Context, Conditions, and Consequences: Freshman Year Transition in Philadelphia

This policy brief focuses on the School District of Philadelphia’s high school selection process and the ways in which it reinforces and compounds inequities that already exist among the District’s tiered system of selective, non-selective, and charter high schools. Focused in particular on the impact that these policies have on non-selective neighborhood high schools, the brief identifies three major areas of concern: system stratification, late enrollment, and teacher turnover. It also recommends that the District take immediate action to implement a set of concrete, practical improvements that will improve the high school selection process in the 2010/2011 school year.