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Philadelphia students are showing up to school more often and improving their standardized test scores — albeit incrementally — according to the school district.
Over the past two years, the percentage of third grade students scoring proficient or better on their English and math standardized tests have increased, the district said, citing preliminary data from this year’s state standardized tests, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA, and the Keystone exams.
In addition, the number of students attending schools regularly has increased and the number of students dropping out has fallen, the district said.
Students are making “consistent, incremental progress” said Superintendent Tony Watlington at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting about the district’s progress towards meeting its strategic plan for academic improvement known as its “goals and guardrails.”
“We are on the right track but the data also tells us we have an awful long way to go,” Watlington said. “It absolutely is not enough.”
Watlington said the district will release the full PSSA and Keystone results and data for the district once the Pennsylvania Department of Education releases statewide figures in November.
To boost student achievement, Philadelphia is overhauling its curriculum for English Language Arts, math, and science, in a process spearheaded by Watlington. The new math curriculum was introduced last year and schools are continuing to implement it this year, educators are beginning to teach the new ELA curriculum. The district is slated to roll out the new science curriculum next school year.
Though the early results look promising in some areas, Watlington and district officials highlighted areas that need to improve.
Students with disabilities’ test scores have not increased over the past few years, according to district officials. Part of that is due to a history of schools pulling students with Individualized Education Programs — or IEPs — out of general education classes. Now that they are implementing the new math curriculum, it’s more important than ever that students with disabilities are able to access that curriculum, said Deputy Superintendent of Academic Services Jermaine Dawson.
“We must be honest about it,” Dawson said. “We have to make sure that our students with IEPs are in that classroom receiving the same level of instruction, and we have a very robust plan to increase those numbers.”
And in high school Algebra 1, the early PSSA data shows students’ scores decreased by 2.9 percentage points in 2023-24. Dawson said the district is especially concerned about those scores because Algebra 1 is considered a “gatekeeper” to success in later math courses and in the workforce specifically in STEM-related careers.
Watlington said to address this decline, the district is looking to “double down” on high-impact tutoring programs and ensure tutors are working in concert with classroom teachers.
“It’s expensive and it takes a lot of time to get the right people into the classroom, but it’s one thing we are going to work on,” Watlington said.
Though district officials did not share specific graduation numbers on Thursday, Watlington said when the full results are released, “we are confident that the graduation rate will go up.”
Here are some other key data points from the last two years via the district:
- The number of students with regular attendance (defined as attending 90 percent or more days) rose by over 3,500 — an increase of 1 percentage point from the 2022-23 school year. Watlington said the district is building a new dashboard to track student attendance more regularly.
- The number of students who dropped out of school over the last two years fell by 1,400. The district reported 2,517 students dropped out of grades 7-12 in 2023-24.
- The percentage of third grade students scoring proficient or advanced in reading increased by 6.2 percentage points
- The percentage of third grade students scoring proficient or advanced in math increase by 6.6 percentage points
- The number of students passing exams for students in career and technical programs — known as NOCTI tests — rose by 13.5 percentage points.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
