Philadelphia Education Fund

The mission of the Philadelphia Education Fund is to improve the quality of public education for underserved youth throughout the Philadelphia region.
 
The roots of the Philadelphia Education Fund can be traced to 1985, when the city's business, foundation, and university communities created teh Philadelphia Alliance for Teaching Humanities in Schools (PATHS)/Philadelphia Renaissance in Science and Mathematics (PRISM). PATHS/PRISM worked in collaboration with the School District of PHiladelphia to increase the access to and rigor of humanities and science/math education for K-12 students. During the same period, the Philadelphia Schools Collaborative (the Collaborative) was created by the District to focus on high school reform.  In a strategic decision to unify the two organizations working on similar goals, PATHS/PRISM and the Collaborative merged in 1995 to form the Philadelphia Education Fund, resulting in a stronger entity that joined the national Public Education Network, and came to occupy a significant role in Philadelphia schools and later in the surrounding region.
 

Three primary goals guide the work of the Philadelphia Education Fund. Through collaborative work with school districts, schools, businesses, universities, non-profit organizations, community stakeholders, and other partners, the Ed Fund aims to:

• Create high-performing secondary schools (grades 6-12) where public school diplomas are synonymous with rigorous and high quality education that leads to post-secondary success.
• Provide all students with access to postsecondary education opportunities and the assurance that they can complete appropriate and rigorous classes to allow them to succeed in college and career.
• Create strategic alliances to support student success from Pre-K through college.

In collaboration with schools, school districts, and other partners, the Philadelphia Education Fund enhances teaching and learning; conducts research studies that fuel its work and that of others; directly assists students to access and succeed in postsecondary education; convenes public education stakeholders in support of school reform policy and practice; and informs and engages citizens as public school advocates in the greater Philadelphia region.
 
Enhances teaching and learning:

• Preparing new math and science teachers through its new Philadelphia Teacher Residency.
• Conducting dropout prevention programs through Diplomas Now (Early Warning Indicators Research).
• Managing, with Fleisher Art Memorial, and Public Citizens for Children and Youth, ArtsRising (Arts for Children and Youth).

Conducts research that fuels its work and that of others:

• Preparing the Early Warning Indicators, with Johns Hopkins University, which identifies four dropout risk factors seen as early as 6th grade and is regularly cited locally, regionally, and nationally.
• Math and Science Coursetaking Study, conducted with University of Delaware, examines math coursetaking and achievement trends that identify the importance of high quality math and science instruction.
• Philadelphia Educational Longitudinal Study (PELS) helps to distinguish the effects of compound disadvantage and link student outcomes of educational programs to interventions.
• Helping to define Philadelphia’s college-going rate and the reasons behind it is the new study, Postsecondary Access and Success Study.
• In partnership with University of Pennsylvania and University of Delaware, the Pregnant and Parenting Study examines the impact of teen childbearing on graduation while accounting for the continuity of the students' education.

Assists students to access and succeed in postsecondary education:

• The College Access Program, which provides support to over 10,000 students and adults annually to make college an achievable goal.
• The Philadelphia Scholars Program 'Last Dollar' scholarships for College Access participants in good standing at accredited college and universities across the county.
• The Citi Postsecondary Success Program, which will create systemic change in schools, allowing students in low performing high schools to be better prepared to graduate from high school and succeed in college.
• A partnership with Graduate! Philadelphia, whose work complements the College Access Program by focusing on adults who have started but not finished college.

Convenes public education stakeholders:

• The Education First Compact, a monthly forum of education stakeholders that explores school reform issues and lends a critical perspective to the School District of Philadelphia.
• The Philadelphia Math + Science Coalition, a partnership of businesses, universities, the School District, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and other non-profits that brings resources and expertise to improve the quality of math and science instruction in public schools.

Engages and informs public school advocates through its civic engagement efforts:

• The Small Schools Project, which partners with youth-led organizations to provide advocacy and leadership skills to support the development of high performing small neighborhood high schools.
• community Learning Briefs to better inform public education advocates.
• Advocating with other statewide organizations for equitable and adequate school funding.
• Serving as a foundint partner of the Greater Philadelphia compact of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] Education, which is helping the Commonwealth to plan and establish STEM centers that will improve STEM instruction across the state.