WASHINGTON POST: For his second annual back-to-school speech, President Obama chose as his backdrop an elite, selective public school in this city that is a far cry from the turnaround-success stories his administration is seeking to promote. Obama, in a Tuesday afternoon speech, urged the nation’s students to “dream big” and “stay focused” on education in an address that aides described as a nonpolitical event. But students at Philadelphia’s Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School probably are already heeding that advice. The school, with about 1,200 students from grades 5 through 12, draws the city’s academic cream through competitive admissions. With nearly all of its graduates headed to four-year colleges and most of its upper-grade students taking a heavy load of Advanced Placement courses, Masterman ranks 45th in the U.S. News & World Report’s list of top high schools. MORE