Franklin TowneCharter High School

Franklin Towne Charter High School opened in 1999 and is one of 89 public charter schools in Philadelphia. It sits within the historic Frankford Arsenal grounds, and one of its campus buildings dates back to the War of 1812. The school's transformation from one of the lowest-performing schools in the city to one of the highest-achieving schools in the state began in 2006 when a new team of administrators, parents, staff members, and community members led a change using Breaking Ranks reform practices.

Franklin Towne prides itself on meeting the needs of its nearly 1,300 students through three strands: providing a rigorous college preparatory program; integrating performance, applied, and service learning into the regular school clay; and maintaining choice and variety as real student options. From the spring of students' eighth-grade year to well beyond graduation, Franklin Towne's goal is to provide information, assistance, and support to ensure that each student will be successful. In addition, ongoing recognition is given for outstanding performance through honor roll assemblies, perfect attendance acknowledgment, and recognition for outstanding performance on state and national tests.

The school’s outstanding track record has garnered recognition on the state and national levels including being honored from San Diego University’s National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) in 2010 for outstanding academic achievement in an urban school, and then in 2010 again from the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) named FTCHS as one of its Breakthrough Schools award recipient. Then in 2014 FTCHS was named a National Blue Ribbon School for Academic Excellence by the US Department of Education. Most recently, Franklin Towne Charter High was named The Most Spirited High School in America by Varsity Brands corporation.

• Students are placed into performance appropriate academic tracks in all core subjects, in order to best provide proper and challenging academic classes.
• Advanced Placement Classes
• College Dual Enrollment  Manor College that allows students to enroll in classes at FTCHS, and earn college credits.
• Related Arts  classes in Music, Cosmetology, Woodshop, Art and Culinary 
• Comprehensive Special Education Services
• Articulated ELL (English Language Learners) program
• Block-style classes (four, 80-minute classes per day)
• 4 full-time guidance counselors
• 1 full-time school psychologist
• Well-established Code-of-Conduct that ensures positive climate and culture in building 
• Students can pursue opportunities in Spanish, French and Italian.
• Well-establish STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs. 
• Daily peer tutoring opportunities provided by FTCHS National Honor Society students

Other Items of Interest:

• Tenure of average teacher at FTCHS is longer than 10 years
• Same Administrative Team in place for the past 15 years
• Housed in secluded and secured campus setting
• Occupy 3 buildings on campus
• Average class size of 25
• All classes outfitted as SMART classes with interactive white boards, and intergraded sound system

National Blue Ribbon of Excellence School

In September of 2014, Franklin Towne Charter High School was honored to receive the National Blue Ribbon of Excellence from the Department of Education. The entire Franklin Towne community could not be more proud with this amazing achievement which recognized the many hours and efforts poured into this school.

Metro Newspaper

"The 5 best Philly Charter Schools"

10/19/2016

Franklin Towne Charter Elementary and High Schools

Grades: K-8/9-12 
Location: 4259 Richmond St./5301 Tacony St. 
Website: franklintowne.org

"Both Franklin Towne Charter Elementary School and Franklin Towne Charter High School are off the charts with approval ratings. After the Bridesburg high school opened its doors in 2000, it was named a MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough School in 2010, received a National Blue Ribbon of Excellence from the Department of Education in 2014 and a 2015 School Performance Profile score of 91.3, the highest of any charter school in the city. The elementary school opened in 2009, featuring a comprehensive special education program. Both schools provide a number of clubs and leadership programs to their combined 2,000 plus students."

#1 Charter School in Philadelphia

As a testament yet again to Franklin Towne being one of the best high schools, the Pennsylvania Department of Education recently released its ratings of every school in the state, the School Performance Profile (SPP), with Franklin Towne earning the highest score of any non-special admissions and charter schools in the city of Philadelphia. Based upon the academic performance of our students, Franklin Towne scored 91.3 points. Meant as a measure of student achievement and progress, the SPP takes into account test performance as well as how well a school closes the achievement gap, graduation, attendance rates, and the number of Advanced Placement course offerings. We could not be more thrilled with a distinction such as this which is born out of the hard work of our students and tireless efforts of our staff!

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: 
"In Philadelphia, 31 public and charter schools improved while 51 fell. Eight schools improved by more than 10 points. Some high-performing schools saw big drops - Central Bucks West lost nearly 16 points, Council Rock North 11.5, Unionville 10.7, New Hope-Solebury 9.6, and Lower Merion, 13.5. Girls High fell 11.6 points. As a group, the 95 charter, technical, and cyber high schools across Pennsylvania saw fewer declines than traditional public schools. Philadelphia Electrical and Technical Charter scored a 74.2, a 16.1-point improvement, the most among charters in the region. Among the growing list of nontraditional public schools, Franklin Towne Charter's 91.3 was the region's highest score, followed by MAST Community Charter's 88.8."

Franklin Towne Charter High School Selected as 2010 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough School of the Year

It is indeed an honor to inform you that Franklin Towne Charter High School has been selected as a 2010 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough School. Your school is one of the highly effective high schools that will be featured in the May 2010 edition of Principal Leadership magazine.

Sincerely,

John R. Nori, Director

National Association of Secondary Principals

During the 2013 school year Franklin Towne has once again been recognized by the NASSP and the MetLife Foundation by being inducted into their Hall of Fame for our continued academic achievements. We are very proud of this award. Over the last 8 years over 75 schools have been awarded the Breakthrough title, but only 6 schools have been able to sustain and improve their academic achievements at a sustained level. Franklin Towne is proud to count ourselves as one of the highest achieving schools in the nation!