Grading Philly-area schools
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
Grading Philly-area schools
Kristen Graham
Grading schools is always a tricky business.
But PennCAN, the local arm of a national nonprofit that aims to “enact research-based education reforms that will give every child in their state access to a great school,” has attempted to do just that — assign a letter grade to every school and school district in Pennsylvania in a new database released today.
The methodology, the organization said, is simple — schools get letter grades in five categories, from student performance to performance gains. Also considered are: subgroup performance (for low-income, African American and Latino students), achievement gap, and four-year high school graduation rates. The scores considered come from the highest tested grade at each school.
How does Philly fare?
Well, some schools do just as well as you’d expect. Masterman gets straight As. (Central gets an A for student performance, but a D for graduation rate.)
But there are some surprises — Greenfield, an elementary school so valued that people weep when they hear their children can’t get in through the voluntary transfer process — scored a D- on student performance. Penn Alexander, where parents are willing to literally sleep outside on the sidewalk for four days to gain a kindergarten spot for their kids, scored a C+ on student performance.
It's clear, then, that these grades are based only on test scores, which are important but not everything. They don't take into account the intangibles - how well certain schools do despite enormous challenges in their kids' lives, or how some places are badly-needed anchors in the community.
PennCAN also generated several top-10 lists, and a number of Philly district and charter schools appeared on those.
For performance gains/elementary schools, the Hardy Williams Academy, a Mastery Charter school, ranked third.
For African American student performance/elementary schools, the Russell Byers Charter School ranked second; Wissahickon Charter ranked third; Powel Elementary, a Philadelphia School District school, ranked fifth; Northwood Academy Charter ranked seventh; C.W. Henry, another district school, ranked ninth; and Hardy Williams ranked tenth.
For Latino student performance/elementary schools, Northwood Academy Charter ranked tenth.
For performance gains/middle schools, KIPP Academy Charter ranked first; the district’s Leeds Middle ranked second; Young Scholars Charter School was tied for third; the district’s Overbrook Education Center was ranked fourth; People for People Charter was ranked sixth; and Wakisha Charter was ranked eighth.
For low-income student performance/middle schools, the district’s Russell Conwell Middle School ranked fourth and its AMY Northwest ranked fifth; West Oak Lane Charter ranked sixth; Young Scholars Charter ranked seventh; and the district’s Baldi Middle ranked ninth.
For African American student performance/middle schools, the district’s Hill-Freedman ranked first, C.W. Henry ranked fourth and Overbrook Education Center ranked fifth. Mastery Charter/Thomas ranked sixth, West Oak Lane Charter ranked seventh; Young Scholars Charter ranked eighth; AMY Northwest ranked ninth; and Mastery Charter/Shoemaker ranked tenth.
For Latino student performance/middle schools, Conwell ranked first, Northwood Academy Charter ranked second, and Independence Charter ranked fifth.
For African American student performance/high schools, the district’s Carver High School of Engineering and Science ranked first, Science Leadership Academy ranked second, Bodine High ranked third and Academy at Palumbo ranked fourth. Preparatory Charter School ranked fifth; Friere Charter tied for sixth; Mastery Charter/Shoemaker ranked seventh; Girls High ranked ninth; and Mastery Charter/Lenfest ranked tenth.
For Latino student performance/high schools, Franklin Towne Charter ranked first and Bodine High ranked third.
What’s your take on the grades, and on the lists?
This comment has been deleted.— Thor Steiner- I wonder if the critics of the Philly magazine article On Being White in Philadelphia will complain? — TetVet
- Because when you do, the fact that race and socioeconomic class are a big part of the "achievement gap" stares you in the face. — the_professor
- Philly seems to be the home of the segregated school system.— Disco Dave
- This is a front group for charter schools. They have Mark Gleason and someone from KIPP on the board. They also share an office with Philadelphia School Partnership. This is what you would call propaganda. I give them an 'F'— rs1982
- Southern Democrats had to create laws to prevent blacks from learning how to read. Now they only need us to send our children to public school. What was the literacy rate for blacks in the early 1900s compared to today?— FreddyNits
- In the early 1900, the literacy rate for everyone was quite low. And, literacy then meant little more than that you could write your name and recite some well known passage from the bible. Until the 20th C, literacy was not required, or even expected, of most of the population. — the_professor
- How good isthe data they're working from? Central graduates about 99% of its students within 4 years, so why does it get a D, yet an A in student peformance? Flawed data or flawed methodology or just a bias to push charter schools?— sabelotodo
- Central more than likely would get a D in graduation based on the method of calculation. Close to 50% of students who enter Central aren't able to stay academically. As a graduate, I can attest to the fact that we started freshman year with close to 800, and finished senior year with closer to 420. If you don't perform academically at Central, you will basically flunk out of the school. As for the 420 that I entered senior year with, 99.9% graduated, and went on to college.— ogontz11
- In my 14 years as a teacher at Central High School, there was never less than 500 in a graduation class. Most kids leave the school because they go elsewhere of their own volition. Of the rest there are a few that are recommended that they go to a different school voluntarily because they will not graduate with their class. So however these people rate schools, they really have no idea what is going on. If you want to just pass students forward with no care as to their education, you can graduate everyone!— sjkolman
- As a former Philadelphia School District teach who now teaches at a university in Canada and has a more global perspective on education I could write a book on the problems with the PSD--it starts, simultaneously, with the parents, teachers, learning environments and kids. It's such a mess that these kinds of studies are so very tangled that the data are meaningless. Not only Central, but many Philadelphia secondary schools were good (not great) in the 60s and 70s--if you wanted to excel, you could, and those who wanted to go on to university or college or technical school were prepared to do so. It's all very sad. The system is so broken, and financially 'broke' that it cannot be fixed ... very sad.— petergou
- No sign of any Kenny gamble schools the product they produce isn't even average
Philly school district a total waste of taxpayer money
— Titus pullo - Conwell Middle School, Baby!— kjuggs77
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They should school children at home online. Get rid of lazy teachers and all the morning drama of going to school and being subject to so much danger out there. Save a lot of money and put an end to children going missing or being attacked when teachers are not doing their job.— MS. LOU.- It's depressing that many of the schools people in this city would kill to get their kids into are actually mediocre by statewide standards.— Thad Lawrence
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
