PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia School District is considering moving its academic goalposts because of the effects of the pandemic.
The district's School Progress Report on Education and Equity (SPREE) was released Friday. It shows that test scores and attendance for the 2021-2022 school year were down in comparison to reports from before the pandemic.
"In many of the areas, we are missing the targets," said Tonya Wolford, the district's chief of evaluation, research and accountability.
In grades 3-8, 34% of students were proficient in English Language Arts, dropping from 36% three years before. And standardized math scores were down to 17% proficient from 22% in 2019.
The SPREE report aligns with the school board's academic goals, which is why the board has set a goal that 65% of students in grades 3-8 would be proficient in English Language Arts by August 2026.
But Wolford said the board's targets may need to be scaled back.
"This has to be considered in the sense that these goals were set during the pandemic," she said. "Definitely, that we reevaluate having had targets for several years on the books that we had no way to meet, and then we are just picking up as if it was business as usual."
The SPREE report also said 73% of district schools had failed to meet even one-third of their academic targets and 64% of charter schools also fell into that category.