Philly kids improved in reading, math, and attendance, but most are far from state standards. 4 takeaways from new schools data.

Philadelphia students are making “incremental and significant progress” on measures like attendance, dropout rate, and reading and math performance, according to new data released this week by Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.

Still — the data show that most Philadelphia School District students are far from meeting state standards, and performance in some areas, like high school students’ algebra proficiency, has worsened.

“We are on the right track, but the data also tells us that we have an awful long way to go,” Watlington said at a school board progress-monitoring session held Thursday. “It absolutely is not enough.”

Here are four things to know from Watlington’s presentation:

Over 13 key measures, from reading and math scores to dropouts and performance on career and technical exams, the district improved in nine areas from the 2022-23 school year to last year.

Overall, third through eighth-grade students’ math performance jumped to 22% from 20.7% in the 2023-24 school year, according to preliminary state data. Reading scores districtwide were flat, holding steady at 34%, but third graders’ reading — an important benchmark for students’ future academic success — rose to 34.3% from 31%.

More students are coming to school regularly: 61% of students attended 90% of the time, up from 60% in 2022-23.

Philadelphia students’ regular attendance still lags the state’s significantly; statewide, more than 80% of students attend school 90% of the time. Watlington said the district will continue to focus on attendance.

“We’re going to get on buses and vans and go find the kids,” he said.

There has been progress on the dropout front, too. Systemwide, there were 2,517 dropouts in the district of about 113,000, down from 3,652 the prior year.

In addition to the flat reading scores, teacher attendance was essentially stagnant: 83.4% of teachers came to work regularly in 2023-24, compared with 83.5% in 2022-23.

“We’re still very pleased with our overall teacher regular attendance,” Watlington said.

High school students’ performance continued to be an area of concern; as measured by the state Keystone exams, students fared worse in both algebra and English. On algebra, scores fell to 27.2% of students passing, from 30.1%. In English, 51.9% of students passed, down from 53.9%.

Watlington flagged high school students’ algebra performance in particular as “a significant problem that we’re going to address.”

One way the district aims to help students progress is through “high-dose tutoring,” which calls for trained professionals to work side-by-side with struggling students during class for 90 minutes or more three to four days a week.

The district paid for a small pilot of such tutoring last year; seven part-time tutors worked with 124 students. Of those students, the scores of half improved, according to district data.

“We are really going to double down on high-impact tutoring,” Watlington said. “It’s expensive and it takes a lot of time to get the right people into the classroom, but it’s something we’re going to work on.”

Jermaine Dawson, the district’s deputy superintendent for academics, also said the district would be building a curriculum for students who fail the algebra Keystone to take in hopes of improving proficiency.

Watlington, Dawson, and Tonya Wolford, the district’s chief of evaluation, research, and accountability, said that despite progress in other subgroups, the performance of students with disabilities has not improved.

Dawson said that was because many students who require special education services but who take state tests have been learning in “resource classrooms,” strictly for students with disabilities.

“A lot of times, unfortunately, that curriculum they were being provided was very remedial and providing basic skills,” but then the students would be unprepared for the higher-level skills presented on state exams.

Dawson said the district is working to make sure students with disabilities who will take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams spend significant time in general education classrooms being exposed to the same curriculum as their peers without disabilities.

Despite the district having low overall proficiency rates, the trend lines are right, Watlington said.

“I think it’s significant that we’re holding the ground as we implement two major curricula,” said the superintendent. The district introduced new math materials last school year and is now implementing a new English Language Arts curriculum. (It will launch new science materials next year.)

“No system as large and complex as an education system can move everything at one time,” said Watlington. “You have to have some real focus, you have to be precise.”