Parkside: School of the Future Relies on Forward Thinking, Not Just Technology

For most teenagers, high school helps define where they are headed in life, molding young men and women by exposing them to pathways suitable to fulfilling their desires.

Philadelphia’s unique Microsoft High School of The Future does this and more, equipping students with the kinds of practical knowledge necessary to be successful in the real world.

“We focus a lot on things outside of the normal math and science and reading, like competencies,” said Robin Walker, the development coordinator for the School of the Future. “Our kids have wonderful presentation skills. They’re organized, and they do a lot of things that they’ll find in the real world and are relevant to their real lives.”

The School of the Future, which celebrated its first-ever graduation in June 2010, is a neighborhood public school on the same level as its closest counterpart Overbrook High School. But these two schools are vastly different in their approaches to education. For example, with regards to curriculum and teaching style at the School of the Future, students are learning sound communications and technological skills on top of their day to day math, science and reading instructional mix.

Students in many Philadelphia public high schools do not normally acquire those communications and technology until they “get to college or your first job,” Walker said.

By 2003, Philadelphia’s public school system was tracking further into failure without aggressive action by the School District of Philadelphia and the city. Performance on standardized tests was low, dropout rates were high and too many struggling students simply slipped through the cracks.

A former school superintendent, Paul Vallas, wanted to try some new approaches for addressing his problem plagued system  So began the School District’s partnership with Microsoft. From an idea in 2003 to create a new school built on the principles of innovative teaching and modern education, the School of the Future opened in 2006. Two years later, Principal Rosalind Chivis came on board and dedicated her time, as well as the rest of the school faculty’s, to attending to their students.

“When I was asked [to head the School] it was a tough decision to make,” Principal Chivis said. “But I felt that it was the right decision to make.”

When Chivis first arrived at the School of the Future she felt that the previous three principals were not approaching the learners in a productive and quality style to suit their needs. Chivis decided it was her personal responsibility to see to it that her staff knew where the students came from,

what they were lacking and what they would need to be successful in life. Chivis was someone who had witnessed the partnership with Microsoft flourish having served as the district’s assistant superintendent.

After taking her staff on a neighborhood bus tour, Chivis assigned counselor roles to some of the teachers and hired two college counselors, all of whom are required to help students set plans for post-graduation.

“My counselors work tirelessly and literally chase those learners down to make them apply for colleges and scholarships,” Chivis explained.

The High School of the Future opened its doors in 2006 to 170 students full of uncertainties and excitement about the fate of the new campus near the intersection of 40th Street and Girard Avenue in Parkside. Although built with a capacity to accommodate 750 students. The high school has yet to hit that number and sees many advantages in remaining under a 600 students since it opened.

“We were designed for 750 students,” Chivis explained. “But we have yet to have a full capacity in the building. We have much smaller class sizes and I think that’s a valuable difference between this school and other public schools.”

To keep the school under 750 learners, prospective students must apply to be entered into a lottery for each of their preferred high schools.  In the case of the School of the Future, the institution agreed with the School District and Parkside residents that 75 percent of its students would be from the immediate area while the other 25 percent of the student body would be admitted from other sections of the city. School District officials altered that agreement by expanding the percentage of students admitted from other areas of the city.

Philadelphia’s small schools plan, like that practiced at the School of the Futuere, shows promise provided that the District maintains its commitment to small high schools and provides adequate support, according to Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based, not-for-profit organization that seeks to improve the educational opportunities and outcomes of urban youth.

While the School of the Future is deemed a small school in Philadelphia — defined as having fewer than 700 students — the school almost meets the requirement for being a nationally recognized small school with less than 500 students. Currently there are 560 students with a 2010 graduating class of 116.

With an enviable 96 percent graduation rate and 100 percent post-secondary education acceptance rate, the School of the Future broke through achievement barriers that many long-term established public high schools in Philadelphia still have not overcome.

Since 2005, Philadelphia’s on-time graduation rate staggered between 52 percent and 57 percent, according the School District’s Office of Accountability. Just over 50 percent of an expected high school graduating class actually graduates in four years.

Perhaps the most significant factor present at the School of the Future and absent from most of  its public high school counterparts is the school’s personal connection to its students — a result of smaller class sizes as well as genuine caring expressed by the school’s faculty, staff, and administration.

“When I first started at the School of the Future, I really thought ‘This will just be a job,'” Tony Franklin, solutions specialist and Microsoft liaison at the School of the Future, said. “But that’s really not what happened. I formed personal connections with the students.”

The effect of the dedicated educators may not have been more evident than on June 15 when 116 students walked across the commencement stage with personal achievements flooding their hearts and gratitude in their smiles, smiling at and cheering for their educators.

“I really believe that as many kids that I can affect and touch and talk to and help,” Franklin explained. “Those kids will at least have the opportunity to have someone in their life that really cares about where they’re going.”

The School of the Future was created to become a model for 21st-century education and it would appear to some observers that the school is truly something else. While the outside world imagines the School of the Future as extremely technologically advanced other than the one-to-one laptop-to-student ratio, the true distinction of this facility is its strategic planning, curriculum design and dedication of its faculty and staff that make that gives real substance to its “School of the Future” name.