Panhel discusses education

To all the critics who believe the University does not do enough to reach out to the West Philadelphia community, David Hornbeck begs to differ. Hornbeck, the superintendent of the Philadelphia School District, spoke last week about the importance of partnerships in improving the educational standards of West Philadelphia. Hornbeck delivered the keynote address at Friday's "National Conference on University-Assisted Community Schools," held at the University City Sheraton Hotel. The event, attended by about a hundred local educators, was sponsored by the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps, Replication Project, the Center for Community Partnership and Penn Program for Public Service. Educators from the Philadelphia area, professors and students from more than 30 schools nationwide attended the panel discussions. To illustrate the importance of partnerships in improving public school education, Hornbeck outlined a 10-point agenda to improve the standards of education in Philadelphia. Hornbeck said that Philadelphia wants to reach out to "all children, all means and all benefits," emphasizing that reforms are not successful unless they can benefit all children across the city. "One can't be timid in implementing these issues, but must be systemic and systematic," Hornbeck said. Effective education reforms, he noted, could only be met with persistence and dedication. He also stressed the importance of bringing real-life service learning to the classroom. Hornbeck noted that Penn, Philadelphia's largest private employer, has provided jobs for approximately 110 high school students. The young employees are part of what Hornbeck called an "American-style apprenticeship program," in which high-school juniors and seniors learn real-life career skills through mentoring and paid and school-sponsored jobs. The importance of such projects "is that they create a teaching and learning space where kids can practice by doing and understanding," Hornbeck said. Hornbeck also stressed the need for constant assessment of school curriculum and education standards, as well as the importance of providing children with the appropriate resources in the classroom. Philadelphia education systems have seen drastic improvements in their standards in recent years, according to Hornbeck. He cited the 40 percent increase in test scores in the last three years as an example. Since the statistic includes students of all academic capabilities, Hornbeck said the increase was not a result of excluding students who were less capable than others. Following Hornbeck's talk were various panel discussions that focused on urban school restructuring and maintaining national networks.