The School District of Philadelphia’s Renaissance Schools Initiative was first implemented in 2010-11. The initiative was intended to spur dramatic improvements in student performance over a short period of time by providing additional resources, changes in staffing, increased attention and other strategies designed to improve persistently low-performing schools. This brief explores changes in building-level student achievement after school turnaround at School District of Philadelphia Promise Academies and Renaissance Charter schools. Specifically, it looks at whether Promise Academies and Renaissance Charter schools have met expectations for rapid growth, as defined by the literature, in reading and math on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA).

Important findings include:

• More than half of Renaissance Charter schools met the criteria for rapid growth, defined for this purpose as a minimum increase of 4 points each year in the percentage of students scoring advanced or proficient on state standardized tests.
• The majority of Promise Academy Schools did not meet the criteria for rapid growth.

Use the button to download the 3-page brief.