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KaTiedra Argro has been on a mission: restore her school’s reputation as a premier Philadelphia educational institution where young women hone their skills, excel as leaders, and find their voices.
The principal of the Philadelphia High School for Girls spent last fall visiting 48 elementary and middle schools to recruit students. She went all over the city, from Northeast to Southwest, to sell kids on an historic all-girls school that was founded 13 years before the Civil War.
A member of Girls High’s Class of 1999, Argro came to a difficult conclusion. “My takeaway was that nobody knows what the Philadelphia High School for Girls was anymore,” she said.
Girls High is one of the oldest all-girls public high schools in the country and still one of the largest, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of federal data. But the pillar of Philadelphia education is suffering from a “diminishing” brand, Argro said. In the 1980s, the school’s enrollment reportedly reached 2,000 students. Its famous graduates include feminist attorney Gloria Allred, R&B star Jill Scott, and Barbara Harris, the first woman ordained a bishop of the Episcopal Church.
But in just the last two years, the number of students has plunged from 900 to 600; roughly two-thirds of those enrolled are juniors and seniors. And on the most recent state math tests, fewer than 1 in 5 students achieved proficiency.
Social media also delivered a blow to the school’s reputation. In 2023, Girls High’s previous principal denied several students their diplomas during the graduation ceremony for apparently breaking decorum by dancing and celebrating onstage, prompting cheers and laughter from the audience.
The incident spurred indignation and controversial stories nationwide that touched on race and cultural norms. The district subsequently removed that principal from her post.
With these challenges top of mind, Argro — who took over as principal last year — has been hard at work through a process she compared to speed dating.
During her whirlwind tour of three schools a day, she gave out T-shirts and magnets, and left students a pamphlet and a video “showing all the great things happening” at Girls High, like the clubs, the sports, the support groups, and the awards students win. She personally helped students fill out applications — even to schools besides Girls High, in the spirit of the school’s honor code emphasizing “service to others.”
It seems her efforts have paid off. Based on responses to admissions offers in the high school selection process, 275 students said they would attend Girls High next year, which would increase its enrollment to 670, or a roughly 12% increase from this year.
Argro invited families to an “acceptance day” event on March 22, and most came. “I don’t want them to change their minds over the summer,” she said.
At the same time, Argro acknowledged that she eased the standards for Girls High’s entrance criteria to broaden the admissions pool.
Marcia L. Hinton, a 1974 graduate and the executive director of the school’s alumnae association, said schools that serve only female students aren’t as valued as they once were, but that they are still valuable.
“All-girls’ schools give girls a safe space to explore, learn, and find out who they are without having to get that other sex involved,” Hinton said.
Girls High student Manjay Konneh, who emigrated from Guinea during the COVID pandemic, exemplifies Hinton’s sentiment. She needed a place where she felt appreciated and could get extra attention.
Now a 16-year-old senior who’s been accepted so far to Drexel University, Swarthmore College, and Villanova University, Konneh recalled that when she visited the school, “I felt they really wanted me here.”
Philly’s specialized high schools, charters affect Girls High
Recent data indicates the number of single-gender public schools has grown in the last several years, although they remain a tiny fraction of the nearly 100,000 U.S. public schools.
In 2014-15, there were some 283 single-gender public schools in the country. By 2022-23, that number had risen to 366, according to the Education Week Research Center.
In 2002, the same year President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law — a move that led to additional federal funding for single-gender schools — there were likely fewer than two dozen of them, according to one estimate.
But some all-girls’ schools that started more recently haven’t lasted very long. For instance, Girls Athletic Leadership School in Denver opened in 2010 as a middle school and added high school grades in 2014. But it announced last month that it will close the high school at the end of this school year, due to low enrollment.
Established in 1848 — nearly 75 years before American women were guaranteed the right to vote — Girls High was founded 12 years after Central High School opened for boys.
Some of Philadelphia’s original neighborhood schools, many built in the first two decades of the 20th century, were also for decades segregated by gender. But for more than a century, Girls High was the destination for the city’s smart, motivated female students. Constance Clayton, the first woman and first Black person to be the school district’s superintendent, graduated from the school.
“We could go and be in charge of everything,” said Susan Thomas, who graduated in 1970 and recalled her classmates being from every neighborhood and socio-economic background. “The school had a long tradition of encouraging girls and telling them they could be whatever they want, you don’t have to be a nurse or a teacher. I went to business school.”
The changes for Girls High started in the 1970s. In response to pressure from the state Human Relations Commission to racially desegregate the district as a whole, officials created several specialized high schools. These included George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science and the High School for Creative and Performing Arts, known as CAPA.
It was also in that era that Masterman, then the destination for the city’s highest-achieving middle schoolers, began phasing in high school grades.
The school district originally established Girls High as a counterpart to the elite Central High School, which only educated young men. Then in the 1980s, Central started admitting girls after several female students in the district sued. They argued that Central offered boys superior educational opportunities than what was available to them at Girls High at the time.
Technically, like Central, Girls High admits both male and female students. Throughout most of the school’s history, if a male student did apply, he was discouraged from attending, according to several people interviewed. “We have no record of a male student ever attending the school,” said district spokesperson Christina Clark.
The charter school movement took off in the 1990s. And in the early 2000s, the district created more small, themed high schools. These included Science Leadership Academy, Workshop School, and U School.
This proliferation of new schools, and the changes to admissions at established high schools, meant that what Girls High offered no longer stood out like it once did.
Thomas wonders whether there’s still a place for Girls High in today’s environment. “Single-sex education had its value, but does it anymore?” she asked.
City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, for one, sees the value clearly. She graduated from Girls High in 2001 and has remained the school’s most vocal advocate in City Hall.
“I deeply enjoyed my academic experience there,” said Gilmore Richardson, who sponsored a resolution honoring her alma mater when it celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2023. “It was the catalyst for everything good I have done in my life.”
Big Sister mentoring program helps many students succeed
Though she toured the city extolling the virtues of the school, Argro herself was initially reluctant to go to Girls High.
She grew up at 10th Street and Cumberland Street, in public housing, in the heart of North Philadelphia. By her own account, her home life was marked by poverty and other difficulties.
But she was always a top student, and her parents invested in her education. It was at her mother’s insistence that she enrolled at Girls High. In fact, Argro didn’t really get a say in the matter.
“My mom told me, ‘I made the decision for you,‘” Argro recalled. “She said to me that she felt like if she could omit boys for the school day, she was winning.”
At first, Argro plotted how she would transfer out. But she was soon drawn in by the supportive atmosphere, the high quality of instruction, the many clubs and sports opportunities, and the feeling of sisterhood.
“It was the best decision my mom could have made for me,” she said. “Here, everybody was focused on school and getting into college.”
At one point, she was exhausted from simultaneously holding down a job and going to school. She contemplated dropping out. But her counselor at Girls High talked her out of that. Argro’s not sure she would’ve gotten the same guidance at a coed school.
In fact, without the supportive “village” at Girls High, Argro said, she wouldn’t have ultimately reached Temple University and Gwynedd Mercy University, where she earned two master’s degrees.
Argro became a teacher and then principal in the Philadelphia school district, working at John Barry Elementary and then Martin Luther King High, where she was an assistant principal.
She applied to be Girls High principal twice, once five years ago and again last year. When she was hired, she said, it was a fulfillment of her dream. She hopes she’s a role model for other girls there.
“I felt like I wanted to convey that same joy or sisterhood that I felt at Girls High to other students that may be in doubt because it is an all-girls school,” she said.
To Argro, the school isn’t defined by the low scores on the state math test or controversy over the 2023 graduation ceremony; Argro recalled that when there were similar celebrations at her own ceremony 26 years ago, the principal at the time simply asked for quiet, then went on with the event. And her family members were among those who cheered.
Argro can point to good news. The school’s four-year graduation rate of 96% in 2022-23 — the most recent year data is available — was up three percentage points from the prior year. And 77% of 11th graders scored proficient or better on the state literature exam in 2024, seven percentage points better than the year before.
But just like the number of Girls High students, district enrollment has fallen in recent years. The year after Argro graduated high school, district-run schools enrolled 205,000 students; that figure has now fallen to around 120,000, due to both charter proliferation and a city population dip.
That decline has led Philadelphia school officials to begin contemplating permanently closing schools for the first time since shuttering or merging 24 schools in 2013.
While Girls High has prominent alumnae and a storied history, it’s unclear whether those will influence decisions the district ultimately makes about which schools to close.
Students say they get value from Girls High that isn’t just about academics.
Several students are particularly fond of the Big Sister program. It’s a longstanding Girls High tradition in which older students take their younger peers under their wing. Big Sister helps provide both mentor and mentee with a crucial step in their development.
Brianni Carter, president of the school’s sophomore class, said both Central and Girls High accepted her. She liked the academics at both schools but ultimately chose Girls for another reason: “At the Girls’ orientation, there was such a feeling of togetherness and community. Like Central, it’s rigorous, but you also get the support you need.”
Girls High student Mya Torres, 17, said her mother attended Girls High for ninth and 10th grade but had to leave due to family issues.
When she brought Mya to orientation, one of her mother’s former teachers recognized her. “That’s the kind of place this is,” Torres said.
Her mother really wants Torres to have the full, four-year Girls High experience.
Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.