Philadelphia

Education

Philadelphia, home of the first public school in the United States (opened in 1698), was also a pioneer in the education of gifted children, establishing special admission schools to meet the needs of students with special abilities in a variety of areas. Today Philadelphia has the nation's fifth-largest public school system, enrolling almost 220,000 students at all levels, from preschool through twelfth grade. In the fall of 1996, Philadelphia's public school enrollment was 63.8 percent black, 19.8 percent white, 11.6 percent Hispanic, and 4.7 percent Asian/Pacific. The school system employed 11,144 classroom teachers and 23,216 staff personnel.

The city of Philadelphia has about 20 post-secondary institutions, and its metropolitan area is home to nearly 90. The University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League college located in downtown Philadelphia, is over 250 years old. It was home to the nation's first medical school (1765), law school (1790), and business school (1881) and pioneered the integration of a classical education with modern fields of study. Situated west of the Schuylkill River since the 1870s, the university enrolls over 20,000 students in four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools. Located nearby is Drexel University.

Philadelphia is also home to the Curtis Institute, one of the nation's top music schools.