Desegregating Philadelphia Schools

Update

School Reform Commission Votes to End Segregation

The School Reform Commission (the District’s leadership body) voted unanimously in 2009 to end forty years of desegregation litigation and committed itself to implementing a plan to improve educational achievement in the District’s lowest performing and racially isolated schools. The plan’s requirements include:

  • Reform programs must begin in the District’s worst-performing schools
  • Additional resources must be given to schools that have less experienced teachers
  • Reforms in hiring and promotion at low-performing schools
  • Extra funding allocated to schools with high numbers of students in poverty, English language learners, or students below grade level.

The plan also provides for public overview of the District’s progress toward reducing racial achievement gaps and resource inequities, which is ongoing through 2014.