Responding to complaints, Philly schools are changing the special-admissions process for the 2024-25 school year

The Philadelphia School District will now grant eighth graders at several special-admissions schools, including the top-ranked Julia R. Masterman school, automatic admission to high school as long as they meet the eligibility criteria.

The ability of eighth graders to skip the lottery is one of a number of changes the district announced Thursday to how students will be selected for special-admissions schools, starting in September with applications for the 2024-25 school year.

Other immediate changes include developing a process for students who aren’t accepted to any schools to which they applied to instead receive an offer from a different special-admissions school, and increasing communication to families and training for school staff about the process.

Specific criteria for individual schools could also change, and will be announced before the selection process begins Sept. 15, district officials said.

The changes follow backlash to an overhaul of the special-admissions process in 2021 that had been intended to increase equity in the system. Philadelphia’s 39 criteria-based and citywide admissions schools often have not matched the district’s diversity, with some schools skewing whiter or more Asian than the district as a whole.

To address those imbalances, the district implemented a centralized lottery — removing the ability of principals to personally shape their student bodies — and added preferences at some schools for students from certain zip codes.

But the new system drew complaints from numerous school communities. At Masterman, parents said the changes were “systematically dismantling” the school, resulting in a slowed-down curriculum and greater student needs without additional support provided by the district.

Others said the loss in discretion in admissions had hurt their schools. Franklin Learning Center, for instance, saw fewer ninth graders qualify for its medical assistant program last year. (Franklin is one of numerous criteria-based schools left with open seats.) Citywide admissions schools such as Robeson High School also saw adverse effects as a result of the lottery, without interviews that allowed leaders to select students who seemed to be a good fit for the West Philadelphia school.

The changes announced Thursday — which followed recommendations from a consultant hired by the district — don’t eliminate the lottery, though they include additional review processes for students with certain disabilities.

There will also be “an opportunity at a leadership workshop this fall for principals at criteria-based schools to collaborate with district and union leadership to determine their best-fit criteria and the process for filling vacant seats after school selection closes,” according to the district.

They also make other changes geared at steering students toward open seats, referring to a process for waitlisted students to instead receive an offer for placement at another school they meet the criteria for that has open seats.

And at five magnet schools that enroll middle and high school students — Masterman, George Washington Carver Engineering & Science, Girard Academic Music Program, Hill-Freedman World Academy, and Science Leadership Academy at Beeber — all eighth graders already attending one of the schools will be automatically granted admission to its high school, provided they meet admissions criteria.

Masterman parents had previously said the elimination of that pathway had created new problems, forcing the school to dilute its high school programming to accommodate students who didn’t have as advanced an academic background as students who came from its middle grades.

The district’s consultants, from the Accenture firm, had recommended automatic admission of eighth graders — citing research in favor of “instructional program coherence” during a June school board meeting presentation.

The consultants also recommended the district consider dropping the use of state standardized test scores as admissions criteria for certain schools, transitioning some schools from criteria-based to citywide.

The district didn’t announce any such changes Thursday. But “we will be collaborating with principals to determine the specific criteria for their schools,” spokesperson Marissa Orbanek said.

The district said it will continue to grant preference to students from certain zip codes who apply to Masterman, Academy at Palumbo, Carver Engineering & Science, and Central High School. The prioritized zip codes will be shared in September, the district said.

It also said it would be “investigating options for optimizing” its lottery, ranking and waitlist systems, and would share changes.