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School District releases online charter evaluations

For the first time, parents, students, staff, and the public will be able to see how Philadelphia's taxpayer-funded charter schools are performing, thanks to evaluation reports posted online Wednesday.

For the first time, parents, students, staff, and the public will be able to see how Philadelphia's taxpayer-funded charter schools are performing, thanks to evaluation reports posted online Wednesday.

The reports, which will be updated annually, include information about each charter's academic performance, financial health, and compliance with state and federal laws.

Among other things, the reports include information about SAT scores, graduation rates, student turnover, discipline practices, and test scores. They also show how an individual school's academic performance compares with similar schools, charters across the city as a whole, and district schools.

And the reports, which run from nine to 17 pages for each school, contain information about each school's mission and history, and the racial and economic breakdown of the students who attend.

"I know that some of the community organizations have signaled they would like better information for parents and families to make informed choices," said DawnLynne Kacer, executive director of the district's charter school office.

"We see this as the necessary final piece of the transparency work that the charter office is doing to give a full and complete picture of what charter schools are: how they're performing, where are their strengths, and where there are weaknesses."

Marjorie Neff, chair of the School Reform Commission, said that the Annual Charter Evaluations would help bring the district into alignment with national best practices for charter authorizers.

Initial response from the charter community Wednesday was mostly positive.

"I think it's the most comprehensive and transparent view we have had in looking at charters' performance and high-level accountability," said Amy Ruck Kagan, executive director of Philadelphia Charters for Excellence, an alliance of charters that promotes academic excellence and public transparency.

She said there had been some nervousness about how the data could be used - or misinterpreted - but she said feedback among her organization's 47 members had been generally supportive.

Robert Fayfich, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, who had not yet read the evaluations, said, "Good choices in schools requires having as much information as possible."

Mark Gleason, executive director of the Philadelphia School Partnership, which wants to increase seats in successful public, charter, and Catholic schools, welcomes the evaluations.

"Charters get a five-year charter, but they should not only be evaluated every five years," he said. "That's not good for students or taxpayers. They should be evaluated on an ongoing basis so there are no surprises."

He added: "For the public it's good to have ongoing reporting about charters, and all schools, actually."

The district's charter office posted 72 evaluations - one for each charter that is not up for renewal - on its website.

Reports covering the same areas are being prepared for the 11 charters that are being considered for renewal in 2015-16.

"I think it's important to note that this is something that charter schools asked for," Kacer said Tuesday.

She said that the reports will give charters an annual evaluation of how they are doing.

"These reports are a means for charter schools to now see the complete picture of everything they would be evaluated against, and have that information so they can act on it somewhat in real time before their renewal comes due," Kacer said.

"A charter school will no longer be able to legitimately say at the time of renewal, 'But we didn't know that we weren't performing,' " she said.

The reports are intended to provide information but do not rank the charters or assign scores for performance.

The evaluations were released one week after state Auditor General Eugene A. DePasquale had called for greater district oversight of the city's charters.

"I think one of the things he recommended was an annual evaluation of the charter schools," SRC member Farah Jimenez said. "Of course, he didn't know that we were going to be announcing this a week later."

The evaluations can be found here.

martha.woodall@phillynews.com215-854-2789@marwooda