When Hannah Kleeman walks into her classroom, she is on a mission to ensure that every one of her students succeeds and is promoted to the 10th grade. As a 9th grade teacher at Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (KCAPA), she understands the stakes. “Setting yourself up for success as a ninth grader is going to set yourself up for success in high school, and then in turn, in a postgraduate setting,” she explains.
Determined to provide her students with the best possible start to high school, Hannah was thrilled to learn about Philadelphia Academies, Inc.’s (PAI) 9th Grade Success Network (9GSN). The idea of joining quickly became a passion project. She and a co-worker spent an entire summer perfecting their application. The following year, KCAPA earned its acceptance and joined a growing network of schools dedicated to helping students transition to high school and stay on the path toward graduation.
Upon acceptance to the 9GSN, Hannah began to benefit from coaching sessions with PAI and learned how to foster an ontrack mentality through culture building at her school. The School District of Philadelphia defines being On-Track for a first-time 9th grader as having earned “at least one credit in each of the four core areas (English, math, science, and social studies), plus one additional credit from any source.” Being On-Track is key to helping students set themselves up for a successful life.
She also learned how to use data tools more efficiently and how to work more collaboratively in her classroom. “PAI helps you understand how to look at numbers, how to look at data, how to work collaboratively, and then the coaching helps you turn that all around and make it work specifically for your school,” Hannah said.
In addition to coaching, she has benefited from attending Community of Practice (CoP) events, engaging in problem-solving
with peer schools. She describes these events as her little beacons of hope during difficult weeks. She enjoys coming together with people from different schools and collectively coming up with new ideas and sharing methods to reach common goals. She says that every time she leaves a CoP event, she has an epiphany moment where she is able to gain knowledge that she can bring back to her 9th grade team and classroom.
These CoP events are paired with individualized coaching support, where coaches learn how to support each school and their students. PAI staff, such as 9th Grade Success and Data Coach David Rietzen, have been extremely helpful in encouraging teachers like her to get the most out of their class-wide data and understand the numbers. She describes David as the type of coach who, “goes above and beyond for every school that he works with. He’s always available somehow, like Batman.”
For Hannah, this hyper-personalized support was extremely valuable and useful when it came to needing someone to lean upon for help. In 2024, her dedication to uplifting freshmen students was recognized with the prestigious Lindback Award. Bestowed annually upon 60 School District of Philadelphia educators, this award celebrates educators who, “demonstrate excellence in promoting learning at the highest levels.”
Appropriately, Hannah is now bringing her passion for education to a new school: one that’s just joined PAI’s 9GSN, Hill-Freedman World Academy. There, she intends to carry forward her work helping freshmen find success in high school, saying, “I’m just so excited that Hill-Freedman is as excited to elevate themselves by joining PAI as I was.”