by Lisa Haver
Early College Charter School (ECC) is one of two organizations applying to the Philadelphia Board of Education to open another charter in the city. ECC’s founding coalition claims to want to educate children who live in the poorest parts of the city. Their proposed location: Broad and Pine in Center City, one of the most affluent sections in the city.
ECC’s sales pitch makes the same promises that others have made over the past 30 years: that one more charter school will help to alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life for students and families–ignoring the fact that he proliferation of charter schools has occurred at the same time that Philadelphia remains the poorest big city in the country and gun violence has increased. Their business plan includes targeting recruitment in the city’s 17 zip codes with the lowest per-family income. ECC would have us believe that having 46 children from each of those zip codes attend this one charter school will be the first step in alleviating poverty in Philadelphia–not anti-poverty programs, or mandating all employers pay a living wage, or raising the minimum wage.
The ECC application includes not one document showing community support in any of the 17 zip codes the applicant cites for recruitment. Letters from the chairpersons of Logan and Tioga neighborhood groups are from the individuals only; there is no indication that any vote was taken by the membership. The “letters of commitment” attachment includes no letters of commitment.
Early College Charter
Proposed opening: School year 2026-27
Citywide enrollment, with 17 zip codes targeted
Enrollment: Year one, grades 6 and 9, 224 students; year five, grades 6 through 12, 784
Proposed location: 1420 Pine St, 19102; current owner Pierce Jr. College; $26 million value (per City of Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment)
Founding coalition (via Philadelphia Middle College Foundation): Rebecca Benarroch, Keshema Davidson, Molly Schmader, Anna Winter.
ECC’s stated mission is to be a middle/high school that also provides college credits. Parkway Center City MIddle College High School, located in adjoining zip code 19123, is a district school with the same model.
(Read the full CSO evaluation here.)
Nearby Charter Schools
19102: Phila Electrical and Technology, 1420 Chestnut, 9-12 opened 2002; Phila Performing Arts, K-12 in 3 locations including 1600 Vine St., opened 2000.
19103: Friere, 9-12, 2027 Chestnut St, opened 1999; Russell Byers, 1911 Arch St., K-8, opened 2000.
19107: Friere, 5-8, 1026 Market St.
19106: Mastery Lenfest, 35 S. 45h St, 7-12, opened 2001.
Academics
ECC’s application states that its 6th–12th grade instructional model will have three elements that will work to support the mission and vision and distinguish it from other schools and programs: 1) academic richness, 2) transferable skills, and 3) college- and career-connected learning. ECC’S college- and career-connected learning would follow a four-phase continuum that takes place both within and beyond the school: exposure (grades 6–8), exploration (grades 9–10), experience (grades 11–12), and extension (year 13). “Academic richness” is adapted from the work of TNTP (The New Teacher Project).
The school’s promise of a Year 13 raises issues. If the school’s mission is to prepare students for college and career, why would they need an additional year to fulfill that mission? In addition, the Charter Schools Office (CSO) points out in its evaluation that there is no money in the school’s proposed budget for a Year 13.
Founding Coalition
Deleah Archer, EdD, educator
Rebecca Benarroch, MEd, educator, officer in the Early College Foundation
Natalie A. Cooper, MEd, charter school founder and funder in New Jersey and other locations
Keshema Davidson, MPP, co-director of Early College Foundation
Peter Ernst, MBA, Executive Director of the McCausland Foundation, experience in government and non-profit organizations
Patricia Hennessy, Esq, partner at Barton Gilman law firm, charter school advocate
Eric Jones, MDiv, head of school at the Community Partnership School.
Ken Kind, advocate for high-quality education options
Natasha Labbé, LSW, licensed social worker with experience in charter schools
John McConnell, MBA, founder and first president of Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School (deceased)
Rashaun Reid, MEd, doctoral candidate in education leadership at Duquesne University
Claire Robertson-Kraft, PhD, founder and executive director of ImpactED, former board chair of Russell Byers Charter School.
David Rossi, MABS, CEO of Esperanza Academy Charter School
Michael Ryan, MBA, founding board member of the foundation that opened the SEED School in Washington D.C.
Molly Schmader, project manager for ECC Foundation
David Thomas, EdD, vice-president of Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement at the Community College of Philadelphia
Matt Tossman, EdD, founding principal of Manhattan Early College School for
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Oscar Wang, founder and CEO of College Together
Anna Winter, co-director of ECC Foundation
Leadership Team
Proposed leadership team would include 12 people led by the CEO: principal; director of student life and culture (DSLC); director of early college and career (DECC); director of operations (DO); director of family engagement (DFE, Y2 and onward); manager of compliance and data (MCD, Y2 and onward); director of technology (DT, Y4 and onward). Led and facilitated by the principal, the instructional leadership team (ILT) will be composed of academic administrators as follows: assistant principal(s) of student services (APSS); assistant principal(s) of academics (APAC, Y2 and onward); Manager of Technology (MT, with teaching responsibilities). All leadership team roles in this section begin in Y1 unless otherwise noted. The school would open with 8-10 administrators for a school with only 224 students. That raises the issue of cost to the district, considering the current high salary/compensation paid to charter administrators. Most district schools with a population of 700-800 have a principal and an assistant principal.
Community Engagement
Application states that ECC will focus its outreach and recruitment on middle and high school students who live in the 17 Philadelphia zip codes in which the average income for one adult with no children is below the Philadelphia living wage.
There is nothing in this section about community engagement.
Financial Overview
The applicant has hired Charter Choices, a finance and business management team which has become a profitable enterprise in the Pennsylvania charter school sector.
Charter Choices would develop a “realistic” five-year budget for this application, and would serve as the third-party finance manager if the application was approved. In addition to Charter Choices, ECC would have a finance team composed of a chief executive officer, a director of operations, a board finance committee, and a board audit committee.
Facilities Overview
ECC plans to lease 1420 Pine Street, previously home to Peirce College. ECC plans to “grow” into the space over its first four years by leasing the entire seven-floor main building (Midrise Building) and the adjacent three-floor rowhouse (Townhomes Building) which would support full enrollment by Year 4. ECC is supported by the facility advisors Level Field Partners (a national firm that facilitates all stages of the charter school real estate development and financing process) and InSite EFS (a national real estate brokerage and advisory firm for educational facilities).
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 