Two Philly schools added to 'persistently dangerous' list

Two city high schools have been added to the list of schools considered "persistently dangerous" under federal guidelines.

Both the Universal Audenried Promise Neighborhood Partnership Charter School and the Mastery Charter School at Gratz are former Philadelphia School District schools that are now run by charter organizations.

The schools earned the persistently dangerous title based on violence that occurred while they were run by the district.

Audenried, which is now run by Universal Cos. Inc., and Gratz, now run by Mastery Charter Schools, have been added to the list.

Their inclusion was made public Tuesday, when the state released the full list of persistently dangerous schools. The district had announced its own list earlier this week.

That makes 12 Pennsylvania schools on the list, including 10 district schools: Edison, Fels, Frankford, Kensington Business, Lincoln, Northeast, Sayre, South Philadelphia, and Strawberry Mansion High Schools, and Shaw Middle School.

No schools outside Philadelphia made the list.

Schools land on the list based on the ratio of enrollment and reported "dangerous" violence. Two years worth of data are considered.

The Philadelphia School District had previously said Gratz came off the persistently dangerous list. A district spokesman said Tuesday that the state had neglected to provide the district with the full list or to inform officials that Gratz was still on the list.

District officials had touted the fact that there was a 47 percent drop in persistently dangerous schools from year to year. In fact, it was a 37 percent drop, when accounting for the two schools included on the state list.

Overall, there was a 14 percent dip in serious violence districtwide, to 4,220 documented incidents in 2010-11 from 4,921 the year before.

That means that the district went from 30.6 violent incidents per 1,000 students in 2009-10 to 27.3 violent incidents per 1,000 students last school year.