Phila. school test scores up, but not enough, Ackerman says

City students improved their performance on state reading and math tests for the seventh year in a row, but slow progress is no longer enough, School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said yesterday.

Fewer than half of city schoolchildren can read at grade level, and only slightly more can perform math at grade level.

In 2008-09, 52 percent of Philadelphia schoolchildren made the grade in math, up 3 percentage points from last year. Forty-eight percent hit the mark in reading, also up 3 percentage points.

"We see this as an opportunity to do better by our children," Ackerman told the Philadelphia School Reform Commission after her staff presented test scores and other data, including stark attendance figures. "We need to have a call to action for our community."

If the district continues its incremental gains, it would take until 2123 for all students to reach proficiency. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, all students must pass state reading and math tests by 2014.

In Philadelphia, fewer students are performing "below basic," or at the lowest level. Thirty-one percent fall into the lowest group for reading, and 26 percent for math.

The achievement gap between the district's white and Asian students and its black and Latino students continues. In reading, black students scored 23 percentage points lower than their white counterparts, and Latino students fared 25 points under. In math, there's a 25-point gap for black students and a 23-point gap for Latino students.

Overall, girls scored better than boys, even in math, bucking a national trend.

Based on the test scores, Ackerman has declared her "empowerment schools" initiative - extra money, resources, and oversight for the most struggling public schools - a success.

But the gains were relatively small: Reading scores increased two points, to 37 percent passing, and math scores went up three points, to 40 percent passing.

Last year, 85 schools were classified as empowerment schools. This year, 10 will be added. The empowerment budget last year was $30 million; officials said they expected to spend more this year but couldn't say how much.

Overall, 118 of the district's 267 schools - 44 percent - met state standards, up from 113 the past year. The district hit its peak in 2004, when 160 of 265 schools, or 60 percent, passed.

Officials also released other data, including the district's average daily attendance, which ranged from a high of 92 percent in September to a low of 80 percent in June. The average for the year was 89 percent.

Ackerman and others were startled by those numbers. They said they realized that the poor June attendance was due to the early administration of finals for high school students.

"Some of the students will tell you, there's not much reason to come to school after finals," Ackerman said.

Next year, that will change, she said - finals will be given later, and report cards will be mailed home, not made available to students on the last day of school.

Officials also revealed that a whopping 42 percent of students had eight or more absences every report period, classifying them as "chronically absent."

The district's four-year graduation rate in 2008, the most recent year for which numbers are available, is 57 percent, up from 53 percent in 2007. At one point, in 2002, it was as low as 44 percent.

Violence was down by 15 percent - there were 5,312 incidents in 2008-09, down from 6,390 in 2007-08.

"No one would argue that 5,300 incidents is an acceptable number," said David Weiner, Ackerman's deputy for research. But it does represent the most dramatic drop in violence in years, he said.

This year, district parents got to grade their child's school. Thirty-four percent gave the schools a B; 32 percent gave schools an A; 21 percent a C; 8 percent a D; and 5 percent an F.

State education officials said Pennsylvania-wide data would not be released until next month.