Len Lipkin

School Choice in Philadelphia: Myth to Reality

It bothers me when folks complain about a problem without offering a solution, or at least a direction for a solution. Last month, I was guilty. I wrote "School Choice in Philadelphia is a Myth" Well, how could we turn the myth into reality?

Len Lipkin

Ignore Test Scores

The easiest thing to find when evaluating a school is the schools performance on standardized tests. How much weight should you put on those scores in your school decision?

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...