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.
Context, Conditions, and Consequences: Freshman Year Transition in Philadelphia
Date: January 2010
Related Publications
Publication
Setting the Stage: Practical Ideas for Implementing High-Quality Afterschool Arts Programs
Youth benefit from involvement in the arts but youth in historically marginalized communities and under resourced communities often have fewer opportunities to engage in high-quality arts programming due to cuts in arts education that disproportionately…
Publication
Pennsylvania School Funding and School Staffing Disparities
Pennsylvania operates one of the most inequitable public school systems in the nation, with among the largest disparities in school funding, educational opportunities, and student achievement. In this brief, RFA examines the relationship between school…
Publication
State Funding to Support Out-of-School Time Programming in Pennsylvania
Out-of-school-time (OST) refers to programs that offer students activities after school and/or during the summer. Despite evidence of significant benefits and a clear demand from families, Pennsylvania has no dedicated state funding to provide OST…
Publication
“Worn & Weary” Black Teachers’ Storied Experiences and Recommendations around their Attrition and Retention in Philadelphia Schools
The benefits of a diverse teaching staff are well-established in research literature. Yet in Philadelphia, and many of the nation’s largest school systems, the number and share of Black teachers has been declining for at…
Publication
Changing the Finish Line: Implications of new graduation requirements in the School District of Philadelphia
PERC research is produced through collaboration between researchers from Research for Action and the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Research and Evaluation. For more information, please visit phledresearch.org. New graduation requirements, enacted in 2018…
Publication
Persistent Unequal Access to Educational Opportunity in Pennsylvania For K-12 Students
Research for Action’s Educational Opportunity Dashboard is an interactive on-line tool to synthesize data and rank all 50 states by how well they provide students access to schools that offer 14 indicators of educational opportunity…
Publication
Unequal Access to Educational Opportunity in the United States
Research for Action’s Educational Opportunity Dashboard is an interactive on-line tool to synthesize data and rank all 50 states by how well they provide students access to schools that offer 14 indicators of educational opportunity…
Publication
The Negative Fiscal Impact of Cyber Charter School Expansion in Pennsylvania Due to COVID-19
Pennsylvania has the highest cyber charter school enrollment in the country with student enrollment soaring in 2020-21 due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. School districts paid over $1 billion in tuition for students…
Publication
From State Commitment to District Implementation: Approaches and Strategies for Personalized, Competency-Based Learning
View the Publications From State Commitment to District Implementation: Approaches and Strategies for Personalized, Competency-Based Learning Executive Summary of District Implementation Findings Executive Summary State Level Findings From State Commitment to District Implementation: Approaches and…
Publication
The Need for More Teachers of Color
This booklet, The Need for More Teachers of Color, was released as part of a Teach-In hosted by Research for Action on April 23, 2022, in FDR Park in Philadelphia. The booklet provides highlights of…
Publication
Addressing Structural Barriers to High School Graduation: Examining the Impacts of the Éxito program at Kensington Creative and Performing Arts
Earning a high school diploma is a milestone that has been linked to many later life outcomes, from employment to incarceration to physical health, and impacts society as a whole through tax revenues and government…
Publication
FAQ: Superintendents in Pennsylvania School Districts
Superintendent leadership plays an important role in charting the trajectory of school district operations and ultimately of student learning. Meanwhile, several school districts undergo a superintendent transition each year, yet relatively little is known about…