PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution Thursday to hold hearings on the school district’s practice of “leveling,” which often disrupts classrooms in the second month of school and can lead schools to lose teachers.
For years, the school district has reassigned teachers four to six weeks into the school year once schools are certain of enrollment in each grade. Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who has two children in a public elementary school, sponsored the resolution to explore the practice, complaining that it can set children back at a crucial time.
“It’s not fair that we continue to do this to our children, and I’m going to say this publicly, and I really don’t want to do this, but you want us to have faith in the School District of Philadelphia, then we have to do things differently than you’re doing them before,” Gilmore Richardson said.
“We only have one time to get it right with our children and I’m not going to allow anyone at the school district or anywhere else to jerk me around. Period.”
Leveling has long been controversial, but the alternative is to leave under-enrolled classes small and hire new teachers for oversized ones — something the perpetually cash-strapped school district has said it can’t afford.
Alison Cohn, a parent at Houston Elementary, testified in support of the resolution.
“Leveling inflicts trauma on the children of Philadelphia when we know they already have enough trauma in their lives.”
Councilman Anthony Phillips says he is saddened by the situation and that “they have to listen to us and stop being the bureaucrats that they are.”
At a school district hearing last week, Superintendent Tony Watlington said he does plan to take another look at the practice.