History

CPS emphasizes the importance of family involvement. Above, a CPS parent assists her daughter during Writer's Workshop.

Germantown Academy, one of the region's most successful independent schools, and Project H.O.M.E., a nationally-recognized non-profit organization dedicated to ending homelessness, established the Community Partnership School to attend to the educational needs of children from an underserved North Central Philadelphia neighborhood. This neighborhood, located in the 19121 zip code area of Philadelphia, is characterized by high rates of poverty, unemployment and crime. Most students in the neighborhood do not graduate high school on time, and many drop out before receiving a diploma.

Behind the Community Partnership School lies a simple belief: With a top-notch education—the type delivered at the country’s best independent schools—inner-city children can achieve at the same level as their more affluent suburban peers.

Germantown Academy helps guide the school’s core curriculum and offers its academic expertise, while Project H.O.M.E. provides the school’s venue as well as support to the families attending the school. The Community Partnership School also hopes to create a model for partnering other suburban independent schools with community-based programs to bring new educational opportunities to children in low-income urban areas. At the same time, the school seeks to establish a demonstration program illustrating best teaching practices for urban children.

The Community Partnership School opened in September 2006 with 36 children in grades pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade. Today, CPS serves 75 children in grades pre-kindergarten through fourth. In the fall of 2010, CPS will grow to the fifth grade, and in spring of 2011, the first cohort of CPS students will graduate.

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