A Phila. Charter School Chain Celebrates Its College-Bound High School Seniors
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Students, families, even college mascots packed the Liacouras Center today for "Signing Day," a rally for 575 seniors at Philadelphia's five Mastery charter high schools to declare where they'll be going to college.
Mastery CEO Scott Gordon (at lectern in top photo) says Signing Day is modeled after the hoopla around when a high school athlete declares.
"We think an even bigger deal is when a student commits to following through on their education and going on to college and graduating college," he said.
Khang Lam, a senior at Mastery's Thomas campus who is heading to Drexel University, said he's glad his school celebrates college acceptance, "Not just for certain achievement like extracurriculars, but what really matter, I feel, is academics."
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Gordon says 96 percent of Mastery graduates go on to some sort of postsecondary program.