School Progress Report on Education and Equity (SPREE)
School Progress Report on Education and Equity (SPREE)
SPOTlight, SPREE, and the Board Goals & Guardrails
In December 2020, the Board of Education (BOE) established the Goals & Guardrails, which set clear priorities for what our students must know and be able to accomplish, and describe the conditions that must be in place at each school to empower our students to succeed in and beyond the classroom.
The District set annual targets that schools need to meet to show they are making progress toward the Goals & Guardrails. The School Progress Report on Education and Equity (SPREE), and the SPOTlight summaries, are critical tools that show each school’s progress toward the annual targets and performance on other important measures like attendance and graduation rates. This guide will help you understand the SPREE report for your child’s school, and it provides tips for how you can support your child’s success.
To learn more about the Board’s Goals & Guardrails click here.
To learn more about the District’s approach to achieving the Goals & Guardrails click here.
The SPREE is part of the District’s work to continuously improve our schools. SPREE reports are released every year and provide a summary of how each school is performing and improving on the Goals & Guardrails and other important measures in the following areas:
Reading & English Language Arts (ELA)
College & Career Readiness
Climate, Culture & Opportunity (Conditions for Success)
Notes about the school year 2022-2023 SPREE: This year, as part of the 2022-2023 SPREE, we are releasing a one-page overview called the SPOTlight, which provides an at-a-glance summary of school performance and improvement on key SPREE metrics. The SPOTlight provides an overall school-level summary, and the SPREE provides more detailed information about student groups.
Last year, the SPREE did not include information about improvement as it was the baseline reporting year. This year, the SPREE includes information about improvement from prior years (Improving, Maintaining, Not Improving), but does not compare performance to annual targets (Meeting, Not Meeting) due to changes in the District’s annual performance targets. Because the reports are based on improvement only, schools will not receive Level labels for the 2022-2023 SPREE reports. The District plans to include performance against targets and the full range of score levels on the SPOTlight and SPREE starting with the reports for the 2023-2024 school year.
Other changes to the SPREE include additional information about performance in the below basic category for PSSA and Keystone assessments, and less information about college & career readiness that appeared in prior years.
Goals & Guardrails Annual Improvement Cycle
Schools use their SPREE to create a school improvement plan for the next year to better support student learning and continue progress toward the Goals & Guardrails.
Understanding Your SPREE Level
A note about the school year 2022-2023 SPREE: The 2022-2023 reports only include changes in school performance (Improving, Maintaining, Not Improving) from 2021-2022 and do not include information about performance against annual targets (Meeting, Not Meeting). The 2022-2023 reports do not display an overall school level, and the color labels differ from prior years.
There are between 10 and 14 different measures evaluated in the SPREE. For each measure, your school’s SPREE report provides two pieces of information. First, it tells us whether a school is meeting the annual target for that measure. Second, it tells us whether the school improved on that measure from the year before.
Based on that information, each measure gets a color label:
Meeting & Improving: The school met expectations for that school year and improved from the previous year.
Meeting & Not Improving: The school met expectations for that school year but did not improve from the previous year.
Not Meeting & Improving: The school did not meet expectations for that school year, but improved from the previous year.
Not Meeting & Not Improving: The school did not meet expectations for that school year, and did not improve from the previous year.
The SPREE will then provide each school an overall level — the combined result of its performance and improvement on each target or measure.
The overall level will be one of these:
- Talk with your child about the importance and fun of learning to encourage regular attendance — make sure they do not miss more than eight (8) days of school each year.
- Understand your child’s daily schedule and be aware of test dates. Make sure your child is rested and prepared, and encourage them to always try their best.
- Monitor your child’s report card grades and performance on tests throughout the year. Work patiently with them to seek opportunities for improvement where needed.
- Discuss and review your child’s lessons with them to help them remember what they learned.
- Participate in school improvement by taking the Philly School Experience Survey (PSES) each spring. Provide honest feedback about your child’s school and their education, and encourage your child to do the same.
- Work with your School Advisory Council (SAC) to help improve your school’s culture and achievement.
- Enroll your child in credit recovery or summer programs if needed to give them an opportunity to get caught up.
School & District-Level Data
Last modified: May 10, 2024
