Len Lipkin

Thinking About School Choice Long Term

Yesterday, Kristen Graham of the Philadelphia Inquirer posted a story entitled “Study finds high school choice ‘an illusion’.” There is a pretty vibrant (and in some cases heated and profane) debate about this article happening in the Philadelphia Speaks Forum.  I am evaluating elementary school options for my kids, and I wrote about my own anxiety around sticking with the School...

Len Lipkin

School District of Philadelphia Publishes 2009 Annual Report & School Performance Index

I found out from the This Year at Jenks blog that the School District of Philadelphia just released the 2009 Annual Report and School Performance Index (SPI).  The annual report is essentially an easy-to-read high level rating and demographic breakdown of every school in the district.  The SPIs compare and rank schools with others in its region and demographic.  Cool stuff, especially if you are...

PSS Community

Words from a Waldorf Parent

The following was posted to a Philadelphia Speaks discussion thread on Waldorf.  It is a testimonial from an (unverified) Waldorf parent. I have two daughters at Waldorf. My eldest spent some time at a Friends school before moving over in 2nd grade. The Philly Waldorf School is fairly liberal when it comes to the Waldorf curriculum/philosophy. That is, teachers interpret as they see fit, some families...

Len Lipkin

Language Immersion And Philly Primary Schools

In the book, Critical Issues in Early Second Language Learning, Myriam Met collected a series of essays and studies on foreign language study in early childhood

Len Lipkin

Wild Waldorf Ride

Wow.  I visited The Waldorf School over the weekend.  It was really a game-altering experience for me.  Their program is like nothing I had ever seen or heard of before.  One of the teachers that I spoke with summed up the uniqueness in their program stating that ‘The most impoverished public school has more in common with the most well-endowed private school than we do.’  It was really...

Len Lipkin

All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

On a recent public school tour, the school principal handed me a packet of paper with a variety of information about school programs and what to expect from kindergarten and how to prepare your children for school.  This was on the cover.  I had heard of Robert Fulghum’s book before, but I had never seen the words completely written out. All I really need to know about how to live and what to do...