Stack: Five Local Schools Identified for High Standards

PHILADLEPHIA, JAN. 27, 2010 — State Sen. Mike Stack today applauded five local public schools that were identified as high-achieving schools by the School District of Philadelphia.

The five schools — Watson Comly School, located at 1001 Byberry Road; Stephen Decatur School, located at 3500 Academy Road; Anne Frank School, located at 2000 Bowler St.; William Loesche School, located at 595 Tomlinson Road; and Robert Pollock School, located at 2850 Welsh Road —were identified as “Vanguard” schools for meeting various performance criteria set by the school district and community partners.

“This is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our principals, teachers, students and their parents, and I congratulation these five schools for consistently achieving their goals,” Stack said. “They are setting a great example for the entire school district and I urge them to continue to work hard to achieve high standards for education.”

These “Vanguard” schools will be awarded flexibility in implementation of the core curriculum and formative assessments to track student performance, as well as inclusion into the first group of schools to pilot the weighted student funding program. The schools will also be asked to identify additional strategies to continue their quality education, which the school district superintendent and chief academic officer will consider.

“Schools that are consistently doing the right thing and providing our children with a quality education deserve to be rewarded, and this designation will allow them more flexibility to come up with new ways to help students succeed even further,” Stack said. “These five local schools are demonstrating that our public schools are doing great things.”

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