Education in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

has a rich and storied history. This history began with Benjamin Franklin's founding of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

as European styled school and America's first university. Today's Philadelphia region is home to nearly 300,000 college students, numerous private and parochial secondary schools, and the 8th largest school district in the country.

Public schools system: School District of Philadelphia

Philadelphia is served by the

School District of Philadelphia The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is the school district that includes all school district-operated public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the 8th largest school district in the nation, by enrollment, serving over 200 ...

, which operates 242 of the city's public schools, including 163 elementary schools, 23 middle schools, and 56 high schools. The school district is governed by the nine-member Board of education, appointed by the

Mayor of Philadelphia The mayor of Philadelphia is the chief executive of the government of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Philadelphia. The current mayor of Philadelphia is Jim Kenney. History The first mayor of Philadelphia, ...

. This Board of Education replaced the previous School Reform Commission in 2018. There are 84 independently operated

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

s, which make up the remainder of the public schools in Philadelphia. Charter schools are authorized by the School District of Philadelphia, and are accountable to it.

Parochial schools

Philadelphia is home to the most extensive Catholic education system in the United States. Along with hundreds of parish-based elementary schools, there are also twelve Catholic high schools within the city ranging from Archdiocesan high schools to private Catholic high schools. All of the Catholic schools are affiliated with the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Philadelphia is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in southeastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. It covers the City and County of Philadelphia as well as ...

Private schools

Frankford Friends School Frankford Friends School (also known as FFS) is an independent, coeducational Quaker day school for students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through eight. It is located at 1500 Orthodox Street in the historic Frankford section of Philadelphia, Pennsy ...

, a Quaker school grades PK-8, under the care of Frankford Monthly Meeting *

French International School of Philadelphia The French International School of Philadelphia (french: École française internationale de Philadelphie, EFIP) is a French international school in Bala Cynwyd, Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania within the Delaware Valley. As of 1993 it is the o ...

, the French international school serving the Philadelphia area, is in nearby

Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania Bala Cynwyd ( ) is a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. It is located on the Philadelphia Main Line in Southeastern Pennsylvania, bordering the western edge of Philadelphia at U.S. Route 1 (City Avenue). It was originally two separa ...

. *

Friends Select School Friends Select School (FSS) is a college-preparatory, Quaker school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade located at 1651 Benjamin Franklin Parkway at the intersection of Cherry and N. 17th Streets in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wit ...

, a Quaker school grades PK-12, under the care of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia *

Germantown Friends School Germantown Friends School (GFS) is a coeducational independent PreK–12 school in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States under the supervision of Germantown Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Fri ...

, a Quaker school grades PK-12, school under the care of Germantown Monthly Meeting *

Girard College Girard College is an independent college preparatory five-day boarding school located on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school was founded and permanently endowed from the shipping and banking fortune of Stephen Girard upon h ...

, a primary and secondary educational institution, was endowed by French-American merchant, mariner and banker,

Stephen Girard Stephen Girard (May 20, 1750 – December 26, 1831; born Étienne Girard) was a naturalized American citizen, philanthropist, and banker of French origin. He singularly saved the U.S. government from financial collapse during the War of 1812 b ...

, opening its doors to disadvantaged youth in 1848. *

Greene Street Friends School Greene Street Friends School is a coeducational school under the care of Green Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Located in Germantown, Philadelphia, Greene Street serves 320 students in grades Pre-K to 8. History In De ...

, a Quaker school grades PK-8, school under the care of Green Street Monthly Meeting *Holmesburg Christian Academy, a non-denominational evangelical Christian school in NE Philadelphia for grades PK-8, was founded in 1975 as a ministry of Holmesburg Baptist Church. *

Philadelphia Free School The Philadelphia Free School also known as Philly Free School or PFS, is a Democratic Free School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philly Free School operates on the democratic education or '' Sudbury school'' model. The school opened in the fall of ...

, a

Sudbury school A Sudbury school is a type of school, usually for the K-12 age range, where students have complete responsibility for their own education, and the school is run by a direct democracy in which students and staff are equal citizens. Students use t ...

PK-12 *

Philadelphia Mennonite High School Philadelphia Mennonite High School was a private Mennonite high school in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school had approximately 100 students in 9th through 12th grades, and focused on college preparation. The sc ...

, a

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

high school in the Fairmount neighborhood *

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (also known as SCH Academy or SCH) is an independent, non-sectarian Pre-K through grade 12 school located in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, approximately 10 miles from Center City. SCH serves ove ...

, (formerly Springside School and Chestnut Hill Academy, respectively) a school grades PK-12 located in the Chestnut Hill section of the city *

William Penn Charter School William Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter or simply PC) is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to be op ...

was founded by Penn in 1689, is the oldest

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

school in the nation, under the care of the Board of Overseers.

Friends Schools League

The Friends' Schools League (FSL) is an athletic league made up of student athletes from several private high schools in the

area in

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. As the league's name suggests, it consists primarily of

schools, though in recent years several other schools have become part of the league as well.

Member schools

Member schools include: *

Abington Friends School Abington Friends School is an independent Quaker school in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, United States, serving students from age 3 to grade 12. Abington Friends School has stood on its original campus in the Abington Township neighborhood of Jenkint ...

Academy of the New Church Secondary Schools The Academy of the New Church, Secondary Schools is an accredited, private, day and boarding, 9th through 12th-grade Girls School and Boys School, located in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, United States. The school is affiliated with the General Chur ...

Friends Central School Friends' Central School (FCS) is a Religious Society of Friends, Quaker school which educates students from nursery through grade 12. It is located in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, Wynnewood, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania in Grea ...

George School George School is a private Quaker (Society of Friends) boarding and day high school located on a rural campus in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania ( Newtown postal address). It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown ...

Moorestown Friends School Moorestown Friends School (also known as MFS) is a private, coeducational Quaker day school located in Moorestown, in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2019–20 school year, the school had an enrollment of 652 student ...

The Shipley School , motto_translation = Courage for the deed; Grace for the doing , address = 814 Yarrow Street , location = , region = , city = Bryn Mawr , county = , st ...

Westtown School Westtown School is a Quaker, coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Founded in 1799 b ...

Miscellaneous weekend education

The Japanese Language School of Philadelphia (JLSP, フィラデルフィア日本語補習授業校 ''Firaderufia Nihongo Hoshū Jugyō Kō''), a supplementary Japanese school, holds its classes, intended for Japanese nationals and

Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

, at the

(FCS) in nearby Wynnewood.Community Profile
."

Lower Merion Township Lower Merion Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Philadelphia Main Line. The township's name originates with the county of Merioneth in north Wales. Merioneth is an English-language transcription of the W ...

. Retrieved on April 30, 2014. (contains maps of Lower Merion).

Higher education

Philadelphia is one of the largest

college town A college town or university town is a community (often a separate town or city, but in some cases a town/city neighborhood or a district) that is dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several sma ...

s in the U.S., with over 120,000 college and university students enrolled within the city limits and nearly 300,000 in the metropolitan area.

References

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