These are cetainly insightful blog posts. I certainly hope Frank Murphy continues blogging at the Notebook, and considers blogging at other places as well, including here.

The school district certainly needs informed advocates. Being an informed advocate has to be the job of a good number of people. Certainly the evergrowing community of retired educators is one place to find informed advocates who are not bogged down by the day to day responsibility of running schools and/or classrooms.

I certainly agree with his statement that "signing blog posts is an important part of the credibility and transparency of the Notebook blog." I would hope that more posters here and elsewhere would recognize the truth of that statement.

While one can imagine various dangers of posting one's views under certain limited circumstances, it is hard to see the dangers to anyone of posting virtually all the material that appears in Young Philly Politics. The popularity of Facebook demonstrates the obvious fact that there are many more people who will freely express their opinions to people whom they know something about than to people who are a mass of pseudonymns.

The school system needs informed advocates no doubt, and we hope that our elected leaders would be among those informed advocates. This is especially true in Philadelphia where the state controls the school district.
The Governor's recent letter stating violence is down and that teachers support Dr. Ackerman is evidence our elected leaders are not informed advocates.
For people like me who put our names out there, we do so risking our careers and certainly limit our ability to advance up the food chain.
I have the utmost respect for Ms. Cruz, formerly the principal of West High School. She did an outstanding job in creating synergy, something completely lacking in the district. Her reward was to be ousted. I noticed when asked for comments she smartly had none. This will do wonders for her career, but is no comment in the best interest of the children?
Being able to post anonymously offers many the opportunity to state the truth. We keep wondering why aren't those who have power to do something, doing something?

In a year in which the state budget was cut and at least 1000 state employees will be laid off, the state appropriation for the Philadelphia school district hit nearly $1.1 billion dollars, up 6.35% from last year. Last year's state appropriation for the Philadelphia School District, in another budget full of cuts, went up 28.4%, aided by federal funds.

Pennsylvania legislators are "doing something." The state appropriation for the Philadelphia school district is more than three times the budget for the state legislature itself and much more than the state spends for many other state departments combined.

The advocacy of Good Schools Pennsylvania, and other allied groups, has been very helpful in creating a barely controversial climate of opinion with the legislature and the Rendell Administration that money for public education should be a major public priority. The total state appropriation for all Pennsylvania public schools this year is over $5.5 billion.

The education budget has improved significantly throughout the Rendell Administration. Pennsylvania has gone from a national lagard in pre-K education to a national leader in pre-K education. Test scores have greatly increased across the board and in low-performing schools in particular. The number and percentage of students reaching standards of profiency has also made steady, significant increases. I am well aware that test scores are only one measurement of education, but they are a relatively precise and objective one. Further, the ability to score well in tests greatly affects college and graduate school admissions.

I get that a lot of people have a lot of anger. I get that it easier to express anger anonynmously. But the expression of anger is not activism in and of itself. Activism involves mobilizing people behind common visions of improvement.

My daughter will be graduating from Central High School in 2011. In a school with a narrow white plurality, she has gotten a far better education than I did many years ago at Central High when it had an overwhelming white majority. Central today has far more and better extracurricular activities, far more advanced placement courses, far more electives, and a far better principal--and a much more engaged teaching staff--than it had when I was a student there. Comparing her homework assignments with mine shows a much higher expectation for performance among the student body than I and my classmates faced.

There are many good things going on in the Philadelphia School District today. There are other things going on that need improvement. Many, many more people could speak out on both categories in a constructive way. I hope Frank Murphy's efforts inspire at least some of them.

It is tough to objectively measure public opinion. Decision-makers feel no need to measure it when they are doing what they have always done. But, when they realize that what they have done is inadequate, then informed and mobilized voices have an impact, often a major impact.

north philadelphia community high school. its a school for kids with bad grades that want to change their lives around . if you have heard anything about this school let me know

Community High School is Philadelphia's oldest charter school, founded as an experimental project long before the state set up charter schools with a regular funding base. My late father, Councilman David Cohen, was a strong advocate for city funding of the school in the years before the Charter School law passed, and has been credited with keeping it alive at one point.

Community High School has won acclaim for its successes with difficult to educate children. It has steadily grown over the years, and was probably the first charter school to get a new building built.

Community High School has received some negative publicity about founder Joe Proietta's hiring of family members. but there has been no finding of poor performance by these family members or by the school as whole. The school has a solid record of support for, and receiving support from, its surrounding community.

I think Community High School is well worth considering for students who could use the faculty attention and the motivation that the school offers.

There are many Latino students in attendance there, but the school is by no means limited to Latinos.

All Charter schools, when they have more applicants than they do seats for students, are required to pick the students by lottery. Getting into the higher grades of a school usually involves less competition than getting into the starting grade of a school.

Ray,
I'm looking forward to reading your dad's posts. Everything I've read by him is consistent with what I have heard from the educators I know and respect.
Karen