OPENING THE DOORS: U. students study innercity schools

Two Penn courses link theTwo Penn courses link theUniversity to West Philly As student enrollment in urban public schools continues to climb, costs per pupil remains low compared with suburban averages. According to University City High School Principal and Graduate School of Education Professor James Lytle, enrollment in most large urban districts has increased dramatically in the last six years. In Philadelphia alone, enrollment has increased from about 188,000 six years ago to 212,000 this year, Lytle said, adding that revenue for the schools has remained stagnant. Because educating the urban poor does not seem to be a current priority, pupils are educated at a lower cost, Lytle said. He explained that the annual expense per pupil in Philadelphia is approximately $5,500, while most suburban schools' spending ranges from $10,000 to $15,000. Pam King, who coordinates the Ford Foundation grant that funds Penn programs with the West Philadelphia school district, said the system does not function in the way students need. "We want to create an environment that launches the students into the post-high school world," the Sociology graduate student said. Two classes offered this semester are examining issues which affect urban education. Lytle's "Urban Education" course provides students with an overview of issues in contemporary urban education. Each student spends one day shadowing a student at 15 different West Philadelphia public schools. The class is devoted to defining problems in urban education and focusing on the responses to these problems, Lytle said. He added that his course allows students to gain a powerful sense of the experience of attending an inner city school. "We look at ways academics and practitioners are changing various aspects of urban education, such as focusing on multi-culturalism and changing school curriculum," he said. "We use our experiences in high school as a mirror to understand what urban schools are like." Graduate English Chairperson Peter Conn's "Teaching American Studies" continues this semester as a collective independent study, allowing a majority of the students in last semester's Urban Education course to resume their work at University City High School. Working collaboratively, the students in Conn's seminar and UCHS teachers of English, social studies, special education, art and music develop interdisciplinary curricula that are distinctive for each of the high school's charters, linking them together. The undergraduate students also serve as assistant teachers at the school. "The 17 students in the course -- mostly English majors -- met with me twice or three times a week, and spent several hours each week assisting a UCHS teacher in either English or social studies last semester," he added.