Though it has only been a little over a week since the first day of classes at the Henry C. Lea School at 47th and Locust streets, improvements over previous school years can already be seen.
There are new computers and televisions in the classrooms, and the playgrounds, once nothing more than asphalt spaces, now have play equipment and are decorated with colorful murals.
The Lea School is one of three schools that entered into a partnership with Penn this year after the School Reform Commission decided to hand over 42 of the the city's worst performing schools to various private organizations.
And the positive changes at the school, according to those involved, are the result of a collaboration between the school's new principal, school staff, parents and Penn.
Under the terms of the School Reform Commission agreement with Penn, the Graduate School of Education has stipulated that it will support, aid and provide services to the curriculum, staff and students at Lea, as well as the Alexander Wilson and William C. Bryant elementary schools, also in West Philadelphia.
"Penn is not here as a crutch," said Jeanne Vissa, director of the GSE's teacher education program. She has taken on an active role in assisting Lea with its academic programs. "We hope that these changes will be long-term."
Though this is its first year in the Penn partnership, Lea, unlike Wilson and Bryant, has actually been working with Penn for several years. In 2000, Penn began aiding the school in response to community concerns about academic achievement, lack of library services, class size, school climate and physical appearance.
"It has been quite a metamorphosis," Principal Michael Silverman said.
Last year, the school had only one reading specialist. This year, Penn brought in five new specialists, as well as a spanish teacher and a science teacher. Additionally, eight Penn students are helping to teach classes at Lea, and over 100 others are volunteering as tutors.
"We have a very stable staff," Silverman said -- the school only lost two of its teachers in the turnover from the last year. "That's a wonderful endorsement of what's going on here."
Penn has allocated a lot of money towards programming, Silverman said. A Reading Recovery program has been implemented, where first graders who are behind in reading skills are individually mentored for a 20-week period to help them get back on track.
Additionally, there has been an emphasis on foreign language skills (Kindergarten through fourth grade students take Latin, and fifth through eighth graders take Spanish), and math and science programs have been improved. Results are already being seen.
"The SAT-9 scores increased dramatically this year," Silverman stated proudly, referring to the exam that tests reading and math ability in younger grades.
In addition to hiring librarians, Penn has also spent money towards reducing classroom sizes -- class ratios are now roughly 20 to one -- and setting up programs where teachers can focus on leadership skills and classroom content.
And Silverman said he feels Penn is putting money in the places where it's most needed.
"We want our kids to have choices," he said. "We want our kids to think that whatever they want to do they can. That's why we have intensive math, science, and languages. Because they deserve it like everyone else."
Kindergarten teacher Claire Jacobs has been at Lea for four years and said she is enthusiastic about the changes. Since the school began working with Penn, there has been a new emphasis in her classroom on reading and math skills.
"We have tried to incorporate math and reading into the everyday," Jacobs said.
For example, the children are in charge of taking attendance every morning. Cubbies and chairs are labeled with the children's names, and though they cannot read them, the labels encourage the children to start reading.
"We're very excited about the changes that have been happening," Jacobs said. "The kids like it."
Parents, too, appreciate the wide curricular changes.
"My eighth grader thinks it's a load," said James Garnett, Lea's Home School Association president. "But I guess that's a good thing."
Garnett, who works a night job in addition to the three to four days a week he spends helping out at Lea, is the parent of a third, fifth and eighth grader at the school. So far, he is positive about the changes he's seen since Penn's takeover.
"Every year, the first day of school dragged on for two weeks with various problems," he said. "This year it only lasted one day."
The back-to-school transition was smooth, according to Garnett, and thus far he has not seen the disciplinary problems that have plagued the school in the past. That, he said, "makes me euphoric."
Nevertheless, Garnett is cautious about the future.
"Right now it seems like a great thing compared to the other organizations, like Edison [Schools, Inc.]," he said. "We'll have to wait and see as to whether it will be a success. The [Pennsylvania System of School Assessment] scores will be the real determinant."
Silverman added that the Penn partnership is more process-oriented compared to other management firms like Edison -- the controversial private firm that now runs 20 of the city's schools.
"They work with the teachers and the school, rather than telling us how to run things," Silverman said of Penn. "This makes me very comfortable with the partnership."
"We thought it was important as a school of education that we demonstrate we have something to offer our community," Vissa said. "We hope that it doesn't end with these three schools, that the teachers and the parents here will want to go out and help other schools."
"From a parent's perspective," Garnett adds, "that's a beautiful thing."
