In the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), the summer melt rate is calculated as the percentage of graduating 12th grade students who intend to go to college but do not matriculate within the first fall after graduation. This brief examines patterns in summer melt rates from 2015-16 to 2023-24 and then looks more closely at characteristics of summer melt for the graduating classes of school years 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24.
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. The 2024 graduate follow-up survey asked whether CTE graduates from the class of 2023 had enrolled in college, continued to work or train in their CTE field of study, or pursued other activities.
In spring 2025, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) administered a survey and conducted a series of listening sessions to gather feedback from parents and guardians about their priorities for the Parent and Family University program. This slide deck summarizes results from both the survey and the listening sessions.
Each year, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) administers a budget priorities survey to gather stakeholder feedback that will inform the next year’s budget. A total of 5,508 stakeholders representing 254 District schools/programs responded to the survey.
In September 2024, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) opened a public survey for stakeholders to provide input on the Academic Calendars for 2025-26 and 2026-27. This report summarizes responses to the 16,485 survey responses received, including preferences for each calendar year and key themes that emerged from comments on open-ended questions.
The Senior Exit Survey is administered annually each spring by the Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE). In 2023-24, ORE received responses from 6,718 seniors at 78 District high schools, representing 73.4% of enrolled 12th grade students. This slide deck presents a summary of survey results.
During Phase 8 of the Facilities Planning Process, District staff held informational town halls and feedback sessions in November–December 2024. In addition to the feedback sessions, all stakeholder groups were invited to share feedback via an online School Building Survey. A summary of key results from the facilities feedback sessions, the School Building Survey, and the annual Philly School Experience Survey can be found by visiting our website linked in this post.
This report describes the framework that guided 2023-24 Philly School Experience Survey development, the administration of the survey, the processes of survey reliability testing and validation, and the construction of school-level scores for reports.
The annual Philly School Experience Survey (PSES) is one of the best tools we have for monitoring conditions in Philadelphia public schools. This deck summarizes the 2023-24 survey results for District and alternative schools, highlighting system-level trends across the six core survey topics.
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.