Schools

Roxborough's Three High Schools Fail to Make AYP

Saul, Lankenau and Roxborough miss the mark on federal achievement measure.

Three Roxborough high schools missed the federal standard school evaluation, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Roxborough, Lankenau and Saul High Schools all missed adequate yearly progress for 2012, as did the School District of Philadelphia.

Following federal guidelines established by the No Child Left Behind Act, states grade the annual progress of each district and school. Both are judged in three areas—graduation, academic performance and test preparation.

Find out what's happening in Roxborough-Manayunkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After making AYP in 2011, both Saul and Lankenau failed to achieve it in 2012. Special admission schools, both received a warning.

Roxborough, the neighborhood catchment high school without admissions criteria for residents, entered the category "corrective action II fourth year."

Find out what's happening in Roxborough-Manayunkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, each school performed the following in each target area:

School Graduation Academics Tests Total Lankenau 3/3 0/6 6/6 9/15 Roxborough 1/4 3/6 6/6 10/16 Saul 0/4 2/6 6/6 8/16

Academic performance and test participation are broken down into achievement in reading and math. Performance in those areas than is evaluated by other categories, like ethnicity and socioeconomics—schools with more categories have more areas to achieve in.

Lankenau failed to achieve in both reading and math in academic performance for black/African American and economically disadvantaged students. It achieved in graduation and testing across the board.

Roxborough failed all math for academic performance and three of four graduation categories. It achieved in reading and all test participation.

Saul missed its graduation marks. In academics, the school failed black/African American students in reading and math, students overall in math, and economically disadvantaged in reading. Students overall passed reading and economically disadvantaged passed math.

The graduation goal is 85 percent for all students and subcategories. Neither the district (55 percent) nor the state (83 percent) achieved that goal. All three schools did better than Philadelphia as a whole, with the following graduation rates, according to school report card (click links): Lankenau, 89 percent; Saul, 78 percent; and Roxborough, 60 percent.

Patch contacted the three school principals for reaction. Karen Dean, from Lankenau, declined to comment. Tamera Conaway, from Saul, did not return a request.

Stephen Brandt, Roxborough's principal, said he was disappointed but motivated for the future.

"We are absolutely optimistic that our school's progress in reading are continuing to climb. We were certainly disappointed to see a slight dip in math," he said. "But we are confident that steps made in the past and that we continue to make are going to result in our scores going up yearly, like our reading."

Since Brandt's arrival in 2010, he said the school has undergone significant turnover. In the math department, he said Roxborough recently hired two new math teachers and loves those already on staff.

"The long-term stability for the department is here and you're going to see it manifest in our scores," he said.

Click here for the School District of Philadelphia's school-by-school performance for high schools.


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