Philly School Search

Co-Operative Homeschooling

Len Lipkin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:29:05 +0000

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.

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New Jersey Bedevils Philadelphia Parents

Len Lipkin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:16:57 +0000

I am a Jersey boy. I was born in Philly, but my parents moved to the NJ suburbs before I started kindergarten (I’ll give you one guess why). I had a great education at one of the best districts in the region. I had a pretty good experience and I have good memories of the place. In fact, I drove by my old house last month for pure nostalgia. Still, when I was engaging in my school search, and I considered moving to the suburbs, NJ never really made it onto my radar. Miriam Hill, on her Inquirer blog, had the same lament earlier this month. Sure, Lower Merion is considered one of the top districts in the country, but some of the nearby Jersey districts are just as good, and relatively free of spying scandals and allegations of systemic racism. So why not NJ? It wasn’t the commute–that wasn’t going to be any different for my family in deciding between the NJ and PA ‘burbs. I think personally it had to do with my perception (founded or unfounded) of the relative urbanity of the near-PA suburbs. Families who want to stay in the city are doing so because they appreciate what the city has to offer to their lifestyle and their kids social and cultural environment. If they are reluctantly moving to the suburbs, PA simply is simply more palatable than NJ, where the Cherry Hill Mall is a center of life and sprawl is the norm. In PA there is of course the KOP Mall, but the KOP Mall is simply a destination, not a hub. PA burbs have several highly respected colleges and universities, the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, the Keswick Theater, and Milkboy; NJ has little higher education (save for Rutgers Camden), the Cherry Hill Mall, the Moorestown Mall, and Ponzios Diner. Need I say more for any urbanite parent?

What do you think? Are you considering a move to NJ? Why or why not?

Photo “Ben Franklin Bridge at Sunset” provided courtesy of Doug Stewart a.k.a. @zamoose

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Why I Chose Frankford Friends: 2012-01-01 School Selection Report

PSS Community — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:12:56 +0000

This is a snapshot of one parent’s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

What school did you decide on? Frankford Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2009

Grade your child entered Pre-k

What neighborhood are you in? South Philly

What schools did you consider? Friends Select, Meredith, The Philadelphia School, Independence Charter

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Reputation, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? Small size, the welcoming atmosphere, quality of education & affordability

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Quality of education & affordability

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be Liberal

Please share anything else about your experience Frankford Friends is to our family the perfect school. My son is in a class of 14 students, each recognized and appreciated for their own individuality. This school is more affordable than most private schools and I believe that leads greater diversity as well as more parents that make a conscious sacrifice to send their children here and are very involved in the school. It’s like the little school that could… and does.

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Here We Go Again

Len Lipkin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:41:47 +0000

Penn Alexander catchment parents once again forced to camp out in the insane weather to secure a seat… PAS kindergarten line started this morning | West Philly Local.

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Recycle Your Way to a Better School

Len Lipkin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:38:36 +0000

Recyclebank is a rewards programs that has partnered with the city of Philadelphia to promote recycling. They accomplish this by rewarding participants with points for recycling, which are redeemable for goods and services like gift cards or coupons. Last year, Recyclebank introduced its Green Schools Program, allowing schools to propose projects and recyclebank members to donate their points to local schools for those projects. From the Recyclebank website…

The Recyclebank Green Schools Program is designed to promote green education and encourage innovative thinking. Schools can raise funds for their projects by getting point donations, which will be converted into dollars and awarded to fund the project. Green education is so important, and that’s why Recyclebank will match every $1 earned.

Thanks to a groundswell of support from The West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhood Schools WPCNS, the Lea Elementary project has raised the most funds of any Recyclebank Green Schools in the country! Close behind is the C.W. Henry Elementary project with with $192 still needed. Several other local schools also are raising money this way.

Although this effort is cool, the impact is negligible. What is really cool are the breadth and scope of all of the projects being taken on by WPCNS of other parent organizations across the city. Parent grassroots efforts are gaining momentum.

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Why I Chose Friends Select: 2011-11-20 School Selection Report

PSS Community — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:08:05 +0000

What school did you decide on? Friends Select School

Calendar year your child entered 2007

Grade your child entered K

What neighborhood are you in? Center City

What schools did you consider? French International School

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Reputation, Teaching Philosophy, Public Eduction, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Special Programs (language immersion, music, etc.)

What first attracted you to the school? The way my kids reacted. They begged me to let them go.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? the kids are kind to each other and the teachers are nice too. The kids have never gotten below A+.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be liberal

Please share anything else about your experience it was wonderful. I have no words to describe it.

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Check Out This Great School….HA HA Made You Look!

Len Lipkin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:54:35 +0000

The City Paper published an article last week entitled Urban Studies. The article highlights the risk that parents take in choosing to go the a Philadelphia public school in the current climate. Specifically, budget cuts and declining enrollment are forcing the district to close schools and change catchment boundaries. The result–parents that gamble by buying a house in a desirable catchment or choose to invest in their catchment school and forgo the lottery or private school application process could end up out of luck–their intended destination becomes overburdened with students from other schools being diverted in or worse, the school is simply taken away.

Don’t think that the problem of having a school yanked out from under you is limited to public schools either. Private schools are not immune. Faced with declining enrollments, last week the Archdocese of Philadelphia announced that it was closing 44 elementary schools in the region (Inquirer story).

If you hadn’t noticed before last week’s news cycle that the education landscape in this city is in the midst of a sea change, how do you like the wake up call?

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Parent Grassroots Efforts for Education in Philadelphia [VIDEO]

Len Lipkin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:37:54 +0000

I thought that I’d share the short talk that I gave at the State of Young Philly event a few months ago (more on that event can be found in my prior post). I spoke about how I started Philly School Search and what I see as the trends for school choice in the region. SoYP was an event sponsered by Young Involved Philly. It was great to be invited to speak, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and getting the chance to meet so many people who are working so hard to improve our schools.

SoYP Education: Len Lipkin

Thanks to the videographer Salas Saraiya for capturing my good side, such as it is.

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Vacation Camp? Seriously?

Len Lipkin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:27:13 +0000

Having had my son in year-round day care prior to starting kindergarten, I was prepared for the fact that we would need to find child care for him during the summer months in the form of one or more camps. While I haven’t resolved that issue yet, another related issue has reared its ugly head. What do you do with a kid during their school vacations? Up until this week, it has been routine. A day for a teacher inservice is easy enough to find coverage or schedule my own work vacations. Two weeks for winter break, sot so easy. Timing my work vacations to coincide didn’t cover it all. I found myself scrambling to figure out what options I had for stimulating activity and child care during this longer break. I was disappointed in the number of options that I found. I really only found three programs, though I admit I didn’t really research music or athletic programs. Here they are, in no particular order.

The Philadelphia Zoo has “Schools Out” Full Day Camps for kids ages 4-11
The Philly Art Center has “Vacation Camps” at its Fairmount and Queen Village locations
The Schuylkill Center in NW Philly has some interesting looking “Day Off” programs with an environmental focus designed for kids ages 5-12

They all seem great, but I am wondering–what other choices are out there? Please leave your suggestions in the comments–I want to try to create a larger repository of “vacation camps” for parents to have as a resource. Bookmark this page–I will link to that repository here when I create it…

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Conflicted About Public Versus Private

Len Lipkin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:12:02 +0000

On her blog Raising Philadelphia, Inquirer reporter Miriam Hill wrote quite an amusing piece on her struggle deciding between public and private. Entitled Don’t Make Me Love You, Private School, it is a fake open letter to an unnamed private school. I believe that it will resonate with many of you going through this process. It starts with,

Dear Unnamed Private School,

Please stop making me love you. Really, I’m kind of committed to pubic school. It’s free, and I’m really hoping to say “I Do” to public when my son gets to first grade, so private, could you, like, stop looking so hot?

She does make an interesting point about the ‘marketing’ efforts of private (high) versus public (nonexistent). A parent interested in public school often has to make a concerted effort to get to know their local public school, where the private schools will inundate you with emails, brochures, open houses, and all sorts of other marketing fluff.

Read the rest of ‘Don’t Make Me Love You, Private School‘….

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Philly School Search

Co-Operative Homeschooling

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New Jersey Bedevils Philadelphia Parents

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Why I Chose Frankford Friends: 2012-01-01 School Selection Report

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Here We Go Again

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Recycle Your Way to a Better School

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Why I Chose Friends Select: 2011-11-20 School Selection Report

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Check Out This Great School….HA HA Made You Look!

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Parent Grassroots Efforts for Education in Philadelphia [VIDEO]

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Vacation Camp? Seriously?

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Conflicted About Public Versus Private

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