Philly is changing its school selection process again — here’s how
There's a shorter list of standardized tests that will be accepted, new zip codes that get preferred status, and an expansion of sibling preference.
How Philadelphia students are admitted to the city’s magnet and citywide admissions schools is changing — and the window is now open for applications for the 2026-27 school year.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said the district is adding sibling preference for some but not all schools, and making other adjustments to the process.
Here are the changes:
Going forward, the district will accept only certain standardized test scores for admission. Those tests are the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), TerraNova, ERB-CTP, and standardized tests administered by other states. Assessments that had been accepted in the past, such as the Iowa test, will be considered for 2024 results, but not for 2025 results, and not in the future.
Sibling preference has been added for those who apply for admission to neighborhood and citywide admissions schools — but not the magnets, which have the most stringent admissions criteria. (Siblings would have to rank the school to which they’re applying in the same spot.)
The zip codes considered for preference for admittance to Academy at Palumbo, George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, Central High, and Masterman are changing. They are now 19121, 19132, 19133, 19135, 19136, and 19140. (Two zip codes that were previously considered, 19124 and 19134, will no longer receive preference.)
Career and Technical Education preference will be given to middle school students with experience at a district middle school CTE program who are applying for a similar CTE program.
» READ MORE: This group is trying to get Philly families more year-round swimming options
Who can apply?
Any student entering pre-kindergarten through 11th grade who lives in the city can apply for admission, regardless of whether they currently attend a district school.
The process covers both selective admissions schools and neighborhood schools outside a student’s “catchment,” or attendance zone, that have extra room.
Selection criteria vary by school. (Masterman remains the only school in the district that carries an Algebra I requirement.)
Students must rank their top five schools in order of preference, and offers will be made based on eligibility, students’ ranking preference, and seats available. Students will receive one offer at a time in the initial acceptance phase, then remain on the waitlist for only those schools they had ranked higher than the school to which they were admitted.
Watlington said the process is designed to help students find a good match for their education.
“As students pursue a world-class education and become college and career ready, the district offers a variety of great schools to help them nurture their passions, whether they be academic, artistic, musical, in CTE, or vocational programs to help find the rigor they are seeking,” Watlington said in a statement.
The school system has scheduled a series of “application assistance labs” across the city to help students and families navigate the process.
There’s also a school selection fair scheduled for Sept. 20 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
How has the process changed in recent years?
The tweaks represent more evolution in the school selection process, which was dramatically reshaped in 2021.
That year, it moved to a centralized lottery, rather than giving principals discretion over who was admitted. The changes, officials said at the time, happened in the name of equity — some district magnet schools’ racial demographics did not match the city’s, with an overrepresentation of white and Asian students and an underrepresentation of Black and Latino students.
The changes proved controversial. Parents who say their children were harmed by the new policy filed a federal lawsuit against the district; a judge dismissed it, but the parents appealed. A hearing in the case happened Tuesday morning. The plaintiffs claimed the district is using “blatantly unconstitutional, race-based” criteria for admissions. The court will next decide whether the case will proceed to trial.