I have been meaning to write about a new project in Philadelphia receiving much attention. It is called The Philadelphia School Project. The aim is to raise $100 million with the goal of supporting high-performance schools no matter whether they are public, charter or parochial.
There are some influential Philadelphians backing this initiative chief among them is real estate investor and developer Michael O'Neill. He is calling on other business leaders, foundations, private investors, high quality education operators, and policy advocates to "close the achievement gap by joining forces to create a strong coalition to change education in our city forever.”
Nicholas Torres, now the president of Congreso de Latinos Unidos, has been appointed Executive Director of the Project which was announced in June at an invitation-only presentation. Much of the conversation at that meeting focused on creating some kind of common yardstick to evaluate schools and programs and figure out what is working so they can be replicated.
They have created a nonprofit and have seeded it with $1 million to get things started. Something to watch. If you are interested in reading more, here is an article from The Philadelphia Inquirer. I will write about the Project in the coming weeks as progress is made.
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