The School District of Philadelphia’s Renaissance Schools Initiative was first implemented in 2010-11. The initiative was intended to spur dramatic improvements in student performance over a short period of time by providing additional resources, changes in staffing, increased attention, and other strategies designed to improve persistently low-performing schools.

This research brief explores changes in student mobility before and after school turnaround efforts in the District’s Promise Academies and Renaissance Charter Schools. Specifically, it looks at within-year student retention and mobility rates one year prior to turnaround and one year into turnaround for Promise Academies and Renaissance Charter Schools.

Important findings include:

• Overall, there was an improvement in within-year student retention in the year after turnaround in both Renaissance Charter Schools and Promise Academies. The improvement was greater in Renaissance Charter schools than in Promise Academies.
• These gains were significant across all examined grades in Renaissance Charter Schools, but only for grade 9 in Promise Academies.
• Increases in student retention experienced in the year after turnaround were maintained through 2012-13.

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