Linda Cliatt-Wayman: How to fix a broken school?

Chester High School Principal Constance McAlister and Strawberry Mansion High School Principal Linda Cliatt-Wayman

Linda Cliatt-Wayman made a surprise appearance at Chester High School thanks to forward thinking of Principal Constance McAlister. Wayman is the latest in a series of motivational speakers to visit the school. Wayman is a principal at Philadelphia's Strawberry Mansion High School. She described her efforts to improve the school where she also attended as a student. “She grew up in poverty in North Philadelphia, where she experienced firsthand the injustice being perpetrated against poor students in their education. She has dedicated her career and her life to ending that injustice, working within Philadelphia's fractured public-school system. She spent 20 years as a Special-Ed teacher before becoming a principal, leading two low-performing urban high schools to success with improved test scores and increased college admissions among students” (Source).

Once one of the most dangerous schools in American, Strawberry Mansion High School has now been removed from the federal Persistently Dangerous Schools List for the first time in five years. “Diane Sawyer and her team spent the 2012-2013 school year documenting Wayman’s efforts for ABC World News Tonight and Nightline.”

So Linda Cliatt-Wayman had a thing or two to tell Chester High School teachers before they get started on the upcoming school year and left with the parting questions of, “So what? And “What’s next?”