PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A prominent education nonprofit in Philadelphia is changing its name and shifting its focus.
The Philadelphia School Partnership on Tuesday changed its name to Elevate215, with a new emphasis on promoting effective educational practices.
Founded in 2011, PSP has doled out $80 million to schools with the aim of increasing the number of “high-quality seats.”
The nonprofit, under longtime executive director Mark Gleason, was criticized by supporters of traditional public schools for giving too much of its money to charter and private schools.
Stacy Holland became executive director of the nonprofit last summer. When she took on the role, she said that she saw it as a chance to re-examine education.
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“I think we are in the moment where it gives us the ability to reimagine and to hear very deeply what schools need, what educators need, what families need. And that we now can think very creatively about how to make sure that we meet those needs,” Holland said at the time.
After a 10-month listening tour, Elevate215’s focus is shifting to promoting strategies that make schools better regardless of sector, Holland said Tuesday.
“The organization in its original mission has always been tri-sector. We have served public, private, and charter. I will say the majority has been charter and private. There are public schools that have been served,” she explained.
“In what I'll call the new season in the next decade, we're really looking for best practice.”
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“We’re looking for schools that want to actually elevate their work. That’s in public, charter and private schools,” Holland added.
“What we would like to do is work with a set of schools to implement those practices that we know are moving the needle for kids, and then be able to replicate them across the city.”
An example, Holland said, is extra help for children living in poverty.
“What they might need is a little extra support,” she said. “That support might mean a summer program. It could be after-school tutoring. But when you provide that, what we’re seeing is those young people are actually doing just as well as their peers without the support.”
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Holland says Elevate215 plans to invest in modernizing learning environments and promoting effective educational practices.
Elevate215 will start by supporting programs at 50 schools over the next five years.
“That will serve between 25,000 to 30,000 kids,” Holland said. “And then as a city, we can say we've actually moved a whole another swath of kids into a higher-performing learning environment.”
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