This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
by Paul Socolar and Dale Mezzacappa
Twenty Philadelphia charter schools that had been previously listed as meeting the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress standard in 2012 have now been graded by the state as not making AYP.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education was ordered by the federal government to recalculate and publish [Excel spreadsheet] AYP status for charters using the same standard used for traditional district schools.
Before getting federal approval, Secretary of Education Ronald Tomalis had treated charters as districts rather than as individual schools. Charter advocates argued that this was fair because some charters are larger than small districts in the state.
The district standard is not as strict as the individual school standard. A district can make Adequate Yearly Progress if only one grade span (3-5, 6-8, 9-12) hits the targets as opposed to every single grade.
On its main website for finding school achievement ratings, the state is still displaying AYP status for the charters using the district-level standards. PDE spokesman Tim Eller said that this site would be updated in early February.
Using the school standard, 23 out of 80 Philadelphia charters met the state’s AYP standard in 2012, compared to 43 under the standard Tomalis originally applied. That is a success rate of 29 percent. That is still better than the rate for District-run schools.
Only 33 District schools, or 13 percent of the total, made the state standards, which became significantly tougher last year.
In all, more than a quarter of the city’s charter schools had their status downgraded. Three of six charters that were originally listed as "making progress" using the district-level standard were also downgraded.
Only one of 13 Renaissance charter schools, Mastery at Mann, met the AYP standard.
Among those downgraded were Belmont, Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures, Franklin Towne, the two KIPP schools, Mariana Bracetti, Mastery Shoemaker, Math, Civics and Sciences, and MAST Community Charter.
According to the Allentown Morning Call, statewide, using Tomalis’ method of treating them as districts, 77 charters, or 49 percent, met the AYP standard. Under the standard that treats them as individual schools, 43 made the yearly progress standard.
(For the schools whose status was changed to reflect the now-recalculated standard, the school’s original status is shown in the rightmost column.)