PS 9 strives to fulfill its stated mission, “Every child in PS 9 will succeed!” by creating and maintaining a team environment in which staff, administration and parents work with each child to meet exceptionally high academic standards.

We are committed to the practices of both constructivism and the workshop model. These practices make it possible to enrich and differentiate instruction, thus providing individual students the opportunity to extend and deepen his/her understanding in each unit of study. Our parents support our work in this area by providing the funding which allows us to have an assistant teacher in every classroom. This significantly reduces the student/teacher ratio in our classrooms. Assistant teachers work closely with teachers in both remediation and enrichment activities.

Our staff works collaboratively to ensure that there are many opportunities for team-building across programs and grades throughout the year, including, fifth grade Spirit Day, Family Math Nights, Field Days and grade level trips to Gettysburg and Philadelphia. Our curriculum is further enriched with Spanish, chess, technology, gym, visual arts, museum studies, ORFF musical theory and instrumental music.

• Student population approximately 600
• Strong commitment to professional development of teachers
• Assistant teachers in all classrooms (funded entirely by PTA)
• All teachers are required to obtain dual certification
• School-based option hiring model
• World Language/Spanish Program
• Cross-curricular arts integration program
• Chess instruction for grades K-2
• Library with Internet access and Learning Leader parent volunteers
• Multiple computers in all classrooms
• Values instruction and conflict resolution program
• Enriching afterschool program
• Free breakfast for all students
• Designated kindergarten play yard (a new Kindergarten playground was installed September, 2009)
• Involved and dedicated PTA