by Karel Kilimnik
May 15, 2017
Outsourcing of professional development for teachers and administrators continues with this month’s resolutions. Relay Graduate School of Education, which received a contract just two months ago, will be paid to send three assistant superintendents and nine principals to a twelve-day summer program in Texas. Dave Levin, co-founder of KIPP, is also one of the Relay founders. KIPP has a large presence in Texas.
After four years, the district still has not reached a settlement with PFT members. That may be the reason that the district has had to undertake a large recruitment effort for the second year in a row. Resolution A-2 calls for the Office of Talent to “develop, implement, and refine a pilot Teacher Residency Program for the District”. It’s ironic that this recruitment effort is being underwritten by the Philadelphia School Partnership. PSP has made the forcing out of teachers a condition for funding school transformations, including Blaine and WD Kelley elementary schools.
What If…?
Instead of paying $415,800 to a vendor to provide a summer school literacy program at seven schools, every school could determine what summer enrichment program to provide for its students. If we took all of the money from contracts going to corporate education vendors at this one SRC meeting, there would be over $1 million for almost 20 summer school programs.
Note: The next two SRC Action Meetings will be held on Thursday May 18 and Thursday May 25, both at 4:30 PM. To register to speak, call 215.400.4180 before 3PM the previous day.
Click here to read selected Resolutions for the May 18th meeting and the APPS analysis.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 