1

The Union Repnewsletter of the philadelphia student union

Fall • Winter • 2008

Students are kept separated. We’re separated based on where we live, our grades, our scores on standard-

ized tests, and many other things. That essential fact is what made our Student Summit so powerful. We brought togeth-er students from all over the region and

the city. The summit bought students from all

around the city and surrounding suburbs. We brought them together to talk about things they’re trained not to think about. We’re trained to leave the running of our schools to the adults. We’re trained not

to question why things are as bad as they are, but just to focus on getting ourselves through it.

So when almost 200 students were at the Summit talking about the changes they wanted to see and how they were go-ing to make them happen, it was a really huge moment.

It really helped illustrate why we’re kept so separated all the time. If we were allowed to come together more often, if our minute differences weren’t blown so out of proportion and even fabricated by

the people in charge, then we’d realize just how much we have in common. In fact, we did realize some things we have in common. We all want to have qualified teachers, resources and academic support in each of our schools.

In youth-led workshops, students discussed Youth Oppression, Schools & Social Control, Education for Libera-tion, School Funding, Corrective Action II, Teacher Equity, and Organizing at Your School. At the end of the day the students, armed with the knowledge they gained during the day, created a platform that expresses students’ views on the issues facing our schools (see pages 8 & 9).

Coming together and creating this platform was a huge first step. It went a long way towards overcoming the separa-tion that is so ingrained in our society. We still have a lot of work to do. We have to finish eradicating all those walls that keep us apart, and then we have to actually work together. The Student Summit made this seem a lot more possible. •

This year, the Philadelphia Student union held its second Student Summit. During the seven hours that the summit took place, Stu-

dent Union facilitators led workshops that built student leadership and educated students about high school reform issues. In youth-led discussions, young people from across Southeast Pennsylvania got a chance to talk about the issues that affect us as students. •

by Sylvia Wright

2008 Student Summit

EmcEES angEliquE void & Khalif dobSon EngagE thE audiEncE during thE StudEnt Summit. Photo: © JacquES-JEan tiziou / WWW.JJtiziou.nEt

We brought together students from all over the

region and the city... It was a huge first step.”

‘‘

by Khalif dobSon & dan JonES

2

This victory was made pos-sible only through the organiz-ing efforts of students, parents, teachers, and other education advocates and organizers, in-cluding a huge effort from Philadelphia and the Phila-delphia Student Union. We testified in front of the State Education Committee and the

Philadelphia City Council, and spoke in Harr i sburg to an audi-ence of state l e g i s l a t o r s and senators. We also or-ganized and coordinated a number of l e g i s l a t i v e visits to our local legis-lators with s t u d e n t s , parents and teachers. Fi-nally, we held teach-ins for parents and communit y

members. “We worked really hard

to get this budget passed,” said Candace Carter, a senior at Sayre High School. “My school, and so many others, really needs the money.”

The Philadelphia School District’s increase was about $50 million. Now that we have

the new money, we will con-tinue to monitor the district, and make sure that it is spent on reforms that work, such as smaller class sizes, more quali-fied teachers, more resources, supports for new teachers and more counselors.

The increase that we got was only a one-year deal, and although it helps narrow the gap, there is still a long way to go. Going forward, we are making connections with stu-dents in Philadelphia and in other underfunded districts

across Southeastern PA. We are educating students about the funding gap and coor-dinating efforts to push for continued increases in school funding.

In order for our schools to be adequately funded, we will need increases for the next few years, because the quality of a person’s education should not depend by their place of resi-dence, or their parents’ income. A decent public education is a basic human right. •

aS thE Education budgEt WaS bEing dEcidEd in harriSburg, PSu hEld an action WhErE WE crEatEd a ‘human bar graPh’ on thE art muSEum StEPS, illuStrating funding inEquitiES acroSS Pa SchoolS. chErEllE rEEd, bEn landau-biSPiEl & ShaJuan lEWiS ShoW thE amountS that diffErEnt diStrictS SPEnd PEr-StudEnt, PEr yEar. othErS hEld SignS ShoWing “adEquacy targEtS;” thE amount Each diStrict Would actually nEEd to ProPErly EducatE Each of thEir StudEntS.

our school funding campaign:

On July 4th — after several months of lobbying, hold-

ing public actions, writing op-eds, and doing teach-ins about the unequal state of education funding in PA — schools across the state received a historic in-crease in basic education fund-ing of about $275 million. “This money can potentially make a big difference for students in Philly’s schools,” said Rahmir Venable, a sophomore at West Philadelphia High School.

The yout

h-produc

ed radi

o show

of the

Philadel

phia St

udent U

nion

Sundays2-3pm

88.1FM WPEB

Tune in:

Listen Online Anytime:

www.onblast.podomatic.com

On Blast

3

Steps Toward EquityExcerpts from our Teacher Quality Platform

We the students, parents and com-munity members of Philadelphia

public schools are concerned about the unequal distribution of qualified and ex-perienced teachers across our schools. We recommend these steps:

1. Continue to implement policies that will expand the pool of certified teach-ers in the District.

2. Provide extra incentives and sup-ports for hard-to-staff schools

3. Improve the District’s teacher hir-ing and transfer policies to ensure a more equitable distribution of certified teachers

4. Strengthen the capacity for princi-pals to be effective leaders 5. Expand opportunities for schools to adopt a site based selection teacher hiring process

6. Include students and parents in teacher training and professional de-velopment

To read the full text of our platform, visit www.phillystudentunion.org

On October 2, 2008 the Philly Student Union held an action on the steps of Masterman

High School. We gathered to protest the absence of student input in discus-sions between the Philadelphia Federa-tion of Teachers and the School District, located only blocks away. Binoculars in hand, students from all over the city stood “looking for the students” in the talks.

It only made sense that the action took place in front of Masterman, one of the city’s premier magnet schools. We believe the gap between teacher quality at magnet schools and neighborhood schools is a sign of inequity in our dis-trict. Neighborhood schools are more

likely to have inexperienced teachers and teacher vacancies. In order to fix these problems, the School District needs to distribute funding in a fair way. We proposed teacher-incentive grants, sums of money to attract teachers to hard-to-staff schools.

Our public schools shape our pub-lic’s future. Those who miss out on get-ting into magnet schools receive a less adequate education and are met with less opportunity.

To make the right decisions for Philadelphia schools, the district must listen to those who walk their halls ev-eryday. We will continue to demand that the voices of the students be heard—it is our education that is at stake. •

by Phil lindSay

Hello, my name is Finesse Davis and I am representing the Overbrook chap-ter of the Philadelphia Student Union. As a senior, I’ve experienced the issue of teacher quality in Philadelphia public schools. This is an issue that

not only affects students in school but their lives after school as well. When I saw the statistics for highly qualified teachers in Philadelphia, I was

highly upset. Then I saw the statistics for teachers in Corrective Action 2 schools and I became even more upset! The percentage of highly qualified teachers in Phila-delphia 86%. In Corrective Action 2 schools that percentage drops to 68%. And in Corrective Action 2 High Schools, only 57% of teachers are highly qualified! The difference in these numbers might sound small, but the effect is traumatic for students. And if the “No Child Left Behind” Act is supposed to “correct” the is-sue of school achievement, then why is the number of highly qualified teachers in Corrective Action 2 schools—like Overbrook— half of what it is at schools like Masterman?! Of the 22 high-schools in CA2, 9 have been in CA2 for more than 5 years. How can these schools succeed if they don’t have qualified teachers?

As a student in Overbrook High School, I have witnessed first hand the low quality of teachers in my school. I’ve seen students cut class and come to my class-room to avoid bad teachers. Earlier this year, I had a teacher miss two weeks of school due to sickness. In that time, my class had a string of subs who had no sense of work. We did more crossword puzzles than actual classwork. Now my science class is two weeks behind every other science class in school.

Teacher distribution in Philadelphia is a broken system. It’s a broken system that punishes the students. No student can afford to be in a school where only half of the teachers are qualified to teach. •

thiS SPEEch WaS givEn at thE oct. 2 rally.

CloSing ThE gap Students Offer Solutions to Disparity of Qualifed Teachers

looKing for StudEntS’ nEEdS in tEachEr contractS.

by finESSE daviS

We propose teacher-incentive grants, sums of money to attract and retain teachers at hard-to-staff schools.‘‘

‘‘

4

Right before the start of the school year, PSU held an intensive two week

program called Building A Youth Movement (BAYM). The first week of BAYM was devot-ed to media training. Participants chose a medium —video, audio, or journalism —then spent the week learning technical skills and creating a piece of media that represents PSU’s vision. The second week of BAYM focused on political education, including student-led workshops on militarism, how to build a campaign, media criticism, the history of social movements, and power in the school district. By the close of BAYM, we were equipped with new skills and ener-gized for the year ahead.

reflecting on two weeks

of media training

& political education

In the audio track, we got together in pairs with people who already knew how to make audio pieces. At first, we went to Clark Park in

West Philly and interviewed people in order to get over our shyness and get used to using recording equipment. We asked people what they knew about the School District and things of that nature.

Then, we were taught how to use all of the recording and editing equipment. We made a plan for creating a radio segment and went straight to work on it. We only had a week to finish our projects and even though we were all under a lot of pres-sure, we all managed to meet our deadline. We presented our work at the end of the week, and each group got to see what the everyone else had been working on. I learned a lot of new things in the audio track at BAYM. Thanks to all of my new knowledge, now I’m actually one of the producers of Philly Student Union’s weekly youth radio show. •

The second week of BAYM revolved around political education. We did a workshop about militarization, and this opened my eyes as to

who the military is targeting. We learned that the military is looking for poor, young people of color who live in urban areas. We also learned that the military put recruiters in the schools of targeted urban areas.

It doesn’t make sense that poor people are fighting rich people’s wars. They wouldn’t have to recruit if we didn’t have wars in the first place. Of all the workshops during BAYM, this stood out to me because they’re targeting people just like me. •

by Sylvia Wright

by SimonE WallEr

brEanna morriS & ambEr cartEr caPturE thE StudEnt Summit on vidEotaPE. thEy lEarnEd hoW to uSE a vidEo camEra during building a youth movEmEnt.

I am creating my own media, not being fed negative media representations of young people.” - Eric Yates, Senior, West Phila HS

“

candacE cartEr EnginEErS PSu’S radio ShoW, on blaSt.liStEn to thE ShoW onlinE: WWW.onblaSt.Podomatic.com

During the first week of BAYM, I was part of the video team. We started out by learning how to tell stories using video. We learned

how to use close-ups and how to set up a good shot. But most important, we learned how to get our message across. I think video is a good tool for PSU, because it can help us show our positions on important issues and get our voices heard. •

by maSon tyEr

5

In the 2007-2008 school year, PSU proactively began to address the situa-tion with Corrective Action II schools.

Under No Child Left Behind, if a school fails to meet state standards on testing for 5 years or more, they enter Correc-tive Action II sta-tus. Being under this status leaves a school open for being turned over to a private manager,turned into a charter school, or some other radical change.

As soon as we heard that 70 of our public schools were in Correc-tive Action II, we demanded that community mem-bers and students have input into the process, which resulted in the cre-ation of a district-sponsored task force. In order to fully participate in this task force, members did research into the performance data of EMO schools.

We found that EMO schools had not outperformed district run schools despite being paid $107 million in contract fees over 6 years. Additionally, we unearthed information on the Office of Restruc-tured Schools (ORS), a district office that overlooked 21 low-performing school and successfully brought 14 out of them out of Corrective Action II, but was mysteri-ously closed in 2005. This was a successful district reform model that we had found and so we began to promote it as a posi-tive solution to Corrective Action II.

We also pushed for public meetings

at each of the 70 CAII schools to make sure that communities were informed. Public meetings were held in winter and then again in spring; unfortunately the community was not given enough notice. We attempted to do outreach to as many

CAII schools as possible, especially those in West Philadelphia, in order to make them aware of the district’s process and to encourage them to advocate for them-selves and put forward solutions.

Throughout the year we took it upon ourselves to educate communities about the issue of CAII, speaking to Home and School councils, parent and student organizations, and attending meetings at individual schools. We believe that each school needs a solution that is tailored to its specific needs. We conducted 3 public actions at the School District to call at-tention to both proven and failed reforms, demand transparency and accountability

around district contracts and to call for holding all reform models to high stan-dards.

As a result of our actions and in-creased scrutiny and public pressure, the SRC could no longer summarily renew all

contracts with failing EMO’s as they had done a year before. We applaud them for returning 6 EMO schools to the district and putting another 20 on probation.

We are pleased that the lowest per-forming schools are now the “Empow-erment Schools” and will receive extra resources and support. We hope that the successful elements of the Office of Restructured Schools will be re-created within the Empowerment Schools model. We look forward to continuing our cam-paign to build the power of students, par-ents and communities in Corrective Ac-tion II to put forward the solutions that are best for them. •

As a result of our

actions and increased

public pressure, the SRC

could not summarily

renew all contracts

with failing EMO’s as they

had done a year before.

We applaud them for

returning 6 EMO schools

to the district and putting

another 20 on probation.

students prevail against privatizationOur Corrective action II campaign

by thE youth lEadErShiP tEam of PhiladElPhia StudEnt union

finESS daviS ExPlainS thE difficult conditionS at hEr School, ovErbrooK, Which iS in caii.

6

School FundingThe problem with school funding in Penn-sylvania is that it is largely based on where you live and not what you actually need. Because our schools rely heavily on local property taxes, the way our neighborhoods look impacts the kind of education we will have. Also, within Philadelphia, the money that we do have is not distributed equally.

The solution to this problem is that state funding must be based on an equitable formula. Elected officials, policy makers and community leaders must treat educa-tion funding as a crucial issue. The School District and the School Reform Commis-sion must spend money wisely and equitably in the best interest of all students.

Teacher Quality & EquityQualified and experienced teachers are

not distributed equally throughout the district. This is the most important equity issue facing our district

at this time. We are tired of being told that there is nothing that can be done. High rates of teacher

turnover, and unequal teacher distribution leaves students in different schools with very

different educational experiences.

The School Reform Commission, the School Dis-trict, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers

must be held accountable for improving this situa-tion through the teachers’ contract as well as other means, using the understanding and experience of

students, parents, and all those involved.

Where We StandA Platform on Education

These statements about School Funding, Teacher Quality, Correc-tive Action II & Youth Organizing were drafted collaboratively by students from 36 high schools, during the 2008 Student Summit a

ll P

ho

toS:

© J

acq

uES

-JEa

n t

izio

u /

WW

W.J

Jtiz

iou.n

Et

.at thE cloSE of thE Summit, nyEEm bing aPPlaudS thE nEWly crEatEd Education Platform.

nyziah millEr & ambEr cartEr gathEr footagE for PSu’S uPcoming documEntary.

gracE harman dEmonStratES thE diSParity of funding acroSS Pa’S many School diStrictS.

7

Youth OrganizingOur schools have a number of problems that adults get paid high salaries to try to fix. Right now, students do not have enough of a

voice in our education even though we are the ones in school all day. We need to know what’s going on in the system in order to fix it. If it

is really our own education, then we need to have real power.

Every student in every school has the right to organize to address the root causes of real issues that effect our education. Students are

serious about being heard, now. We will organize with students from all around the district and the region, and the district needs to listen to us. We want to reclaim our education because not only are we the

future, but we’re the present and our very lives depend on it.

Corrective Action II Right now about 1/4 of Philly’s public schools are in Corrective Action II. We feel that there are two main reasons for this. One is that schools are not provided with the resources they need. Another is that schools that are struggling do not get reforms that work. Overcrowded classrooms, a lack of supplies, a lack of qualified teachers, coun-selors, and other staff create difficult situa-tions for the whole school community. From this emerges violence, a high drop-out rate, and an oppressive environment that is more like a prison than a school. All of this makes students hate learning. When schools are under-resourced, students and teachers suffer and are set up for failure.

In order to get schools out of Corrective Action II and ensure the success of all of our schools, we as students demand that the school district take real corrective action. We’ve had enough of privatization and other reforms that have hidden and politically motivated agendas. We believe in community control of schools. We believe that critical steps in bringing schools out of CAII are to ensure an equitable distribution of qualified and experienced teachers, and to secure more money for public schools. •

aquill EvanS, Eric yatES & tia PrESSlEy diScuSS WayS that young PEoPlE arE oPPrESSEd.

StudEntS ExPlorE thE unEqual diStribution of qualifiEd tEachErS, in a WorKShoP lEd by SimonE WallEr, marcuS mundy & zaKia royStEr.

8

This trip has been inspiring, emotional and just a big learn-

ing experience. Going to Baltimore, West Virginia and New York, and meeting with other people who are fighting for human rights, I feel like I have grown as an organizer and a person. This trip has shown me that to reach the goal of not only fixing education, but ending poverty, we need to be one, not one thousand. •

Someone on the trip spoke of a difference between physical and

spiritual food. Physical foods are the things that sustain us physi-cally; shelter, food, and water. Spiri-

tual foods though, are harder to pin down. They are things like gaining knowledge, feeling significant, lov-ing and being loved, being a leader, and being a part of something larger than ourselves. These are the things that allow us to survive spiritually, the things that make us human.

When we talk about human rights, we talk about giving people the right to housing, employment, food, education and healthcare. But how did things get to the point where what we saw on the trip—

denying workers human rights, the destruction of Appalachia’s land and culture—was possible, where what we see in our city every day is pos-sible? I think atrocities on that scale can only happen when the world succumbs to the violence of mate-rialism. And by that I mean people putting profits before human life and dignity.

How can someone exploit someone else and deny them of their human rights unless they themselves have lost their spiritual food?

I’ve realized that while we must start a movement to end physical poverty right now, it is important to be thinking about the spiritual pov-erty that so many are suffering from.

In a lot of ways it is responsible for the suffering and pov-erty that we saw on our trip and at home. •

At this point in my life, I

have realized that society looks over poor people, ex-ploiting them, de-humanizing them, and making them fight each other.

Society is about the mighty dollar and will do anything for it, even if it means destroying people’s his-tory. This society is made to make poor people strive to get wealthy, then tells them to never look back; to never try to make things better for others. I think it’s time for this framework to go, because it is not true. At this point in my life, I have to make a new framework. Exploit-ing, oppressing and dehumanizing people is wrong. We—the leaders of today—have to change it. •

Our Summer Immersion Trip This summer, seventeen of PSU’s lead-

ers piled in vans and went on a week long immersion trip. We visited organiz-ing groups in Baltimore, West Virginia & New York; learning about their struggles and connecting them to our work here in Philly. These reflections were written by members after returning home.

“I feel like I have grown as an organizer and a person.”

by dan JonES

by brEonia robinSon

by laWrEncE JonES-mahonEy

9

Weighted Student Funding (WSF) is a very important issue because our

new superintendent, Arlene Ackerman, has said that she might try to implement it in the Phila-delphia School District. In fact, Dr. Ackerman has implement-ed WSF in the last four school districts she has headed.

The dis-trict’s definition of WSF is “a fiscal methodol-ogy designed to determine how to allocate funds in an equitable way to schools based on specific student charac-teristics that are developed, and identified, and agreed upon by school dis-tricts.” (Those student characteristics vary from school district to school district.)

In other words, students would have a “backpack” of money that would follow them from school to school. Some “back-packs” would get additional dollars based on certain criteria which could include: gifted and talented, Special Education, low income households and English Language Learners.

In the other cities that Ackerman tried to implement the WSF formula, the out-comes varied. For example, after Ackerman left Washington D.C. they “scrapped” the formula and the new superintendent was quoted in an article as saying “The weighted student formula has not served many schools well, placing too much power in the hands of principals.” Denver is going into its sec-ond year of using the WSF formula. In the first year nothing really changed. However, a part of the formula is called “Hold Harm-less,” which means that no school—even if

it is an overfunded school—lost money. In Philadelphia, education organizers

are trying to figure out what this all means for us. After hearing about what happened

in Denver, one concerned Philadelphian had this to say: “This whole thing can eas-ily become a way to spend massive amounts of time pretending you’re doing something about equity and really not doing any-thing.”

At the Philadelphia Student Union we have been thinking about how this would affect us, the students. This would affect us dramatically if it were not run correctly. So, what does it need to run correctly?

The school district needs to have a com-mittee of students and community members to have input throughout the entire process, monitoring its progress and ensuring that it works correctly. The community must have input on what will be weighed, who will get more money and who will benefit the most from it. And finally, teachers’ salaries must be include in the formula in a way that ensures the new money doesn’t continue to give us the same unequal distribution of qualified teachers in the district but instead keeps all students in mind. •

by Khalif dobSon

zaKia royStEr & nyziah millEr talK to dr. acKErman during a PSu action calling for morE diStrict tranSParEncy and community involvEmEnt.

What Weighted Student Funding Could Mean for Philly

Tipping the Scales Reclaiming OuR educatiOn

PSU believes that education can be used to “domesti-

cate” or “liberate” people and in order to fight to make change in our public schools we need to be liberated in our thinking.

Every day students are go-ing to school but are sitting in their seats doing worksheets in preparation for tests, rather than being prepared to be criti-cal thinkers and learners. Every day there are students who can’t get access to a college counsel-or because of the growing injus-tices in our public education.

In response, PSU has cre-ated an academic support pro-gram. Every Saturday morning at PSU’s office, students can not only get help with their work and enrich their education, but they can also have their ques-tions answered on the college admission process—from filling out applications to financial aid.

This academic support pro-gram is made possible by vol-unteers. If you would like to get involved, and join our fight to reclaim our education, please contact: luis@phillystudentunion.org

EvEry Saturday

College access 10am – 11:30am

academic Support 11:30am – 1:00pm

at 5011 Baltimore Ave.

by John WilliamS & EriKa almiron

10

On the night of its birthsomeone has murdered natureand has yet to be tried.In hopes of finding the murdererI went there (outside the convicted system’s home)sat there (debating its reason for being)and stayed there (for I knew what they did)and I now know what they are doing.Making us work harder bystepping on the backs of others as if we weretrying to recreate the pyramids.But instead of bricks we would useblocks constructed from oppression.And what would we receive?NOTHINGNothing at all, but a better seaton the already partially submerged Titanic(A symbol for our country in it current eco-nomic state)See...really look,for your eyes are closed to the injustices set before you.Open your eyes and behold these systems,it is no reason for revising the systemSee, we know there is nothing wrong with the systemit does everything that it’s set up to do.See, these systems are the un-discriminatoryWilliam Lynchfor is does not care for your texturebut how much access you have.Liberty and Justice is a splitting coupleand to them I would write a love songmeant to relight the flamesthat had been diminished by the rulers of hatred.I have nothing left to say to them (Liberty and Justice)

“I miss you”(Tears are wiped from my face with a tattered clothused to wipe the blood from my battle sys-tems)I would continue,just as the Egyptians awaited Mosesand the village people of that kingdom in Africaawaited the return of their KING SIMBA.I would wait,because I knew that it is not the personbut ratherthe difficulties that are placed in front of that personthat decides what side of the battlefield they stand with.And for the creators of our difficulty to feel our painthey must not only walk in our shoesbut they must also become well acquainted with our sacrifices.It is time for a new nation,a nation filled with poor Blacks, Hispanics,Chinese, Arabs, Caucasians,and others…That is to saythe poor must become as unifiedand reclaim the only race,the human race,filling it in on every single government ap-plication.Their nation must falland from it we shall reclaim the marriage ofLiberty and Justiceand again become their children.So to you, my future in-laws,I say lets unify and then…Organize. •

with my words

One minute I’m in

the next minute I’m out.

Well it’s about time I tell u

what I’m about.

I’m tired of people telling

me

I’ll be nuthin in life.

When I say yes, will they

always wanna fight?

But I won’t fist fight you,

I’ll fight u with my words.

U won’t cry, neither

scream,

I’ll just tell u

the unheard.

It’s me and you which

aren’t getting funded right.

I need you, you and you

to help me with this fight.

We want the world

to hear our voice.

We as people

do have a choice.

We don’t need to beg

nor plead;

We have to let them know

everything we need:

More hands-on activities,

more qualified teachers,

more money for our school.

Let’s get rid of all the

violence, the drugs,

and every jail-like rule.

We’re students that want

an education

tell me u can’t see.

We make a difference

Because we are

the PSU family.

by Khalif dobSon

yo

uth v

oic

es

untitled

by Shanta Pitt

11

Overbrookby chErEllE rEEd

Philadelphia Student Union just got a new chapter: Over-brook High School! This year at Overbrook we have started

petitions to give to our principal so that we can officially have a chapter in our school. We also started surveys to hand out to the students to see what issues the students want us to focus on.

Overbrook got a $6.4 million grant from the Department of Labor and we believe that students should have a say on how the money is spent. Everyday the Overbrook chapter is rapidly growing. We have started doing workshops in classrooms to re-cruit new members and they have been very successful.

Sayreby candacE cartEr

Currently at Sayre, we are working on recruiting new mem-bers. We are also moving forward with implementing our

new mentoring program, We’re All In This Together (W8). This program is based on 11th and 12th graders acting as mentors to 9th and 10th graders and helping each other grow.

The older students will educate younger students politically about how to be successful in school, and how to act or react in difficult situations (such as when we are disrespected by adults during school hours). At Sayre we are working on making our chapter grow, and we want the support of our surrounding com-munity.

Masterman by grEg Jordan dEtamorE & dan JonES

The Masterman chapter has its hands full this year. Last year, we held several class discussions about classroom dynamics

and the learning environment. We are continuing that process this year. We would like to expand it to more classes, with the goal of promoting more dialogue between students and teach-ers.

Last year, we also surveyed the students in our school about their experiences at Masterman. This year, we are analyzing the data from the surveys, and will produce a report with the find-ings. We will use this to propose solutions to the problems iden-tified.

Additionally, we just passed out military opt-out forms to the whole high school. Finally, our new campaign is to get a stu-dent ombudsman to address student grievances with teachers.

CAPA by darrian KEnnEdy, ambEr fElton & Kimora lamottE

Due to an abundant amount of advisory takeovers, CAPA’s PSU chapter has expanded. We’ve been discussing several

campaign ideas that would notify students of root causes for is-sues in our school. We plan to organize a pep rally to promote our organization.

We’re currently putting a teachers survey together that will let teachers know what students need help with and how to cre-ate a better learning environment. We’re also working towards hosting CAPA’s first ever arts expo. This will allow us to bring together all of CAPA’s art majors, students with various artistic backgrounds, into one big open mic to showcase their talent.

Bodineby amanda Stanford

The Bodine chapter continues to grow and mature as a chap-ter in its sophomore year. Right now our biggest hope and

goal for the Bodine chapter is developing, as well as maintaining, strong and healthy teacher/student relationships. These relation-ships will be important to the growth of the chapter.

Aside from our main goal for this year, there has been alot of positive activity and many achievements as a chapter. One major accomplishment has been the growing strength and in-volvement of core members and leaders.

Westby aliSha WESlEy & Eric yatES This year at West Philadel-

phia High School we are fo-cusing on the recruitment of 9th and 10th graders, college aware-ness for juniors and seniors, and information about military recruitment. We are excited to wel-come back Phillip Pearce to the lead organizer position.

West recently received over $6 million in grant money from the Department of Labor. We are looking into how the money is going to be spent, and making sure that students have input on these decisions. We are continuing to work on the development of our new school •

Chapter Updates

From 1995-2008 the drop-out rate among members of Philadelphia Student Union was .06% compared to the district’s rate of about 50%

add

rES

Sin

g d

rop

ou

t r

atES

ciErra WilKinS, chErEllE rEEd,tia PrESSlEy, iSiah Enoch & brEanna morriS chEEr for PSu.

Ph

oto

: © J

acq

uES

-JEa

n t

izio

u /

WW

W.J

Jtiz

iou.n

Et

ww

w.ph

illystudentunion.or

g •

WW

W.phillystudentunion.org •

check out our new website for

video • audio • photos • blogs

& updates from PSU!

The Philadelphia Student Union exists to build the power of young people to de-mand a high quality education in the Philadelphia public school system. We are a youth-led organization and we make positive changes in the short term by learning how to orga-nize to build power. We also work toward becoming life-long learners and leaders who can bring diverse groups of people together to address the problems that our communities face.

Philadelphia Student Union5011 Baltimore Ave.

Philadelphia, PA 19143Philadelphia Student Union

5011 Baltimore Ave.Philadelphia, PA 19143

Telephone: (215) 471-5970Fax: (215) 471-5970

www.myspace.com/psu4uFacebook group: Philadelphia Student Union

www.phillystudentunion.org