How are Philadelphia schools doing? Takeaways from Watlington’s ‘State of the Schools’ address.
“The School District of Philadelphia is accelerating,” Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said. “Long story short, the district is getting better."

Philadelphia schools are moving in the right direction, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said Thursday in his second “State of the Schools” address.
“The School District of Philadelphia is accelerating,” Watlington said. “Long story short, the district is getting better, and we’re doing it because we’ve been good stewards of the federal, state, and local dollars.”
Though the district, by many measures, is struggling — just 35% of children meet Pennsylvania standards in reading and 19% in math, and on the recently released “Nation’s Report Card,” Philadelphia ranked near the bottom of all big-city districts — Watlington focused on the progress it is showing on many fronts.
» READ MORE: Philly student performance improved in 2024, but still lags other big-city school systems, national test results show
Here are some takeaways from Watlington’s address at High School of the Future in West Philadelphia.
1. There are good stories in the nuts and bolts
Watlington believes the district is “one of the fastest-improving large urban school districts as measured by the fact that the number of students passing state tests in grades three through eight are up.” Regular student attendance also increased slightly, to 61% of students attending school 90% of the time, from 60% in 2022-23.
The district’s graduation rate is also up — 77.5% of students finished high school in four years in 2023-24, up from 74.1% the prior school year. There was a jump in the number of Philadelphia students passing NOCTI exams, tests given to students in vocational programs.
Fewer students are dropping out, also. There was a 1,400-student decline in the number of teenagers who disengaged from the system year over year.
The school system also got a credit-rating boost recently, meaning possible lower-rate financing, saving taxpayers money on the district’s $3.3 billion in outstanding debt.
That rate change came even though the district is projecting a deficit over the next few years. Philadelphia is the only district in Pennsylvania forbidden from raising its own revenue; state law means that Harrisburg, City Hall, and Washington fund the nation’s eighth-largest school system.
Absent additional funding from the city and state, a deficit looms, Watlington said, “not because we’re not being good stewards of the dollars. It’s because we’re a people-intensive organization” and fixed costs outstrip projected revenues.
2. More students are coming and staying
Watlington is proudest of two things, he said — fewer dropouts and rising enrollment.
For the first time in a decade, the district’s enrollment is not slipping. Officially, 117,956 students attend district schools, a 1,841-student year-over-year increase. The enrollment count rose in 10 of 15 geographic networks in the city, in alternative schools, in neighborhood high schools, and in magnet schools.
That “says to me that there’s a greater confidence that people believe that children can get a good education, maybe a great education, in the School District of Philadelphia” and not just at “Central or Masterman,” Watlington said.
Also, one way to raise achievement is to cast out students with more complex academic and social needs who might be tougher to educate.
“We’re not pushing some kids out,” Watlington said. “We’re saying, ‘We’re all going to get better,’ and all means all in the School District of Philadelphia. We’re not getting better by kicking the least of these out.”
3. Algebra is a weak spot
Though Philadelphia has grown in most academic areas, progress remains elusive in algebra.
Just 27.2% of Philadelphia students passed the state Keystone algebra test by 11th grade in 2023-24, down from 30.1% in 2022-23.
» READ MORE: Philly schools are offering to pay students to retake state algebra exams they failed
Watlington says he has a plan to turn the tide on algebra because “we are not a failing district.”
The district last year purchased a new math curriculum and will focus on expanding professional development for educators who teach algebra, in concert with the University of Pennsylvania.
But the district is also going to target students who have already taken and failed the algebra Keystone but are eligible to retake it. (The state counts a student’s best Keystone score by 11th grade.)
The district will pay up to 500 students who previously failed the algebra Keystone to take an eight-week refresher course, then sit for the exam. The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, the district’s nonprofit arm, is providing the money for the incentive. Officials have declined to say exactly how much participating students will be paid.
To those who say paying students to take a class and an exam is the wrong way to go, Watlington has a counter.
“Well, we get an incentive if we work in the school district every two weeks, by way of a paycheck,” the superintendent said. “We give incentives to big corporations, we give incentives to farmers. We give incentives to everybody but the most underperforming students in public education, and we think that’s to our detriment.”
4. Spots in Mayor Parker’s year-round school program are 74% filled
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker campaigned on a year-round school promise, and the program is in its infancy, with a pilot of 25 schools, including 20 district schools, offering before- and aftercare, as well as programming during winter break, spring break, and six weeks during the summer.
The program is free to families, but the city is spending $24 million on it this year.
Watlington said 74% of more than 2,600 city seats have been filled.
“Some of our kids never get to go to the Shore. A lot of our kids aren’t in the Hamptons vacationing during the breaks. So when we think about the kids who during the winter break and spring break and in the summer get continued programming and support that other children get, I think that’s pretty significant,” he said.
Parker has said she wants to expand the pilot and possibly add year-round instruction delivered by teachers. The current Philadelphia Federation of Teachers contract, which expires in August, does not allow for year-round school.
5. The city and district will continue to be ‘joined at the hip’
Parker said she has learned from other mayors around the country that not every mayor, superintendent, and school board president are “joined at the hip,” but that won’t be Philadelphia under her administration.
“There will be no divide and conquer and no division among the three of us,” Parker said, nodding at Watlington and Reginald Streater, the school board president. That has not always been the case in Philadelphia; in fact, the district sued the city in 2023 over its attempt to have final say over whether school buildings were safe enough to open.
Streater shouted out Parker as “a dedicated champion of public education” and said he believed “the collective energy to launch the school district into the stratosphere is indeed working. … The incremental changes we’re seeing are a sign that we’re moving as a collective in the right direction.”