General George A. McCall School is a public

K–8 school K–8 schools, elementary-middle schools, or K–8 centers are schools in the United States that enroll students from kindergarten/pre-K (age 5–6) to 8th grade (up to age 14), combining the typical elementary school (K–5/6) and junior high ...

in the

Society Hill Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center City District dates the Free Soc ...

section of

Center City, Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the city borders to be coterminous wi ...

. The McCall School, located at 325 S. 7th Street, serves Society Hill,

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

,Kadaba, Lini S.
An Effort To Speak To More Students The School District Is Extending The Reach Of Its Bilingual Programs.

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. ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

''. October 6, 1998
Article info
B01 City & Region. Retrieved on November 29, 2015. and Old City. The school, a part of 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 ...

, is named after George A. McCall. On September 28, 2017 McCall was named a

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

History

The official opening of McCall occurred on February 1911; the construction of the building had been awarded on October 26, 1909. It relieved Horace Binney School, and the first principal of McCall, Louis Nusbaum, was previously Binney's principal.The Gen. George A. McCall School
." PhilaPlace,

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

. Retrieved on February 26, 2017. McCall, in the 1920s and 1930s, was known for its "Continuation School", a program for students aged 14 and up, until age 16, where they attend school once per week while finding work. At the time compulsory school attendance was until age 14. In the 1950s McCall introduced a program of

English as a second language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...

for students, the first of its kind offered by a U.S. public school. In 1953 the students in its ESL program numbered over 200 and originated from over 20 countries. ''

Black Enterprise ''Black Enterprise'' is a black-owned multimedia company. Since the 1970s, its flagship product ''Black Enterprise'' magazine has covered African-American businesses with a readership of 3.7 million. The company was founded in 1970 by Earl G ...

'' stated that circa 1964 McCall "was mostly Black, neglected and hardly deserved to be called an institution of learning.""Blacks in Philadelphia." (November 1976). ''

''. Start p. 36. CITED: p. 44. In: Volume 7. E. G. Graves Publishing Company, 1976. p
144
Se
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/ref> This reflected the state of the neighborhood which the same magazine described back then as "one of the city's most depressing slums". Around that period wealthier residents began sending their children to other schools. By 1976 the neighborhood gentrified and became heavily white. In the mid-1960s it received an auditorium and gymnasium, and prior to 1976 it received a renovation. By then the neighborhood became mostly white and wealthy. By 1976 the school became one of the highest-ranked schools in Philadelphia; the student body of McCall reflected the wealthier and white majority demographics."Blacks in Philadelphia." (November 1976). ''

''. Start p. 36. CITED: p. 44 and 74. In: Volume 7. E. G. Graves Publishing Company, 1976. p
144 and 174
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/ref> According to ''Black Enterprise'', the demographic and academic transformation of McCall was a demonstration of the phrase "The better the neighborhood, the better the schools." By September 1998 the school, which had 650 students, established a bilingual English-Chinese program to serve

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

students, and that month it began hiring teachers fluent in both languages to teach core subjects. At the time 25% of the students were Chinese, and the number of Chinese students had doubled in the previous two-year period. Russell Scott Smith of ''

Edutopia Edutopia is a website published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF). Founded in 1991 by filmmaker George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star ...

'' wrote that in 2004, compared with other schools in Philadelphia, "McCall already had a fairly good reputation for academic rigor and safety" and that by 2009 it had improved even more.Smith, Russell Scott.
Affluent Parents Return to Inner-City Schools for Educational Opportunities

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''. August 26, 2009. Retrieved on November 28, 2015. In 2012 Kristen A. Graham of ''

'' stated that McCall was one of "the district's stronger neighborhood schools".Graham, Kristen A.
Organizers raise funds to offer free summer school

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. ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. July 12, 2012. Retrieved on November 28, 2015.

Operations

The school's parent-teacher organization is the McCall Home and School Association.

Student body

As of 2009 the racial percentages of McCall's student body were 55% Asian, 27% black, 11% white, 4% from other racial backgrounds, and 1.7% Hispanic and Latino. In 2012 about 50% of the student body was below the poverty line. As of 2005 most Chinatown residents who are unable to afford tuition to send their children to private school send their children to McCall.Chinatown to get charter school

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''. March 10, 2005
Article info
B01 Local News Philadelphia & its Suburbs. In 1975, the student enrollment was 713, with white students being 49%, black students being 45%, and Asian students being 6%.

Campus

In 1976 ''Black Enterprise'' stated that there is more emphasis on saving historical buildings in Philadelphia compared to other major American cities; it stated that "in any other large American city it would probably have been torn down by now.""Blacks in Philadelphia." (November 1976). ''

''. Start p. 36. CITED: p. 74. In: Volume 7. E. G. Graves Publishing Company, 1976. p
174
Se
#1
"McCall School was built in 1909. and in any other large American city it would probably have been torn down by now. In Philadelphia, chances are something would have been done to preserve it— as a monument to early-twentieth century .. The school received a "cybrary" in 2007a library facility with 22 computers and materials in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

financed by fundraisers and bake sales.

School uniforms

Its mandatory

school uniform A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise an educational institution.They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries. An example of a uniform would be requiring button-down shir ...

policy went into effect in 2001 when the school district required all schools to have strict dress codes.

Transportation

In 1993 the school district began a school bus route between Chinatown and McCall.Jackson, Leigh.
SCHOOL BOARD TACK: SLASH, UNSLASH

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Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. The ''Dail ...

''. May 28, 1994. 06 Local. Retrieved on November 8, 2011.
Article info
/ref> The school is away from the furthest point of Chinatown. The district was not required to install the route, but parents advocated for the route because they believed that traffic at Market Street and Washington Square endangered their children. When the district proposed to eliminate the route in 1994, parents complained.

Feeder patterns

All persons zoned to McCall are also zoned to Benjamin Franklin High School.High School Directory Fall 2017 Admissions

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. p. 30/70. Retrieved on November 16, 2016. Previously

Furness High School Horace Howard Furness High School is a secondary (9th-12th) school in South Philadelphia. It is part of the School District of Philadelphia. Portions of South Philadelphia (including Bella Vista, Passyunk Square, Pennsport, Queen Village, an ...

was the zoned high school for McCall zone residents.Horace Furness High School Geographic Boundaries

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. Retrieved on November 28, 2015.

Notes

* Some content originated from

References

External links

* ** **
School and Home AssociationGeorge A. McCall School
–

Athenaeum of Philadelphia The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, located at 219 S. 6th Street between St. James Place and Locust Street in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a special collections library and museum founded in 1814 to collect materials ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCall, George A. School Public K–8 schools in Philadelphia Society Hill, Philadelphia School District of Philadelphia School buildings completed in 1911 1911 establishments in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1911