PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia School District is launching an effort to boost its flagging algebra scores by offering extra training for teachers.
Only 27% of district students passed the state’s Keystone algebra tests in 2023-24 — a drop from 30% the year before. So, the Penn Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE), at the district’s request, is offering eighth- and ninth-grade Algebra 1 teachers a fellowship designed to teach them different ways to explain algebraic functions.
“Our goal is to support the teachers in creating routines in algebra,” said Lara Paparo, executive director of Penn GSE’s Penn Learning Network. “To not just teach algebra, but to really get students involved in that sense-making and to be able to own and adopt the curriculum to their own unique circumstances in their classroom.”
The fellowship is available to up to 100 teachers each year. Participants will earn a $3,000 stipend.
This summer’s first cohort is already maxed out, Paparo noted, but there are two other cohorts offered.
“We have more applications than we expected,” she said. “Teachers are really just sharing so much excitement around this.”
The three-year, $5 million fellowship program is supported by the Neubauer Family Foundation with in-kind contributions from Penn GSE.