In a new report for the Manhattan Institute, we calculate high school graduation rates for the class of 2003, the most recent class for which data are available. We find that Philadelphia's graduation rate that year was about 58 percent overall. However, even with such a low graduation rate, the City of Brotherly Love actually performs better than other similarly sized districts: Detroit (42 percent), New York (43 percent), Chicago (50 percent) and Baltimore (48 percent). Further, Philadelphia's graduation rate of 54 percent for African American students is on par with the national average.
However, it should provide little comfort to the parents and taxpayers in Philadelphia that their low-performing schools are not quite as low-performing as the schools in some other cities.
What can Philadelphia do to improve its graduation rate? Promising reforms focus on improving the incentives for educators to produce success for their students. Unfortunately, there are no meaningful consequences to educators for making wise or foolish decisions about the education of children. If children fail to acquire the basic skills that would permit them to learn, stay in school and graduate, no one besides the child is punished. There are also no rewards for successful educators who prevent these failures.
The city should look toward systemic reforms that can improve student academic proficiency by altering the incentives facing educators. In particular, Philadelphia should consider programs that strengthen the accountability faced by public schools and their employees, such as merit pay for teachers or sanctioning low-performing schools more strongly. The city might also consider school-choice policies, such as vouchers, or further expanding its number of charter schools. These reforms can significantly improve performance.
