Philadelphia School District releases a new way to measure its schools
Reports will include details on topics from academics to percentage of students participating in visual or performing arts, from attendance to how students, parents and teachers rate instruction.
The Philadelphia School District has a new way to measure school progress.
Gone is the system’s School Progress Report, or SPR, which took into account test scores, climate and culture measures, and other metrics, and produced a score for each of the district’s 216 schools.
Released Thursday, the School Progress Report on Education and Equity, or SPREE, looks at those calculations but also considers equity measures — suspensions, qualification for special admissions high schools, or participation in advanced classes, broken down by demographic groups to check for disproportionalities.
The new reports are organized to support the school board’s “Goals and Guardrails,” which are guiding principles for what district students are expected to achieve and should be provided with. The board goals include equity measures.
With SPREE, the annual reports will eventually include details on everything from academics to percentage of students participating in visual or performing arts, from attendance to how students, parents, and teachers rate instruction at each school.
But because the pandemic prevented many students from taking standardized tests for the past two years and skewed attendance and other measures, this year the district is offering only the SPREE Lite, informational reports for each school.
When more data are available, schools will eventually be put into one of six levels: high, moderate, or low performance, and high, moderate, or low improvement.