High School Choice

High School Fair is at the Convention Center on Broad Street

It will be held this year on September 20 5-7pm and September 21 from 10-2pm

How do I learn about schools?

Look through the Great Schools' Directory:

• greatphillyschools.org
• Resources
• Look through to find lots of information about all the schools in the city

Philly High School Fair!

• There will be a virtual Philadelphia High School Fair in mid-September (date still to be decided)
• Virtual booth for each participating school
• phillyhighschoolfair.com

AND a youtube.com video called:

"Find Your Great High School"

Philasd.org

search:

• School Selection Process
• Scroll to bottom of page
• 11 promotional videos about various high schools

Look through the Phila School District directory:

1. Philasd.org

2. Search: "High School Directory" or "School Selection"

3. LOTS of info about the schools, e.g. where they are located, how big they are, what they offer academically, what kinds of clubs and sports they offer, etc.

4. Videos and FAQs

Neighborhood schools...

What should I think about when choosing a school?

City Wide Schools...

• offer good academics
• prepare you for higher education
• offer technical programs like the city wide schools
• have sports programs and clubs

• offer many technical programs, such as cooking, plumbing, health related skills, graphic design, etc.
• have good academic standards
• prepare you for college or a technical school
• have many sports and clubs

• what am I interested in doing in school besides academics?
• how big a school do I want?
• how far am I willing to travel?
• what is the criteria for getting in?

What can I do to give myself the best chances of getting into the high school of my choice?

There are three different types of district schools:

1. Special Admission

2. Citywide

3. Neighborhood

• Get GOOD grades. That means study, do all my classwork and my homework.
• Have good attendance. That means come to school EVERYDAY and ON TIME.
• Do well on the PSSA.
• Behave myself! No suspensions or 3s on my report card.

City Wide Schools

Parent Portal

Auditions and Interviews

Go to philasd.org and find "parent portal"

What you need to set up an account:

• student ID#
• personal email address
• access to the same telephone number on file with your child's school
• follow directions on print out

Neighborhood Schools

Citywide Schools

1. Building 21

2. Constitution

3. Dobbins

4. The Linc

5. Mastbaum

6. Military Academy

7. Randolph

8. Robeson

9. School of the Future

10. Southern Technical

11. Swenson

12. U School

13. Workshop School

• The performing arts schools all have auditions but only if your child meets the criteria they are looking for.
• Many of the schools now ask for interviews.
• PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER ARE CORRECT. OTHERWISE YOU MIGHT MISS A LETTER OR PHONE CALL.

Contact information:

Sharon Weiss-Cohen:

267-265-2181

sweisscohenphilasd.org

Reach out with any questions!

If a school wants an essay or a letter of recommendation they will ask you to state you will upload it or deliver it to the school yourself. Normally I would deliver everything myself, but this year you will need to upload the essay, LOR, etc.

Deadlines

There are 21 neighborhood schools across the city. They have the following requirements:

• you must live in the area of the school
• you can apply to a school outside your neighborhood but your name will go into a lottery
• you can apply to technical programs in the neighborhood schools

• There are 13 City Wide schools. They no longer have criteria for attending their schools although they sometimes require that students come for an initial interview or screening.
• Again, waiting on info about how they will handle that this year.

There is no advantage to getting into schools by applying early. Nobody is looking at applications until the deadline of November 6th. Don't wait until the last second but take your time to choose wisely.

How do I apply?

• The online application system opens on September 18, 2020 at 5:00 PM.
• It closes on Friday, November 6, 2020 at 5:00 PM.
• Changes can be made up until that date and time but NOTHING can be changed after that deadline.
• If you want letters of recommendation from teachers you should ask by October 23rd in order to give teachers time to write a good letter.

Special Admission Schools...

• The students have "School Selection" as one of their "hollywood squares"
• use drop down menu to choose schools and programs
• choose wisely!
• remember to consider the criteria (grades, scores, attendance)
• look to see what they want as far as essays, letters of recommendation, etc.
• you will need to upload all documents
• choose with your parents! They can give you good advice.
• ask Ms. Cohen and the rest of the Middle School team if you have any questions.

• have very high academic standards
• offer many advanced placement classes
• prepare you for college
• expect you to work VERY hard
• depending on the size of the school offer sports and other clubs

What is needed in the advocacy packet?

Special Admission High Schools

The LeGare Advocacy Process

• A letter of recommendation from a teacher/counselor/mentor
• Essay written by student
• Interest Inventory
• Waiver form

Science Leadership Academy CC and Beeber want you to call them to set up an interview. They will NOT reach out to you.

I don't know if this is true for this year, but I'll try to find out.

Special Admission Schools

1. Academy at Palumbo

2. Arts @ Ben Rush

3. Bodine

4. CAPA

5. Carver (E&S)

6. Central

7. Franklin Learning Center

8. Hill-Freedman

9. GAMP

10. Girls' High

11. Lankenau

12. Masterman

13. Motivation

14. Northeast Magnet

15. Parkway CC

16. Parkway Northwest

17. Parkway West

18. Saul Agricultural

19. Science Leadership (CC and Beeber campuses)

There are 20 Special Admit high schools. They have the following requirements:

• advanced or proficient PSSA scores (certain percentile)
• all As and Bs on final report (with the possible exception of one C)
• excellent attendance
• no poor disciplinary reports

• Ensures that students with an IEP, a 504 plan or who are ELL students have a fair shot at applying to schools.
• Counselors will make folders with the student's information in it to send to each school that the student applies to.
• Families will find out in the spring if their child got into the school of their choice. If not, the family can appeal the decision.

High School Choice

What is HS choice?

• the school district allows every 8th grader to choose 5 district high schools to apply to
• you can apply to as many charter, catholic, or private schools as you want but that is done separately and on your own
• you are automatically accepted to your neighborhood high school