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Philadelphia Students Score Higher in State Tests

Posted on: Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

Aug. 23--Philadelphia School District students have achieved higher math and reading scores for the fourth straight year -- the third under the wave of reforms begun in the 2002-03 school year, jubilant district and elected officials announced yesterday.

"Is today a great day in Philadelphia or what?" James Nevels, chairman of the five-member School Reform Commission, asked during a news conference at the district administration building that included a big cake, and bigger pronouncements about the future.

"I don't think there is a school district in this state, let alone in this country, that is demanding more of our children... We are doing what we are supposed to do," said district chief executive Paul Vallas.

The officials were in accord, however, that much more schoolhouse reform is needed, because the majority of students still test below the proficient level -- or what is considered the passing mark.

The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test is given each spring to students in grades five, eight and 11.

The scores are used by the state Department of Education to determine which schools have made "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Last year, 160 city public schools made AYP, up from 58 schools the previous year. Schools making AYP this year will be announced next month, state officials said.

The results released yesterday showed that just 35.4 percent of Philadelphia's students are proficient or advanced in reading, up 1.8 percent from last year and up 11.5 percent from four years ago, before the reform commission took over.

In math, 37.1 percent of students were proficient or advanced, up 8.5 percent from last year and up 17.6 percent from four years ago.

Students in fifth grade improved the most over last year and from four years ago, due to the fact that they are the first class to have attended full-day kindergarten, the officials said. In math, 45.4 percent were proficient, up 14.7 percent from last year. In reading 35 percent hit that target, up 3.4 percent from last year.

In eighth grade, 39.2 percent -- an 8.3 percent increase -- were on target in math and 39.4 percent in reading, a 1.8 percent decline from last year.

The lowest scores were turned in by 11th-graders. In reading 30.5 percent were proficient, up 3.5 percent, while math was unchanged from last year with just 22.9 percent of students proficient. That represents a 0.7 percent decline in proficient students from 2001-02.

Vallas said that was because last year's 11th-graders benefited from only one year of the reforms.

The overall improved scores were largely attributed to the implementation of full-day kindergarten, a standardized curriculum, the expansion of early-childhood programs, and increases in the professional-development hours for teachers and in the length of time some students spend in math and language-arts classes.

Gov. Rendell said the improvement was evidence that the state takeover of city schools should not end, despite Mayor Street's recent statement to the contrary.

Street did not attend the news conference.

All racial groups posted gains over last year, but Asian and white students were far ahead of African-American and Latino students. This was consistent with last year, and with most other big-city school systems.

Asian students outperformed all other racial groups in math, with 68.3 percent testing at or above proficient, whites were next with 58.5 percent, Latinos had 36.1 percent and African-Americans registered 30.5.

In reading, 56.9 percent of whites were proficient or better, 53.3 percent of Asians, 30.8 percent of Latinos and 30.6 percent of African-Americans.

"Unless the resources are put in place to give children the opportunity to enter school prepared with the skills to learn, [the achievement gap] is not going to go away," Jerry Jordan, vice president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said during an interview.

Gerald Zahorchak, who will become acting state secretary of education next month, said he was pleased that the gap was closing that and the state was spending millions to make it happen more quickly.

Progress was registered by most of the six outside managers that won district contracts to operate some 45 low-performing elementary and middle schools in 2002.

In math, schools managed by the University of Pennsylvania, Foundations, Inc. and Edison Schools, Inc., posted double-digit increases of students testing at or above proficient. Those run by Temple University, Universal Companies and Victory Schools posted single-digit increases.

In reading, four managers made single-digit gains, while two declined from last year. Schools run by Penn, Foundations, Edison and Temple improved, while those operated by Victory and Universal declined -- the latter by 5.8 percentage points.

All six outside managers still trail district-run schools in math and science. The 21 low-performing schools that are being reformed in-house by the district made more progress than all of the outside-managed schools except for the three run by Penn.

And charter schools, first opened here in 1997 as alternatives to struggling traditional schools, continued to under-perform those schools.

At charters with grades five and eight, 33.8 percent of students were proficient in math. That's a 7.8 percent increase from last year, but far behind the 49.7 percent of fifth- and eighth- graders in district-run schools. In reading, 36.6 percent of charter- school children were proficient, up 1.2 percent from last year, but behind the 43.9 percent who were proficient in district schools.

Joseph H. Proietta, chief executive officer of Community Academy of Philadelphia Charter School, said publicly funded, independently operated charters are lagging behind traditional schools because the school district has made "a concerted effort to teach to the test."

In addition, he said, "people don't come to a charter school if they're happy with their local school. So, we tend to be working with students who have not been successful at their previous school. We tend to get kids who score lower. Because of that, there is an unintended consequence that kids at charter schools will move along slower, at least initially. But I'm not going to tell my teachers to stop everything and teach to the test."

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Source: The Philadelphia Daily News

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