Partnerships for Improving Education

December 10, 2008 - Imagine walking into a Philadelphia public school and being greeted by the strains of Vivaldi. Follow the music and you can observe a group of aspiring musicians practicing the violin.

Just down the corridor, you come upon a group of teachers engaged in an impromptu collegial conversation. Peek into a kindergarten classroom to find an eighth grader helping one of the little ones with her reading.

Visit a fourth-grade classroom where the teacher and a Penn GSE professor are conducting a numeracy lesson together. Climb the steps to the third floor and notice a group of middle-schoolers working in the science lab on their physics experiment.

Make believe?

Not for students at the Penn Alexander School – the neighborhood public school created by an innovative partnership of the University of Pennsylvania, the School District of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

Penn Alexander – officially called The Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School – is a microcosm of the West Philadelphia community it represents and supports. The student population is 48 percent African American, 30 percent Caucasian, 13 percent Asian, six percent Latino, and four percent from other racial or ethnic groups. Forty-six percent of the students are low-income, and 19 percent are children of Penn faculty, staff, and students. More than 40 languages are spoken in the students' homes.

Among the features you'll find at Penn Alexander are instrumental music instruction, an autistic support classroom, a Head Start program, over 300 computers, support for English Language Learners, and a wide range of enrichment opportunities. 

The school began with a June 1998 announcement by Penn, the District, and the teachers' union that they would join in the creation of an exemplary PreK-8 neighborhood public school. Penn Alexander was developed with the participation of parents, teachers, university faculty, community members, and neighborhood groups.

In September 2001, the school opened with kindergarten and first grade and today serves approximately 500 students in grades K through 8, along with two PreK Head Start classes.

The University contributes $1,000 per student annually to reduce class size, but Penn's commitment is evident on the ground level as well. Penn faculty and students supplement instruction, strengthen curriculum, and provide tools to teachers to improve it all.

From the beginning, Penn GSE faculty led study groups initiated by teachers, and GSE teacher ed students serve as student teachers. Penn undergraduates have joined with one of the PAS teachers in co-leading an after-school science club, Penn Music Mentors give supplemental instrumental music lessons, doctoral students are co-researchers with PAS teachers and staff.

The accomplishment of the PAS students is powerful evidence that this unique partnership is working.  The school has made Adequate Yearly Progress in the all years eligible, thus designating Penn Alexander as both a Keystone School and a Best Practices school. The school ranks first among the city's K-8 schools for its literacy levels and ninth for its math achievement. Ninety-seven percent of the 2008 eighth grade class was accepted into selective high schools of their choice.

In addition to their stellar performance on standardized tests, PAS students have seized the opportunity to shine in other ways as well. Penn Alexander students won numerous awards at this year's School District of Philadelphia's Middle Grades Computer Science Fair and Carver Science Fair, won the City's 2008 Reading Olympics, and the 2008 Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, with the winner going on to represent the area in the national competition in Washington, D.C.

When the school was envisioned, Penn hoped to demonstrate the power of universities – through both their human and financial capital – to help improve public education. Of course, the University was fortunate in the choice of leadership for the new school. Principal Sheila Sydnor, a graduate of the School District of Philadelphia and Penn, works hand in hand with Penn to ensure that high expectations are not extraordinary, but simply the norm.

Visit Penn Alexander.

Learn more about Penn's involvement in local public education.