School of the Week: Furness prepares students for high achievement

“Furness has some of the most brilliant kids and programs in the city,” said interim principal Sharon Burke. “It’s truly a special place and we pride ourselves in setting up our students for success.”

Among the focus areas at Furness is literary practices across content areas. Nearly 52% of the school’s population is English language learners.

“In our history classes, we want students to leave with an understanding of what it means to think, read and write like a historian,” Burke said.

“If they’re in math class, we want students to think critically like a mathematician does. We’re giving students the tools to be able to do that, so that they’re most prepared for their post-secondary success,” she said.

At Furness, over 25 different countries are represented with students speaking more than 20 different languages.

Vietnamese, Swahili, Spanish, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Yue/Canto) and Indonesian are among the different languages spoken at the school.

“Because we have a large population that are English language learners, we determine our rosters based on what the student’s needs are,” Burke said. “We may have a student who comes to Furness and has no experience with the English language and that’s what we call a Level I.

“Those students will be rostered into courses,” she said. “They will still get their core courses in English, math, social studies and science, but they’re geared towards English proficiency as well. They’re learning content and English at the same time.

“For Level II students, it’s the same,” she added. “They’re content areas will be a little bit more rigorous in terms of English language, but we’re meshing the two English language and content. Once students hit Level III or Level IV, they will have typical social studies and science courses.”

Burke said Furness also does a good job of preparing students for life after high school.

“We want our students to know that they have college and career options,” Burke said. “We have a 12th grade counselor. We have a long advisory once a week, which gives us the opportunity to bring folks in and expose our students to different colleges, careers and programs.

“Just like many high schools, if students are on track for graduation with their courses, they can get a work roster,” she said. “Instead of being in school for the full-day, they do their courses in the morning and are released to work in the afternoon.”

For extracurricular activities, the school boasts a variety of sport programming including volleyball, soccer, basketball.

“Our girls and the boys volleyball teams won the Invitational championship this year,” Burke said. “We have soccer, badminton and JV basketball for boys. We don’t have a baseball team or football team, but our students who want to play partner with our neighboring school, South Philadelphia High School, to join those teams.

“Our community partner LST, provides a robust after school program for students,” she said. “We also have teen court, an alternative discipline program that is run by students.

“If a student does something against the Code of Conduct instead of an administrator or teacher giving them a consequence we refer them to teen court and the students determine what the consequence should be,” she added. “There’s a teacher moderator, Ms. Moore, who does an excellent job at giving that ownership to the students and making those decisions.

Burke said she wants students to leave Furness feeling prepared for life.

“I hope that they feel loved and cared for while they are here, but I also want them to be prepared for whatever comes next in their lives,” Burke said. “If they do choose to stay in the area, we want them to feel comfortable sending their own kids and family members here one day.”