Parents sharing the process of searching for a school in Greater Philadelphia. What kind of school are you looking for? Charter, public, private, city, suburban?
The thing that "sold" me on WCS is the Responsive Classroom Curriculum. It is a very structured and smart system by which all faculty and students learn to handle conflicts assertively. The vibe of this school is very peaceful and happy. A zero-tolerance of bullying is taken very seriously from the classrooms, to recess, to the buses. 
Interdisciplinary teaching is the term used to describe when a curriculum focuses on a specific theme or project and aims to teach a variety of academic disciplines around that theme. It seems to be a popular and trendy method–many schools I have visited use it and make a point to parents that they use it. In my school research experience, the first school where I heard about it was the Waldorf... 
It did not occur to me that a child able to attend Masterman for high school would turn it down in favor of a Catholic school. 
When I entered into the process of identifying a school for my kid, I considered diversity a primary characteristic of the school that I hoped to identify. However, in my experiences visiting schools and hearing your public (and private) comments on this blog, I realized that I have to change my expectations of diversity. 
You may have noticed some changes to Philly School Search over the last few weeks, the most dramatic is our new look and feel. Why the changes? 
As I have begun to consider a private school for my son, I have come across some very powerful arguments in the media stating that private schools aren't necessarily as desirable as their glossy viewbooks would lead you to believe. 
There was recently an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Charles Blow--Private School Civility Gap. The article references a 2010 study by the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics, "Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth" which surveyed 43,000 kids on attitudes toward sex, violence, race, drugs, alcohol, bullying, and more. There are many fascinating statistics in the study, but the ones that are most surprising (to me) are the one that are referenced by Blow--boys at private, religiously affiliated schools are more likely to 
My local catchment school Jenks isn't the only Philadelphia public school with parents pushing to make it more of a neighborhood school. Bache-Martin is doing the same thing. While Jenks has included prospective parent's teas and distributed lawn signs in their efforts to spread the word. The "Neighborhood Parents for Bache-Martin" organization has 
Len Lipkin
PSS Community