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Philadelphia college students are exhibiting as much as college extra usually and enhancing their standardized check scores — albeit incrementally — in accordance with the varsity district.
Over the previous two years, the share of third grade college students scoring proficient or higher on their English and math standardized assessments have elevated, the district stated, citing preliminary information from this 12 months’s state standardized assessments, the Pennsylvania System of College Evaluation, or PSSA, and the Keystone exams.
As well as, the variety of college students attending colleges usually has elevated and the variety of college students dropping out has fallen, the district stated.
College students are making “constant, incremental progress” stated Superintendent Tony Watlington at Thursday’s Board of Training assembly concerning the district’s progress in the direction of assembly its strategic plan for educational enchancment generally known as its “targets and guardrails.”
“We’re heading in the right direction however the information additionally tells us we’ve an terrible lengthy strategy to go,” Watlington stated. “It completely is just not sufficient.”
Watlington stated the district will launch the complete PSSA and Keystone outcomes and information for the district as soon as the Pennsylvania Division of Training releases statewide figures in November.
To spice up scholar achievement, Philadelphia is overhauling its curriculum for English Language Arts, math, and science, in a course of spearheaded by Watlington. The brand new math curriculum was launched final 12 months and colleges are persevering with to implement it this 12 months, educators are starting to show the brand new ELA curriculum. The district is slated to roll out the brand new science curriculum subsequent college 12 months.
Although the early outcomes look promising in some areas, Watlington and district officers highlighted areas that want to enhance.
College students with disabilities’ check scores haven’t elevated over the previous few years, in accordance with district officers. A part of that is because of a historical past of faculties pulling college students with Individualized Training Packages — or IEPs — out of common schooling courses. Now that they’re implementing the brand new math curriculum, it’s extra necessary than ever that college students with disabilities are in a position to entry that curriculum, stated Deputy Superintendent of Tutorial Companies Jermaine Dawson.
“We should be sincere about it,” Dawson stated. “We’ve got to be sure that our college students with IEPs are in that classroom receiving the identical degree of instruction, and we’ve a really sturdy plan to extend these numbers.”
And in highschool Algebra 1, the early PSSA information reveals college students’ scores decreased by 2.9 proportion factors in 2023-24. Dawson stated the district is particularly involved about these scores as a result of Algebra 1 is taken into account a “gatekeeper” to success in later math programs and within the workforce particularly in STEM-related careers.
Watlington stated to handle this decline, the district is seeking to “double down” on high-impact tutoring packages and guarantee tutors are working in live performance with classroom academics.
“It’s costly and it takes numerous time to get the suitable folks into the classroom, but it surely’s one factor we’re going to work on,” Watlington stated.
Although district officers didn’t share particular commencement numbers on Thursday, Watlington stated when the complete outcomes are launched, “we’re assured that the commencement fee will go up.”
Listed below are another key information factors from the final two years through the district:
- The variety of college students with common attendance (outlined as attending 90 % or extra days) rose by over 3,500 — a rise of 1 proportion level from the 2022-23 college 12 months. Watlington stated the district is constructing a brand new dashboard to trace scholar attendance extra usually.
- The variety of college students who dropped out of faculty during the last two years fell by 1,400. The district reported 2,517 college students dropped out of grades 7-12 in 2023-24.
- The share of third grade college students scoring proficient or superior in studying elevated by 6.2 proportion factors
- The share of third grade college students scoring proficient or superior in math improve by 6.6 proportion factors
- The variety of college students passing exams for college students in profession and technical packages — generally known as NOCTI assessments — rose by 13.5 proportion factors.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
