Phila. school goals unmet

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission is a long way from achieving a series of ambitious goals it set in 2004 for the school district to meet by this year, according to the latest district report card.

Though the district greatly expanded school-choice options, increased test scores, and boosted the number of certified teachers, it fell far short in several academic areas and lagged in safety and finances, results show.

The shortcomings could be used by the new chief executive officer, expected to be selected this month, to develop a blueprint for improving the 167,000-student system.

"We knew that these goals were very ambitious goals to begin with. These were stretch goals," Commission Chairwoman Sandra Dungee Glenn said yesterday. "It is not surprising to anyone that we have not met all the goals or we're not on target to meet all the goals we laid out."

The disparities are great in some cases.

Fewer than half of third graders are reading at grade level. The goal was 80 percent.

Forty-one percent of students in grades three to 11 were reading at or above proficient levels in the spring. Forty-five percent performed at or above proficient levels in math and 25 percent in science. Although that was a dramatic increase from five years earlier, the goal was 80 percent in all three subjects.

Test scores for 11th grade improved the least. Compounding the problem is a staggering dropout rate - four of every 10 students fail to graduate.

Fewer than two-thirds of high school students reported in an annual survey that they felt safe in school. The goal was 95 percent.

And only 62 percent school buildings rated a "B" or better on a safety audit last school year. The goal was for all schools to be rated at least "B."

The district ended last fiscal year scrambling to cover a deficit and is still looking to cut costs. It was to have achieved a balanced budget.

Of 25 goals in the district's "Declaration of Education," 16 focused on academics, and the district has not fully met any, according to the report.

Despite a rise in test scores, fewer schools are meeting targets for improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, a nationwide problem.

Other areas targeted for improvement include school safety, community collaboration, finances, and equity across schools in terms of staffing and course offerings.

Dungee Glenn said that from her perspective, the district was making progress or was on target to meet 14 of the 25 goals. Nine remain particularly difficult.

"My desire would be to accelerate the progress and really begin to focus more specifically on areas where we are lagging," she said.

The third-grade reading goal is of particular concern, she said.

"If we don't have our young people at grade level in third grade, their academic work across all subjects is endangered," she said.

Dungee Glenn noted that the final report card on the goals would not be complete until the end of the 2007-08 school year. The latest results were the snapshot prepared by district officials at the end of last school year. They were released at The Inquirer's request.

Commissioner James Gallagher said he was pleased with overall progress but "clearly disappointed in the lack of progress on the high school level. And I'm clearly disappointed in the area of school safety. We have much work to do there."

The goals were highly optimistic, especially for an urban district where three-fourths of students come from low-income families.

President Bush's national education goals call for all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014, a far cry from the current reality. In Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter set an ambitious goal last week of halving the high school dropout rate over the next five to seven years.

Along with addressing the commission's unmet goals, the new chief executive will be faced with other pressing matters.

Contract negotiations with the district's five unions, including the 16,500-member Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, start this month.

A district committee is preparing proposals to overhaul the 70 lowest-performing schools.

And hard decisions will need to be made this spring on whether outside managers should continue to run 40 schools.

The district is especially lagging in its goal to ready more students for college. Its average SAT scores have dropped, though the goal was to have them rise.

But district spokesman Fernando Gallard pointed out that the number of students taking the SAT in 2006-07 - 6,341 - was a 14 percent increase over 2002-03, the year before the goal was set. That means some less-prepared students took the test. The district's average score last year was 791 - well below the national average of 1,017.

The goals also called for 80 percent of students to enroll in college; only 58.6 percent did in 2005-06.

Regarding staff, the district increased its percentage of certified teachers to more than 97 percent, with more than 92 percent achieving "highly qualified" status.

But those numbers can be misleading, said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

Several hundred of those teachers are part of Teach for America, which brings in non-education-major college graduates to teach in hard-to-staff schools for at least a two-year commitment. Only a third to 40 percent remain in the classroom after that commitment is up, according to figures from Teach for America.

"There's a cost to that, because a school community is constantly turning over," Jordan said.

Already, more than 50 percent of district teachers have five or fewer years of experience, he said.

"It takes the first three to four years for teachers to really feel comfortable with their craft," he said.

The district is also struggling with an imbalance of teacher experience in its most difficult schools.

A 2007 report by Philadelphia's Research for Action found that changes negotiated in the 2004 teachers contract had little impact on that imbalance. The most inexperienced teachers still work in the most troubled schools.

It also found that about 70 percent of teachers hired in 1999-2000 had left the district by 2005.

Gallagher acknowledged that the challenges for a new CEO are great.

"But he or she will inherit an experienced commission, a dedicated mayor, a clearly articulated plan, and a city populated by people who really want this person to succeed," he said.

To read the district's full report, go to http://go.philly.com/goalEndText