Annual Charter Evaluations Released by the Charter Schools Office

Today, the The School District of Philadelphia’s Charter Schools Office (CSO) released the 2018 Annual Charter Evaluations (ACEs) for 72 Philadelphia charter schools. Any Philadelphia brick and mortar charter school not being evaluated for renewal during 2018-2019 will receive an ACE. The 2018 ACE primarily reflects the performance of charter schools during the 2017-2018 school year.

This is the fourth year of the ACE, which is guided by three principals: higher accountability for Charter schools, upholding of Charter autonomy, and protection of student rights and the public interest.

Performance improvements across the charter sector reflected in the ACE include:

• Improved practices related to required services for English Learners.
• An increasing trend of schools that have revised their codes of conduct to differentiate consequences for students in lower elementary grades.
• All required financial audits have been submitted by the time of ACE publication.

Background Information:

• There are currently 87 brick and mortar charter schools operating in Philadelphia for the 2018-2019 school year
• Approximately 65,000 students are enrolled in Philadelphia brick and mortar
  charters in 2018-2019
• 12 schools are in the 2018-2019 renewal cohort and will receive a Renewal Recommendation Report this year
• 72 schools are not in the 2018-2019 renewal cohort and will receive an ACE this year

The ACEs can be viewed at https://www.philasd.org/charterschools/evaluation/.