As an important metric of students’ readiness for college and career, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) monitors high school graduation rates each year. This brief examines graduation rates in public schools in the city of Philadelphia, comparing trends for District, Alternative, and Charter schools.
In January 2024, the Office of Research and Evaluation contacted Senior Exit Survey respondents from the Classes of 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 to conduct a Graduate Follow-up Survey. Results from the Graduate Follow-up Survey help SDP understand the education and career pursuits of recent high school graduates, learn about obstacles graduates faced in pursuing post-high school plans, and gain insights about how graduates transition into postsecondary education or the workforce.
The Philadelphia Education Research Consortium (PERC) study explores the “when and how” of Keystone Exams in the School District of Philadelphia, examining the timing of when students first take Keystone-associated courses, the share of students that pass those courses upon their first attempt, and the Keystone exam-taking patterns of those who pass and fail those courses.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) requires school districts to conduct a follow-up survey with graduates of their Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs to learn about their experiences after graduation. This graduate follow-up survey asked whether Class of 2022 CTE graduates had enrolled in college, continued to work or train in their CTE field of study, or pursued other activities.
The Senior Exit Survey is administered annually each spring by the Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE). In 2022-23, ORE received responses from 6,620 seniors at 78 District high schools, representing 72% of enrolled 12th grade students. This slide deck presents a summary of survey results.
Each year, SDP and its partner organizations offer a variety of summer programs to ensure that students, especially those most vulnerable to experiencing summer learning loss, have the opportunity to continue learning during the summer months. This report provides a summary of the 2023 summer programs, including information about enrollment and attendance, and findings from surveys and observations.
During the 2017-18 school year, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) developed and launched a new metric to monitor the success of first-time 9th graders. The study described in this brief revisits SDP’s 9th Grade On-Track metric to examine whether the relationship between 9GOT and on-time graduation remains strong for more recent cohorts of students.
This Philadelphia Education Research Consortium (PERC) study shines a spotlight on ELs in 7th and 8th grade, describing the diversity of home languages spoken, countries and regions of birth, and duration of EL status across the population of English Learners in the years leading up to their transition to high school.
This brief complements the 2021-22 four-year graduation brief by presenting the 2021-22 outcomes for students at District and Alternative schools who did not graduate from high school in four years.
The Senior Exit Survey is administered annually each spring by the Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE). In 2021-22, ORE received responses from 6,075 seniors at 75 District high schools, representing 66% of enrolled 12th grade students.