RiSE: Reimagining School Excellence
Mapping the future of charter school performance and accountability in Philadelphia
At the direction of the Board of Education and led by the Charter Schools Office, RiSE is a multi-year process to revise and reimagine the Charter School Performance Framework—our system for evaluating how our charter schools serve our students and their families.
Working in service to the more than 64,000 children educated in our charter schools and guided by our sector’s commitment to advancing student achievement, student experience, and student wellbeing, RiSE is our opportunity to raise the level of accountability and achievement in order to provide a public education that prepares our students to imagine and realize any future they desire.
RiSE Framework
The current framework has served us well, but education must continually evolve to meet the changing needs of constituents.
RiSE will build on the existing framework by:
- Putting high-quality education within reach of all students
- Improving transparency and communication with school leaders and their Board
- Providing more frequent, accurate, and reliable data to guide decision-making
- Equipping families to make informed choices about their child’s education
- Holding all charter schools to ambitious standards
- Continuing to align with state law and Board of Education goals
RiSE Commitments & Checkpoints
On behalf of the Board of Education, the Charter Schools Office oversees over 80 schools, serving over 60,000 students and families. This work must be done with intention and care, inclusive of all key stakeholders and communities, and in accordance with state law.
Having kicked off at the top of the 2024-2025 school year, RiSE is a multi-year process that will result in an updated performance framework that will be piloted at the start of the 2027-2028 school year.
Timeline
- Phase 1 (2024-2025) Establish Scope of Work
- Phase 2 (2025-2026) Design Updated Framework
- Phase 3 (2026-2027) Develop Updated Processes
- 2027-2028 Preliminary Implementation of Framework
Why Now?
Originally developed in 2012, the Charter School Performance Framework has measured school success by assessing academic achievement, organizational compliance, and financial sustainability. These three key components reflect the feedback of charter schools, education research, and national standards for charter authorizing. When taken together, they give the Charter Schools Office and the Board of Education a good snapshot of what is happening inside of our schools.
Over the last seven years of implementation, our charter schools’ leaders and their Boards have shared valuable feedback regarding the three framework components, including perceived limitations. We have listened to our schools’ leaders and their Boards who say that the system works, but that our current way of measuring school performance has areas for improvement.
Charter schools exist on the promise of providing strong academic options for all families. While the current Charter School Performance Framework remains in place, Project RiSE will reconfigure our system of charter school accountability and reimagine how we measure success over the next few years.
The current framework has served our children well for the better part of a decade. We now have the opportunity—with the help of our charter school leaders, charter school Board members, and city stakeholders—to create an updated framework that will inform the next decade and beyond.
Frequently Asked Questions
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