Goodbye

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After more than 2 years and 300 articles, I’m stepping away from the keyboard. Philly School Search was always about documenting my process of searching for a school for my son. As you may know, my son started kindergarten last September. Since then, I have written about our transition into kindergarten, but I feel like I have gotten to the point where I have run out of new things to say.

I intend to leave Philly School Search up for future generations of Philadelphia parents. I’ll try to keep publishing the open house calendar and school selection reports submitted by parents. Other than that, don’t expect much new here.

If you are a parent embarking on the school selection process, you should begin at the Start Here page. There, you will be able to see a school search timeline and links to key articles and resources for parents considering Philadelphia-area public, private, or charter schools. Of course, if you have a specific topic or school in mind, you can use the search box or peruse our site tag index.

I do want to leave the door open in one way–I have a lot of great ideas for how an organization can expand upon my original vision for this blog. If your organization is interested in taking over Philly School Search, please contact me.

Who knows… In eight years maybe I’ll resurrect this blog and write about the process of applying for special admission high schools….

Acknowledgments

If you thought that this has been the effort of one crusading dad, you are mistaken. There are a lot of people without whom this blog would not have been possible. First and foremost, my wife has been a saint tolerating the time I have dedicated to this project and the inevitable lack of privacy that it has brought on. She has been a great editor, preventing me from publishing certain posts that I am sure I would have regretted. After her, I’d like to thank, in no particular order:

The parents of ECP class of 2011. As the parents of the closest friends of my to-be-kindergartner, their (anonymized) stories have been frequently and unabashedly co-opted for this blog. My conversations and interactions with them inspired probably half of the posts on this blog. Most directly, they inspired Birthday Party Retrospective, and No Room for PC in School Choice.
Anil Bridgpal, for opening my eyes to some simple and effective ways to modify the presentation of the blog to make its content more accessible and user friendly. This nice layout and the “popular posts” widget among many other enhancements were thanks to his input and encouragement.
To the contributing authors who so generously shared their own experiences and expertise. They are Barbara Klaus-Blackeney from ADVIS, Lisa Machiano, Marta Rowh. We also had numerous anonymous contributions as well.
Miriam Hill and Kristen Graham of The Philadelphia Inquirer. From articles about and links to this blog to advice on topics and writing, their input was tremendously influential in the style and popularity of this site.
To the parents at Rodeph Shalom, Judy, Deborah, Brett, Holly, Kate, David, Jamie, Andy, Colleen, Lysa, Sarah, Vicki, Ivy, Matt, and several others who encouraged my public speaking and gave me lots of ideas and referrals.
Catherine Collins, for basically letting me build on much of the work she already created for the Mount Airy Parent’s Network
Ryan Bowers of Frontline Solutions and Philly School Match, for spending so much time brainstorming ideas with me.
The many folks who fed me story ideas, especially Amara and Ellen, who really kept me on my toes.

The Single Most Important Thing To Know About a School Search

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One of the goals of this blog is to help people lower their anxiety level related to school selections. Unfortunately, due to the paradox of choice, sometimes I feel like the impact that I make is quite the opposite. Last week I spoke to a group of moms about the school choice process, as I have done several times in the past. More and more when I lead these discussions, I am finding that at times people are actually getting whipped up into more of an anxious frenzy. On the one hand, parents are hearing about the complex process of identifying schools for the first time, which is anxiety inducing by itself. Pepper that with a few folks in the crowd floating horror stories (often rumors at best and downright false at worst), and I feel the tension in the room rising each passing minute.

Well this post is a reaction to that. If you read this blog, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll say that again. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. Seriously.

How can I say this?

First and foremost, it is widely documented that the best predictor of a child’s educational success is their family, not their school. I feel confident in saying that since you are reading this blog, you are dedicating energy to your child’s education before it even begins. You are an involved parent. Once your child starts school, you are more likely to pay attention to you child’s school. You are more likely to check homework assignments. You are more likely to reach out to your kids’ teachers. You are more likely to show up for parent teacher night. You are more likely to call the principal if you feel that there is a problem in the school. This is critical to your child’s success, whether you are at the most resource-strapped public school or the richest private school.

Which brings me to my second point. Please don’t get sucked into the sensationalist headlines (yes I am guilty), because those headlines often jump the gun (guilty again). In other cases, they focus on negativity instead of real progress that is being made all over the region. You read this blog, so I think that means you can think for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Visit schools. Talk to teachers and administrators. Connect with grassroots parents’ organizations working to improve schools. Once you are comfortable that any given school will be a safe environment, I think that you’ll find that there are a LOT of good teachers and good administrators out there, in all types of schools. The reality is that there are also problems that will come up at your school. Even the wealthiest private school will have issues that arise. And, going back to the first point, as an involved parent, you will work actively to get that issue resolved.

So let yourself relax a bit. Yes, this is anxiety inducing process, but if you bookmark this site (*wink*), you and your kid(s) are going to be just fine.

Photo by Liza Lagman Sperl

Schools in Decline = City In Decline

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There is a lot of buzz recently in the local media about how parents really really really want to stay in the city but that the school district is making it harder and harder. I had written about it many many times before, and then Philadelphia Magazine’s blog got in on the act late last month. The provocative article from Joe Mathis ran with the tagline:

“If you’re a young, college-educated professional parent—the kind Philadelphia is so proud to welcome—the message is this: Run.”

And that article led to others, including a follow-up in the Philadelphia Magazine blog, where Gene Marks responded that fixing the city’s schools would fix the city.

Everyone … everyone … wants what’s best for their kids. They want to send their kids to the best schools possible. They want their kids to do better than them, to go on to college, to be educated. Educated people succeed more in life than non-educated people.If Philadelphia were to have a world-class school system, what would happen? People would move into the city because they’d want their kids to go to those schools. Big companies would be drawn into town because their employees could live in a place where they could send their kids to a great school system. Small businesses, like restaurants, dry cleaners and clothing shops would pop up all around to serve this growing population. Real estate prices would go up. Construction would increase. Balloons and confetti would rain down from the sky! And tax revenues would increase too. So the city could then pay for its infrastructure and its “business growth” initiatives, whatever they may be. No need for the Economy League to be doing all that. It’s the schools, stupid.

It’s a compelling argument, and one that. as a parent and life-long Philadelphian, I hope is taken to heart by our city’s and school’s leaders.

Come See Me Next Week @ Philly Mothers of Preschoolers [EVENT]

Co-Operative Homeschooling

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I wrote before about co-operative schools being sort of a bridge for families who like the idea of homeschooling but for various reasons want a more traditional classroom environment for their kids. Closer to the the homeschooling side of that continuium are homeschooling co-ops like The Mt. Airy Homeschooling Co-op. Whereas a co-operative school allows (expects) parents to get involved in school and curriculum management, homeschool co-ops are designed to provide opportunities for broader social engagement and collaborative learning for homeschooling families.