Freire Schools Mission
Freire Schools empowers students to build the future. We provide a rigorous education in a safe, creative, and supportive environment that enables and inspires all children to achieve.
ABOUT US
Freire Schools is committed to ensuring that every single student who walks through our doors can succeed and grow. We provide students in underserved communities a college-prep learning experience with a focus on individual freedom, critical thinking, and problem-solving in an environment that emphasizes the values of community, teamwork, and a commitment to peace. We are four distinct schools in two different cities, each guided by the same values of equity, diversity, love, and critical thinking.
Freire students are confident, dynamic, and collaborative individuals who are engaged in their communities and are excited to apply the skills and knowledge they acquire at Freire Schools to create new possibilities for our future. Of Freire Schools’ 2,000 students, 94% are Black or Latinx, and almost all students qualify as economically disadvantaged.
Our Class of 2026 graduates achieved a 96% college acceptance rate, were accepted to 113 colleges and universities, and earned over $19.7M in college scholarships and aid. We strive to provide the individually tailored resources, supports, and experiences that each individual student needs to achieve at the highest level. Our average student to faculty ratio is 16:1.
OUR HISTORY
The Freire family first came into being in 1999 with the opening of Freire High School in Philadelphia, PA. Within a few years, Freire became one of the highest-performing high schools in Philadelphia.
1997: After years of strife and underperformance in Pennsylvania schools, state legislature passes the “Charter School Law,” creating a new class of independent public schools with the freedom to innovate on behalf of their students in exchange for accountability for school performance.
1998: Freire Schools’ founders develop a vision for a public charter school that would offer any and every student in Philadelphia the opportunity to attend college and thrive there.
1999: Freire Charter School opens with 100 students in grade 8.
1999: University of Pennsylvania doctoral student Kelly Davenport witnesses a Freire student threatening her classmates with a knife. In the wake of this incident, Kelly surveys Freire students about their hopes, dreams and the school environment they want to build. Their responses are clear: “No fighting.” “I have to feel safe in order to learn.” “We need to treat each other with respect.” “I know we can love each other.” These needs expressed by Freire High School’s founding class of students become the foundation for Freire Schools’ approach and commitment to peace. Soon after, Kelly is asked to become Head of School.
2000: Freire Schools pioneers an innovative model for responding to student and family trauma, partnering with Temple University, West Chester University, Drexel University, and the University of Pennsylvania to offer counseling and therapy services to students and families at no cost to them.
2003: Freire High School’s founding class of students graduate from 12th grade.
2007: Freire Schools receives the first of several multi-year grants from the U.S. Department of Education, supporting student achievement through STEAM-based learning.
2008: Freire Schools students host their first Take Back the City community event to share personal stories and develop empathic understanding, focused on a powerful prompt: “If you really knew me, this is what you’d know.” Every year since, Freire students take a two-day break from classes to listen to each other’s stories.
2010: After a decade of leadership, Kelly remains frustrated by the barriers to opportunity Freire students face. Inspired by this frustration, Kelly founds the Freire Foundation, a nonprofit education philanthropy fund, to support Freire Schools and accelerate educational change.
2010: LiveConnections, a leading provider of arts education, hosts Freire 10th graders at its first Bridge Session, pairing professional artists with faculty and students. This event begins a lasting partnership between Freire Schools and LiveConnections, tying community-based field work in art, cultural history, and technology to in-school learning.
2011: Freire High School becomes the first charter school in Pennsylvania to receive a national Title I Distinguished School Award for our success in closing the achievement gap.
2012: Freire Charter Middle School opens, expanding the Freire family to include students in grades 5-8. Play On, Philly! is identified as a lead arts partner, adding orchestral music to Freire Middle School’s after school programming.
2014: Awarded a competitive grant for arts-integrated programming from an anonymous source, Freire Schools begins a partnership with Mural Arts.
2014: The Freire Foundation partners with the Delaware Department of Education, the Longwood Foundation, and then-Governor Jack Markell to explore and create Wilmington’s first public college-prep, non-selective high school in decades.
2015: Freire Charter School Wilmington opens with 220 students in grades 8 and 9. The partnership and support of the Longwood Foundation, the Welfare Foundation, and the US Department of Education is central to our start-up success.
2015: The Freire Schools Network Office (originally known as Build the Future), a separate nonprofit entity, is created to support and guide the Freire campuses, advance the network’s mission, and thoughtfully plan the network’s future, enabling teachers and school staff to stay focused on their critical work with students and families.
2015: TECH Freire Charter School is one of only five schools out of 39 total applicants to be granted a new charter by the School District of Philadelphia— the first new charters granted in Philadelphia in seven years.
2016: TECH Freire, a high school integrating technology and entrepreneurship into Freire Schools’ rigorous liberal arts curriculum, opens its doors to 300 students in a newly renovated former Packard automobile showroom in North Philadelphia. The Philadelphia School Partnership and the US Department of Education were vital partners in this new school venture.
2018: Freire launches Freire Forward, our