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A federal judge ruled Monday that a Philadelphia charter school that sued the school district to allow it to stay open despite poor academic performance must shut down.
However, officials representing Memphis Street Academy Charter School at J.P. Jones, operated by the American Paradigm Schools charter network, say the school plans to continue to operate in the coming school year.
The school has operated on an expired charter agreement since 2022, when the Philadelphia school board first moved not to renew the school after years of low standardized test scores and climbing absenteeism rates.
In June 2022, the school board found the school did not meet academic standards and invoked its charter’s surrender clause, which requires the school to surrender its charter if certain conditions are not met.
Less than a month later, Memphis Street Academy sued the district to prevent it from revoking the school’s charter.
“The conditions MSA agreed to be held to—and failed to meet—were guardrails to provide adequate education for its students,” Judge Chad Kenney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania wrote in his Monday decision. “MSA must surrender its charter and close.”
However, American Paradigm Schools CEO Ashley Redfearn told Chalkbeat Monday the school plans to continue to operate.
“I do believe that we will be in operation in the fall, and if there is transition, that it will be done responsibly and ethically in the best interest of the kids and the students and the teachers of Memphis street Academy,” said Redfearn.
Redfearn said the judge’s decision deemed the surrender clause enforceable, but does not mean that the school has to immediately surrender its charter.
“Today is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an order that the school close,” said Redfearn.
Redfearn said she and other American Paradigm Schools officials are reviewing the judge’s decision.
Philadelphia school district officials did not respond to questions about what will happen to students enrolled at Memphis Street Academy in the upcoming school year. Last school year, nearly 500 students in grades 5-8 attended the school.
In its lawsuit, Memphis Street Academy charged the district with subjecting the school to “unfair and unrealistic” charter conditions. The school also alleged that the district’s framework of measuring charter schools was racially discriminatory because it disproportionately harmed schools that served higher than average rates of Black and Hispanic students.
In his decision, Kenney wrote that the school board had held the school accountable by revoking its charter.
He pointed out that for a school that began as part of the city’s “Renaissance” initiative, which was meant to turn around failing schools and improve student achievement, its performance had been “bleak.”
During the 2018-2019 school year, the last one with standardized testing before the non-renewal order, only 5% of Memphis Street Academy students achieved proficient scores in math, well below the district average.
For several years before the non-renewal, more than a third of the school’s students were chronically absent, meaning they missed more than 10 days of school.
“Instead of uplifting its students, MSA blames their demographic backgrounds for its own shortcomings,” wrote Kenney in the decision. “These excuses deprive MSA’s students of the education they deserve.”
Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that impact students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.
