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Home > Schooled > S. 02 Ep. 02: Battle lines


	Podcast:		Schooled
	Episode:		S. 02 Ep. 02: Battle lines
	Category:		Education
	Duration:		00:36:21
	Publish Date:		2018-04-25 04:03:04
	Description:		In his first public act as principal of Wister Elementary, Jovan Weaver did something a little unconventional. The school is in Philadelphia’s East Germantown neighborhood, known for pockets of deep poverty and struggles with violence. And the first-year leader wanted to set a tone early that parents should think of the school as a homebase for the community. So, he threw a big party. On a hot August day in 2016, the schoolyard was hopping with parents, students and teachers. Music blared from DJ speakers. Big barrel grills cooked racks of meat over burning charcoal. And Jovan took it all in — looking out over a student body nearly entirely African American. “I see myself in every black boy that I see. I see myself in every black girl that I see,” he said. Jovan’s own two young children, Jace and Ariel, were there too. And his goal with this party, and the year in general, was to make Wister everything he’d want his own kids’ school to be — and to get it to the point that he’d want to send them there as well. “I’m a parent. I walk into Jace’s school and Ariel’s school all the time and they’re fully transparent, and there’s a bunch of communication. That’s the same thing that I want my families to experience,” he said. Mastery hosted a community event in the Wister schoolyard in East Germantown before the school year began in August 2016. (Kevin McCorry/WHYY) Coming into this new school year, the expectations were immense. The idea was for a brand new team of teachers and leaders to make a dramatic difference in the lives of the students in this neighborhood, to increase their learning abilities in ways that would alter the course of their lives. William Jackson, parent of an incoming kindergartner, had bought into that promise, and so far was encouraged. “For this community, just having these kids out here, just around and having fun, was dangerous,” Jackson said that day as his daughter ran circles around him. “To come back here and have the families and have such a great day. This is a statement.” But getting to this point was no small matter. In fact, the entire process that led to this moment was part of one of the most contentious and controversial school policy debates that Philadelphia has ever seen, one that came to epitomize the confusion, the politics, and the fury that have long underlied the school choice debate — not just in Philadelphia, but across the country. The story of Jovan Weaver and Wister Elementary can also be experienced as a radio documentary. The tale is told across the four-episode second season of our podcast “Schooled.” It’s based on more than two years of reporting about the students, the parents, the faculty, and the huge political fight that sprung from Wister Elementary. You can listen using the play button above. This is part two.
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