It was a year of challenges and successes for Philadelphia schools in 2025.
On the one hand, test scores have improved, student and teacher attendance rates have increased, dropout rates are decreasing, and graduation rates are increasing.
Additionally, more resources were offered to parents and families, and enrollment increased for programs such as the district’s winter break camps and afterschool offerings.
However, the 2024-2025 school year also revealed challenges. Funding and teacher shortages continued. And the district’s facilities planning process, which determines which schools in the district will be closed or remain open, was delayed several times and raised concerns about transparency and accountability.
These and more updates were outlined at the School District of Philadelphia’s State of Schools address this past Wednesday, with Superintendent Tony B. Watlington sharing the district’s current standing heading into 2026 — including data on test scores and facilities, and goals for the 2025-2026 school year.
The district will focus on three major categories this year: accelerating academic achievement, improving customer service, and partnering with families.
Academic achievement
Watlington said the most recent test score data shows strong gains for students in both math and reading.
Eighth graders’ math score performance rose from the bottom in 2009 to 2019 data, to now placing second for data from 2019-2024, “only behind Los Angeles in growth,” he said.
The NAEP test, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” is a nationwide test that offers results comparing testing performance for school districts in over 20 urban areas, including Philadelphia.
Student scores for fourth- and eighth-grade reading also showed improvements between these two testing windows, Watlington said.
In addition, statewide test scores improved for students over the last three years.
“Third-grade reading proficiency increased by 3.3 percentage points, third-grade math proficiency increased by 12.9 percentage points, and third-grade through eighth-grade math proficiency increased by 8.6 percentage points,” he said.
Another positive statistic has been keeping kids in school and on track to graduate, Watlington said.
“Our graduation rate has increased by 6.8 percentage points, and the number of students who drop out of school has been reduced by over 2,000 students,” he said.
Looking ahead, Watlington said the district will implement several strategies for 2026 – including working toward a standardized curriculum and an increased focus on ninth-grade students.
“One of the reasons why that dropout rate is cut in half is for years we’ve been focusing in on those ninth graders, and it is making a big difference,” he said.
Additionally, the district plans to leverage more university and college partnerships for students to use.
Officials at the address emphasized that progress doesn’t happen overnight. However, they said, there are many promising trends.
“Over the past year, the School District of Philadelphia has continued to make steady and meaningful progress,” said Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker.
Even so, the district still has a lot of room for improvement. Its goals include nearly doubling the percentage of students who are proficient in grades 3-8 ELA and math assessments and 3rd-grade ELA scores by 2030.
Improving customer service and partnering with families
Watlington said that, compared to four years ago, customer service in the district has gotten better.
“Last year, we received more than 64,000 inquiries from parents, guardians, community members and others, and we’ve tracked it,” he said. “Our average response time was 1.5 business days, and the feedback score that we received is 8.2 out of 10.”
This year, Watlington said, the district is going to do more staff training to make customer service even better. Additionally, he said the district will invest in partnerships that are working to strengthen community engagement.
Finally, the district will focus on partnering with families.
Watlington said a big part of this was the relaunching of the district’s Parent and Family University late last year.
“Our parents and guardians are our children’s first teachers,” he said. “And as a parent myself, sometimes we need help. The four big bucket areas [of the university] are student attendance and joy, health and wellness, civic engagement, and financial literacy.”
The program hosts virtual and in-person workshops on these topics throughout the year.
Other goals for family engagement include a faith-based partnership summit, where diverse faiths from across the city will partner with the district and parents, as well as a new app.
“Later in the term, before the fall semester, we are going to launch a parent app, so that those of you who carry a cellphone can get all your district news on that cellphone,” he said. “And, we’re going to launch a parent ambassador program where we’re going to pay some people to really help us to get to some communities where it’s really tough to get face-to-face with parents and children.”
Buildings
Watlington said the Board of Education has invested more than $800 million in school facilities across the district, including four new school buildings and repairs to others.
One major achievement, he said, is helping more schools receive adequate cooling.
“We have reduced the number of schools that don’t have adequate cooling from 118 to 54,” he said. “We have a long way to go, but to cut that number in half with our resources is really significant.”
The district’s facilities-planning process, which will offer recommendations on whether schools will remain open or closed, will be brought to the Board of Education “soon,” Watlington said.
“The problem we’re solving for here is to figure out how to drive more high-quality academic and extracurricular programming into every school and every neighborhood, because historically, there’s been too many disparities,” he said.
Watlington emphasized this program is rooted in community engagement. Throughout the process, the district has released surveys and hosted community-listening sessions to receive feedback.
He said several community themes have emerged through this engagement – including more career and technical education opportunities, better use of school space, and reduction of unnecessary school transitions for students.
“We want to maximize the use of our school buildings,” he said. “It’s no secret that some of our schools are incredibly under-enrolled, and we’ve got other schools that are bursting at the seams, and we’re going to tackle that issue and not kick this can down the road.”
Another issue the mayor touched on was vacant school buildings in the district. Under a new Board of Education resolution last month, some of these vacant buildings may be transferred to the city and turned into potential housing units.
Parker said the issue needs to be addressed, as many buildings are deteriorating while sitting vacant without care.
“I have parents and residents say it should be a crime for the city school district to allow these buildings to be persistently vacant in these communities for so long that they become public health and safety hazards right here in our city,” she said. “Not on my watch.”
Future hopes
In addition to bigger-picture goals and metrics, the district shared other achievements and hopes for the future.
One major accomplishment was high ratings for schools, Watlington said.
“Four of our schools are ranked in the top 100 of the 3,200 elementary schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” he said. “Six of our schools ranked in the top 25 out of 2,300 middle schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And five of our schools ranked in the top 30 out of 741 high schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
The district is also continuing to partner with programs like the mayor’s City College for Municipal Employment.
“The City College for Municipal Employment provides free workshop training and a pathway to employment with the city of Philadelphia,” he said. “We remove a lot of the red tape and the barriers so we can get kids educated into a good-paying job with some good benefits.”
Additionally, district and city officials say they will continue to focus on the Extended Day, Extended Year program – which provides free care and programs for students before and after school and during breaks.
“At its core, our EDEY is an academic strategy,” Mayor Parker said. “It’s expanding learning time, it’s providing tutoring and enrichment and a deeper connection to school. It is also supporting working families by providing free, safe and high-quality care beyond the school day. Because of EDEY, students across the city are discovering new interests, building schools and developing confidence, whether they’re exploring STEM, the arts or athletics.”
The district has ambitious hopes for the future – especially with finances.
“We are going to pay down and eliminate our $300 million structural deficit by fiscal year ‘29-30,” Watlington said. “We are working with the Board of Education to eliminate that structural deficit.”
Watlington says the district will continue with the Accelerate Philly plan. The superintendent’s five-year plan focuses on priorities such as accelerating academic achievement and increasing communication with parents and families.
District officials have emphasized that “progress doesn’t happen overnight,” but that they are confident the schools can continue their progress into 2026.
“We still got an awful lot of work to do,” Watlington said. “But our children are accelerating toward a brighter and better future.”
