One year ago, the School District of Philadelphia laid out an ambitious plan to reform secondary schools in the District.   The Secondary School Reform Plan focused on seven areas:   the transition to high school, curriculum upgrades, high quality staff development and leadership training, enhanced support services, enhanced high school program opportunities, increased high school options, and facility upgrades.

This Reform Plan also mentions adding "at least one new charter high school this year and two additional charter high schools to be created over the next four years." This slow-growth support for charter high schools does not do enough to increase public options for students and their families.   Nor does it take into account the fact that charter high schools meet several of the goals of the Plan – smaller schools, better test scores and fewer drop outs. By further weaving charter schools into the fabric of the District, the SDP can provide the greatest number of options to its students and their families, and improve the quality of education for all.

This white paper examines Philadelphia's public high schools that are not managed by the SDP, an often overlooked aspect of the City's schools. While much attention has focused on public schools run by private companies and nonprofit groups, these schools mostly serve elementary and middle school grades. There is a group of public high schools in Philadelphia that is not run by the SDP: It is our City's charter high schools. This year there are 19 charter schools serving at least one high school grade (9 through 12). We compare charter high schools with the general admission, comprehensive Philadelphia public high schools city-wide and using the geographic regions defined by the SDP.

Philadelphia has a history of public high school choice, as evidenced in the SDP's magnet high school program. The charter high schools expand on that choice and offer educational opportunities to students who may not qualify for one of the competitive magnet programs. By giving more parents an active role in choosing their child's school the SDP can increase parents' involvement in the schools and their satisfaction with the programs the schools offer.

Methodology

This white paper compares the test scores, drop-out rates, demographics, attendance rates, enrollment, and rates of students receiving special education in the 19 charter schools serving high school grades and the 22 comprehensive, general admission public high schools.   Magnet schools were not included in the comparative analysis because they admit students based on test scores and academic achievement – charter and traditional public schools are not "special admission."   The analysis was conducted for eight of the SDP's nine geographic regions (the West region of the SDP does not have any charter schools with high school grades).   Except as it relates to test scores, data from the 2001-2002 school year was used, as this is the last year for which complete data was available.   Test scores are based on the 2002-2003 data so as to include more recent information, including both PSSA and TerraNova test results.

Findings

Philadelphia charter high schools are realizing many of the SDP's secondary education reform goals. These charter schools are uniformly much smaller than their counterpart neighborhood comprehensive high schools. They are offering real choice to hundreds of students and families, while serving a population that is similar to traditional public high schools. The charter schools have done this while equaling or surpassing several objective indicators of success, when compared to neighborhood public high schools. These indicators are attendance and drop out rates, and test scores.

 

• Charter high schools and SDP high schools serve students of similar demographics.

• The average charter high school enrolls just 281 students in grades 9-12, while the average traditional public high school enrolls over 1,900.

• Attendance rates at charter high schools are better than those at traditional public high schools: 87.4% attendance rate at charter schools versus 73.2% at traditional public high schools.

• Charter schools have lower drop-out rates than traditional public high schools.   2.9% of students drop out of charter schools versus 12.9% at traditional public high schools.

• The charter high school median score was better than the District high school median score on all subjects and all grades for the PSSA tests:   9th grade writing and 11th grade math, reading and writing.   The charter high school median score was better than the District high school median score on all four TerraNova tests: reading, language, math and science.2

• Charter high schools do not serve as many special education students as traditional public high schools; 11.9% of students at SDP schools receive special education and 6.3% of students at charter high schools.

• Families are choosing charter high schools for their children, yet enrollment at charter high schools is at the point where it is difficult to add any more students.   Over 5,000 students were on waiting lists for charter high schools during the 2001-2002 academic year.  

 

Recommendations

Charter high schools can serve as a guide for the new public high schools to be created under the SDP's Reform Plan. Creating a new school from the ground up poses significant challenges. The SDP could benefit from the experience of the people who have launched charter high schools in the past five years. The SDP can also integrate the charter high schools more fully into the choices available to students and families by publicizing these schools along with the other traditional public school choices currently offered, and to be offered in the near future.

Charter schools can add value to the SDP in its own secondary school goals, as well as towards the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.   We recommend:

 

1. Charter high schools should be recognized by the SDP as meeting its Reform Plan goals, and be fully integrated into the SDP's vision and plan. Those that perform well should be helped by the SDP to grow their model and/or enrollment.
2. Expand the number of "slots" for charter high school students by expanding the number of new charter high schools approved.
3. Include information on charter high schools in SDP publications so that parents can be made aware of all public education options open to them.
4. The SDP and charter schools should work together to send the message that charter schools can fully serve children with special needs in the same way traditional public schools do.  
5. All Philadelphia public schools - be they traditional, magnet, charter or privately managed – should be held to the same accountability standards, review and renewal process.  

 

1- FRL is the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch.

2- The median is the middle test score in the range of test scores for all of the schools.  The median was calculated for each test score evaluated in the study.