By: Daijah Marrow
3/30/23
The school district of Philadelphia building on broad street.
Class of 2026 students here at carver are continuously finding ways to adjust and navigate the newly implemented lottery system by The school district of Philadelphia in 2022.
The news of this shocked students and staff because it was so unexpected.
“The kids were really caught off guard. And were obviously, really upset and I was just really disappointed in how the district was handling it.”, said Curless, the 8th-grade English teacher here at carver.
Many things were unknown for a long time leaving students uneasy, and not knowing what to expect.
“When I got the news that there would be this whole writing system and lottery thing, I initially didn't really take it seriously, said Washington a former carver student. “Until I realized that this new system could basically kick me out of a school that i was working hard to be at and was already attending”
More details were eventually given, and students had to write an essay in 90 minutes about a random topic. Students had to have a certain score to be eligible for the criteria-based school, the required score varied. Carver’s required score was at least 17/30.After taking these writing assessments in late 2021, students got their results around early February 2023. These results let many students shocked.
Many students were eligible for most of the schools and were accepted, but some less lucky ones were eligible but got waitlisted for many if not all their schools.
"I mean in some ways, I think that the old system is flawed, If we’re talking, school district-wide. But I don't know that the lottery is exactly the answer", Said Curless in a statement.
Carver students wait in a long line before being able to get in school.
These results impacted carver greatly, many 8th-grade students weren’t accepted back in and were waitlisted. But somehow this lottery system caused the then-incoming 9th-grade class to be at an all-time high; the biggest 9th-grade class carver has ever had.
“I lost a section of dance”, said Ms. Bartkust the dance and a P.E/Health teacher here at carver. “Prior to this year I offered two sections of dance and because of the overcrowding of the freshman class, I was required to omit one dance section so that I was there to support the new freshmen with the health and PE portion of their curriculum”.
These new changes may have caused numbers to increase in the 9th-grade class. But it had the opposite result for Carvers middle school program. Parents are concerned that if they send their child to Carver for middle school and there is a higher chance they won't be able to return to high school, then it would be no point.
Carver chess team wins 7 tropices at the PA chess quick championship, with the help of 2 of our middle school students.
“It was never 100% guaranteed if you go to eighth grade here, you were going to come back. but if you meet the requirements, and we know you're a nice person, you're gonna come back, we have space for you. and I think that that was like a big incentive to leave your school in sixth grade and to come here," Curless said. "But now that that's gone, I'm worried".
Now that the carver middle school numbers have dramatically declined, the future of carvers middle-high is now at risk because of the very low number of students.
"It could be the lottery, it could be a whole bunch of different things. But you know, just based on these new changes, what we've seen is a trend down, with students applying to come to our middle school”, said Dr. Johnson our principal here at Carver
While this news may be challenging our strong community here at carver is working together to keep this from happening.
“My goal and intent is to fight my fight and continue to work with the district to ensure that we maintain and retain a middle school here at Carver, said Dr. Johnson. and so right now while numbers might be low. My hope is that our numbers begin to increase as you know, some things change”
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