out-of-school youth to become a positive workforce in Philadelphia. YouthBuild provides real and tangible benefits to the entire Philadelphia community. Through our 14 years of experience, we know that out-of-school youth truly can turn their lives around if they are provided with the right resources and opportunities. At YouthBuild we put a real investment into our students, not just through academics 228 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 and job training but individualized care through case management, life skills and transition services to ensure that each student knows they can be successful. Every year YouthBuild receives four times as many applications as available positions, proving that when you make a valuable opportunity available, young people will show up to take advantage of it. When we invest in our youth, lives truly can change. However, the level of service that YouthBuild provides cannot be sustained without a financial commitment from our community. Our community needs to support the transition of these students into responsible adulthood by providing high-quality internships, living wage jobs and career tracks. To truly reconnect to the education and succeed in programs like YouthBuild, young people need to be shown that they can have a bright future and a quality career. By providing support 229 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 from local tax dollars for youth workforce development activities, we can provide these students with the best transition possible, ensuring that the commitment to their future will not end with a high school diploma. In June 2007, we expect another 120 former dropouts to graduate from our program. We would like for each of those graduates to have a real plan in place for their future success with high-quality jobs and internships in the community waiting for them. We would love to be able to tell each and every one of those graduates that their next step is planned because their city invested in them and because we all believe that they can succeed. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.)
We 230 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 know there are only a few of you left, but we have to let the stenographer take a moment break. So we will recess for about three minutes and then we'll be right back. Five minutes. Thank you. (Short recess.)
Thank you very much. We'll resume our hearing. And it wasn't even five minutes. The next two people are already at our table, at the witness table, and we will allow them, Ms. LeBron and Ms. Shipler, is it, to introduce themselves to our record and begin their testimony. Thank you for your patience. MS. LeBRON: Good afternoon, Councilwoman Blackwell --
Good afternoon. MS. LeBRON: -- and other members of Council present. My name is Carmen Maria LeBron. I'm a leader with the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project and a member of the Incarnation 231 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 of Our Lord Catholic Church in the Olney section of Philadelphia. EPOP is a faith-based non-profit organization of neighborhood institutions, churches and schools. EPOP has been working with the parents improving schools since its founding in 1993. For the past two years, EPOP has been a member of the out-of-school youth collaborative working together to reduce this City's escalating dropout problem. Each year thousands of our young people leave school before realizing the promise of a bright future an education offers. They leave school without ever being connected with the assistance they need to turn their lives around. All too often they become angry and frustrated, turning to lives on the streets or low-paying jobs. Overworked and overwhelmed parents feel they have nowhere to turn to help them. We need to connect them with multiple pathways to education that are here to help their 232 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 children. We are here today to ask City Council to support the Office of Educational Support within the Department of Human Services. The purpose of this office would be to aid these thousands of young people currently dropped out of school to get back to the path to success. This office would provide them with the assistance they need to return to school by matching them with programs that meet their needs. Additional support would be offered at high-risk high schools to provide a roadmap to the additional resources and support to begin to turn around this serious problem. As a parent of a young man who dropped out of school at age 15, with the reading level of twelfth grade, I know the importance of connecting young people to the services they need through one central location. He recently returned to school and received his GED at the Keystone Job Corps located in Drums, 233 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Pennsylvania. I ask that the Council support this initiative to help our youth who are the future of Philadelphia, and I thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today.
Good afternoon. I'm sitting in for Nick Torres, who is the President of Congreso de Latinos Unidos. My name is Kristin Shipler. I'm actually the Director of Civic Engagement for Congreso, and I testified here a couple of months ago with the Project U-Turn partners. Congreso, as you might know, is the largest Latino social service agency in Pennsylvania. We're a community-based non-profit based in eastern North Philadelphia, and we thank City Council for prioritizing the needs of the Latino population in our great city, especially 234 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 knowing that Latino communities have unique challenges and they're a growing population in Philadelphia. Since 1990, the Latino population in Philadelphia has increased by over 65 percent, and that's actually probably underrepresented. And more than half of the Latino population is younger than years of age. 2 16 percent. Less than 40 percent of our 17 population in eastern North Philadelphia 18 has graduated from high school. So we 19 see it not only among our at-risk youth, 20 but we see it in our adult population as 21 well. So the dropout crisis is really 22 real for all of our youth but especially 23 so for Latinos. 24 Given the language and cultural 25 barriers and the poverty that faces the 235 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Latino community, Latinos are very vulnerable to dropping out of school. So how do we tackle this in an effective, streamlined manner, factoring in all of the stakeholders who can potentially contribute to transformational change? That's the question that we're constantly asking. And we've been in the community for 30 years. Our services reach more than 10,000 youth per year, and most of them are in eastern North Philadelphia, but they do cover the whole gamut of the City. And we view the schools as the heart of the community, and as such, we have strategically aligned many of our youth programs within the educational system. Our contribution to the school system provides supports to prevent high school dropouts, and that's where most of our programs focus. Even outside of the school system we attempt to attack the root causes that lead youth to drop out of school, because prevention strategies 236 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 are paramount, but we realize these strategies aren't enough. There are many youth already out of school who desperately need the larger community's support, and that's why we're here today to focus on this. And in response to this, we are one of the community-based organizations charged with managing one of the City's E3 centers, which you keep hearing about, and I'll go into a little more detail. The E3 centers were designed as an intensive career preparation program for youth age 14 to 21. Students who drop out of school are very unlikely to return. As such, the E3 centers were designed to provide an appropriate and youth-driven context, which is a really important point, within which to educate clients toward a high school equivalency diploma and to build the essential skills they need to enter the workforce. Members work with our staff to identify their career interests, they set goals, 237 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 they have life plans, and they try and gain skills that they need to achieve those goals. But this is hard work and it takes extensive dedication to each of the youth to ensure that they meet the goals set out for them. This is especially so for the youth who have entered into the juvenile justice system, because as you've heard, approximately 90 percent of them drop out of school. On average currently, $3,000 is dedicated to each youth slot in an E3 center, and this is an amount that differs quite dramatically from the upwards of 40,000 that can be spent on youth placement residential treatment. One of the most important investments in the E3 center and in many of our youth programs is human capital.
Our career advisors and instructors are vital investments, because research demonstrates that the primary critical factor in successfully intervening with 238 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 these youth is a caring adult, another point that you've already heard today. Nevertheless, under the current funding structure at $3,000 per youth, we must often make difficult choices regarding providing social or instructional supports. So we're finding that the needs are much more than just education and workforce development. When we have to make those difficult choices, we fail to give the youth comprehensive support, resulting in very few gains leading to a degree or an employment. So we're really talking about wrap-around services here. As such, we propose increased capacity within the current centers to fully address the myriad needs that each of our clients present. Another essential need for our centers is the entree for more workplace internships for our clients, as real-time experience not limited to the classroom is often the essential ingredient that 239 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 motivates the youth to change his or her life. We respectfully request your partnership in supporting workplace internships for our youth for the upcoming fiscal year. With an emphasis on quality over quantity, we will more likely ensure real positive change in the lives of our clients we serve. We have seen in the year that we have operated the E3 center the absolutely essential component of personal connections with an adult in the center. And, again, an adult connection is one of the most influential components. So I just want to quickly share an example of one of our clients with you. This is a client story. Her name is Christina and she's a 17-year-old Latina who dropped out of school when she was 14. She was in the ninth grade. She had become pregnant, and when her baby was born, her mother kicked her out of the house. Fourteen, pregnant, kicked 240 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 out of the house. So where does this leave Christina? She doesn't have consistent childcare. She has been evicted three times from housing. She doesn't have relationships with her parents, the father of her daughter or other relatives. So she's very alone. She's an only child. And she's currently looking for work, but because of her childcare situation, she hasn't been able to hold down a job for very long. And this is one of our clients. This is a real person. And she's not an exception, this is the rule. She's connected to the E3 center last January. So she's been with us for a year. And so far, Christina has improved from fourth grade reading to seventh grade reading and math levels. She's currently in one of our GED classes, and she's completed a six-week program in computer repair program within the center. She works about 15 to 20 241 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 hours per week in the program. So it's an internship in-house. But just as important, through case management she has found more stable housing and childcare. She's built better peer and social networks and she's working toward involving the father of her daughter in their lives. The connection she has made with her case manager and the direction the case manager has been able to provide her have been successful keys in bringing her toward self-sufficiency. She's not quite there, though. More time, committed focus and resources will be dedicated to Christina so that she actually receives her GED and works in a more sustainable job, and we're committed to getting her there. So just, again, to focus on the need for wrap-around services, when you have no family support, you have childcare issues, you have housing issues and you're only 17 years old, the 242 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 supports that these children need -- and she is still a child even though she is a mother -- the supports that they need are pretty great.
So the wrap-around services at the E3 centers are really important and need to be emphasized. And there are many Christinas in Philadelphia. We aim to provide quality outcomes-based results that will lead our clients toward self-sufficiency. The collaboration of all of these organizations that have been here today is significant and need support. In addition to financial support from City Council, like other people have mentioned, public education efforts around the issue of dropouts and increased community collaboration for a proposed solution on your behalf would assist us immeasurably. With such limited time to discuss these really important issues, we invite you, any and all City Councilmembers, if you would like to view our E3 center, we're right 243 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 at Girard and 5th if you'd like to come out and to see any of our youth programs so that you can more ultimately see the important supports we offer to enhance the work in and out of our schools. We're committed partners, and we really thank you for your time.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for your patience, too.
I'd like to commend you, Councilwoman Blackwell, and your Committee for having us all here for the second time to run through our testimony more completely. My name is Candace Bell and I'm a Program Officer at the William Penn Foundation and I'm here to speak in support of Project U-Turn. As you know, William Penn's commitment to education in Philadelphia is both longstanding and substantial, as is our commitment to ensuring the economic and social well-being of the City. The dropout crisis is described in 244 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the Project U-Turn report and testified to by those who have already spoken is one that has serious implications beyond school reform or quality of life in our neighborhoods. Philadelphia cannot move into the 21st century with close to 50 percent of its young adults not having a twelfth grade level of educational proficiency. What employer is going to want to move here with half of the workforce unqualified for jobs in this new high-tech economy? This is a ball and chain on progress at all levels that cannot be ignored any longer. It impacts the City's economy, its tax burden, its safety, its quality of life and civic life. And some of this we've already discussed this afternoon. The Foundation first became involved with this issue through a national funders affinity group called the Youth Transition Funders Group in 2002. We participated in the design and funding of the seven-city initiative that 245 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 has produced Project U-Turn here in Philadelphia and in similar initiatives in Boston, New York, Portland, San Jose, Washington, DC and Las Vegas. Locally, the Foundation has invested $2.4 million to date on this issue as part of the local matching funds that are required by the nationals for the initiative. We feel a critical element to the success of Project U-Turn has been the participation of multiple systems in the initiative, because we feel this is a problem that goes beyond what the District can do on its own, and I think that the testimony from Congreso certainly underscores that in a big way. We're proud of the fact that the District, DHS, Family Court and the Youth Council have set aside politics and brought their best minds to bear on this issue. Not surprisingly, Philadelphia stands out among the other cities in its progress to date, astonishingly enough. I have a colleague who sometimes says 246 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 it's like being the tallest midget in the circus, but this is a big issue and we've just started working on it. So we should realize our progress but realize there's a lot more to be done. And, in fact, Philadelphia has an opportunity with Council's support to be a national leader on this issue. There are several actions Council can take that will support this work. First of all, create an office of education within DHS to help youth in their care earn a high school diploma. That 90 percent dropout rate is just outrageous, right, and something needs to be done about that. Provide resources to place social workers in schools with low graduation rates and/or a large number of students in DHS's care. Three, expand the number of paid student workplace internships, as discussed by Laura Shubilla earlier. And, No. 4, support pregnant 247 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 and parenting teens in finishing their high school education by providing case management services to pregnant and parenting teens. The William Penn Foundation for its part is committed to supporting Project U-Turn going forward. National foundation investment will also continue through the Youth Transition Funders Group, provided the City systems and the District continue to work together and prioritize this problem for investment. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.
Thank you for your testimony and for your recommendations. Have you had a chance to share Recommendation No. 1 with DHS, might you have had an opportunity to be a part of the year's past work with the Blue Ribbon Commission, which really took a wholistic 248 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 view and examination of how we can serve children better? Are you familiar with that?
I personally was not a part of that, although another person from our Foundation has been. And, yes, we try to support and incent any cross-system effort we can find in the City. The Foundation is on record with doing that.
So you have had a chance to share that formally with DHS, the recommendation that an office of education --
That has been shared with DHS. I do not believe that -- I can't speak for whether my colleague did 249 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 it on behalf of the Foundation in an official sense, but that has certainly been a recommendation I know that has been given to DHS as part of our collaborative efforts both on the behavioral health side and also on the Youth Transitions Collaborative work.
Okay. Well, thanks again for your important testimony.
Thank you very much. I believe we have three people left. I will name them. If there's someone else who would like to testify, please let us know. Shelly Yanoff, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, and we 250 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 thank her on all that she's done to organize today the speakers and all that was concerned. Great job. Leola Stowall Muse, are you here?
And Vernard Johnson. I know Vernard. Anyone else who would like to testify? (No response.)
All right. That will be our last -- yes, sir. Okay. We'll get you next. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Before starting, also I want to thank John Christmas from your office, Councilwoman, for his help in setting this up, and I want to thank Councilman Greenlee and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and Councilman Goode, who was here earlier, and even Councilwoman Verna, President Verna, for really 251 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 recognizing the critical importance of this issue to the City, to the youth and to our community. I also wanted to just note before I forget, since Councilman Goode keeps raising the issue of the number of kids who have been either murdered or murdered who are African-American male and what was their education, what was their dropout rate, the first issue that the public school Notebook did -- and I wrote one of the articles and titled it "What Gets Counted Counts," and the reality is that unless we continue to count how many kids are dropping out, what's their story and what can we do to change that story and to make it better, we're going to continually be behind. We can do this. So Councilman Goode's questions, while they're uncomfortable, they are -- in many ways we need to be uncomfortable in order to look closely at this issue, and we need to have the police make their data on arrests 252 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 available to the Kids Data Group so that in fact we can answer how many kids were arrested who had dropped out, who dropped out, who were in foster care. One of the issues that this collaborative has been really pushing has been combining and collaborating all of the systems' work so that we can look at a child not just because he's in DHS's care, but we should know how is he doing in school, what's happening to him in the rest of his life, and too often we only look at kids through one perspective. So the young women who are pregnant and parenting, they get prenatal care, but the prenatal care people do not have the time or wherewithal to connect them back to school or to ask about that. One of the things that we can do, that Council can do is to really support the collaborative effort. So it's not just counting wholistically, but it's also saying, Let's put social workers in high schools 253 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that have high foster care, high number of kids in foster care, or low graduation rates. Because we know that kids who drop out often say they don't have anybody to talk with, they don't have anybody that they can turn to with their problems. Well, we know these kids have problems. Let's put the social workers there. You can support that. We know that the health centers -- and we know that you have been fighting for more support in health centers. We want you to keep fighting for that, because all of Philadelphia needs our health centers to be able to treat people who need to be treated, but we need -- when young women go for prenatal care, we need them to have the ability in those centers and we need to have teams to expand our teams of nurse-family partnerships and maternity care coalitions so that people can actually help these young women who are pregnant go back to school or stay in 254 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 school. We know also that we want the School District to continue exploring alternate pathways and setting up new kinds of schools that can appeal to these kids that have not experienced success in regular schools. Well, these schools need -- these new alternative pathways need social workers, need case managers. You can support that. You can do those things as you also increase the support for education so that we can in fact target and focus on these children. We have in the City lots of very good programs that are research based that say we can save these kids, we can make this Philadelphia really be what we want it to be, we can turn the negative stuff around. We can only do that -- and that also includes cutting down on violence -- when there's more support for the connectors.
We urge you to really do that. We need to continue supporting 255 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 successful projects for kids in transition, whether it's in transition back from juvenile delinquency or back from foster care or back from having a child or just back from not having been successful in school. Those transition times are very, very important. We need a collaboration between the City, the state, the School District and community. This is a problem shared by all, and it cannot be solved unless we all work together. So we believe that we are close to an epidemic, and we believe that with your help, we can treat it seriously, but that help will require budget time serious negotiations. We need you to fight for 45, 48 percent of the kids in the City, and when you fight for them, you'll be fighting for the City's future. I thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Again, we thank you for all that you've done today. And I know 256 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 we have probation officers in more schools. We need counselors, probation officers.
And certainly more health professionals, as we mentioned, people that kids can talk to. Thank you very, very much. Leola Stowall Muse. Thank you, Shelly.
Thank you. Ms. Leola Stowall Muse. Thank you. I know your name and it just slipped my head. Thank you as well. William Butcher.
Thank you, Council Chair Lady. Before I read my testimony, I would like for the record the date of this testimony corrected from 257 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 February 6, 2006 to February 6, 2007.
Thank you. My name is Leola Stowall Muse and I am the founder of the Poor People Caravan for Christ. That's the acronym that's on my testimony. I won't say good morning. I'll say good afternoon, because that's what it is at this point, to all of the Councilmembers who found it not robbery to stay here in the Education hearings. I have given testimony at the School Board four times: On October 18th, 2006; November 8th, 2006; December 6th, 2006; and January 10, 2007. My testimony was in opposition of Gay and Lesbian History Month being placed on the School District's calendar October of 2006. At the SRC meeting January 10th, 2007, I asked Mr. Vallas was he or any of the Board members gay, lesbian or on the down low letting this abomination 258 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 be placed on the District's calendar. Consenting men and women may practice gay and lesbian acts on top of Billy Penn's hat if they choose to. However, almighty God will be the judge. However, our babies should not be subjected to this. On January 23rd of this year, NBC 10 conducted a poll regarding same sex relationships being taught in school. Eighty-seven percent were opposed. On CNN last week they showed a clip in which two men entered a home where a party was being held hosted by young gay men. Seven of the young men were slain. It was stated by the commentator this occurred because the men did not want this in their community around their children. The commentator stated this took place in Chicago. I pray this does not happen in Philadelphia. Councilmembers, as members of the Education Committee of this Council, I respectfully ask you to tell Mr. Vallas 259 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that your constituents do not want Gay and Lesbian History Month placed on the 2007-2008 school calendar. Mr. Vallas is the Goliath and we/I are David, only we are not armored with a slingshot or a stone. We are armored with the words of almighty God, "The battle is the Lord's and He will give us the victory." If the request regarding the calendar and other pertinent issues regarding our children attending the public schools are not honored, we will revert back to the days of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and Mother Rosa Parks and attempt to launch in this city the Philadelphia public school system boycott. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for contacting us about this issue and your willingness to come to the hearing to voice your 260 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 continuing concerns. Thank you very much.
You're welcome. And Chair Lady and members of this Education Committee, I am prayerfully hoping that you will meet again. I know you were kind enough to get in touch with Mr. Vallas as you stated. You were the only Councilmember that we heard anything back from. We contacted all of the Councilpersons that were on the Education Committee. You were the only one to get back to us in regards to this issue. I know that your constituency has a large amount of gay and lesbians in your constituency. We are not attacking the gay and lesbian community. We are saying to tell Mr. Vallas that this should not be taught in our schools to our small children. One of the people in our committee stood by the door of one of the gay teachers and this is what they are 261 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 teaching our schools, and they are lying when they say that they are not, because we planted somebody there so that we have the evidence whereas these people are teaching this stuff to our babies. And I know that you have children, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown. I don't know if you have any, Mr. Greenlee, but I do know that you would not want gay and lesbian history taught to your children, and this is what we are saying we don't want with ours. And this is our last time tomorrow to go before Mr. Vallas and the SRC. If they do not comply with removing this abomination from this calendar, it is on.