Some Philly teachers say they’re pressured to pass students who rarely come to class or do work

Philadelphia School District students receive report cards on Thursday, the last day of the 2025-26 school year.

But it’s an open secret that in many schools, it is nearly impossible to fail a student, according to interviews with two dozen teachers from schools across the city who say the district is making them give passing grades.

Many teachers said they passed students who did little or no work, did not understand concepts being taught, or did not show up to class much. Most of the teachers interviewed requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

“There’s a bunch of kids in my class that have F’s in reading, and I’m probably going to pass them — I’ll bump it up to a D and call it a day,” one middle-grades teacher at a K-8 school said. “I don’t know of anyone who’s been able to keep anyone back, and we’re just setting kids up for failure.”

On paper, Philadelphia students can fail courses, or be retained in a grade, so long as they are offered appropriate interventions and supports. Officially, the district, according to its policy, “is committed to excellence in student accomplishments and recognizes the contribution of a district wide promotion policy moving all schools to models of achievement.”

But many teachers said that they were discouraged or forbidden by their principals from flunking students, or that they have given out failing grades that were overridden. Others said failing students was permitted if justified, but the administrative burden to rationalize failure, even for students who did not show up to school, is onerous or impossible.

All of the teachers who spoke with The Inquirer said they fear for the long-term implications for students who are passed along without the skills they need to advance — especially in a city where so many students cope with the effects of poverty and trauma and a majority of students do not meet grade-level standards on state testing.

Monique Braxton, district spokesperson, said the district’s policies “emphasize that student grades are meant to accurately reflect their academic performance and progress toward learning standards. Schools are required to provide and document appropriate interventions and progress monitoring when students encounter academic challenges. The district remains steadfast in its commitment to maintaining high expectations for students while ensuring they receive the necessary support to achieve success.”

The K-8 teacher, a veteran of district schools for three decades, said that at the beginning of her career, it was easier to give F’s or retain students who did not meet the learning standards. But, the teacher said, there has been a “subtle shift” since the early 2000s, the era of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“When the pressure was on the schools to show promotions and graduation rates, and the district was so focused on showing data, it’s shifted grading, and now it’s a joke,” the teacher said.

Philadelphia changed its grading policy in 2017, setting a 50 out of 100 as teachers’ grading floor and making it easier to pass. The minimum score for a D, once a 64, was changed to a 60.

The rationale for the change, leaders said at the time, was standardizing grading procedures and preventing students from giving up if they perform poorly early in the year. Detractors of the policy shift said at the time they feared it would water down standards.

The K-8 teacher, and others interviewed, emphasized that most Philadelphia students are bright and capable. But those who do not try because of complicated home lives or other reasons can skate by, they said.

“We have a kid who’s done no work all year, and we’ve done everything, and they’re just going to push him forward,” the K-8 teacher said.

The teacher also works in the service industry, and said the effects of passing students who have not earned passing grades is evident in that workplace.

“We see people who don’t come to work on time, they can’t take orders, they can’t use a computer or figure things out, and this is why,” she said. “They’re not being held to standards for all their years in schools.”

A second teacher said he has failed students who did not earn passing grades, though he has more latitude because he does not teach a major subject. But he absolutely understands why some teachers give 60s that should be F’s: With full course loads, teachers do not have time to document a pattern of contacting guardians, giving extra time for work, breaking down assignments, allowing extra credit, or extending deadlines.

“Who has time to do that when you have 30 other kids?” the teacher said. “And the system is inherently causing laziness from teachers also, to just shut up, pass them, and you don’t get grief.”

There is a ripple effect, he said.

“I feel sorry for the good kids, the kids who struggle, do their work, and get a C. So I give them a B, a low A. They try,” he said.

The district has posted academic improvement over the last several years. But district students’ academic achievement as measured by state tests remains low, with 33% of students meeting standards in reading and 25% in math.

“The PSSA scores don’t match the grades kids are getting,” the second teacher said.

The district’s four-year graduation rate has also risen. In 2024-25, it was up to 84%, from 69% in 2014-15.

Grade inflation comes at the end of every year, said a third teacher, who works at a district high school.

“There’s a push right after grades are due,” said the third teacher, who noted that administrators will say, “‘Is there anything you can do to bump these up?’”

Grades are not changed for every student, but in some cases, administrators will “push [students] along because they want to see them graduate or pass,” the third teacher said. “There’s all this pressure from the district to increase the graduation rate — there are so many layers to it. I know that it happens in a lot of places. It’s not just our school. But this year, it was huge margins and huge numbers.”

Administrators sometimes change the grades themselves, the third teacher said.

In one instance, a student’s grade shot up with no explanation, the teacher said. “This student had a 50 yesterday. How did he have an 82 today? This was a student who didn’t turn in any additional work, and missed 63 of 84 classes,” the third teacher said.

The third teacher said another student who was moved on without doing the work admitted it.

“Even he was like, ‘Yeah, I didn’t deserve to pass, I don’t know how that happened. But I’m excited to graduate,’” the teacher said.

The third teacher underscored that while the practice could be making the district’s numbers look better, it is not serving students.

After graduation and not being held to standards, the teacher said, one former student “lost the first three jobs he had because he didn’t go to them. He had to learn that lesson in a much harder, more adult way, and he could have learned that in high school. I worry that when kids graduate and get into the workforce, it will impact the way they approach the goals they set for themselves and how they try to achieve those goals.”

A fourth teacher who has worked in multiple types of schools in Philadelphia said the practice is not limited to the district.

She most recently taught at a city charter and said some of her middle-grades students were at kindergarten reading and math levels.

“The gap was huge,” the fourth teacher said. “The school’s explanation is that there’s a school-to-prison pipeline, and the older students are, the less likely they are to graduate. But they’re not meeting standards. The gaps are huge. It was very shocking to me how they would just pass the kids. I’m a parent, and I want my kids to be prepared properly.”

A fifth teacher said that at her school, it is rare for students to be pushed along without doing work.

“I can’t in good conscience pass anybody who doesn’t show up,” she said. “I think a lot of teachers around me also can do that. But I have also seen that teachers — maybe at a particular building, maybe those who work for a particular administrator — who say, ‘You know what, I’m not going to fight it.’"

What is definitely not rare, the fifth teacher said, is giving students “a lot of different lifelines, a lot of different ways for them to pass,” whether it’s in-school credit recovery or summer school, “even when their trends of behavior and attendance and performance and engagement in the class suggest that they needed more time with that content.”

A sixth teacher said his principal permits failure and retention, in rare cases, with significant documentation. There is some pressure to not fail students, but when needed, the teacher has been able to produce adequate paperwork to show failure was the last resort.

But when deciding whether to pass or push through a student, “I ask myself whether holding them an extra year will make a significant difference,” the teacher said. One of the teacher’s students is bright but unmotivated and rarely completes work.

“I don’t think that’s going to change with an extra year in the same grade, and therefore, I decided to pass him,” he said.

Does he worry about the implications for the district writ large?

“Honestly, I do think about it sometimes, but I’m just not sure there’s a right answer with the current situation,” the sixth teacher said. “I’m no policy expert, but I think for it to make sense on a larger scale we’d need significant cultural shift and policy changes.”