¹ Conant, James, The American High School Today: A First Report to Interested Citizens (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959), 96.Google Scholar

² Harrison, Wilhelmina, “Anonymous $25,000 Gift Insures Wm. Penn's Wings Project,” Philadelphia Tribune, 21 November 1961.Google Scholar

³ Conant, , The American High School Today, 96.Google Scholar

⁴ Odell, William, “Educational Survey Report for the Philadelphia Board of Public Education,” 1 February 1965, Philadelphia School District Archives (PSDA).Google Scholar

⁵ School District of Philadelphia, “Comparative Report of College-Bound Graduates 1966–71 [n.d.],” Fellowship Commission (FC) collection, Acc 626, box 25, folder 18, Temple University Urban Archives (TUUA); Fellowship Commission, “Committee on Opportunities for Higher Education meeting minutes,” 26 June 1964, FC collection, Acc 626, box 28, folder 39, TUUA; Maurice Fagan, letter to Dr. Lawrence Dennis, 21 May 1964, FC collection, Acc 626, box 27, folder 15, TUUA.Google Scholar

⁶ Odell, William, “Educational Survey Report for the Philadelphia Board of Public Education.”Google Scholar

⁷ Binzen, Peter, “There May or May Not Be a Shortage, But More Money Is Needed for Books,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 26 October 1963.Google Scholar

⁸ Conant, , The American High School Today; Conant, Slums and Suburbs: A Commentary on Schools in Metropolitan Areas (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961).Google Scholar

⁹ Preskill, Stephen, “Raking from the Rubbish: Eliot, Charles W., Conant, James B., and the Public Schools” (PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984), 280–82.Google Scholar

¹⁰ On the “great debate” regarding education in the United States in the cold war era and the influence of Conant's reports, see David Gamson, “From Progressivism to Federalism: The Pursuit of Equal Educational Opportunity, 1915–1965,” in To Educate a Nation: Federal and National Strategies of School Reform, eds. Kaestle, Carl and Lodewick, Alyssa (Lawrence University of Kansas Press, 2007), 177–201; Tozer, Steven, Violas, Paul, and Senese, Guy, School & Society: Educational Practice as Social Expression (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 24–33, 187–211; and Preskill, , “Raking from the Rubbish,” 264–317.Google Scholar

¹¹ Conant, , Slums and Suburbs, 31.Google Scholar

¹² Through the 1950s and early 1960s, Philadelphia civil rights activists argued that the school board's “open” transfer policy, through which parents could request to enroll their children at schools outside of their district discriminated against black students. Activists contended that the policy allowed, and in some cases encouraged, white students to transfer from racial mixed schools to schools that were almost exclusively white. Although activists were never able to prove that the principals and district superintendents who made all of the decisions on transfers intentionally discriminated against black students, student transfers contributed significantly to school segregation. On the other hand, after the reputation of William Penn High School improved, black students used the transfer policy to move into the school. On Philadelphia's school transfer policy, see Albert Blaustein, Civil Rights U.S.A.: Cities in the North and West, 1962 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 142–53.Google Scholar

¹³ “William Penn High School: Progress Report, Pupil Population and the School Community,” 30 April 1952, Logan, Floyd (FL) collection, Acc 469, box 25, folder 7, TUUA. On the changing racial demographics at the city level, see Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, “Philadelphia's Negro Population: Facts on Housing,” October 1953, Commission on Human Relations (CHR) collection, box A-620. folder 148.4, Philadelphia City Archives (PCA).Google Scholar

¹⁴ “William Penn High School: Progress Report, Pupil Population and the School Community.”Google Scholar

¹⁵ “William Penn High School: Progress Report, Pupil Population and the School Community.” The Temple Redevelopment Area extended from Girard to Susquehanna and from Broad to the Delaware River. On postwar housing and urban renewal programs in Philadelphia, see Bauman, John, Public Housing, Race, and Renewal: Urban Planning in Philadelphia, 1920–1974 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987).Google Scholar

¹⁶ On the founding and goals of the Life Adjustment Education movement, see Douglass, Harl, ed., Education far Life Adjustment: Its Meanings and Implementation (New York: Ronald Press Company, 1950); Ravitch, Diane, Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983), 64–68.Google Scholar

¹⁷ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962,” 15 July 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Hayre, Ruth Wright, Tell Them We Are Rising: A Memoir of Faith in Education (New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1997), 37–69; Fletcher, Leslie, “Dr. Ruth Wright Hayre to End 33-Year Career With Phila. School System,” Philadelphia Tribune, 8 November 1975; “Dr. Hayre Is Named Vice-Principal at William Penn High,” Philadelphia Tribune, 8 July 1952; “Makes Educational History,” Philadelphia Tribune, 11 February 1956. On the need for more studies of historical analysis of school principals, see Kate Rousmaniere, “Go to the Principal's Office: Toward a Social History of the School Principal in North America (Presidential Address),” History of Education Quarterly 47 (February 2007): 1–22.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Logan, Floyd, letter to Seifert, Dr. Carl, 3 December 1957, FL collection, Acc 469, box 11, folder 6, TUUA; Logan, , “Petition to Members of the Board of Public Education,” [n.d., ca. 1957], FL collection, Ace 469, box 6, folder 27, TUUA; Logan, , “Script for WDAS Radio Discussion of Integration in the Philadelphia Public Schools,” FL collection, Acc 469, box 9, folder 22, TUUA.Google Scholar

²⁰ “Project WINGS Progress Report, 1958–59,” June 1959, School files, folder William Penn, PSDA; “Talent Search Plan Used at Wm. Penn,” School News & Views, 15 December 1958. On programs in other cities similar to Project WINGS, such as Higher Horizons in New York and the Banneker Project in St. Louis, see Edmund Gordon and Doxey Wilkerson, Compensatory Education for the Disadvantaged (New York, College Entrance Examination Board, 1966), 199–299; Ravitch, , Troubled Crusade, 153–54; Riessman, Frank, The Culturally Deprived Child (New York: Harper, 1962), 98–111.Google Scholar

²¹ “Wings To Excellence,” [n.d., ca. 1960], School files, folder William Penn, PSDA; “Talent Search Plan Used at Wm. Penn.”Google Scholar

²² “Project WINGS Progress Report, 1958–59.”Google Scholar

²³ “Talent Search Plan Used at Wm. Penn.”Google Scholar

²⁴ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962”; Hayre, Ruth, “Wings to Excellence: An Experiment in Incentive and Motivation,” Journal of Secondary Education 38 (March 1963), School files, folder William Penn, PSDA.Google Scholar

²⁵ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962.”Google Scholar

²⁶ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962”; “WINGS Newsletter,” March 1960, School files, folder William Penn, PSDA; “WINGS Newsletter,” November–December 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA.Google Scholar

²⁷ “WINGS Newsletter,” May 1960, School files, folder William Penn, PSDA.Google Scholar

²⁸ “WINGS Newsletter,” February 1963, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA.Google Scholar

²⁹ “WINGS Newsletter,” October 1960, School files, folder William Penn, PSDA.Google Scholar

³⁰ “WINGS Newsletter,” April 1963, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA.Google Scholar

³¹ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962.”Google Scholar

³² “WINGS Newsletter,” October 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA; Malcolm Poindexter, “Pioneering Services Made Wm. Penn School Landmark,” Philadelphia Tribune, 10 October 1959.Google Scholar

³³ “WINGS Newsletter,” September-October 1963, FL collection, Acc 469, box 9, folder 16, TUUA. On the Northern Students Movement, see Matthew Countryman, Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 188–89.Google Scholar

³⁴ On the rise in popularity of standardized tests in education, see Lemann, Nicholas, The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999).Google Scholar

³⁵ Conant, , Slums and Suburbs, 33–53.Google Scholar

³⁶ “Wings to Excellence”; “William Penn High School Career Conference agenda,” 5 December 1956, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Philadelphia branch (NAACP) collection, URB 6, box 2, folder 53, TUUA.Google Scholar

³⁷ “WINGS Newsletter,” March 1962 and March 1963, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA.Google Scholar

³⁸ “Philadelphia Advisory Council for Vocational Education meeting minutes,” 25 April 1961, Urban League (UL) collection, URB 1, box 9, folder 145, TUUA.Google Scholar

³⁹ “WINGS Newsletter,” June 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA. On the career programs Hayre organized at William Penn, see “The Armstrong Association [photo],” Philadelphia Tribune, 15 November 1955; “Career Conference at Wm. Penn High,” Philadelphia Tribune, 22 December 1956; Laurine Blackson, “Penn Sez,” Philadelphia Tribune, 7 December 1957; “Girls Shop for Careers,” Philadelphia Tribune, 15 April 1958; “William Penn High School for Girls [photo],” Philadelphia Tribune, 6 February 1962; “Industry Meets Education,” Philadelphia Tribune, 13 March 1962.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Parents and other interested community members made small donations and some institutions offered discounted tickets to students. The sum of these fund raising efforts totaled less than US$400 in each of the first three years, and all of this money went to defray the cost of tickets. Ruth Hayre, “Crusade for Culture,” The Clearing House, September 1960, 7–10; Binzen, Peter, “Project Probes Pupils’ Potential to Learn Through Culture,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 24 June 1959. “WINGS Monthly Newsletter,” March 1960, School files, folder William Penn, PSDA.Google Scholar

⁴¹ “WINGS Newsletter,” March 1960.Google Scholar

⁴² “WINGS Newsletter,” November 1960, School files, folder William Perm, PSDA.Google Scholar

⁴³ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962.”Google Scholar

⁴⁴ On the distinction between racial uplift ideology and practices, see Gaines, Kevin, Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996); Ross, Rosetta, Witnessing & Testifying: Black Women, Religion, and Civil Rights (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 2–5; Logan, Shirley, “We Are Coming”: The Persuasive Discourse of Nineteenth-Century Black Women (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999), 152–78; Walcott, Victoria, Remaking Respectability: African American Women in Interwar Detroit (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 6–48.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Hayre, , “Crusade for Culture.”Google Scholar

⁴⁶ “WINGS Newsletter,” November-December 1963, FL collection, Acc 469; box 44, folder 5, TUUA; “Project WINGS Progress Report, 1958–59”; “Concert Time at William Penn,” Philadelphia Tribune, 8 May 1962; Adams, Loretta, “Dancer Impresses Wm. Penn Students,” Philadelphia Tribune, 10 April 1962; Hayre, , Tell Them We Are Rising, 63–64. On the cultural programs Hayre fostered at Penn, William, see “Dr. Ruth Hayre, W. to Receive State Distinguished Daughters’ Award,” Philadelphia Tribune, 11 October 1960; “Culture Stressed at Wm. Penn High,” Philadelphia Tribune, 17 October 1961; “William Penn Students Meet ‘Madame Butterfly’ Stars, Philadelphia Tribune, 5 February 1963; “500 Phila. Teenagers Attend Concert Series,” Philadelphia Tribune, 17 December 1963.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ “WINGS Newsletter,” November-December 1963.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Harrison, , “Anonymous US$25,000 Gift Insures Wm. Perm's Wings Project”; Laurine Blackson, “Penny Sez…,” Philadelphia Tribune, 6 December 1958. On Georgie Woods’ career in music and engagement with civil rights, see Spady, James, Georgie Woods: I'm Only a Man (Philadelphia: Snack-Pac Book Division, 1992).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ On the extracurricular programs Hayre expanded at William Penn, see Jack Saunders, “Dr. Ruth Hayre Hails Support of School's Music Month Program, Philadelphia Tribune, 22 May 1956; Blackson, Laurine, “Penny Sez…,” Philadelphia Tribune, 4 March 1958; Blackson, “Penny Sez…,” Philadelphia Tribune, 5 April 1958; Penn, Priscilla, “Wm. Penn High Cites Women of the Press,” Philadelphia Tribune, 15 April 1958; “WINGS newsletter,” May–June 1963, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 4, TUUA; William Penn High School yearbooks, 1955–64, William Penn High School library. Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Neckerman, Kathryn, Schools Betrayed: Roots of Failure in Inner-City Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 152–71.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Among the large body of scholarship demonstrating the commitment of African Americans to education, see James Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988) and Franklin, V. P., The Education of Black Philadelphia: The Social and Educational History of a Minority Community, 1900–1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979).Google Scholar

⁵² Lisa Levenstein, A Movement Without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009). On the role of women as parent activists in school quality battles, see Adina Back, “Exposing the ‘Whole Segregation Myth': The Harlem Nine and New York City's School Desegregation Battle,” and Jeanne Theoharis, “‘I'd Rather Go to School in the South': How Boston's School Desegregation Complicates the Civil Rights Paradigm” in Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940–1980, eds. Theoharis, Jeanne and Woodard, Komozi (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 65–91,12 5–51.Google Scholar

⁵³ Taber, Robert, “School Drop-Outs—A Community Problem,” 13 September 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 26, folder 14, TUUA.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Payton, Mabel and Rosenberg, Martin, “‘ite and Key’ Effect: 9 at Franklin High Get College Scholarships,” School News and Views, 15 June 1962. See also, “Keys to Success Offered in New Program,” The Junto (Benjamin Franklin High School Newspaper), 9 May 1961, FL collection, Acc 469, box 36, folder 15, TUUA; Alexander, A. H., “Open the Door and Soar,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 November 1961; Peter Janssen, “New World Opened at Franklin High,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 11 July 1965.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ “Whittier Goes to West Phila. to Laud Motivation Project,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 14 October 1964; “West Philly High Bares ‘M’ Program,” Philadelphia Tribune, 26 March 1963. On West Philadelphia's Biff M program, see Dr. Ruth Wright Hayre, speech delivered at the Annual Meeting of the College Scholarship Service, 27 October 1964, Dr. Ruth Wright Hayre collection (RWH), box 14, folder 13, African-American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Freeman, Barry, “Evaluation of the College Motivation project for West Philadelphia High School Students,” February 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 43, folder 19, TUUA; “Big M Gives 135 Teen-Agers A Look at College Life,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 6 March 1963; Gale, Mary Ellen, “68 High School Pupils Get preview of Penn,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 24 March 1963; “W. Phila High Sophomores Get a 2-day Look at College,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 22 March 1963; Louis, Arthur, “‘Shock’ Treatment in U. of P. Tour Raises Youths’ College Goals,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 24 March 1963.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ “Colleges Accept 63 of 110 in Special Incentive Project,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin 11 June 1965.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Ibid.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Smith, Eliner, “'Average’ Students Beat the Odds, Go to College After Motivation,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 26 December 1973.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Fletcher, , “Dr. Ruth Wright Hayre to End 33-Year Career with Phila. School System.”Google Scholar

⁶¹ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962.”Google Scholar

⁶² On the 400 Ministers’ work against employment discrimination, see Countryman, Up South, 83–119. On employment prospects for teenagers in Philadelphia, see “Employment of Young People in Philadelphia on Downgrade,” Philadelphia Tribune, 18 October 1958; “Youth Jobs on Decline,” Philadelphia Tribune, 24 October 1961; Collins, William, “Jobs Scarce for Unskilled Teenagers,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 November 1963.Google Scholar

⁶³ Blaustein, Albert, who conducted a study of Philadelphia for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1962, found that over 2,700 black students transferred into high schools in the districts that included West Philadelphia High School and William Penn High School. Albert Blaustein, Civil Rights U.S.A.: Cities in the North and West, 1962 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 150.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Gaeton, Fonzi, “Crisis in the Classroom,” Greater Philadelphia Magazine, January 1964, 30.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid., 31, 64.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Ibid., 64, 73. On the intersection of gender and race in postwar attacks on welfare, see Mittelstadt, Jennifer, From Welfare to Workfare: The Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform, 1945–1965 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Ibid., 64.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Ibid., 77.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Phillips, , “The Struggle for School Desegregation in Philadelphia, 1945–1967,” 138.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Penn, William High School Teachers, “Letter to Editor,” Greater Philadelphia Magazine, 21 January 1964, FL collection, Acc 469, box 9, folder 16, TUUA.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Logan, Floyd, “Answer to ‘Crisis in the Classroom,’” 21 January 1964, FL collection, Acc 469, box 9, folder 16, TUUA. For the Philadelphia Tribune's coverage of the controversy surrounding the article, see Mark Bricklin, “Educational Equality League Says Article Libels All Tan Youth,” Philadelphia Tribune, 14 January 1964; Logan, Floyd, “Answer to Crisis in the Classroom,” 28 January 1964. On Logan's, Floyd opposition to the cultural deprivation paradigm, see Floyd Logan, “Urban Reconstruction: Human Resources,” January 1963, RWH collection, box 11, folder 20, AAMP.Google Scholar

⁷² Hayre quoted in Logan, “Answer to ‘Crisis in the Classroom.’“Google Scholar

⁷³ “Education, Environment and the Negro Child’ Symposium flyer,” 5 April 1964, FL collection, Acc 469, box 4, folder 36, TUUA.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Logan, Floyd, “‘Education, Environment and the Negro Child’ Symposium Presentation,” 7 April 1964, FL collection, Acc 469, box 4, folder 36, TUUA.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Conant, , Slums and Suburbs, 7, 145–47.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Ravitch, , The Troubled Crusade, 152.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ On the influence of cultural deprivation research on educational policies and practices, see Banks, James, “Multicultural Education: Historical Development, Dimensions, and Practice,” Review of Research in Education, 19 (1993): 28–30; Ravitch, , The Troubled Crusade, 145–81; Vinovskis, Maris, The Birth of Head Start: Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2005).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Riessman's reference to “one in three” young people being culturally deprived was influenced by the Ford Foundation's Great Cities School Improvement Studies, published in 1960. Riessman, , The Culturally Deprived Child, 9.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Ibid., 8, 80.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Riessman, , The Culturally Deprived Child, 1–9. On the influence of Riessman's book, see Ravitch, , The Troubled Crusade, 154–60.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Philadelphia School Board, “The Story of the Philadelphia Public Schools in 1962 and in a Few Prior years, With, Here and There, a Comment About the Future,” 1 October 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 25, folder 14, TUUAGoogle Scholar

⁸² “WINGS Newsletter,” November–December 1962, FL collection, Acc 469, box 44, folder 5, TUUA.Google Scholar

⁸³ “Project WINGS Fourth Annual Report, 1961–1962.”Google Scholar

⁸⁴ “The Problem of Poverty in America,” The Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisors (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1964), quoted in Spring, The Sorting Machine Revisited, 127. On the central role of education in the policies and rhetoric of the War on Poverty, see Hugh Graham, The Uncertain Triumph: Federal Education Policy in the Kennedy and Johnson Years (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984). On the War on Poverty in Philadelphia, see Guian McKee, The Problem of Jobs: Liberalism, Race, and Deindustrialization in Philadelphia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Philadelphia School Board Curriculum Office, “Education of Disadvantaged Pupils in the Philadelphia Public Schools,” 31 March 1965, FL collection, Acc 469, box 18, folder 5, TUUA.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Oakes, Helen, “The School District of Philadelphia,” [n.d., ca. 1968], FL collection, Acc 469, box 24, folder 33, TUUA.Google Scholar