Alexandra Bethea

The Facilities Planning Process (FPP) for The School District of Philadelphia aims to provide more high-quality academic and extracurricular programs across all neighborhoods. This is achieved through the wise utilization of resources, including time, budgets, professional development, and facilities. The overarching vision is to become the fastest-improving large urban school district by ensuring equitable academic and extracurricular opportunities for all children, fostering collaboration, practicing responsible resource stewardship, and engaging the community in long-term planning.

This document provides a progress report on The School District of Philadelphia's strategic initiatives, specifically monitoring Goal 3 focused on math proficiency for grades 3-8, within the broader framework of the Board's Goals and Guardrails. Key areas include the implementation of a new math curriculum, high-impact tutoring, teacher professional development, and instructional leader coaching. The plan aims to achieve significant improvements in student outcomes, with a final target of 52.0% PSSA Math proficiency for grades 3-8 by 2029-30, contributing to the district's vision of becoming the fastest improving large, urban school district.

This document serves as a comprehensive user guide for the SPOTlight (School Performance Outcomes Table) and the School Progress Report on Education and Equity (SPREE) for the 2024-2025 reporting period. It meticulously details the reports' layout, main components, and scoring methodologies for various metrics. The guide also outlines the four core domains of evaluation—Reading/ELA, Math/Science, College & Career, and Climate, Culture, and Opportunity—and explains the distinct performance labels and six-level performance categorization used to assess and report school progress and outcomes.

The event, titled 'The 2026 School District of Philadelphia State of Schools,' featured student testimonials highlighting positive high school experiences, including personal growth and exposure to various experiences like technology immersion, history exploration, and opera participation. A future engineer discussed career goals focused on environmental impact through carbon-efficient airplane design. The address by the Mayor of Philadelphia emphasized the city's commitment to public education, highlighting sustained, long-term financial investments, including shifting a cumulative 1.5% of property tax revenue to the school district over two years. Key progress metrics mentioned were rising test scores, improving attendance, and declining dropout rates. The importance of the educator workforce was stressed, noting an increase in teachers of color to 38.5%, the highest rate since 2001, reflecting efforts to build stronger pipelines and support retention.

The Math Goal 3 strategic plan aims to increase the percentage of students in grades 3-8 who are proficient on the state math assessment from 21.6% in August 2019 to 52.0% by August 2026. The plan focuses on implementing a new, high-quality, standards-aligned curriculum for K-8 math, evidence-based professional learning cycles, common planning time, and improved Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). The district-wide approach emphasizes Tier 1 MTSS, including grade-level instruction and evidence-based school-wide climate programming, to ensure all students engage in culturally appropriate instruction in a safe and welcoming environment.